Lowe's Build and Grow

We were at Lowe's a few weeks ago and I noticed a sign for a FREE clinic Lowe's puts on for kids.  You get a Lowe's kids apron, safety goggles, a project, and a badge after completion.  This weekends project was building RC from Toy Story.

  

Eli was excited to use his hammer but boy was it difficult to build that toy!!  We finally got it put together (I did most of the project but I let him tap the hammer a bunch) and Eli put on all the stickers himself.  It was fun

Jack was not a happy camper but I think he is teething bad.  Poor guy.

So serious :)

Hammer time!

Finished project!!

The patch!

Old friends

We met our old friends Megan, her hubby Mike and their two boys Luke and Kurt at the zoo this week.  They moved to Dallas last year.  It was great to see how big the boys are getting and to catch up.  Luke and Eli had a blast chasing after each other and getting in trouble while running away from us ;). We didn't stay too long because it was very humid and we didn't want the babies to get overheated. Hopefully we will get to see them again soon!

Boys will be boys :)

Jack is 11 months old!

Time is going by so fast.  In one month Jack will be a year old.  Wow.  Here are some things we have been up to and things he loves:

*He is crawling everywhere and getting fast at it!

*He is kneeling and holding onto things while he does so.  I'm not sure what ya call that?  He's not pulling himself up because he can't stand yet.  Maybe in another month or so :). Take your time sweet boy, take your time.  Mommy is in no rush!

*Loves, LOVES to splash in the bath!  I was soaked the other night.  We all end up laughing so much as he's splashing in the water.

*Loves to play with the doors unfortunately.  I just ordered a bunch of finger pinch guards so he doesn't slam the door on his little fingers.

*Follows his big brother around and the cats.  

*He makes the silliest faces, always has me laughing at him

*He dances.  He sways his body side to side while on his hands and knees when he hears a song or I whistle.  It's adorable.  I keep trying to catch it on video...

*Has 6 teeth now!  4 on top and 2 on the bottom.  Two bottom teeth are coming in soon!

*He's starting to enjoy more purees.  We gave him Apple Turkey Cranberry (Thanksgiving dinner in a jar?) the other day and he really liked it.  Really seemed like the first time I saw him swallowing the food on purpose.  It's surprising to me it's taken him this long but I guess normal too.

*Just over the last couple of days, he has started to try and get down from our arms when he wants to get down.

Tin Can Wind Sock

There's a little hidden gem in Edmond called the MAC (Multicultural Activity Center).  They have a large variety of classes for kids and adults.  I took a pottery wheel class last year and it was a lot of fun.  Eli and I have done a couple of kids classes together there but it's been a while since we've been.  Today they had a tin can wind sock class.  Eli painted his tin can and we waited for it to dry.  Afterwards the teacher cut his choice of ribbon colors and made the handle for the can.  It turned out really cute.  I love that he was able to make it Mario themed of course.

Jack loved the acoustics of the large room and let everyone know while we were there 😊

Dynamo Gym

We wanted to have some fun today so we went to Dynamo Gym.  We haven't been since Eli's birthday (Jack was 6wks old at the time!!).  It was really fun to watch Jack crawl around on the mats and explore.  Eli had a lot of fun and we all went down the slide a bunch of times.  Jack had so much fun he slept all the way home.

This is fun!!

Trying to follow big brother up the ramp.

A quick hug 

Exploring the tunnels

Getting ready to ride the slide!

Company Picnic 2013

Love's throws a company picnic each year.  The last time we went was two years ago and it was Toy Story Disney on Ice.  This year they made the picnic private.  It was at the Cox Pavilion at the State Fairgrounds.  The picnic was pirate themed. The had some carnival style rides, bounce houses, games, face painting and pirate dress up stations.  Eli was so excited and had a great time.  We got to pick out a treasure at the end (a gift certificate to the zoo!). 

Jack was having fun watching big brother!

A little blurry but this ride was a blast!  I probably had more fun on it than Eli did :)

Playing some games

Time for a selfie while Daddy and Eli went on the swing ride :)

Enjoying a snow cone on our way out.  We had a fun time!

Park Stop

We took a quick trip to the park today.  It has been a little cooler (low 90's) but its super humid....yuck.  We went to the park for about 30 mins today before doing some other errands.  It wasn't too bad at first but we all got hot fast.  We stopped at Sonic afterwards for some cold drinks :)

Jack followed big brother Eli up the tunnel!

He loved crawling around.  We had the park to ourselves.

Chalk Drawings

On the topic of drawings, these are from a few weeks ago too:

As you can see we had a lot of fun with it!!  Most of them were pretty big and they took up the whole back patio.  We started bringing a lot of chalk into the house after awhile so we had to wash them off after two weeks or so.  I'd love to do it again in the Fall!  

Sketch Journal

Eli and I have been working in a sketch journal for about 3 weeks now.  I wanted to get him interested in drawing, and what better way to do so than with some beloved Mario characters!  We have an entire journal full of them.  He is getting really good at coloring, staying in the lines, and starting to attempt to draw his own.  Eli drew the following pictures:

This is a yellow mushroom toad.

This is a propeller mushroom.

This is a buzzy beetle.

He drew a few of these power ups.

The rest of these drawings are done by me and colored by Eli:

Bowser.

Paper Mario Pixis

This was a collaboration.  I started drawing his head, got busy, so Eli finished his body, arms, shoes and cane. He also wrote Toadsworth's name.  It's pretty awesome!!

This is Wario.  Kind of a weird guy.  He was difficult to draw, a lot of details. Eli didn't color him "he's got too much detail" he told me.

Piranha Plant with brick wall.

Princess Daisy

Fracktail.  He's a boss in Super Paper Mario.

This is Waluigi.  He is kind of a weird dude too.

We drew this Queen today.  Eli colored her by himself.

We have a lot more drawings of course.  These are just some of our favorites.