T is for Thomas

Today, we had our day out with Thomas the Train!  Everybody was super-excited, and, of course we had a "how many sleeps until ___" countdown.

DD came in town Friday night, and we were up bright and early Saturday (some of us earlier than others. Ahem, Sarah.)  Even though it was drizzly and dreary, spirits were high.  And anyway, the tickets were "Rain or Shine".

Sarah asked for pigtails.  I checked outside for pigs flying around.

 Girlfriend has some big hair, so she was done with the tails after about an hour.  But, she agreed to pose for a few million pictures before we took them out.

Once we parked and completed the 10 mile hike to the venue, sans stroller, the critters wanted to hit the links.

Just look at that beautiful form.

Hole in 9!

There were so many things to do and see: bounce houses, miniature donkey petting zoo, train tables, tattoo parlor, and pictures with Sir Topham Hatt and Mike the Knight.  After playing at the train tables and getting tatted up, we made the obligatory trip to the potty.  Port-A-Potty, that is.

Then we were corralled into a line to wait for boarding.

 Some of us got restless, but it was nothing a fun sized Kit-Kat couldn't handle.

Cattle Call

Boarding

 We had to walk through an inch or two of water to get to the train, so the wet shoes came off once we were settled inside.

Happy girl.

 Train cars are cozy for snuggles and kisses.

 And pictures of the two of us.

 Even though we were only going about 2 miles an hour, the peeps enjoyed the view.

More snuggles and kisses.

Once we disembarked, we decided against standing in yet another line to get an official picture with Thomas.  So, we opted for close enough is well enough.  Will got to talk to him, which is what he does best.

 Will wouldn't pose with this backdrop of Rosie and Thomas, but Sis was game.

Mike the Knight!

 Oh, yeah, since Will's shoes were soaked and he refused to put them on, he immersed himself in hillbilly culture and went barefoot.

I actually think the kids enjoyed put-putting around in the little train that ran in a circle just as much as they did the big train.  

Our resident mountain goat climbed the huge inflatable slide like a trooper.  Though many others turned back in fear, she pressed on to the top.

 And whooshed down again!

Such a feat was deserving of a treat, so DD bought a round of Italian Ices.

 Mango for Sarah.
Lemon for Will.

 They even shared with each other.

No meltdowns + no tantrums + LOTS of sharing and patient waiting = a whole bunch of marbles added to the jar.

We had such fun that we're already planning our next day out with Thomas!

Marble Jars and Chuck E. Cheese's

 My peeps have caught a serious case of the Gimmies lately.  As in, they think that toys and stuff should just be purchased for them every day of the week for no other reason than that they are alive and breathing.  Now, at 4 and 2, I think they're a tad too young for an allowance, but they're not too little to grasp the concept that you must work for what you want.  Combine that principle with a few behaviors we would like to POSITIVELY reinforce, and I decided to give the Marble Jar a try.

I picked up this particular behavior management technique while student teaching in a first grade classroom.  Any time the class as a whole did something deemed particularly worthy, one (or a few) student(s) would get to put a marble in the jar.  There was something satisfyingly concrete about that clink, and it let everybody know that they were on the right track.  I thought my two guys could use the same type of reassurance (plus marbles are super-fun to collect), so I hauled out a spaghetti sauce jar and let them plunk a few marbles in there for being especially cooperative during clean-up.

This marble jar has kind of helped me, too.  I've gotten into a rut lately of punishing the bad behaviors without recognizing the good behaviors.  Needless to say, that wasn't a very successful approach.  Now we have a goal.

We want to earn a trip to the Parthenon of Pizza, the Temple of Skee Ball: Chuck E. Cheese's.  Sarah and Will decided on this goal over the weekend, and, lo and behold, Delia Creates is giving away a $100 gift card!  We could take some friends with us and really make it rain in that preschooler's paradise. 

I think we might need a slightly smaller jar or run the risk of losing our focus...

She prefers to worship Chuck from afar.

I know I've blogged about our first-ever trip to Mr. Cheese's here, and I can't wait to do a follow-up, now that my guys are seasoned pros.

Labor Day Tour de Loo

This weekend was a washout.  We had such high hopes, so many plans, and almost none of them materialized.  Too stormy for the pool, to crummy for picnics, and too yucky for fishing.

