The Nielsen Family

just for fun

2012-01-27T16:52:00.000-08:00

Just a series of fun photos I took of the two of us then put into a little mosaic. Man he's cute. That blonde hair and pinchable cheeks are going to break hearts one day.

Burger King play area

2012-01-27T16:36:00.000-08:00

Recently we went to a Burger King play area to use up some of that ever present energy. I ended up in the play area with Chance which was fun but a lot of hard work for Mommy. I don't fit through those tubes as easy as I used to.

This is a cool photo I took inside the tubes. There is no effect on it, that's just how the photo turned out with the light coming through the tubes.

We were inside the play area way up in the air when the tubes opened up into a little room where there were all these spiny things which Chance liked very much, so here he is giving a couple of them a spin.

He is kind of hard to see in this last photo but he is up there hanging around in the blue netting.

At the Park

2012-01-27T10:44:00.000-08:00

Just a shot of Chance playing at a new park. We were recently in Orlando for a few days and while there we went to a couple parks we had never been to before. This one had a large covered playground near the lake. We walked out on the pier then sat and watched the birds flying over the water. He climbed up on this dinosaur and gave me a wave and a smile. So I snapped a picture just in time.

Cute Face

2012-01-26T08:38:00.000-08:00

I can't remember why I took this picture but does it really matter? Look at that smiling happy face!

Sitting on Aunt Kristy's shoulders

2012-01-26T07:43:00.000-08:00

I looked out on the porch and this is what I saw. From behind it looks like he is sitting on the back of the chair

But when I walked around I saw that he was really sitting on Aunt Kristy's shoulders. He makes a big stink to get her to pick him up and put him on her shoulders then he is completely happy when she sits down and just lets him sit up there.

Making cinnamon rolls

2012-01-26T07:27:00.000-08:00

Here we are making cinnamon rolls.

I make these cinnamon rolls from scratch which are as good as any Pillsbury cinnamon roll tube thingy you can buy at the store and way more fun to make. Chance likes to help too because you get to put flour all over the counter and use a rolling pin plus once you get it all rolled out you get to spread on the cinnamon butter mixture. After all the I roll it up, cut it into slices and pop it in the oven for a few and we're done, easy as that.

Soccer!

2012-01-26T07:10:00.000-08:00

Chance started Soccer practice at the beginning of January and he loves it. He is on the Teal team and they practice once per week on Tuesday and have a game once per week on Saturday. The games are not competitive, they don't even keep score and are played against other teams that practice in the same location. He has a uniform (you can see his shirt below) and has been having a great time with other kids his age learning fun soccer skills.

Chance ready for his first game in his new jersey. Go Teal Team!

He went in thinking he was the best soccer player in the world and came out of his first practice not discouraged but excited about all the new things he had learned. He has a soccer ball here at the house and wants us to play soccer with him nearly every single day and most days we do.

Chance at his first soccer practice, kicking the ball.

I am very proud of how interested he is in learning all the skills of soccer and how much he wants to practice even when he isn't at official soccer practice. He knows already that if you want to be good at something you have to put in the work, practice, practice, practice to get better.

Chance at his first soccer game, he is #7

Of course he wants to win but at the same time he is more into the game and having fun than he is about who wins or loses the game and that makes me a very happy parent as well. This soccer session runs through mid March so we have lots of soccer to look forward to over the coming weeks.

Night Soccer

2012-01-03T12:36:00.001-08:00

The other day Chance wanted to play soccer but it was dark. No reason not to so Scott and Chance played soccer in the dark.

Science Experiment

2012-01-03T12:34:00.000-08:00

I was super excited to do Science experiments with Chance from the moment I knew he was getting the Science kit for Christmas. We did the first experiment on Christmas day by mixing colors to make different colors and adding crystal beads that soak up the colored water to make multi colored crystals.

This experiment was also about colors mixing. They put buttermilk in a plate then added the color tablets and waiting to watch the color expand into and mix with the buttermilk. After the colors started to expand Chance took his magnifying glass and really investigated what the colors look like up close.

I can't wait to do more science experiments with him very soon.

Bungee Tire Swing

2012-01-03T12:32:00.000-08:00

While looking around for something to do Scott and Chance decided to make a swing, a bungee swing. So they hung a bunch of bungee cords from a tree and Chance got on, it was fun but hard to sit on so they found a tire...

And made it into a tire swing. Good Times!

Christmas Day 2011

2012-01-03T10:24:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Morning Chance woke up and found a few little things in his stocking, then went on to watching Christmas cartoons until everyone else woke up, much like he does every other morning.

Then when we all got out of bed we told Chance to get dressed and lets all go outside. Outside a power wheel ATV was waiting for him. He was super super excited. It had been charging all night and so was ready to go. Chance hopped on and after a very quick tutorial he took off.

He went down to the gate and back a few times while we raced beside him. Then it was time to bust out the big guns...

it was Tractor vs ATV vs Motorcycle, it could have gone very wrong but it was tons of fun. Of course Aunt Kristy and Daddy let the ATV win and he was so happy.

Christmas Eve 2011

2012-01-03T10:19:00.000-08:00

I had to work on Christmas Eve but that was ok because we are usually waiting around for some arbitrary time to open presents. I worked 9-4 so everyone else was just waiting for me to get home. When I did I discovered that all the presents had already been separated into individual piles.

Chance in front of his pile of presents.

We all had a good time being together and opening presents. It was the first year Chance had really been looking forward to Christmas, counting down the days and very interested in presents.

Chance opening his Science kit.

When he read each tag he got really excited every time. It was fun to see the look on his face when he opened his presents.

Chance eating his first Snoopy Snowcone.
Chance got a snoopy snowcone machine for Christmas so after opening presents we made snowcones and each had one. Chance liked it very much, we need to get some better syrup but we will be making some more very soon.

Leogland for Chance's Birthday

2012-01-03T09:56:00.001-08:00

Chance sitting in a castle "window" while we were standing in line to ride the Dragon roller coaster.

For Chance's birthday this year we took him to Legoland. He was super excited and had been counting down the days for weeks. He wasn't feeling very good, a little cold I think, but we went anyway and although he did seem a little extra worn down he had a wonderful time and kept telling us that this was the best day of his life, the best day ever.

I asked him to show me how happy he was and this is the look he gave me.

All the rides at Legoland are built with little people in mind so even though there are a lot of roller coasters Chance could ride every one of them. And of course so could we. Chance liked the drunk driving roller coaster (it zig zagged back and forth quickly and we made the mistake of calling it that) and the one where your feet dangle.

Chance on the jousting ride.

This jousting ride was a little silly but Chance had a good time.

Chance and I riding in the Boat School ride.

The boat school ride was a lot of fun, Chance and I rode in one boat and Scott in another. We had to maneuver our boat through the course trying not to bump into everything and everyone in the process. Chance did a pretty good job driving while I pushed the pedal.

Chance watching the water fountain and cars in front of the lego replica of Las Vegas.

Of all the things we saw and did at Legoland Chance has told us multiple times that his favorite part of the whole place was "the lego city where the things moved around." There were big replicas of Las Vegas, San Fransisco and Washington D.C. as well as lots of well known areas in Florida. Everything was built of legos, there were cars moving on the streets and boats gliding through the water, water fountains and a whole marching band and the space shuttle "launched" every few minutes. It was pretty neat and held Chance's attention till the park was about to close and we had to leave.

Riding Go-karts at Mike Greenwell's

2012-01-03T09:56:00.000-08:00

The title of this post pretty much says it all. We went to a place here in town that I haven't been to in a really really really long time. They have arcade games, batting cages, mini golf and of course go karts. Chance had a great time riding the go karts as you can probably tell from this picture. He was really responsible too, not going super fast and steering very well.

Little Note

2012-01-02T11:13:00.000-08:00

a few days ago Chance took a nap and was sleeping when I had to leave for work. I felt bad because I had not told him I would be gone when he woke (I didn't know he would sleep so long) so I wrote him a note and left it for him at his place on the table. He found it and read it and just left it at the table. Well, it sat on the table for a few days and then I took it and not thinking put it in the recycling bin. Later that day he passed the bin and just started crying then he said "that's my note, someone threw away my note" I felt awful and so rescued the note from the bin straightened it out and gave it back to him. He hugged it then took it to his room and put it on top of his toy organizer so "I can look at it" he said. He is so very sweet.

New Haircut

2012-01-02T11:12:00.001-08:00

Chance's awesome new haircut. He was very good the whole time his hair was being cut so as a treat we picked up a chocolate milkshake on the way home.

Living The Dream

2012-01-02T11:12:00.000-08:00

We went tot a new playground the other day and as Chance climbed up to the top of the slide he paused and looked around then he said "I'm living the dream". :)

Hiding in the Hamper

2012-01-02T11:11:00.000-08:00

Chance disappeared the other day into his room, he was gone for a while and things were really quiet so I went looking for him and this is what I found.

Birthday Party Playdate

2012-01-01T11:08:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago we went to a birthday party for a little boy in the playgroup we have been hanging out with here in Fort Myers. Luke was turning 5 years old so it seemed like the perfect playdate for us and it was.

