Playgroup Egg Hunt

This morning our playgroup friends came over for a backyard Easter egg hunt. I think the kids had more fun playing together in the sandbox and playhouse than they did actually finding eggs! What a treat it was to enjoy the beautiful weather with our friends...

Cool Dude

My Helper

Messy Man

Nathan actually slept during naptime at school today (he usually "rests quietly" with a book while others sleep). This left us the whole afternoon to play, which was an unexpected treat. I pulled out Nate's paint and brushes when we got home and let him loose to have fun (there's nothing like a good ol' vinyl tablecloth to help a mom embrace messy creativity)...


We continued our messy day with a trip to the "big sand," which is what Nathan calls his sandbox. Apparently, I am a glutton for punishment (just kidding). Sometimes little boys just need to get dirty...

Bare feet

Big Boy Bed

Nathan made the switch from crib to big boy bed this weekend, and so far it has been a pretty smooth transition (knock on wood). His books and stuffed animals tempt him a bit at nap time, but a firm reminder about staying in bed seems to be persuasive enough. Thankfully, he's had no problem falling asleep and staying in his bed at night (whew).

We put Nate's soother at the foot of the bed (he calls it his TV — dream on, Mister!)

The theme of this big boy room is "budget-friendly," so I tried to be creative with decorations. I made this Thomas alphabet to hang, and I've gotten a few books with illustrations of Nate's favorite characters from Half Price Books, which I plan to cut out and put in some frames we already have.

Nathan is very happy about his big boy status!

(I might still be in denial)

Two Year Stats + Playhouse

This morning Nathan had his two year doctor's appointment where we learned that he now weighs about 35 lb. (97 percentile) and is 38 1/4 " tall (99 percentile). Yeah, he's a big boy! (no surprise to my back and arms) The doctor said he is likely to be around 6' 3" as an adult, plus or minus a couple of inches. I know such predictions should be taken with a grain of salt, but I couldn't help but think that we have many expensive grocery bills in our future!

.....

In totally unrelated news...We recently sold Nathan's backyard climber and put the money towards buying a playhouse for his birthday. We looked for quite some time for a house that would be tall enough for him to play in for several years (a bigger challenge than I thought it would be). We finally purchased and built a great house this weekend (hooray for Costco and Jason), and Nate has been in imagination mode ever since...

Day out with Thomas

I'm not quite sure how today could be topped, as Thomas himself chugged into Grapevine Station for our little guy to meet. Thank you so much, Aunt Char, for so generously giving us tickets to this event! As I'm sure you can imagine, Nathan was in absolute heaven (and I must confess that I was relieved to see that so many other kiddos share his passion for all things Thomas)...


There was an elaborate miniature train display, which Nate was fascinated to watch...


He was thrilled to see his favorite engines everywhere we turned...

Check out the cool hat Aunt Char gave him...

We did Thomas crafts...


And played at the train tables...

Then it was time to board the big train. Music from the Thomas shows played as we rode, and Nathan couldn't help but boogie. He was so excited to be riding in "Annie and Clarabel" as Thomas pulled us along...

What a wonderful, fun, Thomas-filled day we had!