Brandon was invited to a birthday party at River City Gymnastics. He liked the thought of the party but wasn't too sure he wanted to go to the gym. He'd gotten tired of Little Gym and thought this was the same thing. After about five minutes though, he was having a great time. In fact, when playtime was over he cried because he wanted to jump and play some more. The kids had to line up to move from the first boucy activity to the next - an obstacle course.
I have no idea what Brandon is doing to his pants here. It looked pretty funny though.
Here they are going around the obstacle course. No one got tired of doing it even though they all been around the circle about 30 times.

They even had a huge bounce house set up in the middle of the obstacle course.

This was a really long trampoline-like thing. Some of the kids ran down, some of them jumped. Brandon was a jumper every time. When they reached the end, they landed on a very soft squishy mat and then they could jump into a foam pit.

Brandon thought it was funny to land on his belly at the end of the trampoline.He never would just jump into the foam pit. He always sat on the edge & eased himself into it. Once in the pit, he like it. He's cautious, like his Daddy.When the kids were in the foam pit, it looked like they were trying to swim out. Sometimes the gymnastics ladies had to help them out. Nick sat and watched the kids running/bouncing down the trampline and then flopping into the pit. He wanted to jump in too. It DID look like a lot of fun.
At the third activity area, they had a trampoline, a foam pit and a tall platform with a couple of slides that dumped the kids into the pit. There were 3 ways to get to the top of the slides - a rock wall, a ladder and a knotted rope. Brandon got about half way up the rockwall before he wanted to get down & climb the ladder instead.

He climbed this knotted rope like a pro - but it was hard work. His favorite method to get to the top was up the ladder. It looked like the most difficult way to me, because it was pretty much straight up & down. Nick wound up spotting a bunch of kids besides Brandon who wanted to go up the ladder.
I thought this slide looked pretty steep (the drop off was nothing to sneeze at), but Brandon didn't seem to share my concern. None of the kids did. They all had a blast sliding off into the foam pit. I think Brandon must have climbed back to the top 8-10 times.
After the playtime was done, the birthday boy (Christopher) got to sit up on a tall platform where everyone could watch him open his gifts. The coordinator called each guest up one at a time & they got to sit up there with Christopher & watch him open the gift they brought for him. The coordinator also kept track of who gave the birthday boy what gift. They did this at Little Gym too - it was SO nice to have someone deal with it all so I could take pictures & talk to the other parents.
Here's Brandon watching Christopher open his gift. Brandon picked it out all by himself. It was a Hot Wheels thing with a couple of cars. The cars could go down ramps on either side and crash into each other. Brandon is all about his Hot Wheels and matchbox cars these days.

Laedyn loves her feet - more specifically her right foot. Can you believe her leg even goes that way??? She's like some kind of contortionist or something. Today she came home from daycare with two different socks because she keeps putting her right foot in her mouth and her socks get all soggy.

This just CAN'T be comfortable!

She wonders why we are all so amused/fascinated...

Mom & I made a one day trip to Ikea in Dallas on Monday. I bought bookshelves, lamps and some organizational stuff for my new office. We also took a bunch of pictures for our weekly scavenger hunt on Flickr.com

Mark has made the first major step to moving to Little Rock. He & Mom have been here about a week now. It looks like he'll be working with the kids at Easter Seals. Brandon is thrilled to have his Uncle here.


















I had thrown away this box and Brandon went and pulled it out of the recycling bin. He was so amused at putting it over his legs. He just kept laughing & laughing... Funny how kids love boxes...same as the cats!


















Jennifer was over for dinner the other night. She'd just had her hair cut & had the stylist straighten it for her, just for a change. Isn't it gorgeous??? However - I think I like her curls better.


















Here's Nick laying out the bacon for breakfast last weekend. It's always such a pain to fry it on the stovetop. He discovered that baking it in the over is much easier & the results are great. I made swedish pancakes to go with the bacon...It was a yummy breakfast.

Exercise you brain while helping donate rice to those in need.
Check out this addictive vocbulary game.
Amy sent it via e-mail & she's right - it's addictive.

I accumlated 600 grains of rice and had a vocabulary level ranging from 38-41.
I think I was at 39 when I made myself stop.

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

FAQs
If FreeRice has the rice to give, why not give it all away right now?
FreeRice is not sitting on a pile of rice―you are earning it 10 grains at a time. Here is how it works. When you play the game, advertisements appear on the bottom of your screen. The money generated by these advertisements is then used to buy the rice. So by playing, you generate the money that pays for the rice donated to hungry people.
Who distributes the donated rice?
The rice is distributed by the United Nations World Food Program (WFP). The World Food Program is the world’s largest food aid agency, working with over 1,000 other organizations in over 75 countries. In addition to providing food, the World Food Program helps hungry people to become self-reliant so that they escape hunger for good. Wherever possible, the World Food Program buys food locally to support local farmers and the local economy. We encourage you to visit the United Nations World Food Program to learn more about their successful approach to ending hunger.