Chance had a great time playing with the other little people his age, they rode in the convertible hotwheel.

Had sword fights (it was a pirate themed party).

Broke a pinata

And played a pirate themed version of pin the tail on the donkey. Of course there was cake and general fun had by all.
I feel bad that Chance doesn't get as much time with kids his own age since we have been here in Florida but we get out to playdates that seem like they would have older kids (like a 5 year old's birthday) and he will be starting soccer on January 2nd. He will have practice once per week Tuesday at 6:15pm and a "game" once per week starting Saturday January 14th. Soccer runs through March and his group is 4 - 6 year olds so he will be getting more time with little ones his age very soon.

Helping Take Apart an old Guitar

2012-01-01T11:05:00.000-08:00

In December Chance spent some time in Tampa at the apartment with Scott, while he was there they took parts from two different guitars to make one awesome guitar. Here Chance is using the screwdriver to help take parts off of one of the guitars. Word on the street is Chance was big help. He is really good at following direction when he is interested in the project, and what boy doesn't like taking things apart to make them better?

He's Way up There.

2012-01-01T11:03:00.000-08:00

We were at the park not long ago, where there is a big rope climbing asteroid like piece of equipment. I climbed into the middle and set there relaxing while Chance climbed all around and past me up to the top.

Chance using his new chopsticks

2012-01-01T11:01:00.000-08:00

A friend of mine spent a few months working in China and Hong Kong earlier this year. When he returned to the States he was thoughtful enough to bring gifts. One of the items he brought back for Chance was a set of kid's chopsticks. They are much like adult chopsticks except they are attached at the top to make them easier to hold. Chance can just focus on the pinching and picking up the food rather than holding the sticks together.

Dancing at the Christmas party

2011-12-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

On Sunday we went to the Christmas party hosted every year by the law office where my Mom works. Chance was having a good time playing with the kids throughout the party but he and this little girl were definitely hitting it off. At one point in the evening she asked him if he wanted to dance. He said yes and this is video of the two of them dancing. They danced for about ten songs much longer than the video and afterward she told her mom that she thought she was in love. It's so painfully cute.

Chance The Puppeteer

2011-12-06T09:45:00.000-08:00

This is just s video of Chance being cute and silly.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-07T12:31:00.000-08:00

This Halloween turned out to be pretty cool despite us not knowing at all where to go. Since we didn't really know the area in Tampa very well we decided to go to the mall. The Brandon mall is huge and they were doing trick-or-treating from store to store. It wasn't the ideal for Halloween but it was going to work just fine. We showed up early and started out trick-or-treating adventure around the mall, stopping here and there along the way to actually purchase a few things one of which being a new iPad for Scott that the best buy Mobile in the mall didn't have but held for us at the big Best Buy across from the mall (this comes into play later).
Most all stores were giving out candy and some were giving cookies and one even gave us each a candy corn shake. Think Vanilla shake with candy corn in it, I wouldn't buy it but it was fun as a sample for the occasion.

Here is Chance drinking/eating his candy corn shake at the mall. So after we went all the way around the mall we headed out to the Best Buy to pick up Scott's iPad. Since we aren't super familiar with the area yet we took a wrong turn and ending up getting on the interstate instead of going into the parking lot. So, we went down to the next exit and decided to turn down the first big road to see if it would take us back to the Best Buy. It did not, but it did take us directly to a perfect neighborhood for trick-or-treating. There were kids walking down the street and lots of people sitting out in their driveways with bowls of candy. Since we had plenty of time before Vest Buy closed and besides it was Halloween we asked Chance if he wanted to trick-or-treat some more and of course he said yes. So, we parked the car and headed out from door-to-door. It was perfect, everyone was friendly, it was a great family oriented neighborhood.

Chance at a house completely decorated for the holiday, graveyard and fog machine included. We collected more candy for over an hour then headed back to the car.

Chance's blue pumpkin was completely full of candy by the time we made it back to the apartment. And of course we dumped it out in the living room floor to inspect it. Not only did he have a lot of candy but it was quality candy as well, lots of chocolate and specialty things. All in all a great Halloween.

Swimming Class Graduate!

2011-11-07T12:26:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday was Chance's last Preschool Level I swimming class. He graduated with flying colors. As a matter of fact he was the only one in his class that mastered all the requirements and got the OK to move on to Preschool Level II class. He loves swimming and can't wait to go to more classes, unfortunately they don't have classes in the winter so he will have to wait a little while but I will keep my eye on the website and as soon as they start up again next spring I will sign Chance up for the next level swimming class. I love that he has something physical that he likes to do so much and is very good at it. I love swimming and went through all these same swimming classes he is doing now, it's so cool to see him having such a good time and doing so well.

Chance Face

2011-11-07T11:32:00.000-08:00

Chance wasn't really mad in this first picture he just made this roar face and his fist happened to be in the shot so it makes it look like he was really angry.

The next picture is just him being his cute self.

Back to the Aquarium

2011-11-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

When we were at Guppyween Chance really wanted to go in the water play area but they had it closed for the event so I promised him we would come back the next day. Annual passes are awesome!

The next day I dressed Chance in his swimming trunks and off we went. He played for over two hours in the water area. climbing and running and sliding and getting soaking wet.

There are water cannons on the pirate ship, the kids can shoot each other or the ship. I climbed all over the pirate ship with Chance and I didn't get wet but it was a close call. If there are kids using the water cannons there is only one little corner that is safe (dry) I hid there till they were done then made a run for it.

This slide doesn't look very wet in this picture but he was mostly dry at the top and after the short trip to the bottom he was soaked.

Tampa Children's Museum

2011-11-07T10:29:00.000-08:00

I am trying once again to catch up on the family blog and to that effort I am mostly going to just be writing captions on these photos rather than trying to tell the story of the day as I normally do.
On Halloween during the day we went to the Children's Museum in Tampa. We have been to a lot of children's museums and this one is definitely one of the best ones.

After making a paper airplane this contraption helps you fly it by giving it a boost. Place the airplane between two little wheels and swoosh up in to the sky it goes. Scott and Chance are launching their plane in this picture though the plane itself was too fast for me to capture.

Chance is wearing a fireman hat and driving a firetruck. The screen shows real street scenes from downtown Tampa as he turned the wheel and made the lights and sirens whir.

Here Chance is turning the crank around and around to "earn" money so he can make the train go around and around high above our heads. You can't see the train in the picture but Chance made it go around on its track many times, he still loves trains.

In this picture Chance is a weatherman. He is standing in front of the green screen and watching himself on the monitor.

On the first floor of the museum there is a replica of Tampa Bay with water flowing everywhere. There are boats to maneuver through the river and bridges roll balls across. Chance is turning a crank that moves a "boxcar" across the water and over to a train where you can then transfer your cargo and move it along the tracks. This was one of my favorite spots in the museum.

In one area there was an exhibit (not sure if that is the right word) reaching three stories tall! You could climb up and down in it exploring the different levels of the Florida aquifer. A great idea and lots of fun as long as you are not afraid of heights.

The Batcave

2011-11-07T10:15:00.000-08:00

Just a couple pictures of Chance playing with his new batcave.

Two Wonderful Gifts.

2011-11-07T10:12:00.000-08:00

Chance and I spent a few days at the apartment in Tampa last week and when we arrived we had two wonderful surprises waiting for us at the front door from Nana and Grandpa Von. Well, really they are for Chance but we can all enjoy them. I was thinking of setting them aside to open when Scott was in town but Chance is too smart for me, he immediately looked at the labels and said "It says Chance, it's for me".
The first box we opened contained a huge book on the human body. There are brilliantly colored pictures, charts, diagrams and more along with tons of wonderful information that will make this book so incredibly useful for years to come.

Chance opened it up and started to ask questions right away. He was very interested, so much so that he picked it to read at bedtime for the next two nights. It's a great book because it will grow with him. For bedtime now we read the captions for the pictures on 10 pages each night and talked about what was in each picture.

The next box we opened was full of even more wonderful surprises. There were 15 wonderful works of art, a box to store them and an easel to display one at a time. Each piece of art is a print of a masterpiece by a famous artist. The back of each print is full of information about the artist's life, the inspiration for this work and info about their other works as well.

The first thing Chance did was pop the bubble wrap that came in the package. Then he lay each piece of art on the floor all over the living room so we could look at each one. Then after looking them all over he chose the Van Gogh to put on the easel first, then we put the easel on his shelf. The plan is to display one piece as we read parts of the back for storytime and bedtime then when we finish reading we will pick a new piece of art to display.

A big thanks to Nana and Grandpa Von.

Guppyween

2011-11-07T08:27:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Halloween the Aquarium was having Guppyween. There were games for the kids and trick or treating all around the aquarium. Unfortunately I didn't know it was happening until we got to Tampa so we didn't have Chance's Halloween costume with us but it didn't matter. He had a pumpkin for candy collecting and that is all he needed.

