Sup's field trip

A few weeks ago I had a chance to go with Sup and his preschool on a field trip. It was a lot of fun and it seemed that everyone had a fun time. 

 Every year they take the 3 year olds to Mayse Farm Market. We have been there before and had a fun time. Sup did pretty good with the picture even though the sun was in his eyes. As you can see he is one of the smallest in his class. 

 First he was able to play in the little tunnel made out of straw. I think him and another little one walk through here about a dozen times. After getting his fill of the tunnel it was off to the corn maze. 

 Luckily it was a guided tour through the maze.... Really who wants 14 little kids going through a maze??? Along the way they had little did bits of different farm animals that the tour guide explained to the kids what their role was in a farm setting. The kids did really great listening and participating. 

 At the end of the maze was a really big and fun slide. Sup was in love with this. It may have been a little hard to get him from running up the steps to go down again. I think he would have been here for a lot longer if he had a chance too. 

 Before we went on the hay ride to find our pumpkins we were treated with a nice little snack. Cookies and juice were all ready for us as we headed to the picnic tables. It was a beautiful day warm and sunny , perfect for our little field trip. 

 After our snack we headed over to the tractor and had a fun hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. When we got to the pumpkins Sup may have a little of me in him.... took the boy FOREVER to finally pick one that he wanted. Since I went along I was able to get one too and I thought I would have Sup help me and we could give it to Thomas. But since he took so long picking to pick out a second one we probably would have missed the ride back so I picked it by myself. But Sup did find his "perfect pumpkin" and happily rode back with it on his lap. 

We were able to play around in the kids straw maze and castle a little bit before the kids headed back on the bus. Sup was so excited to ride the bus that he wanted to ride it back to the school. I could have taken him right home from the farm market, but I let him have fun with the bus ride home. So I followed the bus back to the school. It was a fun day for both of us :)

More of the Fest

The Fall Festival is a 6 day event. It is really nice because it is always held Monday thru Saturday. Our first year here Eric had heard that you could go down everyday and get something different each day and come home full. 

 At first we were a little skeptical but it is very true. We didn't go every day but we did go a few times and got something different each time. Thomas likes the giant texas tenderloins. There are several booths but after a few years you start to know who sells the best of different items. 

 The deep fried cookie dough we haven't pinned pointed the best yet...well not at the fest any way. Our first experience with them was in a little hole in the wall place in Michigan, but we try a new place each year. Sup was not too impressed with them as it was too gooey for him. 

 For both of the boys the most popular item is the corn dog/pronto pups. There are ton of places with them, the boys don't seems to care if they are the hand-dipped ones, but they are the better ones to get :) 

 This year they had a contest of sorts seeing how far you have come this year to come to the fest. To be honest they may have had it before I just happened to notice it this year. If you were the farthest one you got a prize package. They had a world map and a US map. When we looked on Tuesday the far one was from California, but we may know a few people that would have ended up on the world map and most likely would have won the prize package ;) Something to think about for the coming years ;)

At the one end of the food booths they have all your carnival rides and games. The boys are really not into the rides and for the expense not really worth it for the rides for our family. But the games in the kids sections there are a lot where you can get a prize really just for playing. There are a few booths that had angry birds that you could win so you know which booths we went to :) 

Fall Fest 2012

Since we have moved to Indiana we have had a lot of fun going to the Fall Festival that is held downtown every year. It is a pretty fun place to go and you really never know what new things are going to be at the food booths. 

There are over a hundred booths that line each side of the street and has become bigger each year. The booths are ran by nonprofit groups and is a big fundraiser for many of the organizations. It is nice because the booths are in the same location year to year, so after a few years you know where most booths are and which one serve your particular favorite. 

Last year some of the places came up with a deep fried Kool-aid. (You can get really about anything deep fried at this Festival). It is almost like a donut type dough with Kool-aid added to it, or that is we have guessed. At first the boys were a little skeptical, as trying to get them to try new things isn't the easiest. But they ate up pretty fast. 

On the first day it was a little cold with some light rain, but as we were doing "our loop" around the booths the rain eventually stopped. Thomas gets this corn on the cob every year, and he loves it. With the drought we didn't think that it would be here but Thomas was happy to see that it was. 

Because of the popularity of the Fest... there are thousands of people that come throughout the week, many like ourselves more then once... they have started to add some new booths along one of the side streets. This year when we to the new booths and had these jumbo marshmallow things that Sup is holding. Really can't remember what it was called but it was a jumbo marshmallow, then covered in chocolate, and rolled in crushed graham cracker with a pretzel rod for the handle. Sup just ate the pretzel and gave Daddy the marshmallow to eat. 

