Day Out with Thomas 2011

Ryan and I had planned to take the boys to Day Out with Thomas for Benjamin's birthday. I, being the thrifty one that I am, planned to wait with James while the others rode Thomas, but then Ryan's mom bought the tickets for us including one for me. Thank you Diane! We are SO blessed to have such wonderful parents. 

  Alexander really enjoyed watching the trains run. It was amazing the kids shared as well as they did because they kept wanting to call the trains their own and take them off the track. Benjamin got bored fairly quickly and he and Ryan went to listen to the percussion guy.

 The boys weren't too impressed with the magician and Benjamin was antsy to get his ride on Thomas.

 

I kept having to tell Benjamin to keep his head inside the train. He said, "My head won't get chopped off and I won't fall out." I'm fairly sure he was correct, but I would have felt like a bad mom if I hadn't said anything.   

 Ryan is on-call at the hospital this week. We drove 2 cars up to Heber just in case he needed to leave early. The pager went off on the ride back to the station. I'm glad Ryan got to spend some time with us and ride the train.

 Benjamin really wanted to play miniature golf. Alexander was getting tired waiting and wanted to go back to the toy trains. He was pretty patient though. Without Ryan, I couldn't really show them how to use the golf clubs because James was fussy so I didn't have him in the front pack. They enjoyed the course nonetheless.

Benjamin and Alexander weren't interested at all in listening to a story teller.

 

 Alexander's reward for waiting for golf was more train play.

We went to the gift tent on the way out. I was hoping to buy a Take-N-Play Spencer for the boys, but they did not have any of those sets nor trains. It was a bummer. It kind of threw me for a loop and I wanted to get the boys something since we hadn't even bought cotton candy. Sometimes I am way too meticulous when it comes to spending money. I try to get useful items that I think they need... but they don't necessarily want. Benjamin wanted a t-shirt, backpack, or lunchbox. The t-shirts were way overpriced, he didn't need a backpack, so I let him pick the lunchbox (not really that useful after all, which I'll explain in a bit and probably not BPA-free). Alexander wanted one too and an umbrella. I had picked up a book "for James" (I don't have a problem spending a bit of money on books... especially if they're a good deal, which this one was ;) and thought Alexander needed a sleeping bag (he was really jealous of Benjamin's Lightening McQueen sleeping bag last summer). At some point Alexander put the umbrella down and said the book was his. After we got home last night, Alexander didn't want anything to do with the sleeping bag. He had napped on the way home and had a really hard time going to sleep. The last thing he was whining about before he fell asleep was that he really wanted the umbrella (Benjamin also has a Lightening McQueen umbrella and there's always sharing issues) and not the book. I ended up ordering an umbrella and Spencer online last night after Alexander went to sleep (almost 2230) because I felt bad for not letting him get what he really wanted.(Hopefully, he'll forget he was whining to get it!) Alexander still really wants the lunchbox too and Benjamin didn't want to share it nor the water bottle that came with it, but eventually did this evening... so I guess it's all good. I really do need to find a balance in my mind about spending money though... because it shouldn't be that big of an issue... (Especially, since it's taken us 3 months to finally get around to spending the part of our tax return we'd planned on spending... but that's a post for another day). We are bounteously blessed.

 

 I had forgotten about the Motor Cars, but am glad we stopped for a ride. It was definitely worth the wait  and I think it was more exciting than the Thomas ride. The boys were very patient and well behaved. James finally fell asleep after the ride.

 I'm sure if Benjamin hadn't been around, Alexander's experience at Day Out with Thomas would have been completely different. Ryan's mom has mentioned that she thinks Benjamin would have outgrown Thomas long ago were it not for Alexander's enthusiasm for Thomas. (Which is why I think the lunchbox Benjamin picked out was completely not practical... because I doubt Benjamin will ever use it for school. We'll just have to start going on a lot of picnics). It's interesting how much influence a little brother can have. In some ways, I would have rather taken Alexander by himself so that he could have had the same magical experience at Day Out with Thomas that Benjamin did 3 years ago, but it was still a good day.

Look Who's Standing!

I was showing Benjamin and Alexander the "Mr. Men" headings on Google. We had recently checked Little Miss Naughty out from the library and they were fascinated that Google had honored the author's birthday with illustrations of 16 different characters. We then found the "Mr. Men" website where the boys wanted to watch the opening animation over and over.

During this time, James was happily sitting in his crib. He gave a big smile and then put his hands on the bars. I told Benjamin and Alexander, "Let me go get the camera, I think James is going to stand up." By the time I got back, he had pulled himself up most of the way.


It's amazing to me how babies develop. James is way more squirmy than he was a couple weeks ago. He moves backwards when trying to crawl, can roll over both ways well, get into sitting position from his hands and knees and visa versa. He can also reach things that should be completely out of his range. Gram (who is visiting for 2 weeks) calls him "Mr. Incredible" (Mr. Impossible?) because of that. We went to Wendy's last night (5/12) and somehow he kept getting a hold of the frosty cup no matter where I put it. (He enjoyed having Alexander share his Frosty with him.)

It's funny to me to how James takes his cues from the older two. I was bouncing him on my knee and he accidentally somersaulted off, rotating on his shoulders like a gymnast on the rings. James wasn't sure what to think at first, but then saw Benjamin "nervous laughing" at him. James then intentionally started throwing his head back and lifting his feet trying to do it again. Silly baby.

Alexander is Our Artist

I recently read that it's against the rules to use sidewalk chalk where we live because it is considered graffiti. I'm glad we have a balcony so the kids can still use it. Alexander loves to draw. He spends a considerable amount of time drawing and pretending to write in comparison to Benjamin who will probably be called "Ben" at school because it's five less letters and takes so much less time to write than "Benjamin".

 This is what Alexander colored at church on Sunday (5/22).

He even colored the back.