We walked all around the Aquarium looking at all the fish and looking for people in Orange shirts with big orange bags of candy because if you say the magic words
(trick or treat) they will give you candy. Chance learned that really fast. Here he is waving at the horseshoe crabs

Chance is tossing little beanbags through the holes for a prize. He got to pick anything from the box and his choice: a green spider ring.

Inspecting his candy haul.

On the way out I saw a Guppyween banner hanging on the fence and decided it would be a good place to try for some pictures of the two of us. We took a bunch and none of them were great but there were a few cute ones.

Splash Pad and Spiderweb Climby Thing

2011-10-28T16:24:00.001-07:00

In Lehigh not too far from where Chance takes his swimming lessons there is a park we had not taken the time to investigate until recently. It was a serious find, they have a splash pad, tons of green space to run around and a pretty neat playground as well.

There was water bubbling up from the ground and showering down from above in lots of fun and interesting ways. Chance had tons of fun getting totally soaked.
Then he tried to give me a heart attack:

See that kid all the way at the top of this spiderweb climby thing? That's Chance. He had a good time and didn't get hurt at all of course but still there were times I had to look away so he could go be a boy just like he is supposed to.

Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-27T08:19:00.001-07:00

Chance as a pirate, rrrrrrrr.
This year we went to the same pumpkin patch at Lakes Park as we did last year. We met one of the playgroups at the park to let the little guys play together. Chance made friends with one of the little girls right away they are the same age and got along famously. We didn't actually buy our pumpkins there because we already had our pumpkins but we had a good time walking through all the scarecrow displays and of course Chance had a great time on the slide and in the bounce house.

Chance and Grace (playdate friend) in front of the Waterman Broadcasting Display
I wasn't able to get any good pictures of him on the slide because the sun was not favorable and in each picture his shadow gets enveloped in the shadow of the slide. My friend Becky met us at the park, it was nice for us to be able to catch up while Chance played. It's great being so close to really good friends, puts a smile on my face.

We were trying to get a group picture but this is the only one where Chance had a good smile.

Playing cars in the Morning

2011-10-27T07:59:00.000-07:00

The arrangement we have worked out is if Chacne does his workbook pages today (usually 5 pages) then tomorrow morning he will be able to watch cartoons in the morning, if not then he doesn't. Well, last week Chance decided he didn't need to do his workbook pages so there was no TV. This wasn't a problem for him and really not a problem for me either since I am always eager to cut back on screen time. On the first morning he was upset even though he knew it was coming but after a few minutes he went to get his legos and set up a whole town on my bathroom counter. He played in there for nearly two hours building and rebuilding his town and driving cars all over the place. And he did the same thing for the next three days even though one of the days he did his workbook pages he chose to come back and play legos and cars. It worked out great for me because I got to stay in bed resting while he played and he was using his imagination and building skills rather than sitting in front of a screen. This is just a little mosaic I made of him being silly playing with his cars.

Rediscovering Shady Oaks

2011-10-27T07:47:00.000-07:00

Chance swinging high.
My parents used to take me and my sister to Shady Oaks Park when we were little. Like the name implies there is plenty of shade so we set out to rediscover this great little park. The park is exactly as I remember it, almost all the same playground equipment we used to play on is still there. All in the shade of beautiful oak trees. There were a few little boys at the park just Chance's age, they had a great time playing together. It was fun watching Chance play in the same park I played in when I was his age.
While we were there Chance really started working on his swinging skills. The other little boys knew how to pump their legs to swing so they tried to teach him and for the first time Chance really worked to make his swing go all by himself. Since then he has continued to work on his leg pumping skills. Yay!

Chance's Halloween Costume

2011-10-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

This year when we asked Chance what he wanted to be for Halloween he thought for just a second and said "a soldier". That was about a week before we actually went costume shopping. When we went to actually pick out his costume he went straight for the soldier outfit. We picked up a helmet to go with it and off we went. In the first picture Chance is sporting his helmet in the car leaving Party City and the pictures below are after we got back to the house Chance trying out his new costume.

Safety Day in Swimming Class

2011-10-23T09:10:00.000-07:00

Evidently for one class every session al the kids learn about safety in open water as if they fell overboard. They watched a video then each practiced the things they saw in the video. First they put on life jackets then all jumped in the water and learned how to huddle together for safety and warmth while in the water and how to coordinate yelling for help. Then how to float in a life jacket and not panic. Afterward they all lined up, the first person in line jumped in while the next person threw in the life preserver, the first person grabbed on and was pulled in by the next guy in line. I didn't get a picture of Chance rescuing the kid in front of him but here he is being pulled to safety.

Florida Aquarium

2011-10-23T09:02:00.001-07:00

Chance in front of the sign at the entrance to the Aquarium
Tampa has a lot of family friendly attractions of which I am sure we will end up exploring all, very soon. First of the big attractions for us was the Florida Aquarium. The Aquarium is right on the streetcar line (yeah there is a streetcar here did I forget to mention that?) and it's downtown so that means walking distance from the Aquarium to the Children's Museum, Riverfront park and the Center for the Arts and plenty of cool little places to grab a bite to eat. Anyway, I think I am getting off track...we got a year pass to the Aquarium with which we get into the Aquarium of course and also free parking, on top of that though we also get 50% off admission to other Zoo's, And Aquariums around the country including the zoo here (the children's museum here too) and the zoo in Portland (for the next visit to Nana and Grandpa Von).

Scott and Chance looking at the Alligators
The Florida Aquarium has a cool Florida wetland area that is humid and muggy with real mangroves growing over the walkways. There are Alligators and turtles and lots of other fish swimming all about as well as birds all through this habitat. The wetland area is also the aviary so there are florida birds flying all around too.

Chance looking at that HUGE fish.
We saw, eels and sharks, seahorses and lots of beautifully colored fish too. As well as this huge fish that looked like he could barely move he was so big even though he was floating right along. They had a really neat interactive exhibit where each of six fish get to plead their case then at the end you vote for your favorite.

Chance pointing out fish in the Reef Tunnel
We were thinking the Aquarium was worth the year membership and then we went outside and realized that it was DEFINITELY worth the year membership price. There is a pirate ship themed water play area with a restaurant and a bar. We didn't know they had that area so we didn't have Chance's swimming trunks so he couldn't play in the big water area. He played for a long time on the playground where there are just a few misters while Scott and I had a drink at the bar. Next time we will bring his trunks so he can really play.

Chance checking out a seahorse

Frozen yogurt at Ikea

2011-10-20T08:56:00.000-07:00

"Has an Ikea" is definitely on the list of things I like about Tampa for so many reasons. As if the shopping wasn't enough they also have a child play area where I can check Chance in to play for 45 minutes (every day if I wanted to) while I shop and they give me a free coffee every time I go as well. It's like a small slice of heaven.
When we signed up for their free loyalty program we got a free frozen yogurt which as you can see Chance greatly enjoyed.

Games in the Park

2011-10-20T08:26:00.000-07:00

Downtown Tampa there is a big park right on the river. It has a lot of lovely green grass, two fountains made specifically for kids to play in and a really neat playground with this electronic game that Chance and I are playing in these pictures. There are a few different versions you can pick from but the basics of each game are the same. Pick a color (red or green) then push the button that corresponds with your color light faster than the other guy. It's a pretty fun game and Chance is better than you would think.

Riding the Carousel

2011-10-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

Here they come...

A very short distance from the apartment in Brandon is a mall and in that mall is a double decker carousel. That's right it's inside the mall and it has two floors.
Needless to say really Chance has wanted to go on this every time he has seen it, which is only stice but the first time we did not have any cash so we couldn't go for a ride. The next time though we were prepared with our $2 and so Chance and Scott went for a ride. It looked like a lot of fun, next time I might just have to go for a ride myself.

Here they are...big wave.

Just Hanging Out

2011-10-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Chance hanging on the monkey bars, he made it across two bars before letting go.

We found a park with a lot of shade not too far from the house here in Fort Myers. It's nice because so many of the other parks here have no shade at all and this one is fenced in too so it's harder for him to get too far away. The playground is nice and there is also space for him to run around.
When we went there was a preschool class there playing games and they were very nice to let Chance join in, he played kickball and tug-of-war before we had to go. But he had been playing for nearly two hours so I didn't really feel bad for pulling him away.

Pump It Up

2011-09-29T07:06:00.000-07:00

In my search for fun things to do with Chance in the area I picked up a couple local parenting/family magazines. Just so happens the magazine itself was throwing a party for it's 20th anniversary at a local playspot the next week. So I went online to reserve our free tickets.

Chance climbing over in the Obstacle course.
I had never even heard of the place it was held, Pump It Up. It is an indoor inflatable play area. The party was the best way to experience it for the first time, with our tickets admission was free and they gave us pizza and cake in honor of the magazine's birthday.

Chance climbing up in the obstacle course
Chance had a wonderful time, They have two rooms of inflatables so we were able to play for 30 minutes in each room then moved on to the food. From the moment he entered the first room he was go go going. He ran and jumped and climbed till he was breathing heavy and his little face was hot. In the first room his favorite place to play was the obstacle course.

