Race Track

Day 2

 

Daddy brought home a really neat car. It's a Subaru. And when you pull it back, it rolls along on it's own.  Another neat thing about this car is that Mr.Mister has figured out how to take the tires off. I found him in the corner one day with his car. All four tires had been peeled off the wheels. I put the tires back on and told Mr.Mister that he shouldn't break his cars. They're not much fun after you've tried to break the wheels off or bend the axles, or pull the doors off. He doesn't listen all that well. I found him again later, patiently pulling the tires off the car again. I wondered about his thought process. It's become a thing lately to push and pull and tug at the moveable parts on his cars....until they break. We've said goodbye to a couple of really cool cars because of this mild obsession. But I digress.... Back to the neat Subaru.

Hardwood floors make a great race track. The neat thing about this car is that it goes.....until it ALMOST hits the wall. It stops just shy of the wall. Good timing or advanced built in mechanism? Who's to say.  It's really good when you have a buddy who will send the car back to you.

Even if it is just your sister who likes to pose and dance on the other side....At least she sends the car back. If she's not apprehending it for herself. Sisters!!!!!

"Yup, see, this is how it works!" she says. He's only been playing with it by himself for the past 10 minutes. I think he's got it Lil' Miss. But he's patient. He listens because he does like it when she plays with him.

It was big excitement to see if THIS would be the time that the car would hit the wall. But it never did. It was like magic. It was a great 20 minutes of fun. Then the car ran out of batteries.



 Winter Delight

 Day 1

Every year it seems that the Christmas season starts way too early!!! We barely got through Halloween and the Christmas had already hit the stores. I try really hard to ignore it. The unfortunate part is deals on Christmas decor and knickknacks usually start about the middle of November. I guess the theory is that all Christmas 'stuffs' should be in place before December 1st so one can enjoy the holidays in a state of calm and serene relaxation. (Whatever). I still try and put everything off until December 1st. The event that kicks it all off for us is the annual Winter event located in the park just down the street from us and put on by the local church group. They like to call it Winter Delight. We like to call it 'Time for a Horse Drawn Sleigh Ride'!!!!!!

 The key to getting the most out of this event is deciding just when to get to the park. The event is scheduled from  4-6pm. We got there at 3:45pm. Great timing. The horses were already making trips around the park. We beelined straight to the non-existant line up. Both kids had no problem getting themselves parked on the haybales on the sleigh. It was all very exciting!!

 It was so so very exciting that we finished the first ride just to line up for a second ride!!!!! Once again hitting the line-up when it was it was but a minimal wait. As we toured the park on our sleigh ride, it was already starting to get dark, and the christmas lights on some of the houses turned on. We waved hello to Hello Kitty and her buddies all decked up for Christmas. (Yes this is the last weekend in November that the church holds Winter Delight in the park. And yes, people already have their Christmas lights up!!!) After two sleigh rides it was time to hit the cookie bar. Such a chore to choose between chocolate chip, decorated christmas trees and gingerbread boy cookies. And yes, we must only choose one as there are alot of little people here will deserve cookies too. Lucky for us, as we munched away, someone spotted Santa approaching. We hustled...and we were second in line.



Time for a pep talk. Our experiences with Santa aren't all that successful. I wasn't expecting much. But Lil'Miss was determined that she was going to sit on Santa's knee this year. And she did. And promptly got stage fright. When asked what she wanted for Christmas, she just sat there shyly. In fact I'm not sure Santa really got an answer out of her. But that's ok. We'll try again another time.



No amount of pep talking was going to get the little guy on Santa's knee. But I did convince him to go up and 'yell' to Santa what he wanted for Christmas. The one thing about Mr.Mister is consistency. He asked for an airplane. Cropduster to be exact. He's been talking about getting an airplane for awhile now. I hope he gets really excited on Christmas day if he gets one. It would be perfect.

So with all bases now covered, it was time to hit the playground and go down the slides again, and again, and again, and again, and....you get the idea.  The slides were pretty fast that day. Little kids going airborne off the bottom a slide is comic relief and it's best. We were there awhile. It got darker, the park got more and more crowded. It was getting time to go home. So we posed for a couple more photo opportunities..........then Mr.Mister decided he should go on the horse drawn sleigh just one more time!!!!

                                          

I looked at the line up and cringed. It was soooooooo long. We walked over to the end of the line, I explained the art of 'waiting' to a 5 and 2 year old, and we waited. Eventually the line moved up towards the cookie bar. We indulged in another gingerbread boy and stared at the fire pit while we 'waited'.



                                          
And yes, we made it to one last sleigh ride, through the really dark park. At this point, the horse drawn tour had been shortened to accomodate the ridiculous amount of people waiting in line. Just another plus to arriving early when we did. But both the kids were happy, and we made it home without any crying or regret. We waved one more time to Hello Kitty and her friends...they were much more spectacular in the dark!

Birthday!

 

Lil' Miss had a birthday today! She's a whopping 5 years old. I can't believe it. First she starts kindergarten, and now she thinks she can just turn 5. What a girl. She got some special money for her birthday. Curtesy of Gramma. We helped her spend it last night. She's wearing her present in the pictures below. I think it was a good choice. It covers all bases. It's warm (although after tonight we decided she should still wear her skating jacket), the skirt twirls extra twirly, and it has a decent amount of sparkles on it (sooooooo important!!!). It's also got some pink on it.

 

 It's a good thing they were working on their twirls tonight.

 Looks like a little figure skater out there.

 She looks like one of the big girls out there!

 Such concentration!

This is tough stuff. She still falls down alot. I just want to wrap her in pillows before I send her out on to the ice. But she keeps getting up when she falls and she keeps trying. That's dedication for you.

 

Halloween!

 

How about some Halloween cuties? And a scary guy lurking in the background. He's our candy patrol officer. He's in charge of handing out the goods. As for the two little ones, they were in charge of acquiring their own sack load of treats. And they did a good job. Both were so excited to go trick or treating. We've been building up to this day for 2 weeks. Lil' Miss has been running trick or treat 'exercises' for Mr.Mister. He's been packing his treat bucket around, trick or treating for toy cars. Working on his phrasing and thank you's. He was ready. And nothing was going to slow him down. Not even gale force winds and somewhat chilly weather. Nor that mask. He mostly wore in on top of his head, but he was a good sport and got seriously excited when he'd recieve a treat. We didn't make it to all the houses. Some were too scary. But we did manage to trick or treat most of the houses on our route. It was so much fun.

 

 

Imagine this as we were walking up and down the street. When you watch Halloween on tv, when they show piles of dressed up kids running up and down streets on those family friendly Halloween shows, that is what it was like for us on Halloween night. So many kids, running, laughing, with parents also dressed up following behind. Most parents lugging wagons and strollers and extra candy sacks. It was awsome.



All in all, a very successful Halloween. Weather turned out great and we got to watch fireworks as an end to a fantastic night.