it was one of those days...

It was one of those days that went on FOREVER...and I know now 3.5 years later no matter how slow the days go when you are stuck inside trying to keep your little one entertained the weeks and months and years go by WAY TOO FAST!  So this is what mommy and Dalton did today on this very slow day!

We woke up to cold rain and more cold rain and more cold rain...all day!  So we watched a little TV, played dress up and put our fires with our firefighter gear and hunted down dragons with our knight equipment, moved the basketball goal inside and played a little basketball and of course stayed in our PJ's until lunch that included Mac & Cheese more for mommy than Dalton that little guy seems to be getting pickier and pickier!  It's hard to believe that he won't even eat Mac & Cheese:(  We finally showered and got dressed after lunch and sprung a surprise on Dalton...while shopping yesterday mommy came across a good buy on some rainy day fun and it came in super handy today!  So Dalton asked me to wrap it up...so of course mommy did!  

This is his "I am so excited" face...

It didn't take too long!

Super cool...8 games in 1 (bingo, checkers, dominoes, etc.)

How does this work again...mommy and Dalton didn't have the same plans for how to play the games!  Surprise Surprise!  Don't miss the basketball goal in the background!

After playing with his surprise we drug out several more games and puzzles...not sure if it's his age or just his personality but they just don't really seem to be his thing!  He would rather be doing something more physical...I am hoping that it's just his age:)  Luckily daddy came home earlier than usual because he had a dinner/meeting later in the day and would be gone until after Dalton was fast asleep!  So Dalton played with him for a short while and mommy got a quick break and a phone call with another mommy friend who had spent the day trying to entertain her little people and was feeling guilty about TV time!   And I am here to say if that too much TV is the worst thing that we do to our children we are doing OKAY!  Anyhow...we started making brownies before daddy left again and helped pass some time before dinner...which was McDonald's drive-thru by the way!  So we had our picnic Happy Meal dinner on the living room floor, BIG bubble bath for Dalton and PJ's for mommy and Dalton and snuggle time on the couch to watch Diego and Backyardigans!  Then off to read stories and bedtime for Dalton and laundry folding time for mommy and a little blogging too:)

Dalton with silly bubble hair in the tub!

  Oh and I also finally took some pics of our beautiful fall trees...

mommy i love you SO much

Those are the words from my Dalton's mouth as mommy is putting his PJ's on tonight!  Totally out of the blue...just what he said...I love him SO much too!  It was a perfect ending to a great weekend!  

We kept Dalton's youngest cousin Friday morning and had tons of fun...we have a VERY LARGE box that now lives in our dining room and Thursday when the older cousins were visiting they named it the "cousins clubhouse" with overhead lighting and lots of decorating with markers!  Well the littlest cousin had just as much fun as the older ones did in it as well as dressing up in the knight costume and jumping on the beds...oops I don't think I mentioned that one to her mommy when she picked her up!  Hope that's okay...she has the best laugh and it was the loudest when they were jumping on the bed so we jumped!  Friday night was also mommy and Dalton's slumber party...every once in a while we use our blow up mattress in Dalton's room and have a "slumber party" he thinks it's the coolest thing!  This time he told me I should check with my husband to make sure it's okay if I stay the night...too funny!  We read as many books as he wants, snuggle and lights out...he tosses and turns all night mommy gets very little sleep but it's all worth it to see the look on his face when he talks about it!  Well, Saturday morning mommy had to get up extra early because his soccer game was early so he woke up when mommy was already in the shower and was SO VERY MUCH disappointed that mommy wasn't there when he woke up!  It broke mommy's heart...daddy said he came in and said something like "I thought we were having a slumber party?"  and daddy tried to explain and Dalton just said he was going to go lay back down...oops!  SO when mommy got dried off from her shower she went and talked to him and he was SO SAD but he told me it was okay in his trying not to cry voice...wow I felt bad!  My kind heart got the best of me and said I would do it again Saturday night...I temporarily lost my mind! 

Saturday morning was Dalton's last fall soccer game and it was chilly (like 52 degrees....brr) and we have been spoiled because it has normally been in the 60's or 70's!  So we layered up and headed out...since my last post about Dalton and his soccer adventures he has become more open to the soccer experience...we only missed one game and he played in all of the rest without tears or too much hesitation!  I don't think that there was any bribery in at least the last three games to get him to play!  And he has already said that he misses his coaches...they were really great to the kids...we even had a pizza/cookie party at CiCi's Pizza after the game and they got their medals too!  Dalton insisted on wearing his to a birthday party later in the afternoon...and he wasn't the only one there sporting his medal...big day for YMCA soccer players all over the town apparently!  

Coach Katie giving Dalton some instruction during practice...Luke Coach Katie's two year old is the little bundled up one behind her...like I said brr it was cold!  Dalton never complained he was layered up with warm pants and a sweatshirt though!