Chance going down the slide.
In the second room he played for a while in the basketball bounce house but I think his favorite was the slide. He went down that slide at least twenty times while we were in there and he drug me along once. It was pretty fun. Going down the slide made me realize just how much little kids learn from doing things like that, working with others, climbing, following direction, being careful, dealing with heights, overcoming fears, thinking under pressure and just having a good time.

Throwing the ball in the basketball bounce house
After all that playing Chance was ready to have a seat, some juice and some pizza. There was enough pizza for the grown ups to have some too so we all sat and ate together.

Sitting at the kids' table by himself.
After pizza came a little slice of cake and then we were on our way back to the house. We had tons of fun here and will difinitely be going back again soon.

Drinking juice getting ready to chow down on pizza.

Cooler on his head silly picture

2011-09-29T05:09:00.000-07:00

This is just a picture of Chance being silly. He put his new Saints football that Daddy got him on his last work trip in this cooler to bring it with him in the car. Then when in the car he decided to put the cooler on his head and give me this fun face.

P.S. I have been keeping up with Chance's wishlist on Amazon, he's actually started mentioning things that he wants for his birthday and christmas, when he sees something he wants he tells me to put it on the list. The items on the list are the ones that have made it through the Mommy/Daddy filter. Follow this link to get to his wishlist. http://amzn.com/w/12KVYIUEB01G5

New Clothes from Nana

2011-09-28T09:02:00.000-07:00

Recently we received a few packages from Nana and Grandpa Von full of wonderful clothes for Chance. We were all excited to see what was inside each package and Chance was super excited because he saw his name on the labels.

We let him pull everything out which turned out to be kind of funny. He would take a piece out look at it then nonchalantly toss it to the side till he had a pile of clothes where they all landed on top of each other.

After emptying the bag of all the good stuff he moved on to the fun stuff. Trying to get inside the bag, the bag was pretty small so it didn't work very well but he put in some good effort.

Even though he tossed everything to the side and tried to get in the bag the clothes came in he was more than happy to try on some of his new things to see how they fit. He liked them so much he modeled for me to take a picture and wouldn't take them off for the rest of the day.

The suspender shirt is so cute!

Grocery Store Tour

2011-09-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

We are settling in here a bit and with that comes finding little ones for Chance to play with, since meetup.com has been such a great place for us to find playgroups in the past that is where I started my search. So far we have joined two groups one we joined for a little while last year when we were here so long and one is all new to us. Our first playdate with the new group was a tour of a grocery store. At first I was wondering how such little guys were going to be interested in touring a grocery store but it turned out great.

First the produce manager told us all about his department (bananas are the highest selling fruit) then we made our way to the bakery where they gave each child a cookie. Then we made our way over to the deli where they gave us each a piece of chicken finger.

After that we arrived at the meat department where they gave each of us hair nets so we could go behind the scenes. Due to an inspection being conducted we had to detour to the employee break room first but when we came back they took us all back in the freezer to show us how they grind the meat to make ground beef. It was pretty interesting and seemed easy enough but I don't know how they stay in that freezer to grind beef all day, it's seriously cold in there.

In the employee break room we each got some ice cream to enjoy. The grocery store we toured is called Sweetbay, I know they don't have them everywhere and I never really did a lot of shopping there, they are kind of new and I always got the impression they were more expensive but the tour did exactly what it was supposed to do because now when I think of doing grocery shopping I consider Sweetbay an option and that is the first step.

We wrapped up our tour with a walk down a few of the aisles and goodie bags and balloons for the kids. Like I said I was concerned about how this playdate would go but turns out taking little kids on a grocery store tour was really a brilliant idea. As you can see above it got two thumbs up from Chance and even when we were ready to go he didn't want to take his hair net off (below).

And this is what I found

2011-09-27T12:26:00.000-07:00

Last week Scott and Chance were trying to find something in the pile of things in the living room. I heard them in there looking and when I walked into the room this is what I found...

Boys will be boys.

Hiking the Flooded Road

2011-09-27T11:12:00.000-07:00

I am sorry I didn't get this posted sooner but a few weeks ago we had a lot of rain here so much rain that the dirt road to get into my Mom's house was flooded. So flooded we couldn't get the car through and had to walk out. We turned it into a grand adventure hiking down the road and around the huge puddles. It's crazy, in the second picture you can see the road looks like a lake as far as you can see.

Painted Pitcher

2011-09-26T16:24:00.001-07:00

Recently I found an old Brita water pitcher in the closet, at first I was going to buy a new filter and use it for it's intended purpose but then I realized why it was in the closet instead of in the refrigerator. It had a crack in it. So I set it on the counter to throw away. When Chance saw it he asked why we were throwing it away, when I told him he said "don't throw it away, can I paint it?"
I was pleasantly surprised that he made the jump to turn an old pitcher into a piece of art. So we pulled out all our paints and brushes and Chance created an original work of art. I haven't figured out the perfect location just yet but soon it will be on display for everyone to see.

Chance's First Swimming Class

2011-09-10T13:44:00.000-07:00

Chance just before class started
Today was Chance's first swimming class. Chance has been looking forward to it for days and I've been pretty excited for him because I took the exact same swimming classes when I was little. We arrived a few minutes early to have time to change into swimming trunks and check the place out. It is an outdoor heated pool with plenty of space and three slides that we didn't go down this time but Chance remembers the awesome slide at the community center in Portland so he really wanted to go but Scott and I didn't have our suits so we will have to save that for another time.

Chance in his red trunks learning the sidestroke
Chance is a headstrong little guy and I often worry about how he will do in classes. Will he listen to the instructor? Will he be patient with the other students? Well he did a wonderful job listening to the instructor and was the most advanced of the 4 students. He had a little trouble being patient with the other kids but after I explained that they were all at different levels and he had to give each of them the time they need to learn how to swim he did a much better.

Chance on the left practicing his kicking
They began work on kicking and sidestroke which are mostly new to Chance and jumping into the pool and blowing bubbles under water which Chance has been doing for a while. By the end of the class he was starting to use his new skills while swimming around the pool. The instructor did a very good job modifying the exercises for each students skill level giving Chance extra help on the things he doesn't quite have yet (like floating) and challenging him a little more with things he can do well like putting the ring on the bottom of the pool for him to retrieve rather than on the stairs where it would be too easy.

Chance swimming to the stairs after jumping in
He loved the class and can't wait for next week. The class lasts 8 weeks, so he will be learning lots of new swimming skills for quite a few Saturdays to come plus if he does well and wants to continue I'll sign him up for the next level of classes after he completes this level.

New Board Games!!

2011-09-07T15:59:00.000-07:00

You may not know this but Chance Loves Board Games! He asks to play a board game at least twice a day and that is a slow day. Usually we will finish a game and as soon as someone crosses the finish line no matter who wins he says "can we play again?" So when this box of games and puzzles arrived yesterday from Nana and Grandpa Von we were all overjoyed.

We started playing games almost immediately after removing them from the box they were shipped in. The games are perfect for him he can do them but they are just a bit of a challenge which is exactly were they need to be, he loves to learn and is already getting better at both board games. He likes it when we make up stories with the dice, though Daddy is best at this Chance jumps in adding to the stories too. And of course puzzles are fun on their own but the fact that these puzzles were all about things with wheels made them even a bigger hit.

Chance with his new puzzles constructed all on his own.

Motorcycle Helmet

2011-09-07T13:33:00.000-07:00

Scott ordered a new motorcycle helmet recently and it came in the mail yesterday. Of course Chance wanted to try it on immediately. It's big but cute of course and he kind of looked like Dark Helmet from Spaceballs.

Hurricane Wind Machine

2011-09-07T13:24:00.000-07:00

We were at the mall the other day when we came upon this Hurricane Force Wind Machine. It's a tube that you stand inside and are then surrounded by 75 mph winds. Well, Scott and Chance were ready to jump right in so I inserted the money and took the pictures while the wind whipped around them. Their hair is short but it was flying all around. It looked like fun and of course dare devil that he is Chance had a huge smile on his face the whole time.

Video In Which He Jumps In and Swims!

2011-09-07T13:17:00.000-07:00

So Chance has put together two of his skills, jumping in and swimming. He did it all by himself without any prompting from us. At the beginning he jumps and swims then at the end he puts his face under the water and swims all the way back to the other side of the pool. I'm so proud of him!

Swimming With Daddy

2011-09-07T13:03:00.000-07:00

So as I am sure you have noticed Chance has been doing a lot of swimming lately and now that Daddy is here they have been doing a lot of swimming together. He has learned a new skill actually that isn't true he has put two skills he already knows together to make one new pretty awesome skill. You can't see it here but there is a video I will post soon in which you will be able to see his new skill in all it's glory. That new skill led to this fun game with Daddy. Scott throws him in the air and Chance splashes into the water then swims away. Chance loves it!

