Renaissance Festival & Mowing

This past week was Homecoming for Maize, so Parker, Grandma Lisa and I (Dad wasn't feeling well, so he stayed home) went to the football game Friday night. It was a bit chilly, but had a good time regardless. Parker likes to watch all the people, especially the cheerleaders! One of them even gave him a little red football. He was pretty excited!

Then Saturday, Kevin, Parker and I went to the Great Plains Renaissance Festival at Sedgwick County Park. We had never been, but we know it is always a huge event. We definitely met some interesting people...there are some real characters there! We watched some belly dancers, a guy do tricks with a bull whip, a circus with trapeze artists, a man on stilts, and of course we met the King and Queen. Parker did okay; he wasn't real into it. But we must have worn him out because he sure slept good when he came home!

After Parker woke up Kevin decided to go mow the yard. I just couldn't resist capturing how Parker likes to help mow. He even helps throw the clippings away. Looks like Parker has a bright future in the lawn care business!

Grandma turns 50!

The Smith's and Meirowsky's headed down to Oklahoma City this past Friday to celebrate Grandma Lisa turning 50! We had so much down on our agenda to do : visit the Memorial, see Myraid Gardens, hit up the zoo and the science center, and cause trouble down at Bricktown. Some how we stayed SO busy and only did 2 of the above. But we had a blast!

We arrived to OKC around 1:00 and decided to walk to a sport bar to eat lunch and then continue on to the Memorial. It is such a beautiful place! By 3:00, Parker decided it was way past nap time. Thank goodness we brought his new wagon and he laid down on the way back to the hotel. I miss the days when you just pushed the stroller and he falls asleep - that is what Addie did! When we got back and put the kids down for a nap, we decided to head out to Myraid Gardens, but we didn't make it there! Instead we had a specTATular time wondering around at Bricktown and ended up looking around at a tattoo parlor! Who would have guessed that by the end of the weekend we all ended up with tattoos representing our kids! Little spontaneity I guess! I don't have pictures of Loni and Eric...have to get those later.

Friday night, one of my old student's Brooke, came to the hotel to babysit. She graduated last year and is currently at Oklahoma State so it worked out perfect! She got some babysitting money for college and we had some adult time. She said that Parker did okay (he always does good when it comes to his bedtime routine), but Addie was pretty fussy for her. I'm sure Brooke did fine and it is good birth control for her! Once Loni (and the rest of us) got back Addie did great and only got up once during the night. Parker woke up at 7 (little early, but still okay) so we went downstairs for an awesome breakfast. When we came back up, everyone was still sleeping so we put our suits on and went swimming. This was the part that I knew Parker would love! The Hampton that we stayed out is so kid friendly, but still great for adults too! As you can see he had a blast down at the pool area.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Finally we got around and got ready for the day. We went to Bass Pro Shop and looked at the fish and all the good stuff they had to offer. We ate lunch at a wonderful Mexican restaurant and headed home. I think one of the best ideas that we had was to head home Saturday so we could still have a "day of rest" before our work week started...oh, boy did we need it! I think the Meirowsky's were all in bed at 7:30 and we needed every bit of the 12 hours we got!! Happy Birthday Grandma!!

Also, last week was Big Truck Night up at the school. Parker had a good time looking/riding all the big trucks, motorcyles, and fire engines. He even got a tattoo for himself by one of the "biker dudes!"

And as of this morning, Parker is no longer a baby. We turned his crib into a toddler bed. He was so excited to be able to climb up and down into his bed! After his nap this afternoon, he was still in his bed and I showed him how to get down. Nonetheless, he still wanted to be picked up. (He's still my baby!)

Labor Day at Fox Lake

We had another great weekend at Fox Lake over Labor Day weekend. You could pretty much sum up Parker's 2 days with 4 words : "throwing rocks" & "riding the 4-wheeler" (okay, 6 - whatever!). We got there Saturday morning and the first thing Parker wanted to do was ride the 4-wheeler. I really think he could just live on that thing and be perfectly content! The only way we could get him off was to tell him "it was broke" or "it needs a rest." Then magically 30 minutes later, it was "unbroke" or "all rested" ready to go. So we had to fill the time with something, which was throwing rocks. I think between Parker and Daddy, they just about filled up the lake! Parker did squeeze a couple rounds of ball in too. OHHH the mind of a 1 1/2 year old!

It is pretty noisy at the lake for a nap, so Kevin and I's easiest way to get Parker to take a nap is to take a LONG ride on the 4-wheeler. Of course Parker puts up no objections about that. So we took a trip around the lake and on the way we found a big-rig unloading cattle into a field. Parker enjoyed watching all the cows...MOOOOO! Then a bit later we almost ran over a turtle in the road, so we pulled over to check him out. He mostly stayed inside his shell, so Parker could torture him too much. And, it never fails, he fell asleep and then we were able to stick him in the tent for an afternoon nap.

While Parker was sleeping I got some CUTE pictures of his cousin Jozlynn! She was quite the model for the camera! And this is not enough girl cutenss here is Jozlynn's blog's link : http://www.babyjozlynn.blogspot.com/

Then I was messing with my camera and the different settings - seems like I've had it forever and I still don't know everything about it. So I was taking some scenery pictures...sorry, for the boredom!

I should also note that Parker has been given the nickname "Double Trouble" at the baby sitters. Him and another boy, Kayden, (one month younger that Parker) at Tammy's are BEST BUDS right now. Where one is, the other is right there next to him. If one is not into trouble, the other is thinking about how they can get there! haha

Tammy said the other day Kayden was at the end of the stairs trying to open the baby gate and Parker was around the corner. Well, Tammy kept telling Kayden to stop and he kept pointing at Parker. "Not me...all Parker!" I'm sure that finger pointing goes both ways! Poor Tammy; she has her hands full. Not too mention that Aunt Loni & Uncle Eric's baby, Addie, is now a regular over at Tammy's house too! We think that Parker recognizes her, but he is just to busy playing ball or digging for bugs to play with Addie. I'm sure next summer it will be different when Addie is a little older.

The other mess that Tammy deals with is that all the other kiddos that she babysits likes to watch cartoons - like any other NORMAL kid would like to do. Well, Parker and Kayden like to watch ESPN. Anything dealing with a ball, those 2 are in! So, if they watch ESPN, the other kids cry and if they watch cartoons, Parker and Kayden cry. I think they have a system worked out over there. Tammy said she hasn't had that problem before; she has some kind of patience!

Parker's newest enjoyment is to "drive" our vehicles. As soon as you get him out of the car seat, he literally dives for the front seat so he can push all the buttons, get the windshield wipers going 100 mph, turn on the turning signal, and honk the horn. You have to allow yourself 5 minutes when you are ready to go somewhere to get every thing back to way it should be. And his favorite new word is "mine." EVERTHING is "mine." He will pretend to give you something, and then last second pull it back and say "mine." Soon we are going to start the sharing process!!!