Challenger Playground

We finally went to a playground that many have recommended, but we had yet to try. It's at Challenger Park and has several separate playgrounds, all with roofs. That's a bonus with the sun and the heat around here! Luckily we picked an early morning with overcast skies to try it out. The boys had a blast!

Jonathan loved the independence he had on the little playground.

Matt joined in and tried out his monkeying skills!

Matt ran off to explore another playground and Jonathan chased after him as if saying, "Hey, where are you going?"

This picture doesn't do it justice, that tunnel slide is really tall. Matt was loving it!

My sweaty big boy

I don't really understand this contraption. It was like a slide with no incline. The boys loved it though. Jonathan kept going back to it and Matt would throw rocks on it in between Jonathan's turns "sliding". They were both cracking up.

Hey!

We've been back one more time, but I think we're going to wait for a while until the weather cools down a bit. Even with the roofs, it's still stinking hot outside!

Musical Playtime

Music fills our lives in many ways. We listen to a variety in the car and attempt to during playtime around the house, when the other noises are not too overwhelming (battery operated toys, the boys, etc.) This is just a variety of pictures and videos (click on the hyperlinks within the post for the videos) of some of our recent playtime upstairs before bath time. We have so much fun in the evenings. The boys are always entertaining us!

The boys have become quite excited with the concept of "surprise" and every time we come upstairs to play one of them sneaks off to surprise the other one. It's great to see them playing together, although the volume can get quite loud when they get going!

Jonathan was getting ready for a surprise in this picture. I just thought it was funny because most of Matt's "friends" are on his bed, and this is how he likes it. He sleeps with stuffed animals all around him in his toddler bed. I wonder what he'll do when we upgrade him to a big bed.

I thought Matt was taking a picture of Jonathan, but it ended up only being his feet. I guess he was taking a picture of his SC pillow and the Angels' rug and Jonathan's feet just got in the way!

Matt has mastered this drum and was showing off his new skills for the camera (see video below)

The boys go through phases where they love to play musical instruments. This night, they went wild! Then they decided to change it up a bit and incorporate Matt's big stuffed gorilla Julio! Jonathan left the scene, but Matt wasn't phased by his partner's departure.

Jonathan is trying to discover how to jump, feet off the ground and all. For a while now, he's been dancing to the music of a Valentine's toy that Nana sent for Matt about 2 years ago. The funny thing is that now he's starting to sing to the music! He's very close to getting off the ground, and his dancing is so entertaining!

The boys have been taking gymnastic this summer and have started practicing a lot of things at home. Nick gets very nervous when they start practicing their forward rolls. They are learning a "seat drop" on the trampoline and Jonathan has now made a game out of it. They go into Matt's room, close the bathroom door and Jonathan stands at the door, Matt at the wall next to him, and they crash on their bottoms! Crack each other up every time!

No Electricity? Really?

Last weekend, around 4:30 on Saturday afternoon all sounds, lights and movement stopped in our house. The boys had just woken up from their naps and they were enjoying their snacks. I had dinner in the oven and was finishing up with a side dish when the power shut off! I couldn't believe it. The WORST time of day as well as the worst day of the week for this to happen. We managed to put together a kind of snacky dinner without complaints from the boys. Nick was out with Donny golfing, so the boys and I just went on with life until bed time, talking with Nick the whole time. The electric company came over (within an hour of my reporting the problem!) and said our main breaker was broken. We were not going to have electricity until it was repaired!

We reported the problem to the warranty company, who said they would expedite the report. Needless to say, because of the timing of the outage, expediting the repair was not done quickly by the company they assigned. Nick did some leg work the next day and power was restored a mere 18 hours later. Don't know if you've seen the Houston weather lately, but it was in the 90s! YIKES!

I gave the boys a quick, cool bath and put them in bed and waited for Nick to return home. Nick arrived with Donny, who insisted that he had a place for us to stay for the night, and through the weekend if we needed it. He waited for us to pack up some stuff, get the sleepy little guys out of bed and into the car and head over to his mother-in-law's house, who happened to be out of town for the weekend! Julie was at her mom's house getting the place ready for us, with freshly delivered, warm pizza for us upon our arrival. We are truly grateful for their generosity and willingness to help us find a solution to our oh so stuffy house for the night!

The boys slept through the night after a sleepy, slap happy ride in the car. Matt was talking about some nonsense stuff the whole way there. If you weren't listening to his words, you would have thought he was wide awake. Not so much! In the morning, Jonathan and I ran to the house to get some things we thought we'd need, including Nick's Father's Day cards!