Found a new hat

2011-09-02T14:11:00.000-07:00

I don't know where Chance found this hat but he has been wearing it off and on all the time for the last few days. It's too big for him and he likes to wear it backwards which just adds to the cuteness. I had to talk him into letting me take these pictures because he seems to know that it looks a little silly even though he likes it. When I told him I wanted to put it on the blog so Nana and Grandpa Von could see how cute he was he said "ok just two pictures" and so that is what I got. Which is ok because they are pretty good ones. Scott flies in tonight late so Chance won't see him till the morning but that is ok, we have lots of fun things planned with the little guy over the next few days I hope the weather cooperates so we can get out of the house as much as possible, Chance needs to get out, get active and maybe even worn out? That hasn't happened in a while, I wonder if it is still possible.

New Library Card

2011-09-02T14:01:00.000-07:00

As you know we frequent the library a lot no matter where we are, in my opinion the library is one of the most underused resources we have available to us. I am always reading and watching and listening to things I get from the library and I am doing everything I can to raise Chance to appreciate books and libraries. It's paying off so far as his current favorite book is A Light In the Attic and he just picked out Double Fudge on audio because he wanted something to listen to in the car, you know he's only 4 years old right? I'm not bragging, I'm just checking.
Anyway, today while at the library we got Chance his own library card for the Lee County Library which he was very excited about and can't wait to use it next week when we go back to the library.
This picture is Chance in front of the library showing off his new card and his smile.

Chance Swimming

2011-09-02T13:52:00.000-07:00

Chance has been so close to swimming for a while and now that we are living at Grammy's house he is in the pool nearly every single day sometimes multiple times per day. Like today he just showed up in his swimming trunks asking to go in the pool then after we ran some errands he went back in the pool which is where he is while I sit on the patio watching him and typing this. Well , just a few days ago Chance took a big step putting all the little pieces together and swam across the pool. He has done it multiple times since then and keeps getting better. Living in a house with a pool means it's very important for him to know how to swim so I signed him up for swimming lessons that start on the 10th so Mr. Chance will be a swimming pro in no time at all.

Board Games

2011-08-24T09:08:00.000-07:00

Since we don't have our car here in Florida yet we have been confined to the house for most of the day each day and that leaves us a lot of time for indoor activities. And actually that's just fine because it's HOT outside!

Chance deciding which card to play in Sequence for Kids
Each day when I ask Chance what he wants to do he says "play a board game" so we have been playing the ladybug game and what we call the animal game which is actually sequence for kids. He's getting pretty good at that last one, I actually have to pay attention now or he sneaks up with the win.

And then Niagara Falls...

2011-08-20T09:58:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Niagara Falls in the evening so we didn't get to actually see the falls on the first day but we did have a great time at our hotel. The location was strange surrounded by a hospital complex on all sides but the staff was absolutely amazing. I have never seen more friendly hotel staff in every single department they excelled at customer service. If anyone is looking for a hotel in the Niagara Falls/Buffalo New York area you want the Doubletree on High Street in Buffalo, they are simply amazing. When we arrived at the hotel I asked the front desk clerk if he knew a place to get poutine fries in the area. He didn't know what poutine fries were but he asked the chef and even though they were not on the menu he made them special for me at no charge and them for the rest of the staff to try as well. And that was all within the first 45 minutes of arriving, the service did not go down from there.

Kristy holding Chance so he can see the falls up close.
The next morning we woke up and headed out toward the falls. We walked all along the boardwalks and sidewalks beside the river and up to the falls. At first they are not that impressive, you know it's a river that is moving kind of fast but other than that it's nothing big...then you see it from the bottom and your whole outlook changes.

Kristy at the top of the Falls
To get that view from the bottom we took a Maid Of The Mist tour. They gave us each a poncho and down, down, down in an elevator we went and onto the boat. Chance was excited to get on the boat and he wanted to be right at the front on the top deck so that is where we were, front row seats for sure. The tour takes you passed the smaller falls generally referred to Niagara Falls or the American Falls and right into Horseshoe Falls or the Canadian Falls. At one point the falls are surrounding you on three sides and the spray is hitting you to the point that everything outside the poncho is soaked by the time you are through.

Chance in his poncho on the Maid Of The Mist
Chance loved every minute of it, he was holding onto the railing right in front of me. I kept checking on him to make sure he wasn't getting scared or anything but every time I bent down his face had a huge smile on it. As the water wet his face and hands he was laughing and saying "it's like a roller coaster!" He is such a cute little guy, that;s a big happy face in that picture above.

Chance looking at the Falls from Canada
After the tour and grabbing a bite to eat we got in the car and headed over to Canada. This was Chance's first time in another country so even though he didn't really understand I was pretty excited for him. It is true what they say, the falls are much much more impressive from Canada. From the Canadian side you can see the whole falls, it is beautiful. Though I am still not sure how you could spend much more than one day there because once you have seen it and taken a couple different "tours" to see it from different angles there isn't a lot more to do so we went back to our hotel and left the next morning feeling like we had been there and done that in the Niagara Falls department.

Rayna and Chance looking cool on the Canadian side of the falls.

More Silliness This Time Out Of The Car

2011-08-19T09:14:00.000-07:00

We were at a restaurant by Niagara Falls and although the view and food were good the service was a bit slow so we were looking for fun things to do to keep Chance occupied. Aunt Kristy won the award for coming up with the best idea. She taught Chance how to turn himself into a little monster with horns and long teeth using a few french fries.

More Silliness In The Car

2011-08-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

Neither one of these pictures are very good but it is hard to get a totally still picture in a moving car. This first one if just me and Chance taking a silly picture

This next one is Kristy and Chance playing head-to-head Tap, Tap, Revenge on Kristy's phone. Chance is better than one would think.

Washington D.C.

2011-08-19T07:47:00.000-07:00

After meeting up with Scott in Baltimore we drove back about an hour and spent half a day in Washington D.C. I hadn't been to D.C. in many many years so I was happy to see the sights a little and of course show Chance the landmarks that he might recognize and at least be able to recognize next time he sees a picture of them. That is one of the great things about travel. People learn and understand things better when they are exposed to them repeatedly and in as many different ways as possible. I love being able to see pictures of the White House (for example), see it on TV, talk about it and then actually be able to take Chance there and let him see it for himself. He knew that was where President Obama lives but didn't quite understand why we couldn't go in and meet him and his kids.
We had a great time walking around if only for a few hours. I don't even remember who this statue is in honor of but it was the first one we came across and Chance wanted his picture taken so I took one of him in front of it:

Then he wanted to take one of me so he did:

The next place we went was the Lincoln Memorial. I wasn't sure what Chance was going to think but his response to the Lincoln Memorial makes me very proud of him. First we had a fun time walking up all those stairs and then when we got inside he immediately wanted to know who Lincoln was, most four year olds are content with a simple answer but Chance is not he wanted to know exactly who he was and when I told him Lincoln was a president he said "like Obama?" Then he wanted to know if there were other statues in the building and when I told him no, because Lincoln was such a great guy and did so many great things that he gets this whole building all for himself, he took a step back, looked all around and said "wow". He asked me what the writing carved into the walls were and when I told him they were speeches that Lincoln had made he asked me to read one so I read the first paragraph of the Gettysburg address to him, he didn't run around he stood right there and listened then asked me questions, "men are created equal?" So I tried to explain that what he means is everyone in the world just like everyone in this building little ones and big ones, boys and girls, red hair, brown hair, no matter what color their skin is, they all have great potential and all deserve your respect.
After we looked all around the Lincoln Memorial we sat on the stairs looking out over the mall at the Washington Monument for a while. I am usually not much for views of man made things but there is no denying this is a pretty awesome view.

And here is one of the two of us while we were sitting on the stairs but Chance didn't really want to be in this one:

We made our way down the stairs and started across the mall toward the White House. Our first stop along the way was the Vietnam Wall. Again Chance was very interested asking about all the names and loved the statue of the soldiers nearby. We made our way along til we got to the White House. we couldn't get too close because evidently someone had jumped the fence the day before but we paused to take a look before moving down the mall on the other side slowly back toward the car. We got an up close look at the Washington Monument and the World War 2 memorial which I had never seen before. It was getting dark as we walked up to the WW2 Memorial, it is might impressive with it's fountains and dramatic lighting. Highly recommend checking it out at night. As we continued down the walkway Chance noticed that we would be walking passed the Lincoln Memorial he asked if we could walk up and see it again. Instead of going in again we walked right down in front so we could look up and see Lincoln all lit up looking out on the mall. No matter what your opinion on Lincoln is there is no denying that is an impressive sight. I got down on my knees next to Chance to be on his level so we could look at the Memorial together. When I did he hugged me and said "It's better than I thought it would be" That little boy is so amazing, I am in awe of how a four year old can genuinely seem to be taking all of it in on a level you naively think a small child incapable of. I am so proud of him.

Seeing Daddy in Baltimore

2011-08-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

While on our mini vacation we were able to hang out for a day in Baltimore with Scott. We didn't actually have a lot of time together because he was flying out the day we drove in but we spent a few hours walking around the harbor, ate lunch and hung out for a while at the hotel. We all had a great time seeing the area and Chance had a particularly good time hanging with Daddy at the hotel as you can surely tell from this picture, just look at that happy face.

