A Stroll Through Memory Lane

One of the days while we were visiting everyone in Indiana, Jaxin & I met up w/ Aunt Tabetha. The three of us went to Goodrich Park. I had wanted to take Jaxin there because I had played there many times as a child myself. My favorite thing was the catepillar, which is still there! They had added a lot of new things, but much of the original was still intact. I was disappointed that they removed the bridges from behind the park that once crossed the stream. I have so many memories from sitting and playing on those bridges. When I was in Girl Scouts, we set up camp near there and played games on the bridges. My best childhood friend, Kami, and I would catch crawdad's down there too in the summertime. Anyway, after we played at the park (it was soooo hot & humid out), we went to the China House for lunch & then to the House of Flavors for dessert. I had a black raspberry milkshake. Tabetha had sugar cookie icecream. And Jaxin had a SpongeBob Squarepants popsicle-well, he didn't like it much and ended up drinking some of my milkshake. We had a fun day! Tabetha, I wish we lived closer and could do this more often!!! Wish Brian could have came that day. We miss you guys.

I scream, you scream....We all scream for Ice Cream!

Jaxin loves ice cream. He gets it more often than I'd like him too. However, as long as he's not eating it for breakfast, lunch, & dinner, I will cave and let him induldge and enjoy this sweet treat once in a while. Here's a few photos I caught of him experiencing his first ice cream cone:

This first pic is my favorite!

Fall Fashion in July!

Gymboree was having their Gymbuck's Redemption Sale. I had $75 in Gymbucks to begin with and went shopping for some of these items at our mall. Then my sister had $50 in Gymbucks that she wasn't going to use, so she gave me the codes so I could use them online. You earn gymbucks from previous purchases; spend $50, get $25 gymbucks. Then when it's time to redeem them, you get 50% off of merchandise that you buy! It's a great deal because Gymboree clothing is on the expensive side. This is the clothing that I bought for Jaxin for this fall:

These items are from the Baby Boy Mighty Dinos line:

This shirt is from the Big Kids Mighty Dinos line:

Hopefully he'll be potty-trained by this fall, so he can wear these cute undies! I already bought 2 other pairs earlier this summer. One has monkeys on it, and I forget what the other pair has on them.

The following items are from their Big Kids Stuntman Collection:

This shirt is from the BigKids Secret Agent line:

This hooded sweatshirt was on sale and is from the Big Kids line:


This outfit was on sale and is for next summer. It's a size 4:

Jaxin has a few long-sleeve shirts from Feb/March that will probably still fit him this fall. I've bought him 2 pairs of jeans as well. I'm sure I'll buy him some more outfits once the weather gets colder, but I'm really going to try not to go overboard on shopping. I bought him entirely way too much this summer & there's shirts that he's either never worn, or has only worn once! Most of his Gymboree outfits for this summer have barely been worn either-which is ridiculous since they were so expensive-I paid full price for most of them!

The Crayola Factory 07.11.09

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The Crayola Factory was the last place we visited while Michelle & Piper were here. There were so many different activites for them to do. Jaxin really enjoyed the model magic. You color it and mold it into shapes or cut out shapes & then it dries and retains it's shape. He loved Inside Out, which was a curved glass wall that you could color on both sides. He was fascinated by Cool Moves. There was a small dance floor with music playing, and as you danced your image was projected onto a screen. He was very upset when we left this area. Any project after that he was just not into. We attempted finger painting. He made a fish paint rubbing. He wasn't in a very good mood though-he needed a nap! Piper seemed to really enjoy everything. She had a little meltdown as well, but like a I said, it was nap-time. Inside the Crayola Factory we found a penny machine, which Michelle & I were super excited about. We cheered when we saw it, and probably looked like a couple of dorks. With each place we visited, we got souvenier rolled pennies made. I'll try to take pictures of them and post them sometime. We had lunch at McDonald's - our only option - and then visited two different gift shops. At the Crayola gift shop, a giant crayon was encased in glass. It's the world's largest crayon. It's name is Big Blue. It's 15 ft long and weighs over 1500 lbs! There was a fountain outside across the street that the kids wanted to go see...then it was time for them to fall asleep in the car on the way home.

