Easter Egg Hunt

Unfortunately it rained today so they moved the egg hunt indoors. Hayes and Amelia still had fun and h found the silver egg and won a prize! Here h is helping the two story-tellers with their story!!!

Charlottesville, VA

We went over to Charlottesville for the first time ever (yes, after we have lived here for nearly TWO years and it's only an HOUR away).  We got to catch up with a friend of ours who served as a great tour guide!  Here are some of the sights we saw around town....definitely enough to entice us to return as soon as we can!

The non-denominational church on the UVA campus, what was interesting was that Thomas Jefferson (founder of UVA) banned religion from being taught on campus and his original campus design did not include a church at all.  This was an obvious departure from prior universities in that it was not religion-centered.  James Monroe gifted the land from one of his farms for the campus and I think he had something to do with the church but I can't exactly remember.  

The steeple of the church, what a beautiful day to sight-see!

The walkway surrounding Jefferson's Rotunda at the heart of the campus:

Little Man in said walkway...

Jefferson's Rotunda, modeled after the Pantheon in Rome (seen it!) and is half the height and width of the Pantheon.  It burned in 1895 due to an electrical fire in the annex (no longer part of the structure)....which probably could have been put out but the genius who was on the scene of the fire decided that he would use dynamite (yep) to separate the annex from the Rotunda....did not work out well in his favor.  He is actually the namesake of a scholarship or honor society on campus...ha!

The black caps are for renovations...

The "square" (actually a very long rectangle) in front of the Rotunda was a wonderful place for little man to run around after his hour-long car ride!

 There are 10 pavilions along the Rotunda lawn, 9 of which have faculty living in them (would you really want to live in the heart of campus?!) and their gardens are open to the public (creepy to see someone in your backyard, right?).  They have beautiful flowers...which H did not care about when he saw the pretty co-ed sunning in one of the gardens...he would not leave her alone and we had to drag him away kicking a screaming...literally

OMG, does this not look like the ideal place to sit and enjoy a glass of wine!  This is one of the vineyards around Charlottesville and it was picturesque to say the least, I definitely want to go back and visit some other ones too!

This was the stable with horses, Hayes was interested but one of the horses was being a little too outspoken and scared H away.  He was mesmerized by them by wouldn't get closer than about 15 feet!

It was a fabulous day (minus the allergy trouble) and I would love to go back and see more!

The Woodruff in him...

I hear so often that H looks just like Joey (very random comments about him looking like me) that sometimes I try to find the Woodruff in him...I know it's there, our genes are too strong-willed to get pushed out of the way!  Here are a few things I have seen/witnessed/experienced that are truly Woodruff:

- the LOVE of a blanket

- wanting to have a drink as soon as he gets in a car

- wanting to have a snack while riding in the car

- his blue eyes!

- IMPATIENCE...we will walk in the kitchen to get him milk and he will immediately start crying that it's not fixed for him yet!

- persistence - if at first you don't get the answer you want, try try again!  This absolutely applies to what he wants to watch on TV

- knowing that he hears and understands the commands/suggestions that you are giving him, but doing what he wants to do anyway!!

- his love of playing cards...it's not an official game yet, but I know it's there

- love of food!  We took him to daycare yesterday so we could get some yard work done.  We fed him at home and when we got to school, his classmates were eating breakfast so he sat down and wanted some.

- total body eating:

Things Hayes can do now:

- say PLEASE!

- turn on the TV and the DVR box....now we need to teach him to turn on "Puppies" and we can leave him to fend for himself

- run - his little bootie wiggles when he does it and it's so cute!

- drinks from a big-boy cup (no top) - still a little scary for Mom and Dad

- throw a ball, kick a ball

- fist bump and high five

- hug and kiss (we're working on "I love you")

- words: hungry, eat, more, please, water, river, outside, downstairs, up, down, go, NO, MINE, truck, tractor, "tractor, all gone?", here-ya-go, where-da-go?...and more and more everyday, definitely not a comprehensive list!

I love playing with my daddy!

Joey was encouraging H to bring all the blocks over to where I was sitting...Hayes was LOVING it!

 Now he's coming back to me to get them and take them back...on a mission!

Here ya' go, Daddy

Trying to balance on his head...then H wanted to do it to Joey

Tickle Monster!

Hayes has advanced to where he will actually help you build the tower up before he starts destroying it...the destruction is still the most fun though!

My BFF

Hayes and Amelia don't get to see each other as much as they used to (they both started preschool recently) but when they do, they make up for lost time!  A looks unimpressed in this picture but, don't let her fool you, she was having the time of her life!

She cracked a smile :)

This was a fun game....please note his attire: Alabama shorts (thank you, Ms. Judy) and 'Bama shirt (thank you Aunt Laurie)!

That poor couch has been through the ringer...it made it through 4 years of studying in med school and two moves later, it is tormented by H on a daily basis...a good ol' bird!

Playground Fun

We went over to one of the many very nice parks in our area and Hayes had the playground ALL TO HIMSELF (a little sad when you see it but he was able to play on anything he wanted!).  What he really wanted to do that day was to play tennis with some people on one of the courts....this made me a little happy :)

My big boy doesn't have to crawl up the steps anymore....he just steps right up!

He was not impressed with the ladybug....it's for girls :P

H LOVES to be outside.  He gets so excited when we are even outside our house (as evidenced by my last posted picture!).  Sometimes he will get excited just seeing Joey put his shoes on and will grab his own jacket and shoes so he can be ready too!

So excited, I don't know what to do next!