Family Fun: Forest Park Miniature Railroad

On Saturday morning, we drove downtown to check out the Forest Park Miniature Railroad.  Several months ago, one of my friends posted about this on Facebook.  I asked her about it, and she said it was a great outing!  We loved it, too! 

Isaac was so excited to ride the train.  We told him about it at supper on Friday night.  When he woke up on Saturday morning, we said, "What are we going to do today?"  Right away he said, "Ride the train!"  So fun!

The weather was perfect--it actually felt like fall!  :)

CHOO-CHOO!

We left from the Trinity Park Depot and headed south to the Forest Park Depot.  There were several bridges along the train route that were fun to cross. 

When the train ride was over, we had a picnic by the depot.  Then, Isaac ran up and down the train tracks and played in the leaves.

 

Isaac's Two Year Portraits

My dear friend Jenny, of Jenny Sawyer Photography, took Isaac's two year portraits last month. 

She found this vintage Ford truck that was a perfect backdrop for these shots.

When I first saw the pictures, I kept saying over and over, "Is this really Isaac?"  He just looks too old! 

I love how sweet Isaac looks in this picture...

but this next one is my favorite of all!  Oh, I love this smile!

Jenny's boys couldn't miss out on the opportunity to check out this awesome truck, either. 

I think they would have stayed in it all day.  :)

To check out more of Jenny's awesome work, visit her website!  Last fall, she took our family portraits, and they are some of my very favorite pictures.

Tot School: Fall Fun

This week, I'm linking up with one of my new favorite blogs, 1+1+1=1, to share Isaac's and my new "learning" adventures.  Several of my friends have RAVED about all the ideas on the Tot School/1+1+1=1 websites.  After checking it out, I see why they think they're so awesome! 

There is so much information on these websites that it can be overwhelming.  But, it is well worth it to take some time to explore everything they offer.  I've found so many fun, easy ideas to encourage meaningful learning for your little one!

Over the past few weeks, Isaac (currently 24 months) and I did several fall-themed "lessons."  One of his favorites was this fall sensory bin!  I filled it with things I found around the house...mini pumpkins and apples; apple and leaf-shaped cookie cutters; acorns; artificial leaves; and, lots of pinto beans.  :)

Another afternoon we went on a leaf hunt.  Granted, it was nearly 90 degrees.  :)  And, most of our leaves here in north Texas are brown from our drought, not autumn-like weather.  But, Isaac still had fun hunting for leaves in this field in our neighborhood.

Isaac gets so excited when I say we're going to do a "project," so I traced his hands to make this leaf project (which I found here). Then, Isaac glued leaves onto his "fingers."  (This was his first experience with glue.)  We also counted the fingers on each hand and counted the leaves.

Isaac loves pumpkins, or "pun-kins" as he calls them, so we did an activity with pumpkin sizes, too.  Isaac found "all" the pumpkins he could in our house and put them on his picnic table.  We lined them up according to size.  Isaac was enthralled with putting all the "little" pumpkins into the jack-o-lantern.  To him, every pumpkin, except for the jack-o-lantern, was "little."  He even tried stuffing his trick-or-treating pumpkin into the jack-o-lantern.  :)

I also took some of the book recommendations on the 1+1+1=1 website and reserved these at the library. Isaac is just now beginning to enjoy reading "non-board" books.



This is one of my favorites that I used to read to my students at school.  So fun to be able to read it to my own little one now!



It was a lot of fun doing these activities with Isaac.  I think a little bit of the elementary teacher in me may be sneaking out again.  ;)  Next up for Isaac's Tot School is Thanksgiving activities!

fall fun with our little lumberjack!

 We've had so much fun celebrating fall!  A few weeks ago we visited the Pumpkin Patch!

What a difference a year makes!  Last year Isaac crawled around the pumpkin patch, and this year he was EVERYWHERE!  :)

Last Friday night, we ate Jack-o-lantern pizza from Papa Murphy's (our favorite!) and carved Isaac's first pumpkin. 

For Halloween, we dressed Isaac up like a lumberjack! We already had this red flannel shirt, and it was just begging to be used as part of a lumberjack costume. :)

On Sunday night, we went to a trunk or treat at my aunt and uncle's church.  Dave was out of town for Halloween night, so this was a fun chance for him to see Isaac "in action" as a lumberjack.  :)

We also visited my Grandma at Watermere.  Isaac walked around the courtyard with his ax pretending to chop down all the trees, bushes, and flowers. 

 

Halloween night was such a blast!  Isaac got such a kick out of running up each driveway.  I'm sure I'm biased, but I think his little "trick or treat" is just adorable!

On a mission--no time to waste!

And, speaking of adorable, who can resist these two?  I don't think this picture of Isaac and Landrie could be cuter!!

Of course, my very favorite thing about Halloween is that it's the day we brought Isaac home forever!  Oh, I love this little boy!

Family Fun for Isaac's Birthday

On Isaac's birthday, we had our family over for a birthday supper.  What made it even more special is that Dave's parents--much better known as Papa and Nana--were here to celebrate with us from Colorado!

  They gave Isaac this awesome Strider bike.  A Strider bike doesn't have training wheels, so little ones learn to ride a bike by balancing their weight on the bike.  Isaac's cousin, Griffin, got this same bike for his birthday 3 months ago.  Isaac got to see Griffin in action on his bike when we visited them last month in Chicago.  Isaac still has a ways to go in learning how to balance, but he loves riding it around by pushing it with his feet.  And, he loves the helmet, which lights up every time you touch it.  :)

My cousin Nate and Uncle Jon love to play jokes.  For months, Nate has been threatening teasing me that he was going to get Isaac a dog or a 4-wheeler for his birthday.  I told him that I'd much rather Isaac receive a 4-wheeler than a dog anyday!  But, I still received a text message the day of Isaac's birthday reminding me to have enough dog bedding to take care of Isaac's new puppy. 

When Nate got to Isaac's party, he backed his truck into our yard and had Isaac check out this huge box.  I wasn't too nervous, until I heard puppy sounds coming from the box!

Well, the puppy sounds were coming from a recording inside the box, and the only "puppy" inside the box was this huge stuffed dog that Isaac now loves carrying around our house.

But, that wasn't the end!  After Isaac took the dog out of the box, my cousin Anna crawled out!  What in the world!?!?  We all thought she was in Minnesota, and she'd even texted me that week to tell me how sad she was to miss Isaac's birthday!  None of us could believe that she was really hiding in that box!  Ha!

And, after all the excitement of the dog and Anna, there was a 4-wheeler hiding in the back of Nate's truck.  (Look at the smile on my dad's face--I think he was as excited as Isaac was about this 4-wheeler!)  :)

Isaac's favorite little cousin, Amanda, was also at the party.  He calls her "Baby ManMan," which I think is the cutest nickname ever!  Isaac gets to excited every time he sees her!

 This is one loved little boy! 

Wow!  What a blast celebrating our sweet little boy.  It's hard to believe that exactly two years ago we were devastated from losing Isaac.  Little did we know that we were about to encounter a miracle!  We are so thankful for the blessing of Isaac!