Coach Cassie and Dalton trying to get a goal during practice...none this season during game time!  But he had fun just running around and that is what matters most...proud of him that he stuck with it even though he wasn't comfortable with it at all at first!

Dalton getting his very cool medal at Ci Ci's he loves it!

The birthday party was a HUGE hit...it was Iron Man themed and had a personal appearance from Iron Man himself a.k.a. the birthday boys daddy!  But no one figured it out...it was WAY CUTE to see the look on that birthday boys face...the costume WAS NOT GOOD!  The birthday mommy and daddy were the first to say it not me and they were totally cracked up about it but the kids thought it was way COOL!  Dalton asked him about spider man but didn't want to have his picture taken with him!  The other BIG excitement was a go-cart that belonged to the birthday boy's cousin they all got to take turns taking rides and they also had cake and ice cream and a pinata that was very popular too!  We came home and mommy left again to get take out for dinner while daddy and Dalton had light saber battles...have I mentioned that daddy has introduced Star Wars, etc. to the lil guy!  Mommy is not quite on board yet...we are agreeing to disagree on this one...I am sure it is not the worst thing but mommy wants him to stay little as long as he can.  Mommy still loves to watch him sing and dance at the end of Backyardigans not sword fight with droids!  And then of course slumber party #2...we both survived and mommy laid on my blow up mattress until I heard his voice say "it's time to get up mommy"!  

Iron Man...he had called the birthday boy the night before to get directions to his house! 

The boys were great about waiting their turns...it was a short ride up and down their short street so the boys would run up and down the sidewalk with the go cart!  Dalton is in the lead of this pack of boys!

Check out his cool ride...he wanted to drive...no buddy maybe next time when you are like 10!

Sunday morning we headed to church and then lunch at our favorite Chinese restaurant after where we ran into two police officers one of which was a motorcycle police officer!  They were both very nice to Dalton and gave him a high five on our way in.  After lunch we headed home for a while and played inside until Dalton remembered that part of a good slumber party is getting donuts...so off we went to Krispy Kreme in the middle of the day for our doughnut!  And then we realized how amazingly warm it was outside so we played and played outside with just mommy and Dalton while daddy graded papers (somebody has to work around here)  and then later with some of our neighbor friends too! 

boo...i know it's pretty scary that I am actually posting

I think last week was  SOOOO BUSY!  GOOD BUSY...but busy!  

Monday night mommy and Dalton met some of mommy's college friends (Tara and her two kids and Vonnie) at Story book Forest at Lake Arcadia!  It was our first year and it was pretty cool...Dalton loved it!  When we got there was a lady reading stories around the camp fires for the kids to listen too and then we waited in line with our friends for a short time and then headed through the forest and came upon lots of good nursery rhyme fun.  And at the end of the trail with our pumpkins full of candy we headed to the hay ride pulled by a John Deere tractor of course both Dalton and his buddy Drew were very impressed!  We even saw a family of deer and a great view of the lake as the sun was setting...good timing!  And after the hay ride we parted ways and Dalton and mommy played a couple of game like spin the wheel and bean bag toss!  And then we headed back through the forest to the clearing to head home and that's when he notices the night sky...and he says "momma it's beautiful...in his oh so serious 3.5 year old voice!  He goes to bed so darn early because he gave up his nap a VERY LONG time ago that he rarely sees a night sky but this past week he saw plenty due to all of the Halloween festivities! He also saw several BIG campfires for the first time and he said "they make me so warm"!  It was really cool because you could purchase hot dogs to roast or marshmallows but I wasn't brave enough on my own to have him near that campfire while the amateur hot dog roaster tried to get us some dinner so we had McDonald's on the way home instead!  He said funny things like..."are the stores still open?"  Apparently we need to get the kid out more after 5pm in the evening:)

Just a couple of pics...

Did I mention that I was crazy control freak mom and didn't let him wear his "real" costume...it had too much white and I didn't know how dirty it would be so we just picked out some dress up clothes!  Silly SWAT team guy pose!

You better watch out SWAT team guy pose!

Rapunzel...she dropped candy from her tower...Dalton's actually landed in his pumpkin!

This itsy bitsy spider was not so itsy it was HUGE but Dalton touched it and let me know it was just the blown up kind...thanks son!

This was right after he about pushed Humpty Dumpty over the brick wall...we look with our eyes not our hands! 

The kids waiting so patiently and intently as the hay ride was pulling away!

Wednesday was our day for crafting Halloween projects...Dalton painted tiny pumpkins for his teachers and several more for us!  He even asked mommy if I wanted to paint one and of course I did...good times!   He also was more interested in the goo and seeds when we (mommy and Dalton) cleaned out the pumpkin!  Daddy took dirty dishes duty over the pumpkin carving...we had to divide and conquer that night we were running out of time!  However, he wasn't interested in the carving part...it took WAY too long for him!  He said to let him know when I was done...fine with mommy!  And of course mommy stayed up way to late making Halloween goody bags for his classmates and teachers...procrastinating mommy with a little OCD is not a good combination!