Hello Exersaucer!!! We pulled the exersaucer down from the attic this past week. Laedyn loves it. She's not scared of all the little spinning thing on it in the least. When Brandon first got into it as a baby, he was very cautious & not quite sure he liked all the moving parts. Laedyn is very interested & was reaching for them right away. Maybe she's more accustomed to sudden loud noises and things whizzing around unexpectedly since she watches Brandon cavorting all the time...

Check out Laedyn's Cleveland Browns outfit. Isn't it cute? Too bad they lost today...

PEAS - Yummy!!!! Laedyn tried her first food besides rice cereal a couple of days ago. She did a great job - ate every last bite. She kept grabbing the spoon & guiding it into her mouth.

Brandon calls them Smooshed Peas. I steamed some frozen ones & then threw them in the blender on the "liquify" setting. We all tried a bite. It's 10 thousand times better than the baby food peas they sell in a jar. Nick was the only one who didn't like it - he thought the flavor was fine, but the texture bothered him. I told him to think of it as Pea Pudding... The rest of the batch is now in the freezer frozen into individual servings - in an ice cube tray. I think we might try cauliflower next.

Fall Foliage in my front yard ... One of my crepe myrtles has burst into gorgeous color in the past couple of days. Oddly enough, the other one is still green. They do this in the spring too. One blooms much sooner than the other.

Check out the link to The House Fairy in my link list. She's Santa Claus' sister & checks to make sure kids are keeping their rooms clean. If they are she'll occasionally leave a note or prize or something. If they're not, she leaves a bit of fairy dust (glitter) to let them know Santa will be getting a report that their room wasn't picked up. We've introduced her to Brandon & it works pretty well.

Mom & Dad drove down with the airsteam this week in preparation for Mark's big move. We went out to Maumelle Park to have dinner with them on Tuesday night. It was cold outside, but the boys went out to have a bonfire while the girls stayed inside. It wasn't long until the boys saw the folly of being outside & came back into warm up!
Jennifer came out to visit too. She's been making fabulous progress on a new diet program, so she didn't join us for dinner. Dad made a new chicken recipe that involves those French's fried onion things. Brandon loved it so much he ate TWO helpings - every last crumb. We also had noodles (Stroganoff I think) and peas. Laedyn watched all the proceedings from her Bumbo seat. Don't worry, my leg was in front of it so there was no danger of her toppling off onto the floor...(yes we've heard about the recall)
Papa was entertaining the kids ... successfully at that!
Mamo brought along a couple of books. Brandon was happy to let Papa read to him ...and he was quick to add his 2 cents to the story.After storytime, we needed to get ready to go home. Laedyn needed a change, so Nick had to crawl under the table to get past everyone. Brandon thought it was pretty funny. Any of you who have been in the Airstream know how crowded it can get. Nick managed to get out eventually, Laedyn got a clean diaper AND her jammies, and we subsequently headed back to the house. Brandon ended up sleeping in his clothes that night - it was close to 10pm by the time we got home & we didn't have the heart to wake him up. The next night he asked if he could sleep in his clothes again! Silly boy.

Trick or Treat! We took Brandon the green ghost to Rich & Regina's house to go trick or treating with Jackson the ninja. The boys had a blast! I've never seen so much candy - it was rather excessive. Brandon's bag got so heavy after doing just one street he had to unload into a grocery bag before heading back out to do another street.

I thought these luminaries looked nice lining someone's sidewalk.

The boys did a great job of saying "trick or treat" and thanking all the nice folks handing out candy. As the night wore on, Brandon became more & more creative. Nick said he even told some people he loved them! He told other people "sweet dreams" and "don't let the bed bugs bite" ... That boy is NOT shy!

Here's Rich holding Jackson's cousin Luke. Luke goes to the same daycare/preschool as Brandon & Laedyn.


Laedyn stayed at the house with the grown-ups handing out candy. She slept thru most of the evening in her stroller.

Brandon's preschool had their Halloween party last week and all the kids dressed up & had their pictures taken. They were all really cute. After pictures, all the kids sat down to have thier party food which, unsurprisingly, contained bright orange cheese puffs. They make it to EVERY preschool party - even most of the private birthday parties. In addition, all the kids got a goody bag to bring home - full of candy & Halloween themed trinkets. Brandon got a mini glow-in-the-dark rubber mummy ducky. Cute.

Kaleb's Daddy brought this skeleton head in a ball. It moved around & made noise (talked maybe???). The kids were fascinated of course.

Meet the Green Ghost...Brandon & I had a little photo shoot in the preschool playground before their Halloween Party started. He thought he was a pretty scary ghost ... Charming ghost...
Silly ghost...


Hard to find ghost ...

Last Sunday Nick & I painted my new office. The green was a touch mintier than the paint chip, but it's not too far off that I felt compelled to go back to Home Depot & complain.