Before we left the boys got some cotton candy and we were set of the night. As you can see Sup was a pretty happy camper :)

Hot Chocolate Table

The coin table was first referred to a coffee table. We didn't really think about the name simply because it was just a piece of furniture and that is what they are called. It wasn't until Daddy had it all put together and Daddy showed them the coffee table that the boys were not too fond of the name.  

So having been told several time by each boy that we can't have a "coffee" table because it is bad for our bodies the boys came up with an alternative name.... the hot chocolate table. After its new name guess what was on demand... hot chocolate ;)

Since the summer was almost unbearably hot and dry we haven't have hot chocolate since last winter. Amazingly this night was much cooler and hot chocolate did sound good. Luckily I had enough for everyone plus the marshmallows, which are a must around our household. 

So I thought what would go better with hot chocolate then a hot chocolate chip cookie....the skookie! After the pans cooled down a little the boys dug in. It was a nice little Sunday treat :) And the hot chocolate table came out really nice we were all impressed with it! 

Not the most exciting post...

We are out with the old and in with the new. When we bought our house we knew that we had a well. It wasn't a big deal for us and in fact over time I have become pretty grateful for it. It seems that our city   has a lot of boil advisories with the city water, and with the extreme drought we has this summer we didn't have to worry about a paying for a high water bill. 

 But with a well there is the holding take, and the one we had was most likely the original. So while my dad was here he was able to help Eric hook up a nice new and much more efficient tank! I know this is pretty exciting?! So the above one was pretty water logged.... meaning the tank wouldn't empty out very well so the pump was kicking on all the time, and any time we used any water. 

Here is our nice new pretty blue tank! Sup likes the color of course ;) It was not so a fun job to clean up around it after they removed the old one. And because the old was pretty much full the floor got a little wet, although that made it easier to clean up the gunk...always trying to find that silver lining ;) One more thing down on the home improvement list!

Coins

Eric came up with an idea to make a table and to use some of his coins to display them instead of having the coins sit in a tub in the basement. 

 While the boys were gone he got most of the table built but wanted the boys to help him pick out some of the coins. Because they were all different foreign coins there were some fun ones to choose from. 

 The boys could pick any ones they wanted and place the side they wanted on the table top. We didn't use all the coins we had but it was a fun little family activity. And was fun to guess what countries they came from so it a was a little educational as well ;)

Sup's outside "pet"

My Dad was kind and brave enough to bring the boys all the way back to Indiana. He stayed with us of about a week and a half and when Thomas was at school him and Sup were able to spend some time together. 

 We actually had pretty nice weather that first week and they were able to spend some time enjoying the weather outside. While they were playing in the back yard they discovered a little fuzzy caterpillar. Sup thought that this thing was the cutest thing. He was entertained by it for days (he put it in a bucket with leaves and grass but I think it may have only lasted a few days).

 At first he loved to watch it craw around Papa but he wasn't too sure about it. A little bit later he was petting it and letting it crawl on his arm as well. He was going around saying "look at my little cutie!". 

As long as he could see his "little cutie" he was just fine, but when it got up to his shoulder and his neck he would get a little concerned. So this poor little bug had a pretty busy afternoon with Sup. He also took his bucket down to the bus stop so Thomas could see his new pet. Thomas wasn't as impressed by as Sup. But Sup had a good time with it while he was around :)

The Oakroom

Since Eric and I didn't have the kids for the weekend, we wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. There are things that with young kids that is sometimes hard to do and we wanted to go to a nice place to eat and have a date weekend. Since we really never get these chances nor have date nights we wanted to spoil ourselves a little bit. 

As I was looking for place I came across this place called the Oak Room in Louisville. We were looking at either St. Louis or Louisville and this seemed promising. We had discovered that they offer a brunch and thought it would be great to go in the late morning/early afternoon. Since the Oakroom was in a hotel that was a tad over our budget and plus you had to pay for parking in the city we stayed at a nice place about 10 mins from the city. 

That night we just did some shopping and discovered different places around the city. Since we have really only been in the downtown area our view of Louisville was not particularly high. But we found some really nice places just outside the city. We got a nice hotel suite in this area and in the evening when we got back from shopping and exploring we hung out at the pool and hot tub. 

I had made our reservation for 11:00 am for our brunch, and only being a few miles away we were able to have a leisurely morning. We were able to find the hotel without any trouble and the valet in the front told us how to get to the Oakroom, up the Grand staircase and to the right...we just asked him as we parked ourselves. It was an older hotel but  there were some beautiful architecture. The grand staircase...the first pic.... was really beautiful, and things like that are not seen or done like that so it was really neat to see the inside of this historic hotel.  

