Oh ya, we so went Bonkers on Monday!

Oliver and I met Ace & Aunt Tricia at a fun place called Going Bonkers today. They had a huge climbing area for the kids and an arcade too. We all had a ton of fun!

Getting ready to play

Oliver found the car right away

Oliver & Ace inside the toddler climbing area

I encouraged Oliver to climb up the slide in the toddler area...oops, bad mommy!

Oliver walking through the hanging bags

Hanging on for dear life while jumping

Video of Oliver jumping

Video of Ace & Oliver jumping

Oliver peeking up through the big play ground



Video of Ace gettin his Dance, Dance Revolution groove on...Oliver had to join in

Oliver thought this might be more fun than dancing

The four of us "Going Bonkers" with out silly faces at meal time

Oliver & Ace playing air hockey -- I never knew it was such a long game

Hugging goodbye

Ace looking so innocent! :)

Oliver, Aunt Tricia & Ace

Happy Birthday Madelyn!

Oliver loves his cousin Madi so much, and we wanted to wish her a very happy 7th birthday! Have a wonderful day sweetie!

Oliver wanted me to take a picture of the poster we made in your honor this morning. We love you!

Little Mesquite Rodeo

As I type this, I can't get the words to an old favorite song of my sister's called Little Red Rodeo out of my head. Not that it has anything to do with the Mesquite Championship Rodeo, but I thought of that song as I was thinking of a the title for my post. We had a great time at the Rodeo last night. We ate junk food, Oliver "tried" cotton candy for the first time, and we cheered so loud the kids in front of kept turning around. We had pretty good seats, except that we were in the middle of our row so coming and going really wasn't an option. Oliver was entertained and interested almost the entire time. We did miss seeing the bull riding (the biggest event at a rodeo), but it was approaching 10:00 pm and as it is, we live 40 minutes from Mesquite.

I think one of my favorite parts was in between events when they had the 7-12 year olds come down for the Race for Cash. Two calves had ribbons tied to their tails and about 200 kids were down in the arena running around after them trying to get a ribbon. It was so funny, as soon as the calves saw them coming, they took off running. It took only about 30 seconds for them to be cornered, though with that many kids, I would have thought it would have been shorter. It was hilarious! The two winners received $20 and a t-shirt. Pretty good for a kid!

Shortly after the rodeo began -- Oliver was mesmerized by the horses

Most of the rodeo, Oliver was standing in our laps

The calf roping was good!

Oliver "trying" cotton candy for the first time -- ya, he licked it and said "mmm...I don't want anymore". Personally I can't stand the stuff so I don't blame him, but every kid has to at least try it, right?

A different point of view from Daddy's lap

I liked the shot of him clapping

Thanks for a great show Mequite Rodeo!

Can you say zonked out???

This picture was taken at the end of a three-hour nap from which I had to wake him...he was sleeping so peacefully, I felt bad for waking him!

On another note, Oliver tried gymastics yesterday for the first time and really enjoyed it. I just enrolled him and now we will be going on Tuesday mornings and he is pretty excited. The most amusing thing about the entire experience is that his favorite part was using the drinking fountain for the first time. Sometimes the best things are free! :)

Fireworks Extravaganza

I wish I had a fireworks extravaganza to show you. Unfortunately, our park wasn't the best place for seeing the fireworks, we could only see the tops of a few different displays. But you can't beat the walk home! :)

We snapped some pictures using the night setting on our camera while we were waiting and these ones kind of turned out. It's hard to find your target while you are aiming the camera into darkness. Oliver did love the fireworks we could see. He loved the loud booms and all the colors. Some of our neighbors also came out to join us in the park, and Oliver about talked one of their ears off. He wanted to make sure they were seeing everything he did and also wanted to know if he liked it too. I thought it was too cute. Maybe next year we will have to actually take Oliver to see a show some where. :)

When we came inside, Oliver thought he needed to try my flip flops on and his smile was too cute to resist taking a picture! :)

Happy Independence Day!

We have had a fantastic Independence Day so far and it is only half over. This morning we went to the City of Plano Independence Day parade that just happens to go down Independence Parkway here in Plano. This was our second year going and we chose our same shady spot as we did last year. There was a nice gentle breeze that gave us some reprieve from the heat. I think my favorite thing at the parade to watch was Oliver. He had so much fun waving, clapping, yelling "Happy Fourth" back to the people on the parade "floats", and collecting loot.

