Weekend Roundup

Each week Jackson's class learns about a different letter, and last week was the letter K.  On Friday, they bring home a letter bag filled with goodies that start with the appropriate letter. Last Friday, he brought home the "K Bag."  The mom who put this one together went over the top.  Not only did they have hats from Krispy Kreme, they also had a doughnut.  Jackson inhaled his and thankfully Katherine wasn't too interested.

She did inhale the Kit Kats that were in the bag,

which I guess is appropriate since that's what we call her half the time.

And she's still walking around playing that kazoo beside her.  

I can't explain the commotion that these letter bags cause each week since there's only one and there are two children in this house.

Then the kites came out.  Yep, this mom bought 20 bags of kites.  Actually (and thankfully), there were 2 kites in each pack, so a disaster at the Vaughn house was averted.

And to top it off, one kite had a dinosaur on it!

It turned out to be a windy afternoon 

and Katherine joined the action!

 

We never were able to get the kites flying, but they had fun trying!

On Saturday, Jackson had his last basketball game.  We arrived early so he could warm up some and hopefully get a few goals under his belt before the game started.  He ended up making 5 or 6 goals in about 10 minutes!

 And then during the game, he nailed one!!!

Zach came out of his seat and I may have had tears in my eyes!  Grammy and Grandpa were there and as soon as he made the goal, he ran over and hugged Grammy!  To say we're proud is an understatement!

Following the game, he said he wanted coke and a ring pop ... he got both!

And then there was Sunday.  We happened to be arriving at the awards ceremony for the basketball teams when everyone started yelling to get inside.  Below is what was coming.

These two pictures are not my pictures,

but the above is the tornado that went through Petal.

The Ace Hardware is a before/after and actually 0.2 miles from where we were.  It was so sudden, we really had no idea what was going on.  Needless to say, the awards ceremony was cancelled and with all of the fallen trees and power lines, it was like a maze getting home.  I didn't see it last night, but as we were getting in the car today, I noticed something odd on the side of the car and realized it was insulation from buildings.

While we were out, we went by Zach's office in Hattiesburg.  Most of the roads leading to his office were closed, and this is typical of roads that were still open.

A couple of pictures from Petal.

We were all lucky.

'Round Here

We've been living life and staying busy 'round here.  Last week, Jackson's class went on a train ride for a field trip.  It's the third time he's been able to ride this train and it's the perfect distance and amount of time for small children.  The ride is about 30 minutes and is long enough to get them excited, but not too long where they start getting tired.

Waiting on the train with his classmates and they're all excited!

He indulged me and let me get a picture of the two of us!

Grandma was in town during this time and met us at the depot.  From there, the kids rode the bus to a local park.  They ate lunch and then played for TWO hours.  Thankfully, the weather was great!

The next day, Grandma and Grandpa got to watch Jackson's basketball game!  He's improved each week and also had a great practice this week!

He's starting to get the hang of following around "his man"

and keeping his hands up to guard.

The week prior to that, Grammy and Grandpa came down to watch his game

and came to the house afterwards.

These posts lately seem to be dominated by Jackson, so here's a sweet little picture of Katherine.  This little girl is non-stop and always up to something.

That's a little snippet of what's been going on 'round here.

Friends

Before school started back, Jackson got to spend the day with his friend, Nicholas.  They aren't at the same school this year, but Jackson talks about him all the time.  It had been a while since they had seen each other, so it was nice they were able to spend so much time together.

Jackson had been asking to see Nic for a while and he had also been wanting to go back to the Children's Museum, so we combined the two!

Katherine tagged along as well!  Little TV chef!

Fishermen

 Katherine loves playing tea party.

 Katherine discussing the boys with Mrs. Jill.

 Another tea party.

 Our boy.

He's gotten so big.

Nic and Jackson.

These two love playing with each other.

Basketball Game!

Jackson had his first basketball game this morning!

As expected, he was pretty timid when we got there. 

They warmed up before the game and Jackson went after the ball a few times.

  

Once they came out for the game,

Jackson was obviously not excited about being there.

He was less than enthusiastic when he was put into the game.  Sometime after 'halftime' we started wondering if Katherine was upsetting him.  He brought home a toy lizard from school yesterday and has been obsessed with it since.  Katherine was playing with it during the game and apparently Jackson noticed.  Zach managed to get the lizard away from her and showed Jackson he had it.  Jackson completely changed.  He started running around and thankfully started acting happier!

Jackson's teammate was throwing the ball in to him and it ended up knocking Jackson in the face.  I just happened to be taking pictures at that moment and caught this blurry picture right after it hit him.  He fell to the ground and once his coach helped him up, he brushed it off and went back to playing.

  

Jackson did pretty good dribbling!  Most of them dribble a couple of times, pick the ball up and run, and somewhere in there remember to start dribbling again (a couple of players are actually pretty good at dribbling).  They were cute to watch!

We're excited to see how he progresses each week!

Here is a video just before the end of the game.  He is like me and the least aggressive person, but at this point he had perked up and we were relieved he was acting happy, more into the game, running some, and not frowning!

Better Late Than Never

I'm finally getting around to pictures of our Christmas Eve and Christmas!  Better late than never, right?  A few nights before Christmas, I asked Jackson and Katherine to sit in front of the tree for a picture.  Jackson was more than happy to oblige, which is completely unusual.  Turns out, he thought as soon as a picture was taken, we would open presents.  Poor fella, but he did smile and look at the camera.

Jackson on Christmas Eve.  

This time, once the picture was taken, he got to start tearing into presents.

 

Katherine turned into a pro at unwrapping presents this year.

  A Switch & Go Dino!

 Katherine got some lip gloss.

I can't wait to snap a picture when the roles are reversed and she putting it on Daddy.

 Trying to eat her lip gloss.

 Santa Claus made good on Jackson's wishes.  He wanted a blue monster truck and the red Switch & Go Dino!  Katherine got an Easy Bake Oven that we need to test out!

 Grandma and Grandpa came over on Christmas Eve and Grammy and Grandpa drove down on Christmas morning with a carload of more presents!

We're still trying to find a place for all of the new toys, 

and it's safe to say we had a wonderful Christmas!