Fall has finally arrived in Dallas

The weather has been cool on and off for the past couple of weeks (60 yesterday, 85 today), and I've noticed that some of the trees are finally beginning to have a slight bit of fall color. My favorite tree to see change is the Bradford Pear tree that seem to be so popular around our neighborhood. The colors range from a bright orange-ish red to a deep dark purple and it is breathtaking. We don't have any, but luckily our neighbors right across the street have two, so I am able to see them changing every time I look out my front window. :)

Autumn is truly my favorite season. I think my biggest reason for fall being my fave, aside from cooler weather, is the pumpkins. I love looking at pumpkins, eating anything pumpkin, hearing about pumpkins, carving pumpkins. You name it, I love it. I think Oliver is heading in my footsteps in that regard. I can remember last year at this time, we would drive past decorated houses at night and he would say "ooooh, spooky". It was so endearing. This year he is just as fascinated. Tigger from Winnie the Pooh calls ghosts spookables. Now, Oliver calls them that as well. Instead of ooooh, spooky, he now gets so excited and pleads "Mommy, can we drive by the spookables again?".

To start our fall out right, Oliver and I spent our morning at the Dallas Arboretum. Their pumpkin festival was truly amazing. There must have been thousands of pumpkins throughout the gardens both on display and for sell. It was so fun to share this experience with Oliver. We both loved it!

We have had so much rain lately that the summer plants are still in full bloom and are gorgeous.

Oliver loved this funny looking pumpkin/gourd?

There were some enormous pumpkins on display. Oliver wouldn't sit on one because they were wet, but you can get an idea of just how big they were and there were tons of them!

Check this out!

Oliver wouldn't go in here for me to take a picture of him because it stank. Really it did.

trying to lift this pumpkin

Oliver's first maze built from bales of hay

he had a great time, especially in the dead ends

The Arboretum still has their storybook playhouses until the end of the year. I didn't get a picture of him in this one last time. This is Eragon.

He really is not sad.

cheese, all day I kept on getting these huge cheesy grins...I love them!

a little break on some canon balls

once again, cheese under the Crepe Myrtles. :)

Oliver's Daddy is my hero!

Our patio in the backyard is without rain gutters and with all the rain we receive, we had mold growing on the patio and it was getting so bad that I didn't even want to be out there.

It really was disgusting and I'm kind of embarrassed to be posting this picture, but you had to see the before to truly appreciate the after

We rented a pressure washer this weekend and Clayton went to work

While Clayton worked, Oliver and I played out in the soggy yard

I love action shots! :)

Oliver and I collected baby acorns from our Live Oak in his bucket, but he didn't want me to take any pictures

After a little over an hour of spraying, here is the finished product:

what a difference! Thanks Clayton!

Whew...now it is like we actually have a patio! :)

No hablo español...

but I'm going to...well, at least I'm going to try. :)

Oliver and I began Mommy & Me Spanish class last Friday at the Spanish Schoolhouse. There are five other students in the class, and he is the oldest by at least six months. We decided not to send him to Preschool this year even though he will be three this month, since he will not be going to elementary school until he is almost six. We have wanted to send Oliver to a Spanish speaking preschool and we thought this would be an excellent introduction.

The Mommy & Me class is an immersion class, where no English is spoken; in fact, the instructor speaks very little English and her Spanish if very, very fast. All of the other mothers in the class speak at least some Spanish, so I think Oliver and I are at a little of a disadvantage. I am certain Oliver will pick it up much more quickly than I will, but I am going to try my best.

The class is fun, we sang songs (well listened to the others sing songs), we learned words for day, night, sun, stars and moon. Then we listened to stories about day and night and then worked on this cute worksheet:

Oliver even received homework. I had to ask another mom what we were supposed to do with it, and I am not certain if we are supposed to bring it back to class because of course, I couldn't understand. We worked on his homework project today. He was really into it at first, then he lost interest. I think this is going to be a good experience because Oliver's attention span to structured play is very small and hopefully this will help us work on that.

Here he is gluing tissue paper on the sun

the glue...and ta da

the finished product

Sing, sing a song

I loved this video of my little guys singing in the bath tub. Don't worry, it is completely G rated. :)

Boxes make the best toys!

Oliver loved being pushed around in boxes when he was much smaller, and has recently discovered that he still enjoys it.

Here is his car, powered by none other than Daddy

I'm totally freaked out!!!

This scary scorpion walked down the hall and into my bedroom last night shortly after I had just walked that same path barefoot. I'm not kidding in the title of my post, I am totally freaked out. Apparently they are not that common in this area of Texas, but still, there it was, in my bedroom, at 8:30 at night, right after I had just put Oliver to bed. CRAZY!

By the way, I am totally rethinking that "no shoes in the house" rule. I think we are going to have to have inside shoes if these are the types of visitors we will be getting.

Good morning sunshine!

Does Oliver look kind of dazed in the picture??? It could have something to do with the fact that this picture was taken at about 6:30 in the morning and this child doesn't usually wake up until around 9:00. Why in the world would Oliver be up, dressed, and outside at 6:30 am on a Sunday morning you might be wondering. Well, to see the spectacular Plano Balloon Festival, that's why.

