Party at Preschool

Austin's 3rd birthday weekend celebration was kicked off by a party at his preschool last Friday.  I surprised him in class after lunch and brought cupcakes for the birthday boy and all his friends.  Austin was beyond excited and I loved being a part of his class...even if only for an hour.  The kids were all very interested in me, my camera and of course the cupcakes and goody bags.  One little girl, Ella (or as I like to call her, my future daughter-in-law) really captured my heart.  She was giving Austin birthday hugs and kisses and seemed to love just being around him...and he was pretty fond of her as well.  The real kicker came when she asked the teacher if she could play with the toy cars she brought from home...and then shared them with Austin.  So, not only is she super sweet to my boy and a car lover, but a sharer as well.  It doesn't get much better than that in the land of 2 and 3 year olds!!

Anyway, after getting all the kids hopped up on sugar, we decided to have a mini dance party.  Austin's favorite song that they sing in school is the "Jump Up and Down Song," so his teacher turned on some music and all the kids started jumping up and down.  I started taking pictures and it got them even more excited.  They all ran to me every few seconds wanting to see themselves jumping on my camera screen.  It was pretty darn cute if I do say so myself (and I rarely use the word cute to describe 10 jumping and screaming preschoolers).

After dancing I had a few too many "helpers" try to "help" put birthday goody bags in cubbies and then I observed as Austin got a toy down from the shelf only to have another kid walk up to him and take it, which prompted Austin to go take it back, which resulted in Austin being hit and falling to the ground crying.  I learned a couple things from this display.  First of all, I will do just about anything for my boys....even admit to daydreaming about kicking some rude preschooler booty for making my child cry.  I was happy to learn that my child was not the bully of the classroom like I had always secretly pictured him to be but reluctantly learned that some of these bad behaviors we're dealing with at home are being learned firsthand in school.  Oh well, I guess you can't just have a class full of Ella's!

Austin bounced back quickly from the somewhat traumatic event and really enjoyed the rest of his party.  So much in fact that I had a hard time getting him to leave preschool that day altogether.  What can I say, my boy likes to party...especially when he's the center of attention!!

 Singing "Happy Birthday"

 Blowing out the candle

 Demolishing a cupcake...frosting end first of course.

Making eyes at his girl, Ella (in the salmon colored shirt).

Bunches of blurry jumping preschoolers!

Almost...

And if you're wondering why I'm working so hard on getting the blog updated (and in somewhat of a sequential order), it's because I've got a big birthday weekend to start writing about and uploading pictures from!

Can you believe my big boy turned 3 on the 15th?!?!  I know I still can't!

The birthday pictures and details are coming soon, but until then, I'll leave you with this:

1st Soccer Scrimmage

This was one of those times I realllly wish I had my video camera!  Austin's soccer team had their first scrimmage a couple weeks ago and it was pretty stinkin' hilarious.  Now, let me preface by saying that Austin is the youngest on his team by at least a year.  It's a 3 and 4 year old soccer league and the cut off was his exact birthday but I decided to take a chance and see how he'd do.  For the purpose of actually learning and understanding the game, we probably should have waited another year, but for pure fun and entertainment value, I'm glad we did it.

As for the scrimmage...only about 4 out of the 10 kids actually knew what they were supposed to be doing and Austin was quite obviously not one of those 4.  In fact, he believed he was playing a different sport all together...that sport being tackle football.  Picture a bunch of kids running after a ball and trying to kick it in all different directions.  One of those kids is bound to get knocked down at some point, and seeing how Austin is the youngest and smallest, he was the first man down.  Did he get upset, sad or discouraged?  No!  He thought it was hilarious and then took it upon himself to tackle anyone else who got in his way to the ground.  The other parents probably thought he was just extremely clumsy...running into kids and then falling to the ground, but I knew exactly what he was doing and it was the most fun I've seen him have playing soccer since we started!

(Please excuse the picture quality.  It was extremely bright and sunny and I only had my point and shoot.)

 Cheesin'

 Dribbling drills

 Going in for the steal!

 And down he goes...

 ...and again...

...and again!

Caught red handed!  Here he is in the process of "accidentally" falling forward.

Pumpkins with my Punkin'

One morning while Austin was at preschool, Owen and I decided to check out the local pumpkin patch.  We were the only ones there (which I would come to find out later, was because they were not officially open yet) and we had the place to ourselves!  Wide open spaces, pumpkins galore, barns, animals, and a corn maze...but what's the first thing to capture Owen's attention?  A tractor.

After I pulled him away from the tractor, we went to visit the ponies and I was pleased that Owen finally found something a little more exciting than a big blue farm machine.

The ponies were great, until he noticed there were stairs to be climbed!

After going back and forth between stairs an ponies, I was finally able to lure Owen over to the bright orange pumpkins.

But even with all the perfect pumpkins to choose from, we decided it would just be more fun to pick our own and so we headed to the patch.

Owen found the perfect one and sat down to admire his little pumpkin.  Thinking it looked quite delicious, he went in for a taste...

Eh...maybe not!!

Buy a ton of diapers...

...get a free kitchen!!  Well, a pretend kitchen that is.

