Here is a quick run-down of a few activities that we participated in during the month of September:
- Laugh and Learn at the NW library in Amarillo--Firetruck and Dinosaur's marching are still our favorites--Edward's--Eli just loves any music!
- checking out books and playing with the 'train' at the Canyon library
- Park playdates and Hunsley Hills Park
- Church at Hillside West
- Music with Miss Celeste--LaDeeDa
- Weekly Letter Activities with mommy--We've done some really cute activities
- C is for Cookie
- C is for Camping (since we were going camping this weekend)
- M is for Mouse
- M is for Mustache
- M is for Music
- Gymnastics on Friday evenings!
- Lowe's Build and Grow--A time for Daddy and Edward to get to put their manly skills to work! What a great bonding activity for them. This was the first one they attended and they got to make a FIRE TRUCK! Perfect!
- CAMPING--for 2 nights with 2 boys 2 and under! We went camping on September 20-22 in Cimarron Canyon at Maverick Campground. The weather was GORGEOUS! This was kind of a last minute trip, I just HAD to get to the outdoors and camping before it started getting too cold. The boys loved being outside and Edward LOVED sleeping in the tent, he even WANTED to take naps! The boys dug in rocks, dirt and sand and we walked and watched fishermen fish. Max played in the cold river and Nana, Grandaddy and Ethan came up to visit and eat with us on Saturday! It was perfect! I was where I loved being more than anywhere, surrounded by majestic mountains and God's beautiful work! Yes, there were rough moments/hours where I questioned "what was I thinking?"! but the good definitely out weighed the bad. Eli, DID NOT sleep well in the tent, so about the middle of the first night, he and daddy found themselves sleeping in the car for the remainder of the trip. And Edward was not pleased about the tent being taken down Sunday morning, so the whole campsite got to hear two tired boys screaming for lots of minutes straight...but like I said Good prevailed!
- DFW area trip--On Saturday September 28, me and the boys got in the car and headed towards Plano. We spent 2 nights with the Heersink's and visited with many of our friends while we were there. We had a great Sunday spending it with the Graham's, oh how I love and miss them, and seeing the Winan's. Then on Monday morning we headed to Emily and Harper's house for lots of fun!
- Fort Worth Zoo! We had a great time seeing the 2 baby elephants and the big white tiger. We also got to feed the birds. There was a small train inside the zoo, that we got to ride and boy was that fun stuff to my train-loving two year old!
- We went to the local Aledo home-coming parade and got lots of candy!
- Went on a train ride in Fort Worth, and this was the best thing ever! We even got to stop at the half-way point and get popcorn!!
- Loved playing at Emily and Harper's new home, so much to do! We all had toys to ride on and Edward fell in love with a no pedal bike that they had...possibly a future Christmas gift...! What a huge blessing it is to have such wonderful friends!
- Eli started standing up/pulling up! I guess I made such a big deal out of it in the beginning, that Edward began to get really excited "Ewi standing" !
- Edward also says that Eli is "cute"--makes my heart sing!
- Eli discovers the kitchen drawers (sept 3) and begins pulling out Tupperware! Luckily I had thought about what I wanted in those bottom drawers when we were moving in, so the items are baby proof!
- Eli starts waving. (sept 9) This has got to be one of the cutest things. To see your baby waving 'hello' or 'bye bye', so sweet!
- Ohh did I mention, we are completely off formula and bottles! Yippee!! Straight up Cow's milk!
- On the 27th I heard Edward verbally count to 10! I had always thought he could, but had just never heard him, but on this day I did...now has he done it for me since?? Nope.
ELI'S BIRTHDAY MONTH!!
Here's what went down in the month of October:
- Cheer Texas--They have open gym on Friday's so I decided to take the boys, and it was fun, but ever so tiring! I had to be the mommy on the move chasing boys (usually Eli and I following Edward around) and making sure that they were playing nice and safely!
- Maxwell's Pumpkin Farm--we went twice during the month of October because it was just so much fun! We got to take a Hay ride (pulled by a tractor) out to the huge pumpkin patch! There were slides, goats, bounce houses, tractor trains and much more! A kids paradise! The second time we went Nana and Grandaddy came and joined in the fun with us! Lot's of fun memories and we can't wait til next year to go again!
- Laugh and Learn on Friday's
- Gymnastics Friday evenings
- Music on Wednesday's
- Playdates at the park, our friends home's and at the Paramount PlayZone
- Letter activities with mommy
- P is for pumpkin
- P is for Polka dotted pumpkin
- H is for Hands
- H is for House
- My 33rd Birthday....
- Eli's FIRST Birthday! We celebrated his first birthday on October 26th with friends and family. It was a Harry Potter Birthday Bash! I had made a Hogwart's Express sign and set out my HP books and made food in the HP spirit--chocolate covered frogs, snitches, butterbeer, cauldron cakes, magic wands! Eli dressed up as Dobby, the house elf, Edward was Harry Potter (but refused to dress up at the party), I was Hermoine, and Erick was Ron! I was hoping for a family picture all dress up as characters, but since Edward refused, we didn't get one.
- Halloween Festivities! On the 30th we went to a couple of churches and did "Trunk or Treating" and one of them even had bounce houses for him to play on. Edward loved getting suckers in his pumpkin bucket! And yes, he did wear his costume, because I told him he couldn't get candy if he didn't.
- Eli's Birthday! We had saved a couple of presents for him to receive on his actual birthday, and boy was EDWARD in present heaven....haha! Then that evening we went to my parent's house and went trick or treating in their neighborhood. Edward and I had been practicing knocking and saying "trick or treat" since this was really his first year to understand/care about the whole thing.
- Edward wakes from his naps asking for Eli, so sweet :)
- "Eli baby", "Edward Big boy"
- Around the 8th Eli starts putting food on top of his sippy cup and giggles and finds this to be a very proud moment.
- Eli decides it's hilarious and fun to fall backwards and to his back around the 17th.
- Eli has started liking his story time before bed and enjoys listening and looking at the books.
- On October 15th, Eli and I had a great game of football going on in the kitchen. We must have played for 15 minutes straight, just throwing and watching the ball bounce in funny directions, then Eli crawling after it. Love these moments, where life slows down just a little :)
- Occasionally the boys will take their baths together now, and boy did we have splash central in our kids bathroom on the 26th! Eli just started hitting the water and splashing it everywhere and would just giggle and giggle, so then of course Edward had to chime in, and in no time I was completely covered in water too!
- I'm convinced that Eli is going to teach himself how to walk by pushing all of Edward's toys around--dump trucks, tricycles, jeep, wagons! I'll call him 'Adventurous Eli'! Because there is not a day that goes by that I'm not trying to catch my breath because he makes me so nervous doing all the crazy things he does!
- Head scooting--yup--Head scooting, Eli does this....
- Clapping started around the 28th, too cute!
- Eli is my little music maestro! Any time he makes a toy sing or a song comes on or I sing he smiles the biggest grin and he loves to dance!
- Sliding fun! Eli loves our small plastic slide that we have in the back. He can pretty much climb up but doesn't know how to swing his feet towards the slide so that they go down first, so he usually ends up going head first with me holding the back of his shirt so he doesn't face plant! But along with this, Edward and I have a game on the big slides, I pretend that I'm asleep at the bottom of the slide, he climbs up and starts going up and startles me awake. Well now that Eli likes to slide, Edward pretends he's asleep at the bottom of the slide and Eli slides down right into him and they both just laugh and laugh!
