Sunday, March 18, 2012

Parent of a Toddler

Mudding!

On Saturday the three of us drove to Bryan to visit my Grandparents and meet my parents there to do some 4-wheeling in the mud! It was a wonderful day with family! Here are some pictures:

Helping Daddy air up the tires on the buggy


Wild Child!


All of us in our buggy (there was a caravan of buggies and 4-wheelers)


Pretending to drive with Pappaw!


Picking flowers :)


Granny kept finding him sticks to whack things with!


Riding with Mammaw and Aunt Tina


Crazy windblown hair!


In front of the huge, old pine tree


Aunt Tina and Granny decided to teach Jaxon the wonders of mud.


Playing with pine cones


Love this - Walking with my parents


Playing in the pine needles


With Grandaddy

Friday, March 16, 2012

The Houston Rodeo 2012

This afternoon, Kevin and I took Jaxon to the Livestock Show and Rodeo. They have a petting zoo there that makes the one at the zoo look like nothing! This petting zoo had goats (Jaxon's fave), sheep, pigs, chickens, and even a deer and a llama! All of the little baby animals were so cute. Jaxon thought so too! Here are some pics of the petting zoo:















After the petting zoo, we walked around and looked at other animals: cows and pigs mostly.





Then we went outside to the kids' farming section. They had this adorable little fake farm set-up where the kids fed chickens, got eggs,planted seeds, picked their crops, harvested corn, got sheep wool, etc. Then they took it to the market and sold it for some "cash," which they traded for a treat at the grocery store. Jaxon picked a rice-krispie treat and he LOVED it! He was not, however, a fan of the corn play-pit.





The last stop was "driving" a tractor with Daddy!






By the end of the evening, Jaxon was very tired and grouchy!



All he wanted was to be in his stroller, enjoying a snack.



It was another great family day with our little guy :)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Crafting!

Today, Jaxon and went to Hobby Lobby and Walmart in preparation for Mommy's craft day! Then, he played very nicely with his toys (and took two naps) while I worked! I made two Pinterest creations for the house, but I also made some more "busy bags" for Jaxon. I had planned on only making about 4, but as usual things spiraled out of control and I made 17. Pretty much, Jaxon will have educational activities for every stage until he is like 6.

I cannot take credit for any of the busy bag ideas or templates. In fact, the only ones I made myself on Photoshop are the Cheerios counting mat and the goldfish counting mat. My "creating," with many of these new bags, consisted of lots of printing, cutting, and using laminating pouches to laminate. If you want directions or printables for any of these things, just let me know and I can email them!

Goldfish Counting Mat


Pattern Block Mats (in a binder) - I found pattern block templates online along with the mats


Stringing Felt "Beads"


Counting and one-to-one correspondence


Tangram Mats - in a binder


Cheerios counting mat


Clothespin number match (it is two-sided and has numbers 1-20 and is self-checking!)


Short Vowel sorting cards


Lucky Charms sorting mat


Play-dough activity mats (20 pages of play-dough challenges in a binder)


Geoboard


Ways to make numbers 2-12 (addition)


Felt silly faces


Number match on felt


Not pictured is an "I Spy" mat, fishing game, and felt highway pieces for toy cars. I also made a "buried treasure" jar in a baby food jar. It is filled with sand and little jewels. I glued jewels to the lid to show him which ones to look for inside.

I am kind of proud and equally embarrassed to say that I have 46 busy bags and/or related activities!

Pinterest-inspired home things:

Birthday board:


Drink resting place - I'm hoping that this will keep cups from sweating all over the counter-tops throughout the evening. So far, so good!

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Trip to San Antonio

On Saturday morning Kevin, Jaxon, and I headed out for San Antonio to visit my family. We arrived at about 10am and had breakfast and then just stayed in around the house because it was raining and cold. Jaxon got some quality time with Great Big Mom, Mammaw, Pappaw, and Aunt Lindsay. (Some of these pictures aren't from Saturday, and they are all out of order because of Blogger,but just go with it)! You'll see in a couple of pictures that Pappaw taught him to whack things with a stick (including a poor little pill bug), and Great Big Mom taught him to "cook" with her in the kitchen :)













On Sunday after church we went to Alamo Cafe to eat and then Jaxon took a nap. After that we went down to the zoo to ride the little train. Jaxon LOVED it!









Then we took a quick walk through the Sunken Gardens, although we had to make it VERY quick because Jaxon was turning into a grouchy little monster!









Kevin came home Monday morning and Jaxon and I went out to lunch with Mammaw, Pappaw, and Aunt Lindsay. Then Jaxon spent the afternoon shopping with all of the girls. And by shopping I mean running around like a lunatic, screaming in stores, attempting to shoplift, and generally humiliating his Mommy. We came home with Aunt Lindsay today (Tuesday). It was a wonderful trip!

Since I'm on Spring Break this week with Jaxon, we will be having lots of fun! I plan to take him to the zoo with neighbors tomorrow, to the rodeo petting zoo with Kevin on Thursday or Friday, and to Bryan to ride 4 wheelers with family on Saturday! I love Spring Break!