Harvest Time
Pretty good lookin' pumpkins, if I do say so myself.
Especially since we had such a hot, dry summer. We're hoping we get more next year!
2011 Halloween Round One
Today was the first of several Halloween Dress-Ups planned for the next few days.
Sam's school has dress-up day every year at Halloween time. The kids have to come dressed as an animal from Noah's Ark or a person from the Bible. Last year Sam was a bumblebee for Halloween which went perfectly with his school's theme. It was easy.
This year, Sam wants to be the moon for Halloween Specifically, "the full moon - like a cookie". Not so easy. And, neither an animal nor a person from the Bible.
So we went on a hunt for an animal costume. Most of them are expensive and look like they'd be hot and stuffy to wear all day at school. Fortunately WalMart had a make-your-own-animal-costume end cap with several cheap, lightweight animal choices. For less than 10 bucks, we had ourselves an elephant costume.
Sam was especially excited about his costume once I informed him that an elephant's favorite food is peanuts!
Mail Time
Gram and Pops sent Sam some mail. At first he didn't know what it was, then he was excited to say the least. Remember what it was like to be happy about getting mail in the mailbox? I never make these faces when I open my mail these days. I don't hug my grocery store circular or water bill. Other than my birthday when all my sweet in-laws send me cards, my mail is pretty boring! :)
Well, Sam's mail turned out to be a big, glittery, tri-fold Mickey Mouse Halloween card. I didn't coach him on any of these pics, by the way. He really did hug his card all on his own and take it out in the backyard to spend some time alone with it.
Doesn't take much to excite a two year old! Thanks Gram and Pops!
Lunch Date
Despite the way Sam looks in this photo, he really did have a good time!
We met Great-Grandma at Willow Bend for lunch and some playground time. It's the best playground because Great-Grandma and I can sit and see Sam wherever he goes. He has lots of room to roam and lots of things to climb on. After strolling around the mall, we stopped for ice cream and cookies and threw some pennies into the fountain before heading home. What a fun day!
Reading the Paper
I look over at Sam after packing up his lunch and this is what I saw.
He had jumped down from the breakfast table after having finished a large bowl of oatmeal, grabbed his favorite thing to read - a brochure from the Plano Balloon Festival - and hopped up on the couch. When I asked him what he was doing he said, "I'm reading the paper". Mmm-kay Little Man. Whatever you say!
Let's Go Fly a Kite
It just so happened to be the windiest day EVER!
A friend of ours had scheduled a "kites" playdate and it turned out to be on the perfect day!
Sam had not flown a kite before so I wasn't sure how he'd do. I had picked up two kites from the dollar store a few months back that we'd never used so I brought them for him to fly, but as it turned out, it was too windy for our little kites and they fell apart before they got two feet off the ground!
Our friend shared her cute little owl kite with us and it worked great. Sam did great holding the string and keeping the kite in the air.
Spooner Shirts
Don't my boys look cute in their shirts?
Brian and I love the show King of Queens. We especially love Arthur Spooner and the shirts he wears. Brian has a couple of shirts that we call "Arthur Spooner shirts" and I found Sam one as well. I took this picture before they left for some guy-time. While I stayed home and picked up the house, they went to lunch and played at the park. They rarely get time out by themselves and I think they had a great time!
Nature Walk
Sam and I found some cool stuff on our foggy-morning nature walk.
A spider's web, covered in dew, some green moss, and a locust's shell. The spider's web against the fog was especially Halloween-y!
Punkin' Cookies
Gram helped Sam decorate pumpkin cookies, just like we used to when Andrew and I were little. He did a good job of stirring the icing and putting candy corn eyes on the pumkin heads. Then he started sticking his fingers in the icing and shoving raisins in his mouth. So Gram helped him finish and we called on Pops to decorate one for us. Fun and tasty!
Trying New Things
Howdy, y'all!
Sam and I visited McKinney's Storybook Ranch with some friends a few weeks ago. It was a cute little patch of farmland that had pumpkins, pony rides, a petting zoo, and bounce houses. I was
shocked
that Sam tried, and loved, all of these things! I thought for sure we'd just be quiet observers at this playdate.
The pony rides were the first attraction of the day and at first Sam wasn't sure about riding. He watched some of his friends sit on their pony while the lady pushed the bar around and around in a circle. I asked him if he wanted to ride a pony and he said no. When the first round of kiddos was done I asked him, "Which pony do you want?" and that worked! He said "That one", and pointed to "Brittany", the pony with a flag blanket under her saddle. Sam was a little quiet at first, but really warmed up to this whole cowboy thing rather quickly.
I couldn't get him to wear his cowboy hat, but when our friend Liz asked him to put it on, he complied, of course. And then, thanks to all the moms who were cheering Sam on, I got that great shot of my little cowboy smiling and holding up his hat on his pony.
After his pony ride, he ran through a hay maze and chased after some baby pigs. He thought the pigs were hilarious, but was a tiny bit scared when the goats started chewing at my sweater. I have to admit, I didn't really like that either!
I thought for sure that would be our last activity of the day, but Sam decided today was the day he was going to try a bounce house. He's wanted to try one before, but didn't like that other kids were bouncing in there with him. I guess it made it too bouncy. This time having other kids bouncing with him was fun. If they left one bounce house to go and try another, Sam was close behind. Again, I was pretty surprised!
Before leaving he got to ride a pony
again
(!) and then we were told to chose our own pumpkin to take home. Sam picked a pretty good one - our first official pumpkin of the season - and it's still on our entryway niche outside his room. It was a very successful playdate, with Sam trying lots of new things. We were very proud of our Cowboy Sam! Yee-haw!!
Peanut Butter on Top, Butter Down
It's how he orders his waffles...
Peanut butter on the top waffle, butter on the bottom waffle, milk in his Pluto cup. Happy boy!
Tents, Sticks & Slides
Sam and I had a fun week playing with friends!
Our first playdate was in a forested area behind a neighborhood park. A friend of mine made a couple of awesome tents and we all brought some fun props along for a tents-in-the-forest photoshoot. I was surprised that Sam wanted to go in the tent, let alone sit down and "read" a book. I cherish these moments of cooperative-ness, let me tell you!
It was good I got these shots when I did because pretty soon he was off and running with the boys. He found lots of sticks in the forest that immediately became drumsticks and we were all treated to a lot of "1-2-3-4" by Sam the rock-n-roll drummer. All the boys enjoyed hanging out in a little cave that someone had made out of sticks and fallen tree limbs before we got there. One of them turned to me at one point and said "We're talking about frogs". It made me laugh! It was fun to watch them interact. Sam loves the older boys and will follow them anywhere they go and do anything they tell him to do.
After we were done with our tent shoot we played on the playground. Sam loved the attention he got when he came down the slide with static hair and kept doing it over and over again!
From Just One Seed
We've got pumpkins.
It's about the only thing that feels like fall around here! Sam and I planted some pumpkin seeds in a pot last spring. One seed sprouted and grew fast so we moved it to the back flower bed where it grew and grew and grew some more!
Looks like we'll get two pumpkins out of this monster plant. These pictures were taken almost a week ago - the pumpkins are much bigger now! We have a smaller one that is turning orange fast and a big green one is thinking about turning orange any day now. The blossoms are big and orange and blooming every morning when we wake up and look out the back windows. Sam has fun checking on our pumpkins once or twice a day, to see if they're "gettin' orange yet".
Happy October!