Choo Choo Nate

Nathan had a few opportunities to test drive his Halloween costume over the weekend. On Saturday afternoon we went to The Little Gym's "Spooktacular" party, which was fun but a little crowded...


It's hard to believe that when we attended last year Nate was not quite crawling yet (forgive my nostalgia — I get sentimental about how quickly my little man is growing).


I should explain that Nate's costume this year is a train conductor/engineer. He has a little hat and train whistle to go with his overalls and bandanna, but he does not so much care for the hat (to put it mildly). Thankfully, it was inexpensive. I realized after several wrong guesses about what he was supposed to be that I needed to do something to make it more obvious.

My solution: Tan Thomas (I ran out of white fabric paint, so Thomas is looking a little darker than usual). Hopefully it helped to give Nate's little costume some context, but, either way, he's thrilled to have Thomas on his pants, so I'm happy.


Sunday evening we met our friends the Fort family for "Boo at the Zoo." We had a great time, though Nathan became tired pretty quickly. I think he really enjoyed getting to show his daddy around the zoo...

Ice cream!

(I'm still hoping he'll let me put his hat on for just one picture.)

Patch Pals

This morning we braved the chilly weather with our friends Christi and Addison for more pumpkin patch excitement. As luck would have it, there are two patches right next to each other (literally across the pasture fence), so we had a double-fun, free morning. The first pumpkin village had a hayride, which the kiddos really enjoyed...

(note Nathan's crazy windblown 'do and cold-but-happy smile)

Nate and Addi both wore their boots.
(And good thing, too — it was muddy!)


We also rode on the barrel train...

Then we made our way the patch next door. They had lots of neat character cutouts. Our friends Ashlee and Milla visited over the weekend, and we were so glad they recommended it to us.


I'm not sure what it is about Barney, but he completely captures the hearts of toddlers. These were some of the characters that Nate was truly excited to "meet"...

A hug for Baby Bop...


Farmer Nate...

The highlight of Nathan's morning: pulling Addison around in a "wayee" (wagon).

An Eventful Evening

Last night we were without power from 5 - 10pm, which Nathan found to be pretty exiting (me, not so much). He was tickled over eating, bathing, and reading bedtime stories by candlelight. Well after we put him down for bed we heard very loud banging and shouting outside (which we discovered were the sounds of our fence being taken down).

As it turns out, the transformer that blew was located in our neighbor's backyard, but the electric company felt they could get to it more easily by coming through our backyard. They had to take down part of our fence in order to bring in a small crane and a new transformer. The noise that the machinery made could be likened to the sounds of an airplane sitting right outside the window, with several grown men shouting directions at each other over the noise.

Nathan (and, heck, probably all of Fort Worth) awoke to the commotion. I scooped him out of bed, and thus began a thrilling night of watching men at work in the pouring rain. Nate is obsessed with all things machine, so he was fascinated (especially when he would spot his dad among the workers)...


Between the incredible noise, the torrential rain, and the surreal scene of machines and strange men just a few feet from my bedroom window, it was a pretty strange night! We were grateful to have our electricity back, though. Apparently the transformer blowing had nothing at all to do with the bad weather. Go figure.

............

Among more normal events for the day were a trip to Jump for Fun with our playgroup friends (hooray!) and an afternoon of painting...

And that concludes the longest post ever made.

Airplane!

"Wowwww! Hah-top!"

(that's Nate's version of "helicopter," which
he uses to describe all kinds of aircraft)

"Bye bye, hah-top."

(Just wanted to remember these sweet moments)

Saturday Pumpkin Patch

We returned to our favorite pumpkin patch in Argyle on Saturday and could not have asked for a more beautiful day...

We rode the 1940s era refurbished trains twice around the property, which was absolutely beautiful (this picture is for you, PawPaw)...