Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Little Man turns Two

We celebrated E's official day of birth as a family and got to eat the whole cake ourselves. I made the giant cupcake with carrot cake and cream cheese frosting. Ethan got right to business and knew what to do.He didn't hesitate when in came to opening presents either. He had a very successful haul filled mainly with things assorted with cars. I made him a crayon holder that has vintage Chevy cars on it. I wish I had a better picture of it, it is one of my favorite creations. And he got a set of cars from the movie, "Cars." The one we watch practically on repeat.
He got a wooden pizza, which I think might qualify as his favorite food.

From Grammie Pammie he got a mix and match puzzle with the three bears that you can change their outfits and even expressions. (As well as the clothes he is wearing...love that Janie & Jack!)
And a set of play things including two tunnels, a tent and a clubhouse which since then have brought hours of fun and hide & seek.
Grandpa sent him Mack the truck (from "Cars" again), who holds all of his other cars. As you can see he was pretty excited to see him. I love the progression of his smile.


Definitely a spoiled boy. We love you little man. Hope you had a fantastic birthday.

Monday, September 7, 2009

Labor Day Celebrations

I had the day off and it was the day before Ethan's birthday so I convinced John that today was an essential day to celebrate. We thought that best would happen if we went to an amusement park. We went to six flags, and the McKissicks came right along with us. I think Tammy and I saw each other every day of the week this week.
Ethan watched pretty intently as we went to the Tiger show first.He kept calling them kitty cats, and I think that's as close as you can expect a boy to be at this age.
We got to see elephants...
Killer whales...
John and Jeff take on the thrill rides...
Stopped a little for some over-priced lunch...
Watched the sharks...
Flew a helicopter...
Said our hellos to life-sized characters...
and surprisingly offered hugs too...
And of course made John take just one picture of me to prove that I was there.
It was a fantastic day.

Saturday, September 5, 2009

Habitot...Where all your dreams come true

The beginning of September, my friend Tammy and I decided to take our kids to a kids discovery place called Habitot. We found a coupon online and made the trek out together. To our relief it was worth every penny. I couldn't believe how many things they had there that were perfect for both Sophie and Ethan. I didn't even get pictures of all of it.
Ethan discovered a fishing pond stocked with beautiful magnetic rainbow trout. He knew exactly what to do and went to work the second we got there.
They had a kid-sized ant hill attached to the wall that had ladders inside that the kids could climb all around in, with little peep holes covered in netting. It was so cute. I want one installed in my house.
No kids place would be complete without a set of trains, at least not one that we would frequent. The tracks were screwed in place, and the trains moved so smoothly, I thought I might want to screw down Ethan's set of trains at home.
They had a spray painting area where the kids got to make art with "spray" paint. Turns out Ethan didn't have the best of aim and I think got Tammy more than his piece of paper (makes me really look forward to potty training).One of the most ingenious activities was the area where they had kids doing real painting. They had a huge whiteboard that they would squeegee off after the kids moved on, and they would let the next ones start.The water exploration area was pretty cute too, and had several stations with different implements to dump water in different ways and then the kids could watch the streams running downhill and through the barricades and such.
There were cars to wash in the water area as well, but E had no interest in that part. He just wanted to drive them around, weird.The wind tunnel area had buttons to push to change the speed of the wind and then streamers and windmills to hold and watch spin.I think the farm area was the cutest. It included a farmhouse, complete with puppets, chickens and eggs.A grand horse to ride, complete with leather saddle.Building blocks of hay.
And a dress up area, which to be honest kind of grossed me out, but Ethan was all for it.
No, no, I changed my mind, the face painting area was my favorite. They had a corner set up with mirrors and sponges filled with water that you could wet the paints (more like crayons) and then baby wipes to clean up afterwards. I really want to have something like this at my house. I might have liked it too because you could actually tell what I painted on E's face.
We visited this section a few times throughout our visit and Tammy got painted up by Sophie not once, but twice. Each time she looked amazing.
Somehow I missed taking pictures of the whole kitchen/grocery store area even though we spent quite a lot of time there. They had grocery carts with all the goods to go in them as well as cash registers filled with money, and then a dining area to pretend eat. They had a separate snack area where you could eat real food too, but they kept that very much separate from the rest of the toys. Overall, I think Tammy and I both left there saying that we would definitely go back, and I hear that they change it up every few months. I can't wait to see what else they have in the future.