Silly Pictures of Chance

2011-08-19T07:26:00.000-07:00

There are so many silly pictures of Chance out there, in fact as a 4 year old that is pretty much what he does...be silly.
In one of the hotels we stayed in while we were bringing in out things and getting settled in Chance was looking around the room then I heard him say "mommy, look at me" repeatedly (one of his new favorite phrases) so I looked over to where I thought he was and he wasn't there. I walked over and looked closer and this is what I found:

Here he is just wearing a paper hat (pulled over his face...silly boy) that is oh so true.

Chance Drawing Videos

2011-08-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Last week while we were on our mini family reunion vacation there was a lot of time in the car. Chance is a great little traveler and we all had lots of fun finding things to do to keep him occupied. After a while we started making videos with my phone. Chance really liked making them then watching himself in the video. We made quite a few more than these two but I thought I would only upload the cream of the crop.

This first video is Chance drawing a Volcano. Volcanoes are his new thing to draw, actually he has been talking a lot about them lately. making them out of blankets and pillows. He said he wanted to go see a volcano so next time we hit Hawaii, Chance is going along.

And this video is Chance drawing the classic monster truck. His monster truck is getting a bit more sophisticated these days. It used to be just two wheels and a straight line but now sometimes there is a cab at the top and other times (like in this picture) there are little lines all around to show movement.

Video of Chance making funny faces

2011-08-06T17:56:00.000-07:00

I took this in the car while driving. We are on our way to Niagara Falls via Baltimore before heading to the family reunion in Kentucky next weekend.

Sleeping Baby

2011-08-04T06:58:00.000-07:00

OK, he's not a baby anymore but as we all know when they sleep they automatically look littler and sweeter for some reason. Chance has given up the formal nap time, a few months ago the afternoon nap just became much more of a struggle than it was worth since he seemed to be doing fine without one throughout the day. Well, turns out what he seems to need is a nap every other or every third day because I have caught him just falling asleep in strange places.

all right on the couch isn't really a strange place but

between the couch and the chair is! He likes to hide in this spot because he can still see the tv but he thinks no one can see him. Well, he did some sneaking around the couch and crawled into his little hiding spot which I saw him do then he sat there for a long time and when I looked over at him he was fast asleep. It didn't look very comfortable so I pulled him out and put him on the couch but I had to grab a couple pictures before I did.

The many faces of Chance

2011-08-04T06:47:00.000-07:00

Here you can see Chance demonstrating Angry Face (top left), Sad Face (TR), Happy Face (BL) and Monster Face (BR). He is becoming very theatrical. He has started trying to be sneaky by actually crawling along the ground then freezing if anyone looks at him (if he's frozen you can't see him) he freezes his whole body often including his eyes. He has also started miming things. Sometimes when he is trying to tell you something it turns into a big game of charades, it's fun to figure out what he is trying to say and he is pretty good at moving and explaining with his body so it's neat to see the way his brain is working to put together things and explain them to you in a creative nonverbal way.
I think I might make a simple game of charades so we can all play together.

In Florida

2011-08-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to go into the long story right now because I want to just right into the cute things Chance has been doing lately but the short story is Scott and I are separated and Chance and I are living in Fort Myers with my Mom. If you have questions feel free to email me and I will answer.

Now, Chance has been going in the pool pretty much every day we have been here this Summer. He loves it and is taking big steps toward actually swimming. Since we live in a house with a pool now I am hoping to get him swimming lessons soon and I think with just a few lessons he will be really swimming. Right now he can keep himself afloat for a little while and just started making forward progress so it won't be long before he can swim all over the pool.

Kristy heads up the pool maintenance and Chance has been there to assist every step of the way. They make a good pool cleaning team. Chance follows her around the pool and does what he's told so he actually does end up helping more than you'd think.

Fort Phantom Hill

2011-06-03T11:54:00.001-07:00

Scott had this past weekend off giving us lots of time to hang out as a family in the Abilene area. One of the places we went was Fort Phantom Hill not too far away and right on the same road as our hotel just away from town instead of toward. Being out and getting the opportunity to be in the same places where history took place is really amazing of course we live in a living history museum but a western fort has a whole different feel. There were a few original buildings still standing and lots of chimneys next to signs telling us what used to be standing there. There was a cannon that Chance really loved and some wagons as well.

being in different areas of the country give us the opportunity to teach Chance about different plants and animals. We talked about cacti and rattlesnakes and how to avoid them. We also saw some of the biggest ants ever. Have you seen the end of the lasted Indian Jones movie? They are that big (almost). That's what Scott and Chance are investigating in the bottom picture.

Scott took some good pictures of our day at the fort but I don't have them yet so check the flickr stream to see those, I'll get them added soon.

Children's Illustrated Literature Museum

2011-06-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

Here in Abilene they have the National Children's Illustrated Literature Museum, I wasn't sure what to expect but it turned out to be a really neat experience. Each month they host a different illustrators work this month the featured artist was Anita Lobel. If you don't know her work I recommend checking it out especially Away From Home, On Market Street and her Nina books which star her cat, Nina. Your local library should have them as her work has won numerous awards and because they are really great kids books of course.
The works were grouped together by book then the book in which they appear was on a pedestal for us to read. This was a great way to present the art. We went all around the room reading books (we probably read six or seven). We would look at the pictures first then sit on the floor and read the book, Chance's job was to find the art from the wall in each book and he was excellent at his job too.

After working our way through the exhibit we went to the book store and children's area where we read three more books to find the perfect one to buy, we settled on We Are In A Book by Mo Willems, another great book. I highly recommend any of his titles. Then Chance discovered popup books for the first time. We read four more popup books before going back to the hotel and reading our new purchase about a billion times.

Fort imagination

2011-06-03T07:35:00.001-07:00

The other day when we were at the zoo we saw this great playground but it was closed as they were adding new mulch to the whole area. So we decided to go back to see if we could play today. It was open and a good thing too because this is an awesome play area. It is built like a fort with a jail, bank, stable, store and everything.

There were lots of other little ones around to play with and after a moment Chance ran off to play and I sat on one of the benches to watch and relax a bit. Then I heard one of the other moms say "come over here Chance let me take your picture" I waited a moment to make sure she said what I thought she did but when I heard Chance answer her I got up to see what was going on. Turns out there was another Chance at the playground, they were both four years old and once they figured out that they were both named Chance they spent the reedy of the time playing together. It was so cute. They called each other "my Chance". They were moving at incredible speeds so the only picture I got of them both where they weren't blurry is this one of them both on the tire swing.

We had a good time at this playground and will probably be back a few more times while we aree here in Abilene.

Playing at McDonalds

2011-06-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

When we are staying with Scott in a hotel we are always looking for ways to get out of the room and with the heat being in the 100's we can't always head to a park so this day we went to play at a big indoor play area we had seen at a nearby McDonald's. There weren't many other little people for Chance to play with but he had a good time going in and out and through and around the play area anyway.

It was also towel day and if you don't know what that is you should check out www.towelday.org and read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Children's Museum in Abilene

2011-06-03T06:42:00.001-07:00

Here in Abilene they have an interesting children's museum. It is small actually only half of the second floor of The Grace Museum which is an old hotel that has been converted into an art gallery and children's museum. First we started out going throughout the art gallery downstairs where Chance and I explored each painting making up stories about the houses and people in each as well as finding all the little animals that were hiding in them.
Chance received some great complements from the people working in the museum. They said they had never seen a little person so interested in the art and patient enough to look through the gallery. We've been going to art galleries since Chance was just months old and now that he is older it is fun to make up stories with him about what might be happening in each painting. He has such a great imagination it makes me look at art differently after I hear what he has to say about a particular piece.

after checking out the art we went to the children's museum area. One of the first things we saw was an optical illusion. With one a drawing of a bird on one side and a cage on the other Chance thought it was really cool how the bird magically appeared inside the cage when he turned the wheel really fast.

Just through the next little door they had a tornado! When Chance pushed the button the tornado started up going round and round till the smoke reached the top. We could change the size and way the tornado moved by blowing on it. None of the other children's museums we have been to have had a tornado so this was all new and fun to play with.
We had a great time making music with their music wall so much in fact I didn't think to get a pictured of it. They had a whole wall covered in different color wood blocks all of different shapes and sizes. When you touched the blocks they each made a different sound. Some sounds were instruments like drums, organs and strings others were car horns and nature noises.
Abilene does a great job of making the most of what they have, like the zoo the children's museum is small but they have things that make them unique like feeding the giraffe and this music wall.

After we finished with the children's area we went on upstairs where the have whole rooms set up with period pieces from Texas houses in 1900's, 1920's and the 1940's up here there was also a typewriter Chance could type on, he was supposed to leave a message about how he liked the museum but instead he just typed his name and the words zoo, cat and mom which for a 4 year old will just have to do. He liked the typewriter though and so we ended up typing on it for a while before we left.