I've been saving Pampers Gifts to Grow codes on our diaper packages since Austin was a newborn.  Every time I would collect enough to trade them in, however, I couldn't find anything worth trading them in for.  Over three years of collecting and entering codes, my points began to accumulate and I reached the point where I had enough points to trade in for the highest prize available....but I still couldn't find anything I wanted.

A few weeks ago I decided to take another look and was so excited to see a Step 2 Cozy Kitchen offered and I didn't hesitate for a moment!  I've always wanted the boys to have a play kitchen, but society, Toys R Us and even my husband seem to classify it as a "girls" toy.  No one could argue with me if it was for free though, right?!  After all, aren't most of the famous chefs out there male anyways?  Not to mention, any toy that requires use of imagination is perfect in my book!

Day Out with Thomas

The NC Transportation Museum hosted a special event a couple weeks ago called a Day Out with Thomas.  The museum had all kinds of Thomas the Train themed activities and even a full size Thomas engine.  We got to ride on a train pulled by Thomas himself, take pictures with Thomas, and even meet Sir Toppem Hat.  There were tons of other train related activities and a half dozen Thomas train tables set up at various places.  Never before have I heard so many children screaming and crying while being forced to leave a train table.  My boys, being the perfect little angels that they are, were pulled away...er...I mean, walked away on their own kicking and screaming without so much as a whine. Ha!

While we have always been fans of Thomas the Train, it seems this trip really kicked it into full gear.  The best part was seeing how excited the boys were to see an actual Thomas engine pulling a train right in front of us and to hear Austin talking and waving to Thomas as he went by.  If you have a train lover in the family, I highly suggest this event!!

All Aboard!!

Owen was so proud of his train ticket! 

Reading their Jr. Engineer certificates!

Austin waving at the crowd below as Thomas pulled out of the station.

Meeting Sir Topham Hatt

 Playing on the little red caboose

I think we could have left them there for hours and they would have never known we'd walked away... 

Choo! Choo!

Owen is 17 Months!

And just like last month I am extremely behind on blogging.  I can't pick up my computer anymore without having both boys crawling in my lap demanding to watch videos or play games and now that fall TV is back on my evenings are spent watching Revenge, Psych, Dexter, House, Raising Hope, Top Chef, Tosh.0 and Jersey Shore ....to name a few.  I promise lots of new posts coming soon, though!  To kick if off lets start with how Owen turned 17 months old back on October 4th.  I can't believe he'll be 1 and a half in no time!

Here are 17 quick, fun facts about Owen at 17 months!

-Vocabulary is seriously taking off.  I can't even begin to name all the words he's saying now!  Today, for instance, he grabbed my jewelry and said "necklace."

-LOVES to climb.  I caught him standing on top of our kitchen table this week.

-Which reminds me, Owen pushes the kitchen table chairs out from under the table at least 15 times a day and then climbs on top of them, holds onto the back and jumps up and down shouting "wheeeeeee!"

-His favorite toys are still cars, trains or anything with wheels.

-Completely fearless!  And a fearless little boy who loves to climb = one worried mama!

-Starting to put words together like "right there" "read book" and "what's this?"

-Can count to 10

-Hates to eat...and I mean HATES it!  He pretty much lives off of greek yogurt, applesauce, bananas, bread and the occasional bowl of pasta or turkey hotdog.

-Calls all trains "choo-choos."

-Loves to sing "Wheels on the bus" "If you're happy and you know it" and "Little green frog"

-Likes to throw a ball and try to catch it.

-Becoming even more attached to his yellow "duck duck."

-Smiles and says "cheese!" whenever he sees my camera.

-Loves to be tickled!

-Imitates everything we do, say or he sees on TV.

-Will lay down and hold perfectly still if I say I need to put on his socks.

-Loves to "pish" buttons and flip switches.  His favorites are light switches, doorbells, and the card scanner machines at stores.

Trucks and Planes

I really am starting to love our new home.  There is just so much to do when you live this close to a big city!  A couple weeks ago I heard about the Concord Regional Airport which is only about 5 minutes from us.  It's a small airport and they love when kids come visit to watch the planes.  I also heard that on the Wednesday or Thursday before a big NASCAR race, the drivers and crew who live in the area will fly out of this airport.

Last Thursday I decided to take the boys, and even though we just missed most of the race traffic, we still had an awesome time and got to see some pretty cool stuff.  We were able to sit right outside along the runway and saw a few personal airplanes landing, a helicopter touch down right in front of us, and one of the big Hendrix Motorsports jets take off for the race.  The highlight, however, was when one of the big fueling trucks pulled up and let Austin climb up and sit inside and honk the horn.  Both boys think planes are pretty cool....but they are still a distant second to anything with wheels!

Carolina Panthers Game

Ryan won tickets to the Carolina Panthers game last weekend and decided to take Austin and my dad.  I am so glad I opted out of going because not only did I get to take a nap and then hang out with my mom all afternoon, but there was a monsoon about midway through the first half.  Luckily, the guys were able to stay pretty dry.  Unfortunately, Austin slept through the majority of his first NFL football game.  Looks like Mimi and Papa really wore him out the day before!