Plano Balloon Festival

At the end of September, we went to the Plano Balloon Festival (our first time going since we've lived here!) Aunt Janina went with us, and we met up with some friends to watch the balloons.

 In the car on the way there, Wyatt modeled his sunglasses for us. I was surprised he kept them on because at his age, Lila wouldn't. We got there right around 5 so we didn't have too much sun.

 At 6 was the balloon launch. We found a seat up on a hill so we could see the balloons fill with air.

 We also enjoyed some fair-type food for supper. Here Wyatt's eating some pizza as he watched the balloons take off. He calls them "hot balloons".

 Several balloons in the air after they launched. You can see one of them looked like a pirate.

I handed over the camera to get a picture of me at this event too :)

 The kids entertained themselves by running around while we waited for the balloons to come back.

 Here's the faces I get when I ask them to sit still for a picture. Aunt Janina had to hold Wyatt still. Evan and Lila look so thrilled, don't they?

 Wyatt also entertained himself by trying on Mommy's shoes.

 Finally the balloons started to fill again... this time for the Balloon Glow.

 Aunt Janina helped Wyatt see over all the people who were standing.

Here is the best shot I got of the balloons all aglow. The announcer would try to get all of the balloons to light up at once, but it didn't always work out... I think he called it "twinkle burns"... at least he said that phrase a lot to the ballooners! We left after this and didn't stay for the fireworks in order to get the kids home to bed. It was a fun time!

Catching Up

The past few weeks we have been pretty busy and I haven't posted much, so I'm going to try and combine several pictures to catch up a little. These pictures capture some of the everyday and not-so-everyday fun that we have around here!

I could hear the kids playing together, so I went to investigate... and found Lila in Wyatt's crib with Wyatt reading books in the rocking chair. I asked Wyatt if he wanted to get in the crib too. Then I went to get my camera.

We can't go very far without George. 

One day we went over to Evan's house to play in his backyard. I think this might have been the last time the kids put their swimsuits on this year.

Wyatt LOVES to jump into the pool and land on his belly... unfortunately, if you look close, you can see that Evan doesn't think it's that fun. 

They also played with a fun little water table. 

This picture isn't the greatest - kind of blurry - but I still like it. This is a perfect snapshot of Wyatt right now: Thomas pajama top, running around in his diaper, holding George and wearing a cowboy hat (he doesn't care to wear other hats, but he likes this one.) 

 Such a sweet little guy I've got.

 One day Miss April (a friend of mine and Lila's Sunday School teacher) came over to help the kids make Grass Head Men. Here Lila is putting some grass seed and dirt in the "head".

 Then Wyatt took a turn. He thought it was really fun to play with dirt inside!!

 Ta-da! Wyatt's Grass Head Man.

 These are an object lesson to teach the kids patience... sunlight, water and TIME... and the men will grow grass for hair. Pardon me, Lila's "man" is a woman. Notice the eyelashes :)

I caught this activity one day. I think it is amusing that Wyatt will push the stroller and change diapers - but never on a doll - it is always with George. Of course, left on his own, he will also happily unload all the wipes from the box (yes, I learned this from experience!)

Bunny Fun

About a month ago, a friend invited us over to her house to let the kids play with her bunnies, Buttonz and Bowz - and to meet their new bunny, Fiver. We had such a fun time!

Fiver was still new to the household and the other two bunnies hadn't accepted him yet, so he had to stay separate from them or they would fight. But he was very friendly with the kids! They especially liked feeding the bunnies :)

Here Bowz (left) is making sure Fiver stays on his side of the fence (notice Fiver's broken leg... they are all rescued bunnies).

Lila trying to see if Fiver will eat some type of grass, I can't remember what now. He was more interested in trying to get past the fence, though.

Wyatt thought it was so neat to be around the bunnies... I think this is as close as he ever got to Bowz though! She usually ran and hid behind the sofa.

Miss Jackie caught Buttonz so Lila could pet him.