Please Touch Museum 07.10.09

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While Michelle & Piper were here visiting, we all went to the Please Touch Museum, located in Philadelphia. I think the kids had a great time there. There were many exhibits for them to see & touch & experiment with. There was a special area downstairs for children under 3. That's where the beanstalk & cow were. The pictures at the beginning of the slideshow were taken there. There was an Alice in Wonderland themed area that was really interesting. Jaxin & Piper had a tea party w/ the Mad Hatter & then had their own inside of a hollow tree. Jaxin was very upset when we left that area-he really likes pretend food-I need to buy him more. Then we went to an area that was set up like a construction site, which Jaxin loved and could have stayed there the whole day moving the "cement" bricks (they were foam). Piper went shopping and picked out lots of goodies. She also played in the nursery with the babies while Jaxin delivered mail & visited the play McDonald's. Upstairs we visited City Capers, Flight Fantasy, River Adventures & the Carousel. The space room was my favorite & I love the pics of the kids w/ the space rocket. The piano keys that they ran across were very cool as well. The keys lit up & played notes as the kids ran across it. They really liked the carousel and we all really like the river adventures-especially Jason. That's right, Jason was playing in that area by himself while Michelle & I were taking the kids to another exhibit. haha :) It was a very fun day & I would really enjoy taking Jaxin back there sometime later this year!

Happy Birthday, Nana!

Today, Nana (Wanita) celebrated her 60th birthday. Jason & Jaxin took her out for breakfast and bought her flowers. Then the three of them went to Springton Manor Farm in Glenmore, PA. They were able to walk the grounds and meet and greet w/ the animals there. They said that Jaxin really enjoyed it but was a bit timid about petting the animals. He only pet a goat and was scared to pet a horse. He really like the peacocks though. They also have a butterfly house (which I can't wait to see!), and Jason said that he had to carry Jaxin the whole way through because he was scared. Doesn't surprise me....he's terrified of bugs!

I decided it would be cute to get pictures of Jaxin in a tuxedo for Wanita's birthday. I found a tux w/ tails online & had pics taken on Saturday. He did a very good job & we got a few good ones. I had an 8x10 collage made for her from the two pictures above, and she loves it! :) I also made a birthday cake for her and put real flowers on top. She thanked me a zillion times and said that it was the first birthday cake anyone had made for her....I'm so glad you liked it, Wanita! I hope you had a great birthday!

Cousins & Wizards & Dragons, OH MY!

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Michelle and Piper came to visit us last week. I hadn't seen Piper since she was 11 days old! It was so nice to see them both and watch the kids interact with each other. Jaxin was very sweet and didn't mind sharing his toys, while Piper wasn't too keen on the idea of sharing. She warmed up though and did better at sharing than I thought she would. Each morning when they would wake up, the first thing they would do was ask where the other one was. They got a long well the first few days, but near the end of their visit, I think Piper was ready to go home and tired of being "out of her element", as she kept wanting to hit Jaxin occasionally for no reason. And at times, it seemed that even if Piper looked at him wrong, Jaxin would run screaming and crying. Terrible 2's...enough said. All in all, they were very cute together. I do wish that we lived closer so that they could grow up together. But, we'll be visiting them while we're in Indiana in 3 weeks. If we can make a point to visit each other a couple times a year, I'll be satisfied.

We kept very busy during their visit. We took the kids to several different places. The first was Dutch Wonderland. Piper had more fun going on rides than Jaxin did. He was a bit scared to do some of them. Hopefully next year he'll be more adventurous, as we'd like to take them to Sesame Place next summer! They both thoroughly enjoyed themselves at Duke's Lagoon. They were having so much fun there that we lost track of time and ended up staying a lot later than planned. Of course Michelle and I were busy being "shutterflies & picture nazi's" too! It was a fun and eventful day, and we were all exhausted once we got home. I'll post about our other adventures soon.