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Shortly after our quick celebration, Nick headed to our house to meet the emergency electrician. The boys and I hung out, trying to maintain the house in the condition we found it the night before. Jonathan tested all the limits, finding things he could open, smile about and then run from Mommy! He is quite the rascal. The boys did really well in this new environment and were entertained a bit by their own toys.

I walked into the kitchen to clean up snack time and looked over the counter to find the boys playing IN the basket of toys.

This one's a bit blurry, but totally captures his personality!

Jonathan was the driver this time!

As usual, Matt wasn't ready to give up the attention getting activity, but Jonathan had moved on to something else because his brother was crowding him!

What a relief to have such great support and thoughtful friends in our lives! It made a potentially uncomfortable weekend (to say the least), much more enjoyable!

Back to Dallas

After our weekend in Oklahoma we headed back to Dallas for a few days before we returned home.

This time Matt took some pitches from Daddy!

Matt pitched a few to Nick.

Maybe Nick should have left this pitch alone. I think it was just a bit outside!
He did not fall down, but graceful is not a word I would use for the recovery from this attempt.

Granny had some surprises in store for Matt as usual. One day after lunch, she had some cupcakes for him! He had fun decorating one for himself.

This kid has something to say about everything! I don't know what he was telling me about his cupcake, but as usual I am sure it was something deep. He just cracks me up!

We had a great visit with everyone and were able to get a quick visit in with my brother, but he was home alone when we arrived. We missed out on seeing "my cousins" as Matt calls them. It was sad to leave town without having seen them, but maybe next time.

Oklahoma for the Weekend

Once Nick's work week finished in Dallas, we drove downtown through the beginning of some flooding to pick him up and head to Oklahoma to see Nana and Pawpaw. It was an eventful trip weather-wise until we were north of Dallas.

We arrived just in time to pack everyone back in the car to head over to Dom's last baseball game. After the game, Pawpaw ran Matt around the bases, backward for some reason.

Matt tried to convince Pawpaw to go the other way.

Uncle Mike brought Abby & Dom over to hang out. Matt took advantage of the attention.

He did really well with his new Spiderman bat and ball from Pawpaw.

He enjoys hitting baseballs, but shortly after Uncle Mike started giving him tips, he was done. Oh well!

Time for the Super Soakers!

Matt adores his cousin Dom and just loves playing with him.

At one point, Matt was standing straight over the water gun and squirting himself in the forehead. Unfortunately I didn't get a photo of that, but you get the idea.

Jonathan enjoyed the rocking chair and a little light reading to Molly!

We had to remove the rocking chair from the room though, because shortly after this Jonathan showed off his climbing skills. He stood up in the chair and just smiled!

Playground time and cheesy smiles!

Jonathan explored all the slides he didn't get to last time we were there.

Matt and Pawpaw went through 2 buckets of balls just pitching and hitting for fun!

Jonathan did some more climbing and sliding while Matt hit the baseballs.

You can't really see their faces, but I just love this photo.

His first tunnel slide!

Jonathan was in his own world in the swing while Matt was hitting. Look at all the baseballs in the background.

The rare shot of the 2 of them together on the playground.

More pool time and this time with a mask. We were all laughing at the expressions Matt had while wearing the mask. It was so entertaining!

I think he was determined to get Pawpaw with the soaker at this point.

Enlarge this one and check out Matt's eyes. I have no idea why he liked wearing these. They look so uncomfortable for his eyes in this shot!

Jonathan was amused by trying them on, but wouldn't keep them on long enough for a good picture.

This is Matt's "starfish with puffy cheeks" he is learning in his swimming lessons. He was showing some of his tricks to Nana and Pawpaw.

He's getting there, but at this point was still resistant to putting his face underwater by himself.

He kept requesting to go underwater with me.

Trying to teach Jonathan some of what Matt's learning.

We went to Celebration Station one morning for some fun & games. They had a blast.
I introduced them to bowling.

Matt had so much fun exploring all of the games.

Jonathan got to roam around a bit, but the stroller was a necessity so we could keep track of everyone!

Matt cracked me up on this bike game. He looked right at home.

Jonathan really wanted to lift up the guitar, but it was TOO heavy!

Skee ball games were a hit. Jonathan kept on top of things by handing us a ball for each turn.

The cutest puppy next door, named Sandy, wanted Matt's attention. He decided to take a picture of her.

Matt took this picture of us out in the backyard.

Jonathan had a bit of a routine when we were playing out front. He went from the driveway, down the sidewalk and up to the front door. He kept going back and forth with minimal deviations!

He had to take a rest break from his walk.

Back to business

Don't know if he's holding up the tree or trying to push it over.

More baseball for Matt!

Jonathan let Nana have her chair back and sat for a second in his own chair.