We had an amazing time at the festival. We had hoped to go on Saturday evening and see the balloon glow, but Oliver had been feeling a bit under the weather, in addition to cutting the 2nd of his 3rd year molars, and I promised that we wouldn't go if he didn't take a nap. Well, he wouldn't nap, so we couldn't go. This was one time I really wanted to back out of the consequences I set forth. I was so looking forward to seeing the balloon glow, but I knew we had to be responsible parents and keep our promises as well as look out for his health, since he really needed to go to bed early. So Saturday he was in bed nice and early, and then bright and early up the next morning.

We arrived while it was still pitch dark and we lucked out as we were able to see a bit of balloon glow anyway. The Dawn Patrol (night flight balloons) was unable to fly in the dark because of unstable winds, so they gave us a bit of dawn glow. It was awesome! The launch time was scheduled for 7:00 am and it was so amazing to have front row seats to watch these huge balloons inflate, launch, fly and then land again. I can't believe I have lived here for six years and this is the first time I have been to the festival. Surely, we won't miss it again!

Oliver is a little more awake in this one with his cheesy grin that I love so much!

Dawn Patrol Balloon all lit up...so cool!

Last light up before the sun rises

Oliver didn't want his jacket, he just wanted to snuggle with me while watching the balloons. I'm so lucky!

The majority had launched at this point...there were at least 20 balloons that took off around 7am. What a spectacular sight to see!

Oliver at the festival

The festival was like a small fair with tents set up for food and vendors. It was fun to walk around after all the balloons launched. We tried funnel cake for the first time: Oliver didn't like it, and Clayton and I thought it was just okay...so not worth the calories in my opinion.

As we were getting ready to leave, the balloons started landing. The funny thing was that they didn't necessarily land in the original launch field. They were landing at totally random places. This one landed in the parking lot very close to where we parked.

It was a cool experience to see the Remax Balloon deflate and be put away. It is amazing how something so huge, can fit in that small red bag.

We had such a fun family time. I'd love to make this one of our traditions in the years to come.

Oliver loves his "pretend" hot air balloon and I thought this picture was SO SWEET!

some sadness, some happiness, and some love at first sight!

We were so happy when the sun finally came out on Tuesday, that we just had to go outside to enjoy it. We were travelling to the park and I stopped to take some pictures of Oliver.

Our trip was cut short.

I feel really bad about this picture because he is telling me that he doesn't want me to take anymore pictures of him all the while standing on Fire Ant mound. I put my camera away and we start our trek to the park again and Oliver stays behind and says look Mommy. I turn around and he is looking at the writhing ant mound. As I am rushing over, I tell him to hurry and back away because he is going to get bit. And he tells me that they are already biting him. Sure enough they were all over his Crocs and some had gone through the holes. Poor guy. He has three bites on the top of his left foot, one on his middle toe and another on his right leg. Fire ant bites are awful: they sting, they swell, they get a puss head, and then itch for days. Oliver was so sad we ran right home to soak his feet in cold water and put some sting relief stuff on them. Fire Ants are a huge hazard of living in this area!

You can actually see one of the bites on his right leg in this picture. He is wearing his Boomer Sooner socks to distract him from scratching the bites.

On a much happier note, Oliver turned 35 months old today. Only one month left until this little guy is three. Doesn't seem possible!

On a totally unrelated note to this post, Oliver's Halloween costume arrived Tuesday night. I honestly don't know if it will make it to Halloween because it was LOVE at first sight!. It really wasn't made very well and this little guy wants to wear it ALL the time. He loves to make deliveries and really who could resist him when he is the cutest little UPS driver anyone has ever seen?!? :)

Puddle Jumpin'

We have received about four inches of rain over the last four days. Oliver enjoyed jumping in the puddles this morning!

Ace's birthday party at the Ft. Worth Zoo

Despite all the rain we have been receiving, we made it to the Ft. Worth Zoo this morning to celebrate Ace's 4th birthday. He had a fun Batman themed birthday party and the zoo keepers put on a great show with four animals. Unfortunately, we were unable to make it to the zoo afterwards as planned due to all the rain, but it didn't matter; It was still a great party. Happy Birthday Ace!

First the animals...

A real baby Alligator, how cool is that??? We learned that they can grow new teeth to replace broken teeth, over and over and over again.

Parrot. This was Oliver's favorite. Unfortunately I don't remember anything cool about it.

An opossum. Did you know they can't really hang by their tails? Their tail can curl around things and kind of acts like an extra finger, but it can't support their body weight.

Meet Jack, a South African Penguin. It makes sense now, but I had no idea that 60% of the worlds penguins are warm weather penguins.

A video of Jack making his sound

Oliver playing Pin the Tail on the Donkey, unfortunately the Birthday Boy didn't want to play

Oliver counting

Ace opening his presents

Darling baby boy in the balloons

The birthday boy and his awesome Batman cake

Getting set to blow

mmmm, this cake is so yummy!

My fave picture all day...Batman...aka Oliver

Batman Ace

Ace and one of his friends Jaxon. Cute!