Abilene Zoo

2011-05-24T11:35:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Chance and I went to the Abilene zoo. Oh yeah, we are in Abilene, Texas with Scott while he is working here for the next two weeks. We arrived in Abilene on Friday and while Scott was working Saturday and Sunday Chance and I stayed at the hotel where we hung out and went in the pool even though the water is pretty cold as far as I am concerned Chance doesn't seem to notice so he played in the pool for two hours on Sunday. Anyway, on monday we went to the zoo.

The zoo here is small but inexpensive and they do a good job making up for their size by offering special things that other zoos don't such as feeding giraffes! They had a bridge the went over the giraffe habitat when we climbed to the top we were able to hold crackers through the fence and the giraffes would come eat them right out of our hands.(see first picture) I had never fed a giraffe before so this was pretty cool for both of us.
The zoo was bordered on one side by a lake which had a ton of fish in it that were jumping over each other to get some of the fish food we were thawing in for them to eat. I am not sure why they were doing this, it was kind of strange, you can see in the second picture all the fish waiting for the kids to drop in some food.

Another animal we we able to get up close with was the peacock who was wondering around the zoo. At one point he walked over to where we were sitting and fanned out his tails feathers. I guess he really liked us.
This last picture is one we took in front of the Abilene Zoo sign but all the good ones cut out the word zoo.

Free Ice Cream Day

2011-05-17T13:52:00.000-07:00

Last week Chance and I were sitting here at the house with nothing to do when I checked my twitter account and saw a tweet talking about fee ice cream at Haagen dazs. Turns out a bunch of Haagen Dazs locations around the country were giving away a free one scoop cone to anyone who asked that afternoon. I looked up the closest location and off we went, This is the first time Chance had ever had ice cream in a cone so it was quite a new experience not to mention a mess. He picked chocolate (his favorite) and I picked mint chocolate chip. By the time we were done we had to find a bathroom to clean up but that tasty treat was well worth it.

Chuck E Cheese Reward

2011-05-17T13:36:00.000-07:00

We have been doing workbooks with Chance for a few months now but recently we started an incentive program to get him more into the whole process and to regulate his use of my iPad in a way where he still gets to use it but he is earning it rather than us just handing it to him to play games.
The deal is this, if he does 5 workbook pages per day then he can use my iPad for 30 minutes per day. At the end of two weeks if he has done all his workbook pages for both weeks then he gets to pick a place to go from a list. Two weeks ago he picked Chuck E Cheese. We hadn't been in a while so we both had a good time playing and checking out the new games.
I asked him to sit for a picture with me at one of the booths, he did but he made this silly face.

Science Experiment

2011-05-11T11:52:00.000-07:00

We are always looking for ways to learn. I am sure most of you have seen this experiment before, it is an easy way to illustrate how different liquids each have a different density. Chance isn't grasping all the reasoning behind it yet of course but that doesn't mean he isn't learning a little bit and we are all having fun.
For this experiment we used pancake syrup, liquid dish soap, water with blue dye and vegetable oil

When I ask Chance to smile, this is the smirk I get. he's a cutie pie.

New Bike

2011-05-11T11:29:00.000-07:00

Over the winter Chance's bike got hit by the elements. It had become rusty and lost one of it's training wheels so we were planning to get him a new one when the weather warmed up but when we went to test drive some new bikes and realized he had grown so much that he was ready for the next size up we knew we would have had to get him a new bike anyway.

The first one we purchased had a bent frame which we didn't notice till we got it home and started putting it together. Chance was disappointed but he was such a good boy, he understood what happened and once it was established that we would get him another one the next day he was very good about the whole thing. The next day we went to a different Target and they had even more bikes to choose from so Chance had to make some decisions. He picked this bike and needless to say he loves it. Scott put it together while Chance and I were at a playdate that morning and as soon as Chance saw it he took it outside to ride ride ride.

We don't think it will fit in our car so we took him to the park to ride as many times as we could while Scott still had his big rental car (he was working at a local station). He can ride around in small circles in the backyard but to really get going we have to take him to a bigger space.

I just took this picture to show how much he has grown. This is his little quad-cycle a ride-on he used to have in the house and push himself all around on. It was harder for me than it was for him to get rid of it but we figured since this is his second two wheel bike he probably won't be going back to a ride-on besides he doesn't fit on it at all anymore.

Jazz Fest

2011-05-10T10:25:00.002-07:00

Jazz Fest is a big 7 day festival that happens after Easter every year. We have never gone because it just seemed hot and expensive and not like a lot of fun with a little one in tow. This year however I had the opportunity to volunteer at Jazz Fest meaning, I got free tickets. One of the days Chance had to come with me because Scott was still working at WDSU in town. I was a little worried but I had no reason. Chance was such a good little boy. I took him a backpack with cars, books, a workbook and my ipad inside along with a blanket and I set him up a little area under one of the tables. He had his own fort! There were a lot of kids books in the tent where we were so he spent most of the time picking out a kids book, taking it back to his fort, looking through all the pages then putting that one back and getting another to do it all over again.

Chance in his fort
We spent most of the time in the tent since that is where I was volunteering but we were able to walk around a little bit to listen to some music. We heard our favorite songs by Mumford and Sons and The Avett Brothers and some of Keb Mo's set as well not to mention all the other local people that were filling all the smaller stages around the festival.
Another cool thing I was able to do while at Jazz Fest was get the cast of Treme to sign Chance's hat. If you remember back last year they shot a few scenes of the HBO show Treme near our house. The catering was actually set up right outside our door. Well, we watched them doing their thing and Chance was playing with the security guys the whole time. At the end one of the guys went to his truck and came back with this floppy hat just like the one he was wearing but in a little kid size. So that is the hat I had the cast sign, they were all very nice and liked the story of the hat they also signed a poster for him.
In case you have never seen Treme it is on HBO and is set right after Katrina here in New Orleans. I have two codes left that will get you the first two episodes free on iTunes if anyone is interested in checking it out just let me know and I will send you the code.

Chance wearing his Treme hat.

Fun with Funny Faces

2011-05-10T10:25:00.001-07:00

Chance and Octavian

2011-05-10T10:18:00.000-07:00

Chance and Octavian have known each other for about three years now. See how they've grown! This first picture was taken about two years ago and the one below was taken just a couple weeks ago.

Selina's Birthday Party

2011-05-10T09:59:00.000-07:00

To truly understand how we ended up at Selina's birthday party the post requires some back story. Connie is Selina's mom and my Mom and Connie's Dad dated for a while when we were younger, we all lived together for a couple years and we all call each other step sisters and brother to this day. We all = Kristy, Connie, myself and Joey (Connie's brother). Connie and Joey were born in New Orleans their Mother's side of the family still live here and now Joey lives here again too. Connie now lives in Texas but is here often to visit. Turns out they were in town a few weeks ago for Selina's birthday, she turned two years old.
It was great being able to hang out with Connie, Joey and all the rest of their family that I haven't seen in years. Chance had a great time too. There were plenty of kids to play with and the place where the party was held had bounce houses, trampolines, slides and all kinds of other stuff to play with and on. He really liked playing pool, he kept putting all the balls on the table and hitting them all in with the stick over and over until it was time to eat cake.

This last one is me and Connie. Selina didn't want to wear her tiara so Connie did.

Strawberry picking

2011-05-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

This year we decided to go strawberry picking again. It is about an hour drive from the house to the farm but to be able to live in a big city and get to a real farm in the country in that amount of time isn't too bad at all. Chance was a great help, he took his own basket and filled it up, then came back for another one and filled that one up too! He was excited to show me all the strawberries he picked. It wasn't too hot out because there was a really great breeze blowing over the field.
I have wanted to try canning for a while now and after a lot of internet research and a book by my side I decided I was ready to try. I used most of our strawberries to make jam then put them in the jars, lowered them into the canner then ten minutes later pulled them back out and waited. You have to wait till the jars completely cool before you know if the process worked. After 24 hours of waiting I checked the lids and voila, the jars were sealed. I am so happy! Now, I am going to make some salsa. I have everything I need except the actual tomatoes so we will be making a trip to the farmers market son for those. Our goal with canning isn't really to save money as it is about the same cost as store bought but to be able to eat more local fruits and vegetables. We can't go to the farmers market every day and even every week is much more tedious than the grocery store but if we can buy in bulk and can them so they are available whenever we need them this local thing just might work.

Best strawberry jam ever!

like father like son

2011-05-04T10:56:00.000-07:00

I walked into the front of the house the other day and this is what I saw. They are so cute, I mean handsome, I mean cute!

Storyland Playdate

2011-05-04T10:32:00.000-07:00

Storyland is such a great little place for a playdate. There is plenty of shade, the whole place is securely fenced and Chance has a wonderful time playing there with his friends. It's a little different from the first time we went to Storyland, now Chance just runs around playing everywhere barely looking back to see if I am there. The best part is just when I start thinking he could go it without me he comes up, grabs my arm and says "Mommy let me show you something" and off we go.
This time there was music playing in one of the pavilions and when Chance heard it he started dancing (see below) it was so funny. He has really started getting into music, playing it and dancing to it. His dancing isn't the best but man is it cute.
There is an amusement park connected to Storyland and now that Chance is getting older and can ride most of the rides at the amusement park we are thinking of getting a season pass that will give us another place to frequent around town. Chance loves being outside, running around and going fast so the amusement park will be right up his alley.

