AHA: Welcome Home Daddy

Today our AHA was making a "Welcome Home Daddy" sign. And today of all days, Bryan really needed a pick-me-up! Let me back up a few hours and fill you in on all the details.... Last night when Bryan got home from basketball he immediately went in and took a shower, like he always does. While showering, water {and other stuff} started backing up in the shower. Not good! So after a few hours of plunging, snaking and swearing, he finally closed the bathroom door and said he would call a plumber in the morning.

Several hundred dollars later {good-bye birthday money}, our toilet and shower are now working great! Even though Bryan worked from home today he still had to run an errand which gave Parker and me time to get our sign done. Bryan was so happy when he got home and saw what Parker made for him. Parker was so proud of himself and kept saying, "wec-home Daddy".

P.S. - Parker's favorite part of this sign is the "fok-lift" sticker :)

Just Me & My Boy

Today I decided to take Parker to the Children's Aquarium down at Fair Park. We've been there a couple times with our friends but decided it would be fun to explore on our own. This place doesn't compare to the Texas World Aquarium but it's also a fraction of the cost and perfect for Parker's age! Before we could get there though, someone had to get a little cat-nap {his sleeping pattern has been a little off but it's summer...}

Before too long, we were off to see the iguana, who was a little nervous with Parker starring at him:

And then it was time for the touch tank:

As well as touching the sting-rays, which I might add were very icky feeling:

After spending a couple hours checking out the sea-life and eating a picnic lunch, Parker had some fun in the splash area near the science museum:

Don't get me wrong, I love spending time together with our friends but some days you gotta love on your boy alone! I saw this quote recently and have been inspired by it:

"Don't wait to make your son a great man - make him a great boy."

AHA: Homemade Play-Doh

Today we attempted to make play-doh. We've made play-doh before but not with whole wheat flour, which is the only kind of flour I had on hand. The recipe called for regular white flour and so I should have just waited to make it. However, Bryan was home and we had some time before bedtime so I thought what the heck...

Parker had fun measuring, dumping and mixing and could have cared less that the play-doh didn't turn out! BTW, it was 104 outside today....eek!

Helping Daddy With Trash....

AHA: Draw Me!

WARNING: No laughing at my son's art!

So as you can see, we traced Parker and then he decorated himself. He didn't exactly lay still while we were tracing him so he kinda looks.....funny! However, he had a great time coloring, stamping and painting with water.

P.S. - the following day is when we found Parker playing IN the toilet...this because he got up before the sun, we did not hear him wake, and he managed to destroy this drawing, flush some items down the toilet and ransack his room. By bedtime the following night, we had him "locked" in his room while napping and sleeping!!!

AHA: Online Storytime

I recently found that B&N has an online storytime where some authors actually read their own books. I thought it would be fun to listen to Eric Carle read Very Hungry Caterpillar, since Parker has this book. He enjoyed it! AND he actually followed along in the book. SO.CUTE! :)

P.S. - As of today, we are on like day 20 of temps 100 and higher....we are melting over here!!!

*Splish*Splash*

We've been doing a splash park playdate every week for a while now but today we tried a different location. The Tom M. Center is where we did music class and is five minutes down the road from our house. While I don't feel 100% today, my boy needed to get out of the house! We haven't been to an event in over two weeks and he was missing his playtime. I really like this water park and if I had to pick, I would pick Tom M. over Jack Carter. There is not as much water spray! Anyway, we had a good turn out and Parker had a good time!

And as a special treat, we went to lunch with Cheryl and Luke....we haven't seen them in forever (clearly the A/C until above them was really cool to look at)!

AHA: Chalk Painting

Our AHA activity for today was painting with chalk. We crushed up some chalk and added water. Away the boy went painting the patio. Great thing about this, it's easy to wash off!!!

And he had to taste it, of course. I am pretty sure he won't do that again!!!

AHA: Washing Dishes

As most of you know, I belong to a WONDERFUL mommy group. I love getting together with all of them but we are all struggling with what to do with our very active kids while it's so hot outside. So, along comes At Home Activities (AHA). So every few days we'll all try different activities with our kids that can be done indoors and cost very little. Now this will not take away from our normal playdates but it will just fill in the gaps.

Day one, washing dishes:

Not a lot of pictures to post on this one. Basically I filled one side of the sink with soapy water and the other side with just water. We "washed" all of the utensils we used while playing with play-doh from earlier. I am not sure what I was expecting but all Parker wanted to do was move the bubbles from one side to the other. I was fine with that and he had a good time. It occupied 30 minutes of our day ;)

Splashing with Ryan & Emily

After the movie and introducing the Campos family to Sugar Queen Cupcakes, we headed home for lunch and a nap....for everyone! We decided to go to the Village at Fairview for dinner and some splash time.

Ryan checking out the menu at Purple Cow:
Parker enjoying the splash area:

Emily trying to cool off....my car temp was 106:

I am not sure what he is doing here:

Emily and Ryan are so good with Parker and he LOVES them. You know, a girl will not let just any little boy wear her cool pink sunglasses:

SUMMER BUCKET LIST: Go To The Movies

Parker has yet to sit still long enough to watch anything longer than 30 minutes. I thought however that it would be a good idea, since Ryan and Emily were here for the holiday weekend, to see our first movie together as a family. Cars 2 was showing and we thought seeing the movie in a "low-sensory" environment would be good for our little man. Well, he was good until the popcorn was gone :) To be honest, I wasn't really into the movie either. Since it was a "low sensory" showing, which was created for autistic kids (with low volume, lights up and freedom to roam around), nobody paid much attention to the fact that Parker didn't sit still. The experience overall was fun but my little boy really isn't into TV and watching movies.