Arboretum Pumpkin Patch

Last Wednesday, my mom and I took Nathan and Charlotte to the Dallas Arboretum to see the Pumpkin Village, have a picnic, and enjoy the beautiful weather. We had such a nice day, and both Nathan and Charlotte loved being outside!

Here are some pictures of the two of them before we left. Charlotte is wearing her spider dress that Mama made for her.






Once we got to the Arboretum, Nathan acted like such a big boy and wanted to help Mama carry her bag. The first thing we did was head to the Pumpkin Village to take some pictures. Nathan wasn't too interested in being photographed...he just wanted to run around and play...typical 3 year old!








After playing in the pumpkin village, we walked around and looked at all of the pretty flowers. Then we found a perfect spot on the grass for our picnic.





Nathan ate abot 3 bites of his sandwich and then announced he needed to potty (this was after we had passed the restroom earlier and he assured me he didn't have to go), so we left Mama and Charlotte and headed to the restroom...we took a detour by the pond so that I could take a few more pictures of Nathan (I bribed him and told him he could have more M&Ms when we got back). Notice the tucking of the upper lip...his new smile :)







When we got back from the restrooms, we found that Charlotte was taking a nap with Mama. Nathan took a little rest too.







What a great day

Charlotte is 5 Months Old!

Here are Charlotte's 5 month birthday pictures...I'm only two weeks late posting them :) She is wearing her Halloween outfits that were made by Mama. I love the spider dress and the tutu!

I actually have a "mom" story behind the spider dress. After my mom made the dress, it was my job to glue the googly eyes onto the spider. Well, the first time I glued them on, I got a little messy with the super glue and ended up getting some of the glue on one of the eyes which made it look a little cloudy. So, being the perfectionist I am, I decided to take the bad eye off and put a new one on. Charlotte was propped up next to me on the couch while I was putting the glue on the eye, and then she lurched forward, and I grabbed her thinking she was about to fall off the couch. When I did, I didn't realize that I had some super glue on my thumb, and it got stuck to the back of her hair! I actually pulled a chunk out before I knew it was stuck :( It was so sad because, of course, it hurt, and she was crying so hard. Once I calmed her down, I found that she still had glue in her hair. So the only thing I could do was cut it out. She's always had this long section in the back...so now it's a little shorter. I was so mad at myself! And I got super glue on the new eye! So not only does Charlotte have a new haircut, the spider eye that I was trying to fix looks just like the first one I messed up! And then to add to the chaos of the day, when Wayne got home, I saw a huge spider in the kitchen. I'm scared to death of spiders and told him to kill it. When he hit it, hundreds of little babies scattered off of this spider! I think that was more traumatizing than the super glue disaster. I keep itching and feeling like there are baby spiders all over the house!

Texas State Fair

Nathan has been waiting and waiting to go to the fair, so we finally took him on Friday. When I laid him down for his nap that afternoon, I told him that he had to take a good nap and that when he woke, we'd go to the fair. He didn't even want me to stay in his room to rub his back or read him a story! Nathan ended up taking a great 2 1/2 hour nap...I actually had to wake him up! We drove to Wayne's work to pick him up and then headed to the fair together. Oh and we left Charlotte at home with Wayne's mom...Nathan thought it was fun that he was the only one that got to go :)

As soon as we got there, we got our tickets, an order of nachos, a drink, and headed to the kiddie area. Last year, Nathan was only able to ride one or two rides by himself, but this year he could ride most of them alone. He picked out the airplane ride to ride first.


Nathan's new smile consists of tucking his upper lip above his teeth. He calls it his "monster" smile. I finally got a picture of him in the act :)



Last year, Wayne won a stuffed doggy for Nathan that he LOVED and it went with him every where he went. We ended up losing it when we went out of town one time, so Daddy told Nathan he'd win him another animal. When Nathan saw this booth with Scooby dogs, he told Wayne that was the doggy he wanted him to win.



Daddy didn't let him down! Luckily Wayne won it in two tries...I think he would have played it over and over to get Nathan this dog!


And here we are on the Ferris wheel


Scooby was right there with Nathan the whole time!


From the top of the Ferris wheel, Nathan saw this dune buggy ride and wanted to do it next.


Nathan being silly :)


Riding the race cars. I tried to put Scooby in the backpack so he wouldn't drop him, but Nathan wouldn't let him out of his hands. He wanted him to ride all of the rides with him but was also scared he'd fall out so he tucked Scooby under his legs :)

After riding several rides, we headed over to see the animals (and got some ice cream on the way). We saw camels, giraffes, cows, goats, kangaroos, pigs...and Nathan loved feeding all of them (and letting them lick his hands!)






And a trip to the fair isn't complete without cotton candy! He's never had it before but couldn't wait to try it! A cone was 7 coupons and a bag was 8 coupons so we figured the cone would be smaller and ordered that...



WRONG! It was huge! But he was so excited to have his own :)



He took his first bite, and then kept offering us some. We thought it was so sweet that he was sharing with us. Then we figured out that he really only ate that first bite and kept giving us bites because he didn't really like it...he just liked holding the whole thing!

On to the car show, but before that we had to get our corn dogs!




It was starting to get late, and we were all getting tired so we decided to let Nathan do one more ride. On the way to the rides, we went past a fishing game, and then Nathan switched what he wanted to do and started having a fit because he wanted to play the fishing game instead of riding a ride. But you have to pay cash for that, and we still had tickets left (and Daddy sure didn't want to waste those tickets!) so we talked him out of the game and into doing a ride. I thought he'd love going on a mini roller coaster, and he seemed really excited about it (although he kept looking back at the fishing game). He kept saying "I'll be brave Mommy, and I'll protect you!"


Well, the roller coaster was a bit too much for him...he started crying after the first dip. I went with him, and it actually was kind of scary and really fast. And of course, this was one ride that seemed to never end! By the time we finally got off, Nathan was so scared and upset. Wayne (being the big softy he is) couldn't let Nathan's last experience be a bad one, so guess what we ended up doing?


The fishing game! When Wayne told Nathan he could play the game, he quickly wiped his tears with his shirt, and shakily said, "I not sad anymore Daddy." It was so sweet :)


This time, Nathan won himself a doggy, and he was one happy...and tired little boy!


On the way back to the car, Wayne said that I should have packed Nathan's pajamas to change him into before we started home...


And I told him I was one step ahead of him! I even brought his toothbrush and toothpaste! We had a great time!