Playing With Play-Doh

Nathan hasn't played with Play-Doh in a while. I actually forgot we had it! While I was getting a snack out for Nathan, he found it in the pantry and said "Pay-do Mommy, fun!" I didn't even realize he still knew what it was. I opened two containers and let him do whatever he wanted with it. He was so funny! He was kind of serious at first, and then loved squeezing it and tearing it. This was a great 30 minute activity!

Plano Balloon Festival

On Saturday afternoon, Wayne and I took Nathan to the Plano Balloon Festival. There was tons of food, a kiddie section with inflatable bounce houses, stages with entertainment, and we assumed hot air balloons :) We've never been before so we tried to get on the website to find out what the schedule of events was. The website wasn't working when we checked so we decided just to go and wing it. It turned out that the hot air balloons only launched two times a day...early in the morning and 6:00 in the evening. It was 2:00 when we got there so we just did everything else...I would have thought they'd have one or two balloons on display for people to see at other times of the day, but they didn't ask me :)

After walking all around and sampling some of the goodies, we took Nathan to the kiddie area. He was so excited when he saw it that we could hardly keep him in his stroller!


Mr. Independent


Nathan and Daddy

We bought tickets for Nathan to go on the bounce houses, but I wasn't sure that he would really do it. The last few times we've played on bounce houses, Nathan has fun, but wants me to be right there with him...on the inflatable! (not too fun for Mommy)


He's testing the waters...


"I love it!"



He had so much fun on the first inflatable so we figured we'd try a second one...the big slide!


Up he goes. And he didn't even try to get me or Wayne to go with him!


Daddy's giving him some words of encouragement...


Weeeeeee! This is slide number one...


And slide number 2! He loved it!


If he liked the slide, the real test will be the inflatable maze. You go in (I know because, again, I've done this with Nathan several times) and then go through obstacles on the inside. It really is kind of challenging, and I can see why it might be a little scary for a toddler.


No problems here! "Hi Mommy!"


"Hi Daddy! I know I've been in here way past my time limit, but I don't care!"


"That's the exit...I'm not coming out yet!" Nathan spent FOREVER inside here! He kept doing the obstacles over and over. He'd go toward the front and when Wayne or I tried to grab him, he'd run away and go to the other side. I think he was in there for 20 minutes at least. We finally bribed him by telling him we'd go get ice cream if he'd come out. Thank goodness that worked and that I didn't have to climb in after him :)

So even though we didn't see any balloons at the balloon festival, we still had a great time. Now I want to take Nathan to Pump It Up Jr. which is an indoor play area with all of these inflatables. He would have so much fun and could play on them as long as he wanted!

Here's a video of him sliding

Nathan's Big Boy Bed

Nathan has been worrying us because he acts like Spiderman in his crib! I've seen him hold onto the side and then take a few steps up with his bare feet! So we decided to go ahead and convert his crib into a day bed. He loves it! When we're in the room with him, he'll climb in and out with no problem. But after he's woken up from a nap or in the morning, he still calls for us to come get him. It's been several weeks and he still hasn't gotten out to play on his own :)

Weekend in Miami!

Wayne had to go to Miami for work last week. He left Wednesday morning, and then I flew down to meet him on Friday! We had the best weekend and had so much fun. It was a quick trip, but we managed to pack in tons of stuff!


If any of you watch the show "Miami Ink" on A&E, this is the shop. I was really surprised because, on the show, the shop looks so much bigger! It's located in South Beach which is quite the party place. I loved it! Miami is definitely the perfect place to people watch :) On Friday night, we walked around South Beach for a while and had a delicious dinner. Even though it's hot, all of the restaurants have patio seating. I loved sitting outside eating this great dinner and watching all of the people walking by.


On Saturday morning, we woke up early, had breakfast, and then headed to Key West. But on the way, we stopped for a tour of the Everglades and an alligator farm. There were alligators EVERYWHERE! It was like a different world!

After walking around the farm for a while, we were getting ready to get on the air boat for our tour. Then we realized that they were going to do a snake show before the air boat ride. We thought it would be interesting so off we went to the show.

Well, as soon as we sat down, the guy was telling us about the different kinds of snakes found in Florida and The Everglades, and then he called me to come up to be his volunteer! He wanted me to reach into this pillow case and pull out a snake!

It took me a while to get up the courage to actually do it (at one point, he shook the pillow case and scared me to death!).

But I did it! Look how comfortable I am with it.

I wasn't about to be the only one scared to death by snakes, so I volunteered Wayne for the next demonstration :)

I loved Wayne's reaction! He actually kind of liked the snakes after a while.

After posing with all of the snakes, we still had a few more minutes before our air boat ride, so we walked around the far a little more and found all of the baby alligators!

They're creepy aren't they?! They reminded me of that movie from a long time ago when a kid got a baby alligator and then flushed it down the toilet and it grew and grew in the sewer :)

It's finally time for our boat ride through The Everglades! We had to put on these headphones when we went fast because of the noise. It was so neat to be in this environment...and a little scary too!

We spotted our first alligator swimming towards the shore. He swam right by us!

He crawled up on the ground, stayed there for a little while, and then went back into the water. It was unreal!

Here's his tail as he swam away.

This was our tour guide. He was so much fun!

After our tour of The Everglades, we finished the drive to Key West. Although Key West was 3 hours away, the drive was so enjoyable because we pretty much always saw water on either side of us.

This is the biggest tree I've ever seen!

Supposedly, this is the southern most point in the US. Wayne, being the thinker he is, actually thinks Brownsville, TX is the southern most point. He even got out a map on the plane to look at it! So who does Wayne need to let know they made a mistake?

We ate a great lunch in Key West and walked all over. We then drove home and got back to the hotel around 8:30 that night. The next morning, we slept late and then drove to Ft. Lauderdale to see the beach before we had to fly home.

Our last meal was at this cute restaurant on the beach. The booth we're sitting in was actually a swing! Wayne and I had such a wonderful and relaxing weekend. I'm starting to get used to these trips! Where's our next one???

Here are some videos from The Everglades:

We did a 360 in this video!