Overnight With The Cousins

Boogs spent Wednesday night at my sister's house so that I could go to a work meeting and a new house meeting on Thursday. When I got to my sister's house to pick him up, she said, "Before you see him, I want you to know that he is really okay." That freaked me out a bit. Boogs fell off of the trampoline. Luckily, he ONLY banged his lip. His teeth aren't loose and there won't be any scars. Boogs cried when he saw me. He was having such a good time (fat lip and all) that he wanted me to leave and come back later. Here's a picture of his lip.

Busy...

It has been very busy around here lately. We actually signed on the house. Now, the packing stage is underway. I can't believe how much stuff we have in our house. Way too much stuff! Next week we are having the house painted and the carpet and floors redone. This week we are trying to get everything off the walls and minimize what is in the house. Boogs in hanging in there with a whole lot less attention than usual. I hate to admit it but he has been watching quite a bit of television while I have been packing. He has also been helpful (when he is not pulling things out of boxes) by working on cleaning the baseboards for the painters.

Fable Fest

Pin the tail on the dragon

We went to Cedar Park Library's Fable Fest two weeks ago. Boogs had a  great time.

He played a lot of games. After he played pin the tail on the dragon he told the booth attendant, "That was so easy because I could see right through the mask. You should make sure to get a better mask next time. What is my prize for getting it right?"

Skull face painting

Mad Hatter Tea Party

Group dance

Daddy time

Sweet Berry Farm

The tradition continues...we went on our annual trip to Sweet Berry Farm to pick a Halloween pumpkin. We had a great time this year. Boogs loved playing on the trucks, boats, and hay bales. He raced through the cornfield maze so fast that, at times, I thought I would lose him. We made it through the kiddie maze in record time. My husband told Boogs to stay to the right on the path and then gradually work your way into the interior of the maze. We quickly found the bell to ring and then had Boogs take us out of the maze without any help from us. I was amazed at how quickly he found the exit. I would have taken me at least twice that long. Luckily, he has his daddy's sense of direction.

Boogs really took his time painting his pumpkin this year. First, he made a face on it. Next, he told us he wanted to make it creepy. He started putting white splotches on it. I asked what the splotches were and he said, "Those are white blood cells. They are attacking my pumpkin's face like they attack bacteria. That is pretty creepy, isn't it?" Wow, that kid has quite the imagination. We read about white blood cells in a Magic School Bus book.

Boogs picked a pumpkin for our jack-o-lantern. Last year he wanted a "throwing-up" jack-o-lantern. This year he said he wants a spiderweb one. I am so glad that daddy is the official pumpkin carver.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Spider Bushes

We had to get a few more bags of spiderwebs to cover the front bushes. Boogs got trapped in the spiderweb but escaped before the giant spider was able to eat him.

House Hunting

Whew! We have been busy looking at houses for about two months. Three weeks ago, we thought we had found "the" house, but it did not work out. We had to keep looking. Poor Boogs has been dragged around to over 20 houses, lots, and models during the past few weeks. He has been so good throughout all of this! The funny thing is how much he soaks in when you don't think he is listening. We were playing "Pet Shop" in his room this morning. It is a game we made up where one of us has to go to the pet shop to be the pet and the other one has to pick out a pet and purchase all the necessary supplies. Today, Boogs was a hamster. In the middle of playing he said, "I have a great idea. We should talk about a new design show called "Homes for Hamsters".  Then he started describing different hamster house designs. Some were glow in the dark, shaped like keys, built with running tubes up to the ceiling… The list of his ideas went on and on. Boogs went over to his dresser and “typed in” the design changes he liked. Then he told me he was going to talk to the designer about making the changes.  I wrote down a few of the things he was saying: “Designer, could you stop putting mirrors on the cages so the hamsters don’t freak out.”  “We should add a little mini-trampoline in case a cage has a hole for the hamster to bounce back from falling down the hole.” “Momma, that designer said he can’t make our changes. We will have to go somewhere else.”  “This designer said he will do it. I want to work with the designer named Semani Sam, he is the one that will make the changes.” (I think he named him after Yosemite Sam)

Shortly after his “discussions” with the designers, Boogs decided to become a designer. He came up with three models: Holes on Racetrack, Blue Tip, and Chocolate Spin. The Holes on a Racetrack home had holes with mini-trampolines, a racetrack tube and a swimming pool. The Blue Tip design was “a more spread out design”, with twirly vorley vents for teaching hamsters how to run fast. The maze trap in this design will “teach them how to get out of traps and dead ends like the corn maze at pumpkin time at Sweet Berry Farms.” It also has a pickle maze. Boogs did not say much about his Chocolate Spin design. I asked him how he came up with so many different designs. His answer, “I am just an expert about them.”

We think we have found a house that will fit our family perfectly. Now, we just have to get through the next six months of selling our house, building the new one, temporarily living in an apartment, and everything that goes with all of that. Keep your fingers crossed that it will run smoothly and on schedule. Here is a link showing the model of our new home.

http://tours.tourfactory.com/tours/tour.asp?t=444614

Getting Ready for Halloween

We made it until October 4th before we put up the outside Halloween decorations. Boogs LOVES Halloween. It is his favorite time of year.

I try to make his meals a little bit more decorative around Halloween. Here are three Halloweenish food items we have had so far. I am having a lot of fun with Boogs.

Monster bagel with berries.

Quesadilla ghosts with a monster orange.

Buttered cat toast and a boiled egg disguised as a bunny.

Treasure Box

 A couple of weeks ago, Boogs and I bought an unpainted "treasure box" from Michael's. Boogs finally wanted to paint it this week. Of course he chose orange, his favorite color. After the box dried, we played Treasure Hunt. Boogs decorated eight pieces of paper with ink and stamps and I wrote clues on the back of each page. Each clue led to the next clue's hiding spot, with the final clue leading Boogs to the treasure box. The clues had Boogs moving a different way to get to each new place. They said things like "run to the place where your Science equipment lives", "hop on one foot and peek behind the smallest sofa", "crawl to the place where you pick out your night time story". He had a great time following the clues to his treasure. Inside the treasure box was a single marshmallow. Boogs wanted to play this game over and over again.