A fun end to a busy weekend.....

What a wonderful weekend we had visiting friends and family in the QC. It was a BUSY weekend and we are pooped out, but we had such a great time. Today we took Paul to the John Deere Pavilion to see and climb on tractors.....this was his dream come true! He was a little under the weather, but he rallied and we had a fun-filled day.

Dude....check out these huge tractors!
More tractors!

Driving the Gator....who needs a license?!?

Steering a big combine!

They had this funny little cow milking station - the kids could "milk" a pretend cow into a large galvanized bucket. It "milk" was really water....too cute!

They had this cute little face cutout thing - and we finally got Paul to stick his face through....

First, he was the corn!

Then the broccoli....

And I wasn't fast enough to catch him as the asparagus....but you get the idea!

After we hit the gift shop (and picked up a few things), we headed to lunch where Paul played with his new tractor and trailer purchased by Gram and Pa.

With full bellies, we decided to take a ride on the Channel Cat. This is a water taxi that stops at 4 different places on the Mississippi River. This was Paul's first boat ride and he had a blast. We were on the boat for about an hour and he was great the whole time. We had planned to get off at one of the stops and walk to a wonderful local shop with yummy ice cream and homemade fudge sauce....but then we realized that it is Memorial Day and they aren't open...duh! So, we stayed on the boat and hit DQ later in the afternoon - flexibility rules in our family!

Here are Gram and Pa walking with Paul on the docks while we waited for the boat to arrive.

Daddy....look - a BOAT!

GranJo - LOOK at the ducks!

My boys on the boat!

We hit the DQ and then packed up the car and headed back to DM. The little man had fun playing with the Gator we bought him at the JD store....loading his choo-choo's in the back!

Thankfully, I am taking another day off tomorrow! I need another day to recuperate for sure! Big thanks to GranJo and Gram and Pa for a great weekend!

Water, water....everywhere!

We started the day getting all geared up to head to GranJo's to check out her brand new flooring and other fun house renovation projects! Paul got his John Deere hat on and then had to wear his Thomas backpack.....poor thing was gonna tip over! We hung out with GranJo for a while and then headed back to Gram and Pa's for the rest of the day. GranJo came over mid-afternoon for a cookout and Paul had a blast playing in the water all afternoon. Paul has never met a hose that he doesn't like!

Putting him to work at a early age! Helping Pa wash the car.....

Taking a water break from playing in the water! Our little ball kicking man!

The family at dinner - can you tell it was HOT today? I think it hit 90 and was humid for sure! Paul was WAY more interested in the corn than the picture.

Did I mention that Paul LOVES corn on the cob?

Oh, and then there was dessert......individual key lime pies! WE LIKE PIE!

I think Paul could have continued to play long into the night.....spraying the hose, filling a cup, dumping a cup, jumping in the puddles......it was ALL fun!
We will definitely need to get Paul's cool new water table put together really soon. Great gift idea Mimi......he is clearly a water loving boy this summer!

Tomorrow brings a trip to the John Deere Pavilion to see and climb on the tractors......we should all take a guess now how many times we will hear the word "tractor" tomorrow....oh, and on a scale of 1 to 10 how much the little man will freak out when we try to leave!

Good friends are the BEST!

I leave them alone for a few minutes and look what happens! Paul loves his yo-yo and eats it with much enthusiasm (clearly)!

We spent the morning getting packed and ready for our weekend trip. All that packing and preparing made the little man hungry so he had a mid-morning banana snack.

BIG BITE!

Even pieces of banana can be choo-choo's......what a goofball!

Jason spent some quality time with his friends tonight while Paul and I hung out with my good friend E and her girls R and C. They were so nice and bought plenty of bubbles for Paul....he had a blast!

Hey, I think I'll try this big bubble wand......

It was darn hot outside so there was much sweating going on. Paul stopped playing long enough to eat dinner and then we had cookies for dessert. Check out his sweaty mohawk! Bubbles in one hand and a cookie in the other - life is good!

And here is a funny video that epitomizes the life of a 2 year old.....literally they are stinkers one minute and then cheering the next....ah the joys of parenting a toddler! He is really putting lots more words together so out of the blue today we heard "Pa's house" over and over.

Where's a camera when you need one?!?