We have been doing some cleaning/organizing (or trying to anyway) lately, and we found a puzzle that the kids hadn't seen in awhile. It is an "In the Garden" puzzle and has things like a shovel, lettuce, tomato, watering can, etc. One puzzle piece is a bunny. Wyatt brought it over to me the other day, held up the bunny and said "Mitter Fiver!" It took me a few seconds to realize he was saying "Mister Fiver" - one of the bunnies he played with several weeks ago. I was amazed he remembered his name (Miss Jackie refers to them often as Mr. Fiver and Mr. B, etc.) The funny thing is the puzzle piece looks more like Buttonz than Fiver, but obviously Fiver made an impression - probably since he was the most tolerant of their attention :)

My Boy

I thought it was kind of fun to share a few "glimpses" into Lila's personality when she turned four, so I wanted to do that with Wyatt too -- partly because he is such a fun little personality right now :) I could wait another month until he turned 2, but knowing me, I would forget to do it. So here are a few tidbits about Wyatt right now. He is a fun, energetic little boy who can be so sweet, but also finds new ways to get into trouble (like the other day when I found him standing on a stool with his hand in the dog treat jar and Kelsey next to him chomping down on her first? 2nd? tenth? dog treat!)

1. He finally entered a Mommy phase! For the longest time, only Daddy would do - but in the past couple weeks, he wants Mommy to put him to bed and Mommy to hold him. I guess Ben being gone for a week in Germany helped him decide that Mommy was ok :)

2. He says more and more sentences. Hold me now. Go dat way or come on Mommy. Of course, he's also learned to use the words "mine" and "my turn" quite often! The other day Lila wanted something he had and I heard her telling him, "Wyatt, the Bible says share!" There was a pause and then he replied, "No, mine!" So he has learned to stand up for himself too and not just let Lila take everything from him.

3. He likes to sing but doesn't know all of the words yet. He will try to sing the VeggieTales theme song, the WonderPets theme song and the ABC song (usually the end part starting with Q). He does have the melody down because we can tell what he is singing!

4. He is really good at spotting airplanes in the sky, balloons in the store/restaurant (especially if they've floated to the ceiling), and finding Thomas the Train on all sorts of things - like newspaper ads.

5. He drinks a ton! If you give him a water cup, he will drain it. He also leaks out of his diaper most nights even though we try to limit how much water he has before bed.

6. He doesn't say the S sound yet. So he eats with a "boon", has a "nack" when he's hungry, says "yorry" when he does something he's not supposed to... and the hardest to interpret... will ask for some "yaw" (sauce) when he wants some ketchup. He doesn't say yes; he says yeah.

7. He says some funny things. He used to call McDonald's "nuggetburger" - whenever he'd see the golden arches, I'd hear it. "Nuggetburger!" But very recently, he has started saying McDonald. He also calls pancakes - "mancakes". Ha, ha, that is one of my favorites. It is so cute.

8. He doesn't like to eat cold things. So for a long time he refused to eat ice cream. Now, he likes it but he still makes the most horrible grimace with each bite. It is entertaining to watch.

9. He loves to jump, climb, run, throw things, hang on things... he is active! :)

10. We told Wyatt a few weeks ago that "Mommy has a baby in her tummy" - I'm not sure he would have noticed on his own :) When I told him, he put both hands on my tummy and looked at it for a bit, then looked up at me and said "Hold it?" I don't know that I expected him to say anything, but definitely wasn't expecting that! So sweet.

Starting Preschool

Lila started preschool this week! She attends on Tuesday and Thursday, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. - which means she takes a lunch with her. It has been a little bit of an adjustment for all of us, but I have to say as I was putting away my groceries this morning at 10:15 (yes, that's right - through the store, home and put away in an hour!)... I think it will be a good adjustment :)

Last Thursday we went to "Meet-the-Teacher". Ben and I know Lila's teacher and the school director from when we went to church at Grace, but Lila hadn't met Mrs. Hedges. I don't have a picture of them together because when I asked Lila if she wanted to take one, she said no. Maybe at the end of the year, she will feel differently :)

Here Lila is relaxing in the "reading center".

She found her spot at the table.

And she found some fun toys to play with, so by the time we left, she was excited to come back!

First day of school.