Bruch was really amazing, the table circled around so this was only about half. The room was very elegant and beautiful. The host even pulled out my chair and scooted me to the table. Our waiter was a nice little french man who took very good care of us and we never felt rushed or hurried, it was great since we were there for about 2 and a half hours.  But this front table they had these jumbo shrimp (which I had my fair share ;), oysters..didn't try, smoked salmon, a huge cheese platter... with some stinky cheese included;) and grapes, various crackers, mini bagels and cream cheese.  

This table curved around the edges of the room with the center having an omelet and waffle to order table, and made by the one of the chefs, he was also the one who carved the leg of lamb that was at the end of his station. This part of the table you can see in the pic is the dessert/pastry/bread end....lets say it was pretty yummy and we may have gotten at least seconds at this table ;) At the end before the omelet chef was an ice carving and a wide variety of great fruit. There was also this orange pineapple toasted marshmallow drink, it was labeled non alcoholic so I tried it...it amazing! No idea how they made it or what made it taste like toasted marshmallow but it was good.

 At the other side they had your normal breakfast stuff, bacon, sausage, different quiches, this potato hash thing that was good, polenta...which I meant to try but didn't get a chance, but Eric did! and he said it was pretty good! I think there may have been some other breakfast things but I can't remember. On the other table they had your "lunch" part. They had this steak which I really liked. Some kind of chicken, which Eric said was good. Glazed carrots and green beans, Eric had two servings of this which was a little bit of a shock. Asparagus tips, no idea how they flavored them but were VERY good. Again missing some things but it was a very nice way to sample all of the wonderful food. It was a great experience and a great date weekend :)  

Race for the Cure 2012

On Saturday Sept 22, 2012, Eric and I decided to run the 5k for the Race of the Cure downtown. Since the kids were in Disney Eric thought it would be a great race that we could both participate in. 

I was able to pre-register both of us so the morning of the race we didn't have to worry about getting caught up in all that mess. Poor Eric wasn't able to get sleep before the race but he was in good spirits. 

I am not sure what the total number was but it was estimated that over 12,000 people were going to participate. I think besides the CRIM it was the biggest race that I have been at. It was fun and exciting to be able to run in this race. 

The morning of the race Eric and I gave ourselves of goal of what we wanted to run. Because of my foot I haven't been able to run the distances I have wanted and run as often as I would like, so I was a little nervous about this race. It was a perfect race day so Eric and I got ready at the starting line and we both were able to finish with good times. I was able to accomplish my goal so I was pretty happy :) It was a lot of fun for both of us to be able to do this together. 

Mommy and Sup time

With Thomas in school for the morning and some of the afternoon Sup and I have a lot more time to spend together just him and I. It is amazing the difference with just have one little boy vs two. 

 We have started these past few weeks going down to a trail not too far from us once or twice week in the mornings. When he doesn't have his own preschool to go to. The trail is right by the river and Sup loves to watch and look at the water.  

 This was the first morning that we decided to take a walk. I had a stroller and he was happy as could be just sitting and watching all the things around him. On our way back he was ready to walk and discover things. There is a nice little place with benches and it right near the water...but not too close ;) It was fun to see him just explore and and fun with the rocks and dirt...what is better for a boy ;) 

 Sup is good at finding anything he can play with. So he found these clods of dirt and they were now his sidewalk chalk to write and draw with. This entertained him for quite a while and he would continuously find new ones because his chalk would "run out" kinda quick.  It was a very nice morning so I just relaxed on the bench and had fun watching him play. 

I am sure many may be aware, but if your not this kid can run... and run fast.... and run fast for a long period of time. I have learned since then to wear my running shoes so I can keep up with this boy. It is a good thing that we bring the running stroller as well so again I can keep up with him. It seems to be a good time for both of us :)

World of Angry Birds

A few months ago Thomas entered the world of the angry bird game. Eric and I got got it on our computer and Thomas wanted to try it out. 

 Lets just say it has become very popular around our home. If it it something you may not be familiar with there are a couple of versions. There is a "regular" angry birds game and a space birds version. They like both but space is the more popular version.  

 With kids day we got the boys a non-computer type game where they can create their own towers with the pigs on and around them. Then they can use the launcher to launch their birds and knock the pigs off the towers. As you can see he lined up all his birds to launch at the piggies.   

They both love to sit and come up with different ways to place their pigs and launch their birds at them.  Thomas of course has to watch out for the biggest bird of them all....our little Sup ;) trying to knock down his piggies and well constructed tower first ;) Little brothers can be so fun :)