June has been a busy and very fun month for us already, so I thought I'd break the monthly update into two parts. As I mentioned in a previous post, I joined a meetup group, Moms of Maryville (MOMs), and it has been great to have some others to do things with.
We went to Tumblebears Gym for the
first time with the meetup group.
They have trampolines, things to balance
on, places to do flips, a rope to climb or
swing on, two inflatables, and possibly the
best part, open space to run! Here Dawson
is bouncing in the inflatable. He was having
too much fun while we were there to stop
moving long enough for a picture! (Oh, and
I have to point out he's wearing "gym shorts"
per his request because he said, "We're going
to a gym, so I'm gonna wear some of my
gym shorts there!"
Smart Toys and Books had a Thomas
Play Day that we attended at the
beginning of the month. They read a
Thomas book, played trains, had Thomas
decor, and did Thomas art. The best part
of it all to Dawson was getting to do the
"do-a-dots" which is what he's doing in this
picture. He loved them so much that we
bought him a set. They're awesome because
he can do dots or press down and move it
around like a paint brush and it doesn't run
or get on the paper so thick that it won't ever
dry. He has been doing his "do-a-dots" every
single day! Loves them!
Last summer we came up to Tennessee to
attend the wedding of my friend, Kristin. They've
now been married a year, and to celebrate their 1
year anniversary and her parents 30-something
year anniversary they had a great party. It
was a Bohemian Brew party. They had a
steel drum band that was GREAT and, of course,
brew! It was in a pavilion and the weather was
perfect! Dawson and Carter stayed with their
Nana and Grandad, and John and I had a
fun adult evening.
One afternoon that John was
off we were looking for something to
do. We decided to take Dawson on
a "hike" (walk) through the Maryville
College woods.
Dawson didn't want to have his picture
taken in the woods. He said he was
hiding from the big bad wolf.
Dawson brought his net and bug box on
our little hike, and had fun catching little
moths and butterflies...and some beetles.
I had Carter in the Moby for the hike, and so
we stayed away from what they caught!
The local theater is having $2
kids movies one day a week this
summer so I took Dawson and Carter
earlier this month. We stood in
line for 50 minutes, and only stayed for
12 minutes of the movie. We left quickly
because I assumed since it was a kids
movie it would be appropriate and didn't
check to see what movie it was going to
be before we went. It was Puss in Boots,
which is scary and inappropriate for a 3
year old, so I asked Dawson if he was ready to
go after I saw a few minutes of the movie.
Thankfully he was fine to leave! Here he
is eating his animal cracker snack in the theater
before the movie started. We're going to try
the movie again later this summer, and I
hope we have better luck! The funny thing
is that Dawson still said he had fun at
the movies!
I had Carter i the Moby wrap for
his first movie, so it was hard to get
a picture. It was dark in the theater
so when I took his picture he furrowed
his little brow!
Also, this month our family grew.
Dawson has a hermit crab named Chachi.
Here he is arranging Chachi's cage the
night we got him.
Watching Chachi explore his
cave the first night.
This is Chachi. Cute, huh? (sarcasm)
Dawson absolutely LOVES Chachi.
Here he is in an outfit he picked
out himself, obviously, watching
Chachi. Some days Dawson changes
his name to Crabby, but the next
day he changes it back to Chachi.
He is now brave enough to pick Chachi
up, but we're limiting that because he would
pick him up and move him around the cage
all day! I didn't know crabs were so active.
Chachi is also funny because he changes shells
back and forth several times a day.
Also this month we went to the zoo
with the meetup group. Dawson had fun
seeing the animals with two other boys
that were close to his age. Here he is
with Aiden.
The river otters were swimming around
right up front for us the entire time, and
Dawson was thrilled to watch them.
This month we also attended the library's summer reading kick-off where Dawson did some art projects and signed up for the summer reading program. We went to the annual Creswell Family Fish Fry (my Dad's Mom's side of the family). I haven't been since John and I moved to Alabama so it was nice to get to go. Carter slept the entire time, and Dawson had fun running around outside. There is an old barn and John Deere where they have the reunion, and
of course, Dawson couldn't get enough of that!
One of my college friends, and sorority sisters, AT and her husband (and John's fraternity brother), Jeff are expecting and due in August. I attended her shower earlier this month. Carter tagged along with me just in case he needed to eat, and he slept all but the last 10 minutes of the shower! I had a great time seeing AT and other Sigma Kappas! Then one weeknight we had Jeff and AT over for dinner, and we had fun catching up and chatting with our friends. Dawson was thrilled to show his toys to Mr. Jeff.
Another meetup playdate we attended was called Sink or Float. Kids brought items (we took a globe beach ball and a plastic boat bath toy), guessed if they would sink or float, and then attempted to float them down the creek. Dawson had fun since this involved water!
We've also gotten together with our friends Andrea and Charlie to play a couple of times this month. Dawson always has fun playing with Charlie, and I have just as much fun visiting with Andrea! It's a win-win! Usually the boys play and play which means good naps too! That about wraps up the first half of June. The second half is equally busy, so we'll have another June post before long!