So it's not like we are EVER at a loss for a camera (we literally have thousands of pictures of out little man)...so this was more of a rhetorical question this morning. Let me lay the scene for you - we were hanging out in our pjs after breakfast - a fun morning since mommy took the day off from work! Paul was building towers with his Lego's. And I kept mentioning to Jason how impressed I was that Paul was smart enough to pick through his bin of Lego's to pick out the ones that matched (we have 2 different sizes). He was so carefully picking out the matching blocks and building tall towers. He built a tower almost as tall as he was. So I said "where's a camera when you need one?" since the camera was downstairs at the time. Paul goes running off and I naturally assumed that he was moving on to something other than building towers.....and here he comes running with his toy camera with the biggest grin on his face. Talk amount my SMART little man....

Later this morning, I heard daddy and Paul watching choo-choos on the computer....Paul loves to watch real trains at train crossings - people really video this stuff and post it on youtube. Bizarre. Anyway, Paul just loves to watch these real choo-choos. So I hear them in there watching and I hear the conversation go something like this:

Daddy "Is that an airplane?"
Paul "NO"
Daddy "Is that a tractor?"
Paul "NO"
Daddy "Is that a truck?"
Paul "NO"
Daddy "Well, what is it then?"
Paul "CHOO-CHOO"

These are the moments that make me a very happy mommy! Such a smart little man and so full of spunk!


Self-service tissues for nose wiping.....
Well shoot, I meant to grab just one......

This is how I wipe my nose.....

ROAR!

Silly mommy......

Daddy was playing random games with Paul the other night - they were passing a playing card back and forth without using hands. Paul was giggling so loud - it had me rolling. Of course I missed the best part of the giggling, but I caught the tail end for the video.

We are looking forward to seeing family and friends this weekend!

Zoo, Zoo....I love the Zoo!

It's been a great week! Paul has been in such a great mood which just makes life so much better! Nothing terribly special this week, just fun and laughter and good moods.

Paul was fascinated with this turtle that projects star patterns on the ceiling. He was so busy checking it out, punching the buttons and then laughing when it projected light on his belly!
Think he'll be a doctor or veterinarian someday? He was quite intent on checking out the belly of the turtle.

We headed to the zoo today to meet up with some friends. This was our first trip to the zoo since we've moved. We all just LOVE going to the zoo, so this was lots of fun. Everyone else in the metro region must have had the same thought today - the zoo was packed!

Hanging in the wagon waiting to go see some animals!

Paul and daddy loving the llamas!

Look at the giraffes!

Our last stop of any zoo trip must be to ride the train. We bought our tickets and waited for the next train ride.

Clapping when the train came into sight!

Waving at the train.....

Checking out what's next as we zoomed along on the train....the look of focus on his face! And his little hands are clenched.

After the zoo, we headed home for lunch and a nap. When Paul got up, we were watching Star Wars (a big favorite in our house). Paul was fascinated by Yoda....how cute is that. He's definitely his father's son!

Here's hoping that the good times and laughter continues!

Asian cultural event....here we come!

I ran across an article in the paper yesterday about an event called CelebrAsian that is held annually on the Iowa Capitol grounds. This event is sponsored by the Iowa Asian Alliance and brings together lots of Asian nationalities to celebrate their culture. There is food, music and all sorts of cool stuff. The weather is great today so we headed downtown to check it out - there were a ton of people there and it turned out to be pretty cool.

We got there around lunch, so we quickly found the Korean village and grubbed on some tasty bulgogi, mandu and kimchi. Typically Paul would have stuffed himself with all of this Korean food - but he wouldn't eat any of it and opted for Cheerios instead! Crazy little man......

After lunch, we had to make a stop for a free balloon - can't see other kids with balloons and not have one for Paul. With his balloon safely tied to his belt loop, we made our way over to the stage to watch various cultural dancing and singing acts. The Thai village was next to the stage and the pad thai was calling my name.....turns out that Paul was craving Thai food instead of Korean today.....good thing that mommy is a good sharer.

That balloon kept him entertained for quite a while!

Paul got a birds eye view of the dancing and singing......wish he didn't like to pull on mommy's hair!

It was past naptime and the Korean dancing wasn't set to occur for another 20-30 minutes so we had to miss it. Paul was asleep within 3 minutes of pulling out of our parking spot. We have big plans to take a long walk after naptime......it's been so darn rainy all week that we are basking in the nice weather!