The Weekend FIVE - 10.21

1. No More Training Wheels

That's right. No more training wheels.  Kevin took Ryan's training wheels off and we spent some time trying to teach him how to ride a bike. Annnnnnd we are gonna need more practice. No worries, Ryan is excited to learn but just needs to get more comfortable!

Based on this we decided to go ahead and take Grayson's training wheels off too. It's never too early to start practicing. :)

2. Stonewall Carnival

Saturday afternoon we had to divide and conquer. Kevin took Grayson and Ryan to Grayson's soccer game and then they headed up to the school carnival while I waited at home with Hayden so she could get a little nap in. Luckily she was pretty tired and went down early! At 2:30 I woke her up and we headed to meet the crew at the carnival. Kevin was working the Hamster Ball from 2-3pm and then I worked the drinks and candy  booth from 3-4. 

Kevin took the boys on the pirate ship ride and said that when the ride first started going Grayson looked like he might be sick, but they relaxed a little bit and by the end they were actually enjoying it. The kids played games, shot silly string, saw friends and had a blast. Wish I would have gotten more pictures!

Hayden loves the playground at SJE - and she is a monkey!

3. Sunday Brunch

Sunday  morning we headed to church and then brunch at the club. The weather was perfect so we sat outside. The kids were well behaved and only one of them had to be distracted with an electronic device #winning

4. Pictures with Chelle Cates

Later that evening we had our Holiday photo shoot with our favorite photographer Chelle Cates. She has done all of our pictures since Ryan was TWO! Can't believe it's been that long!

Here comes crazy!

A few shots from my phone...

Happy with candy in her mouth

Daddy and his littles. 

5. Shake Shack

After pictures we decided to hit up Shake Shack - neither of us had ever been! The best part was that it wasn't crowded! Despite it's uptown location there were quite a few families there - the large lawn area is perfect for them to run around! We tried the burger and the chicken sandwich - both amazing. BUT the burger wins. Maybe my all time favorite burger ever. Yeah. I said it. We even got some milkshakes after! The kids gave two thumbs up!

Pumpkins at the Arboretum

On Saturday morning I decided to take the kiddos to check out the pumpkin village at the Dallas Arboretum. 

Hayden wanted me to hold her and wasn't too interested in the pumpkins. When I tried to set her down for a picture she was not having it, so I just said no worries, I'll just get your brothers. Of course she then decided that a couple pics wouldn't be that hard. lol. Too bad it is basically impossible to get a pic with all three of them SMILING and LOOKING at the camera. 

This is Grayson's cheese face. Well, he is saying cheese. over and over again. 

Grayson's cheese face looks oddly similar to his bathroom face. We need to work on that. 

And the open mouth excited face...

Grayson too. 

it's getting weird...

And we are done.

He looks so big!

Checking out all the pumpkins....

Just following the boys

He wants a picture on this pumpkin...but he forgets to smile.

In search of little pumpkins...

Here is her open mouth "excited" smile....

And this.

Now Grayson was really getting in to it. Finding pumpkins, climbing pumpkins...all for a pic! What a trooper!

Once we had  enough of the pumpkins I tried to kill a little time by just wondering around the rest of the garden. We sat down and had a snack and then Hayden decided that she wanted to pull the wagon. 

It was a little too heavy with both boys so eventually she agreed to get in and let me pull them. 

State Fair of Texas

We decided to hit up the fair on the Sunday of TX/OU weekend thinking that it wouldn't be very crowded since everyone was there the day before....but we were wrong. We hit some traffic trying to get a parking spot and were slightly discouraged. Luckily we stuck with the plan and although it was crowded outside the gates it really wasn't horrible inside. The only place that had crazy long lines were the coupon redemption trailers. Isn't that ironic? I actually bought tickets and coupons online so that we could avoid any long lines....and the coupon booths were line free but the place to redeem the $50 worth of coupons that I bought online were ridiculous. #fairfail Anyhow, we chalked it up for a loss and carried on.

We played some games. Ryan won (with a little help from his mama) a prize and he picked out a Paw Patrol dog and gave it to his brother. So sweet!

We found the KidWay and rode a few rides. Hayden was all about going on this ride by herself but when it started she wasn't sure how she felt. Each time she went by she had a different facial expression - alternating between joyful and horror. She clung to me after the ride was over. I think she feared I would try and put her on another one. #Oops. 

Ryan was proud to ride the motorcycle ride all by himself. 

Being silly - won't let me take her picture!

She decided that the flying elephant ride would be ok if I went with her. She was one happy little girl!

Grayson picked one ride and he would only do it if Ryan joined him....he loved it!

He had a huge grin every time he came around - so cute! 

We did a little walking around and checked out the animals. Pigs were my favorite. Always are. 

Of course we had a Fletcher's Corny Dog!

Clearly they weren't overly enthusiastic about them. I'm not sure why they look so unimpressed. 

And then we headed to see Big Tex

Our plan was to walk back down the Midway and play a few more games - Ryan really wanted to win a Robot stuffed animal. When we finally found a booth that had a Robot to win we realized we didn't have enough game credits. Ugh. Now the lines were longer and it was going to be at least $20 to load it up - so we convinced Ryan that it wasn't worth it. He took it surprisingly well. But I am sure we will be after it next year. In other news we accidentally lost Gigi and spent a good 40 minutes trying to figure out what happened to her. Mary didn't realize that she was "lost" for a while but when she did she reported herself to the missing kids area where she borrowed a phone to call us. Oopsies! We finally found her and everyone was ready to get home and rest. 

SJE Open House

Last Tuesday Ryan's school had an Open House. Kevin was out of town so it was just me and Ryan.

We started out in his classroom and I was able to see some of the things they have been working on for the past six weeks. Everything is so new to them, especially all of their new friends. In order to get to know each other better, Mrs. Littlefield gives each student a turn with the "me" bag. Basically each kid gets a turn to fill a brown paper sack with three things that they love and then share it with the class. In class they use their journals to draw pictures of each kids favorites. They draw a picture of the student, their favorite color, their favorite number and favorite animal.

Here is a page in Ryan's journal - when I picked him up from school one day he mentioned that he had drawn a "boy" horse (with the necessary equipment). I was so confused on why he did this, but he simply stated that he wanted everyone to know it was a "boy". Well. Ok then. 

Ryan actually had the "Me" bag that night and he decided to fill it with a mini Robot, a Lego Star Wars creation that he had made, and a picture of his family. Such a sweetie! His favorites:

Color: Red

Number: Six

Animal: Moose

Career day was last week and each student dressed up as what they wanted to be when they grow up. I kinda dropped the ball on this, but what does a Robotics engineer wear anyways? I did manage to make him a super cool name tag...lol. 

Moving on...

They had talked about maps in school that day and used a map of the school to color in their favorite places to go - and then he took me to each of them. 

I loved going to the Stonewall Gardens!

The garden is such a great resource for the students. In 1996 it was created to give students a real life example of the plants life cycle. Today they not only use it for science but it also serves as a springboard for other lessons. At the Open house I was able to look through Ryan's Garden journal and see some of the fun things they have already done! More info here.

And he was so excited to show me the chicken coop! 

I realize we are only six weeks in, but we have been so happy with our experience thus far. There are so many friendly families, loving teachers and supportive parents that really make a difference at this school. I am excited to be a part of this! The Open House was great - I loved seeing how Ryan spends his day!