(Unfortunately it rained all day, so I had to take a picture of her in the garage with not so great lighting.)

Wyatt and George rode along of course.

Here she is putting away her backpack and lunch box in her cubby. Not surprisingly, with the last name Amey, she has the first spot.

This isn't a great picture. I tried to be quick and step back in the room to take a picture, but I didn't want to linger because she had been a little clingy. No tears though! They were playing with floam while they waited for everyone to arrive. On the first day, I walked her in, but since then we have used their carpool line for dropping off/picking up. It's nice to not have to undo Wyatt -- and will be really nice when I have a baby in the car as well!

I was impressed that I didn't see any repeats with the backpacks. I figured there would be several people with the same one. Although this is just Lila's class, so there might be some overlap with other classes.

I took this picture when we got back home. He looks a little forlorn, doesn't he? He actually hasn't asked about Lila much (yet). When we went to pick her up today, though, and pulled into the parking lot, he yelled "Lila!" really excitedly.

Some really sweet friends got Wyatt and I a "first day of school" present which included some things for us to do together and a box of tissues (which I'm happy to report I didn't need - although had Lila started crying, I probably would have too).

And when we picked her up and asked if she had fun? I think that's a yes. :)

Ben came home from work early so he could be there when we picked her up. She was really excited to see Daddy, too!

Last Swim of the Year??

This past Labor Day weekend, the weather was GREAT! Nice and cool in the morning, not too hot in the afternoon. My sister invited us to come down to her place to swim one afternoon. Well, the rain that had cooled down the weather had also cooled down the water! The kids still wanted to get in, so Ben jumped in too. (Bless him! - just one of the many reasons I married that man :) My sister and I sat on the edge.)

Lila has gotten a lot braver about "swimming" in the deeper part of the pool using her inflatable turtle. (Thanks Aunt Janina!!)

Wyatt enjoyed splashing his legs in the water. I had to be quick a few times to save my camera from a shower!

He also liked climbing on the stairs.

No trip to Aunt Janina's pool would be complete without some fun pool toys -- but we have to be careful that they don't float into a filter or Lila gets very concerned :)

Swimming with her turtle - she used to have to have one of us holding her to do this.

Swimming to get to the shallow area.

And she's up! Faster than I thought she would be too which is why her head got chopped off in my picture.

Wyatt and Ben.

Wyatt liked throwing the pool toys (big surprise, huh?).

I tried to catch Lila smiling here. (Remember, Ben was in the pool and there were two "lifeguards" on duty too... don't want anyone thinking she was all alone in there!)

Inspecting the blue lips on Wyatt and deciding it was time to get out! With the cooler weather we've been having lately, that may have been our last swim of the year. Guess we will see!

BUT, cooler weather also means we can go on bike rides... the kids think it's fun as long as they are moving. Otherwise, Wyatt does NOT like his helmet!

Storytime Live!

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to see "Nickelodeon's Storytime Live!" show. It had characters from 4 Nickelodeon shows: Dora the Explorer, WonderPets, Ni Hao Kai Lan, and The Backyardigans... all of which Lila was familiar with. Both kids did pretty well through the whole show, but it was very interesting - and amusing - to see the difference between them. Lila sat very still and just took it all in. She participated some... speaking and making hand motions, but she was pretty solemn. (She was like that when we took her to see Elmo a year ago.) Wyatt, on the other hand, would get down on the floor and raise his hands in the air and jump up and down (clearly trying to imitate what the characters on stage were doing!). It was fun to watch... but too dark to get a picture!

Waiting for the show to start.

Mom and Wyatt

Here I was experimenting with my camera (point and shoot), trying to take a pic without the flash.

During intermission, the kids had a little snack.

Here's a picture of their last musical number where all the characters sang together.

And here they are on stage for the end. It was interesting to see how the cartoon characters translated to live performance. For those familiar with Nickelodeon, the characters are (L-R): Backyardigan, WonderPets, Dora, Moose & Zee (the NickJr. in-between-shows characters), Kai Lan and friend, another WonderPet and last a Backyardigan in pink. As you can tell, I'm not THAT familiar with them all :)