Pretty messy but LOTS of fun! 

The before picture of our pumpkin before it became a Jack-o-lantern! 

The after picture...it is supposed to be a silly face but Dalton thought it was sad!  He said next year we should have a jack-o-lantern with a smiley face!  Good idea!  He kept trying to give it a hug!

Thursday was the Fall Party at his MDO program...they didn't get to wear costumes to school but they were able to wear Halloween shirts if they had any!  And of course we did and Dalton 's was orange with a mummy that said "My mummy is awesome!"  Both mommy and daddy made it for the party...Dalton's a lucky boy he was surprised to see daddy and was ready to party...they sang a song about pumpkins on a fence, had a hide and seek game where they had to find the orange paper pumpkins and once they did they got to find a seat and eat their treats!  After treats they got to pick out a super cool Halloween tattoo and have it put on and then it was about time to load up and head home!  With more candy for our plastic pumpkin at home!

The pictures mommy got were not so great!  There were 15 kids, 2 teachers and about 10 parents in this classroom...it made it hard to get a good pic of anybody!  Just a couple of random shots...

Waiting to get his spooky tattoo...check out the cool t-shirt! 

The thumbs up is his new thing...he likes to give it to us when he's on the soccer field too!  Funny little guy! 

Yes...this is his Halloween costume and yes he got to wear it to daddy's work!  

Thursday night daddy's work/school had trick or treating at the dorms...this was Dalton's third year to go!  And this year he was all business about the candy and he even asked mommy and daddy to hold his pumpkin when it got too heavy!  I am not sure that is okay but we did it anyway!  We are lucky that he is such a picky eater when it comes to candy...we aren't so lucky when he's a picky eater with vegetables but his picky eating has come in handy for Halloween.  I am not sure he has touched any of his candy other than some animal crackers, suckers and m&m's!  So far his favorite treats have been some vampire teeth and silly glasses!

In the town we live in they moved trick or treating to October 30th...so on Saturday we played soccer in the morning and Dalton was lucky enough to spend a couple of hours with his Grandma Beverly while mommy and daddy worked on getting the house ready for lunch guests on Sunday  And then he came home got cleaned up from playing in the leaves, dirt and whatever else he could get into at Grandam and Pa's house!  The weather was beautiful so the boy had been outside ALL DAY!  Mommy and Dalton headed back over to Grandma Beverly and Pa's house to meet up with the other cousins for special Halloween treats and pictures!  And then back home and eat a quick supper and meet up with our neighbors to trick or treat in our neighborhood.  We got lucky this year and there were a ton of houses giving out candy so we spent about an hour or so with the boys running from door to door with their daddy's while the mommy's and a big sister just watched and giggled at all their enthusiasm!  

Dalton and the cousins...from left to right Southern Belle, Abby Cadabby, Fancy Nancy and of course a race car driver! 

Daddy and Dalton posing before the big event!

Mommy and Dalton before the big event...his patience with the pictures is slowly fading!

Cool house with the funky black cat...it's head moved and everything! 

Dalton thought it would be cool to trick or treat at his own house so when we were done...Jonas and Dalton rang the door bell and daddy gave them so treats!  

He was also so VERY HAPPY to give out the candy once we got home!  He answered the door once or twice with daddy...these little girls had just given him candy at their house a little earlier in the night!  

Sunday was the lunch we had been planning with one of daddy's colleagues and some of their students so after church they all headed our way!  Dalton was SO POLITE and told them "welcome to our home" when they arrived!  He can be a charmer when he wants to be and of course he made sure that they saw his room and the back yard too!  He even had daddy's colleague Kerianne playing tag in the backyard and laying in the hammock with him!  The students stayed for quite sometime and talked with daddy on the back patio and mommy chased around Dalton...it's fun to listen to the college students talk!  We even had a couple that offered to babysit for free...now you don't hear that everyday!  And after everyone had left we stayed outside and waited for Grandma Beverly to come over...we had a ton of leftovers and had asked Dalton's grandparents here in town to come over for dinner!  Grandma came a running and Pa came a little later he had to go in to work earlier in the day and came as soon as he got a chance!  It was a great day outside with neighbors too...we are blessed to live in a culdesac of people that take an interest in us and us in them!  

Every once in a while mommy captures a great moment with her camera...this was one of them!  SO STINKIN CUTE...he won't be mommy's little John Deere tractor driver forever but today he is and I am thrilled to watch every moment of it!

Just doing a little maintenance on the old tractor...

Keep checking back...I hope to get caught up on the state fair, some birthdays, soccer games and more in the coming week!