Hiking in the Park

2011-04-27T13:39:00.000-07:00

They have been expanding the trails at City Park so we went to check out all the progress and make sure the swing was still in place. Chance asked us to read every sign along the path. So we learned all about the trees in the forest as well as the animals and birds that live in this area.

Chance has been working really hard on swinging by himself and is starting to get the hang of pumping his legs. No only was the swing still there someone had put up a brand new swing. Chance had a good time practicing his swinging. I think I will put this on the calendar and bring our playgroup back for a hike and picnic.

Planting Flowers Playdate

2011-04-27T13:28:00.000-07:00

Every year around Earth Day we have a playdate in which we let all the little ones plant some type of plant. This year we did marigolds in one pot and a few seeds in another. I am horrible at keeping plants alive and so have already killed off all of the things we planted but it was fun getting dirty at the time.

Chance did a great job following direction and was proud of his flower.

French Quarter Fest Day 3

2011-04-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Day three was our shortest day at French Quarter Fest. The Zydepunks were playing at the stage closest to our house and although we were all pretty tired from the two days before this is a band we all really like and usually they play bars and clubs late at night that Chance can't get in to so this was our opportunity to catch them live as a family. We all walked over and again got to sit right by the stage. This band is so unique as their name suggests they play Zydeco mixed with punk also mixed with klezmer and polka and fais-do-do it's really interesting to listen to. They have two accordions and a fiddle player which Chance just loves. He is so into violin. As a matter of fact today there was a violin player in the park and he came over to me specially to tell me that was the instrument he wanted to learn to play.
After about one song Chance was already asleep on my lap and he stayed that way till it was time to walk back to the house. It was a great show though and I would greatly enjoy seeing them again sometime.

This was taken before they started to play, you can see he's already tired.

French Quarter Fest Day 2

2011-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

Playing catch up again, sorry about that but here we go...
The second day of French Quarter fest was pretty awesome, Scott was able to come with us so we spent the whole day together as a family seeing some great bands and just having fun. The day started at the US Mint where there were two stages and the closest ones to our house.

We all sat on the grass right in front of the stage. Chance was in the groove today and just laid down on the ground and put his head on my lap to listen to the music. We had never heard the band before but they were pretty good and a great start to the day.

After that we walked all around the place. Down the riverwalk and past a few other stages just enjoying the festival. After grabbing some nachos at a really tasty little Mexican restaurant we stopped to listen for a while at another stage and found a another great local band we had never heard before but which we all really liked. These two pictures are Scott and Chance hanging out listening to John Lisi and the Delta Funk.

The one performer (Alex McMurray) we had been looking forward to seeing all day didn't start till 5:30pm but we were still out and about so we found ourselves a spot right by the stage and had a seat. Chance had been having fun all day (you can tell by how dirty his face is in the picture below) so after a couple songs he crawled up in my lap, lay down and went to sleep. The show was very good however and well worth the wait. After the show Chance woke up, the little nap having given him the energy to walk all the way back to the house.

French Quarter Fest Day 1

2011-04-10T09:29:00.000-07:00

This weekend is French Quarter Fest which as you know means the whole festival happens just blocks from our house. FQF is the largest free local music festival in the world (that's what the website says anyway) they have 9 or 10 stages dedicated to local music and it's all free. We have gone to the festival every year as a matter of fact I think FQF was the first live music (other than Scott at home) Chance ever heard. Chance is old enough this year to really stay all day and enjoy himself so this year we are hitting the festival every day.

It started Friday with just Chance and myself since Scott was working. We were on a mission to make it down the riverwalk to the Louis-Louis stage by 11:00am as a friend of mine's restaurant was sponsoring the group playing at that time. We stopped for a while to watch the river before heading on down to hear Marc Stone. They were a lively way to start off the festival and although I didn't feel compelled to buy their album I will definitely look into heading to J'anitas (friend's restaurant) to check them out again.

Chance watching the band

Chance wearing beads a guy gave him at the concert.

After we listened to some more music we took off looking for something to eat, although all the festival food is amazing! Honestly this is not hotdogs and hamburgers people we are talking crawfish etouffee and fried shrimp po' boys that is exactly what backfired on me with a four year old who I forgot to warn about the food choices and so I felt bad that there was nothing he would normally eat there. So we went on a mission to find more Chance friendly food and ended up at the Clover Grill. With only four tables and a bar I wasn't sure there would be space but turns out it's just far enough all the beaten festival path that there was plenty of room for us. We sat at the bar so as not to take up too much of their precious space and ate a super tasty hamburger and hotdog. It was soooo good after all that walking around that food really hit the spot.
After lunch we walked on down to our mailbox where we picked up the mail and then walked on home to rest and wait for Daddy to get home.
We left the house at 10:30 in the morning and arrived back at the house at about 4:30 in the afternoon. It was a long day but tons of fun!

Crepes Playdate

2011-04-10T09:09:00.002-07:00

From the pictures it doesn't look like Crepes have anything to do with this playdate, but in fact crepes are what brought us to this location. One of the members of our playgroup owns Crepes A La Cart in town, a little place that sells nothing but crepes, coffee and juice drinks right next to Tulane university. She gave a discount to the group so we met at the restaurant got some crepes and coffee and walked across the street to picnic on the Tulane campus.
It was a great playdate! The crepes were amazing, as a matter of fact I would go back right now and eat another one if it wasn't on the other side of town the one I had was full of salmon, cream cheese and red onions, my mouth is watering right now...anyway the field had plenty of trees and was totally fenced in so the little ones couldn't easily escape. Two thumbs up all around!

Chance playing fetch with a dog who was walking in the area with his owner.

Chance and Elissa rolling down the hill.

awesome smiley face

2011-04-10T09:09:00.001-07:00

Chance's awesome smiley face while riding on the flat cart at Lowe's when we went to pick up some new mulch for the yard.

New Refrigerator!

2011-04-10T08:57:00.001-07:00

We have needed a new refrigerator for a while. The fridge that came with the house was very small like you would find in a rental apartment because that is exactly what our house was before we moved into it, the fridge did it's job but it was impossible to buy things up and store them in the freezer, there just wasn't enough room. Scott received an unexpected bonus from his job and so we used a portion of it to buy a new refrigerator as soon as we got home.
It is so nice to have be able to get everything in there and still have room for all the things I want to store. I am going to start visiting farmers markets and freezing all sorts of local vegies and fruits. I've already picked out the canning book I want to buy so I can learn what how to can other things, I especially want to start storing up tomatoes and making my own tomato sauce from local ingredients and start canning that as well. So exciting to finally have the space to do these things I've been thinking about doing for a long time.

Chance demonstrating how the water/ice dispenser will work (the plumber will be coming soon to hook it up)

Chance showing you how the light comes on in the fridge. It is called "ramp up lighting" which is just fancy talk for the light comes on slowly (like a dimmer switch) instead of all fully on as soon as you open the door.

Riding the Train

2011-04-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Earlier in our trip to Florida we went to Lakes Park to hang out with a friend of mine and let Chance play. While there we noticed they have a train that takes you on a tour of the park. We hadn't planned to take the train that day and so didn't really have time but I promised Chance we would come back to ride it before we left to come back to New Orleans.
So, the last day we were in Florida we all went to the park to ride the train. It was a fun little ride around the park, you can tell Chance enjoyed it by the look on his face.

Visiting in Orlando

2011-04-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

A few days before we left Florida, Chance and I made a trip up to Orlando to see some friends, drop off beads and visit for a while. Peter and Chellee have been friends of mine for a long time, almost 16 years now (that is crazy!) and they have three wonderful kids. I procrastinated too long with our day trip to Orlando and so we weren't able to stay very long, next time we are in Florida maybe we can go up and spend a night with them.
Chance had a great time playing with Javan and Abbi we were sorry we missed Brea (she wasn't feeling well). Chellee took a few pictures of the kids playing you can check one of them out on her their family blog here.

Joy Riding

2011-04-10T08:21:00.000-07:00

Chance loves to ride on the lawn mower in Florida but the first couple weeks we were there it was off being repaired. Fortunately it returned in time for a little joy riding (and lawn mowing). Scott and Chance rode all around the five acres. You can't really tell but they are both laughing and yelling "wooooohooooooo" the whole time during this ride around. The lawn mower sound drowns out their voices so you will just have to use your imagination with these two photos.

Here they come:

There they go:

Sleeping Chance Pictures

2011-04-10T08:16:00.000-07:00

These are just a couple sleeping Chance pictures. The first one was taken at naptime when we were staying in the hotel with Scott in Florida. Chance is a lucky little guy when we stay at hotels he gets the whole fold out sofa bed to himself, evidently that's still not enough room since his leg is falling off the side.

I took this second picture when we were driving back to Ikea in Tampa from Ft. Myers. We were just getting our day started but he was already ready for a nap.