Here is our shady spot in front of some old duplexes

There were propeller planes flying overhead during the parade and Oliver just loved it!

Here are the planes

Random pictures of Oliver enjoying the parade

The parade "floats". I say "floats" because they are not the traditional type of floats I am used to seeing. Still fun, just nontraditional. :)

The very last thing on the parade route was an actual float. Yeah!

Texans are a very proud breed, and now my little guy is one of them. One of the churches in the parade was giving out Texas flags on America's Independence Day! Oliver can already distinguish between the two flags.

Proudly wearing his parade necklaces

See my loot?

Oliver took this picture of his Daddy-O

Oliver taking a break from the parade to have a horsey ride.

My friend Lori posted something on her blog the other day that inspired me to "Get in the picture". So even though it is becoming increasingly difficult to convince Oliver to smile for the camera, I still got in the picture and tried my best to make him laugh with my fierce pirate smiles.

Here is my favorite one of us!

After the parade we headed to our favorite mall so Oliver could ride on the coin operated cars and fire trucks that he loves. Then we all played in the play area and had so much fun! I love spending time with Oliver, but I love spending time with Oliver and his Daddy even more! I love my sweet family and I am so thankful for our country's independence.

Happy Independence Day Y'all! (wow, that still doesn't work for me even after almost six years). Let's try this again...Happy Independence Day everyone!

Our first Metro Moms Event

I joined a group of mothers in the Metroplex and they get together every once in a while and have fun events. Today we attended the Oh Say Can You See Independence Day Event at the Wiggly Play Center near us. Oliver had a great time playing the games and exploring all the fun things. He climbed in the climbing area, bounced in the Bounce House and even hugged a puppy dog. Fortunately, Clayton was able to join us too! Unfortunately, we found some vomit while we were playing in the climbing area, so hopefully we left all those germs there! Yuck!

Here are some pictures of our morning:

Playing a ring toss game.

He won this cool magnifying glass from playing the ring toss game and as you will see, he wanted to take a closer look at everything

...even the camera

You think he might be tired of cars since he has some at home...nope, not Oliver. He headed straight for this car as soon as we walked in the door.

notice him peeking at me through his magnifying glass

Daddy & Oliver climbed ALL the way up

And then slid down this spiral tunnel slide. Clayton actually got a little stuck, I guess it wasn't built for adults! :)

Playing with another little guy at the event

Oliver standing in a corner...do you think he did something I don't know about??? :)

Nope, he actually turned around right after this picture and investigated the pink wall with his magnifying glass

Oliver didn't want to dance by the puppy while they were dancing, but he wanted to give him a hug. He went right up afterward and gave him a hug. Too bad the puppy wasn't paying attention to him.

Not already...

Two and a half and already refusing kisses from Mommy. Sad! Good thing it doesn't happen often. :)

Oliver's new favorite song

How cute is this?

My Aunt sent this to Oliver in response to a picture he sent her for her birthday. It is so cute! I love it!

Splish, Splash I was taking a swim...

Yesterday the weather was perfect for me...hot and dry, a rare occasion here in muggy old Dallas. :) Oliver and I took advantage of it by getting out his wading pool and splashing around in it. We actually went out in the morning and in the evening. The water was too cold for him to sit in the first time, but the sun warmed it up and the second time he and I were in it for about two hours. He loved it. He had some fun pool toys that the Thiot's gave him for his last birthday and we brought some other plastic toys in too. We had a great time together.

Configuring the volley ball net into a hammer

Mommy Airlines

First off, as you will soon see in the pictures, I must confess that sometimes I do not make my bed in lieu of having fun with Oliver. He loves to roll around and play on my unmade bed and I figure those are much better memories than those he might have if I told him "no, Mommy's bed needs to be perfect" all the time! :)

One of our favorite games to play on the bed (or any where) is airplane. Daddy took some pictures of us playing last night.

ready for take off

I have one of those really tall beds so Oliver is actually up really high when we do this on the bed and he loves it!

Ah, the welcome back thanks for flying Mommy airlines hug!