The kids had plans of their own, it seems.  Evidently, they were hired to conduct  Zagat surveys of every public restroom in the city of Nashville, because that's where we spent the bulk of our time this weekend.  Target, Home Depot, MacDougal's, Newk's: you name it, we checked out their bathrooms.

We started out strong, hitting the Main library for snacks.  Oh, and a puppet show (the puppet theater has a Pavlovian effect on our children).  Next, we stopped at MacDougal's to clog our arteries and fill our bellies, letting Sarah visit the Elvis statue and inform anyone within a 5 mile radius that Elvis died in Memphis. 

From Saturday afternoon on, it was pure sloth.  I blame the rain.

 A feud began because Sarah blames Mike for not "taking the stink out of her red cowgirl boots".  But all was forgiven with this picture of Daddy with our favorite Kung Fu Panda. 
 

Sarah poked Will's eyes until he woke up from nap on Saturday, and Mike found them like this:

reading.

One of the funnier side-effects of cabin fever emerged on Sunday morning when Sarah decided to change her name to Pam and Will, not one to be left out, told us to call him "Ham".

That afternoon, Sarah came out looking for some mail to read to her stuffed animals.  Mike offered her a medical journal with a picture of the intestinal tract on the front.  She asked what it was about, and he said, "Oh, just IBS, depression, and heart disease."  "And octopuses?" was her saucer-eyed reply.

We did get an extra day of hand-holding.

And we finally emerged on Monday for some more retail therapy and a much-needed pit stop at the park.

Swings!

Silliness.

Sweetness.

Randomness.

Pinned It, Tried It

I know it was only about six months ago that I got into the whole Pinterest thing, but I really don't remember what people did before its advent.  I guess we just had to figure stuff out ourselves. Ugh.

Anyway, I've been pinning to my heart's content, and this past week I tried a bunch of stuff.

First up, I turned some leftover plastic Easter eggs into a little matching game for Sarah (and Will, when the time comes).  She's so into games right now, and she wins, like, 80% of the time.  We're taking her to Vegas with us the first chance we get.  Except I'm not allowed to go because I lose All. The. Time. Not on purpose.  Anyway, this was an idea I got from this blog about using plastic eggs to match the capital letter to its lowercase counterpart.

Sarah actually had a good time with it, and it was a nice quick check for me about what she knows and what we need to work on.

Next up was some din-din.  We tried both this foil-packed chicken and this Quick and Easy Coconut Curry Soup.  The verdict on both: Pin Win.

Of course, we tried out the flubber (which is still a hit after several days of play), and we had a little movie night featuring the Lorax, so there were Lorax Snax galore. 

I also made this little statement necklace for myself

 after my plain red coral necklace broke. At first it looked just like Martha's, but the coral beads were just too heavy and the middle section collapsed before I even had a chance to wear it.

By the way, the Dawn/white vinegar magic cleaner is not a hoax.  It works so much better than the 5 gallons of bleach I usually clean with, and it smells better too.

So, that's that for now.  Being back at work is taking some getting used to.  I miss my daily adventures with Sarah and Will, but we're all adjusting. 

Papa-razzi

I'll tell you what, the hubs has been on a hot streak lately with the photography.  He used to be the family cameraman, but then he went through a phase of snapping "action" pictures (read:streaky and random), so he got benched.

Evidently, he regained his photo mojo, because he captured these beauties recently.

 This one is from yesterday, the first day back to school.  I asked him to get a picture, and he literally took ONE picture.  But, since it came out great, I have no complaints. 

On a totally unrelated note, I am soooo jealous that Will cried when Mike dropped him off. Apparently, my son no longer loves me (sniff).

This picture is for the South Bend-ers.  Check out our little Fighting Irishman.  In Mommy's bike helmet.

I love a nail-biter, and you can really feel the inevitability of a crash and the impending fist-fight in this one.
 By the way, Sarah is convinced she needs a bike basket and a seat belt for her stuffed animals.  Because, really, what's the fun in a bike ride if you can't hoard on the go?

Oh, well, I guess that means I'd better get to work.  On the bike basket and seat belts.  Happy Hump-day!