Partying at the Library!

This was the last week in the Summer Reading Club at the library. (tear, tear) I have already blogged about how great this has been for both of us this summer. Yesterday, the 3-5 year old group had a party where some of the kids dressed like rock stars. They had arts and crafts to do and had cookies and punch. Today, we finished up with the 0-3 year program and I was seriously having to hold back the tears especially when she was talking about the next classes starting back up in September and knowing I would not be able to take him to it. It really made me thankful for the time off this summer to get to take him. Here are some pics I took yesterday at the 3-5 year party:

Walking the "Red Carpet" with his guitar to the Rock Star Party.

Working hard on his art project

I see you!

Making the hand that we eventually hung on the window at the library. We wrote his name, age, and the number of books we read this summer (10).

Having fun with glue. I think I was still washing it off his face that night!

His sweet teacher, Ms. Kathy, helped him make the straw windmill because his poor mother has no art bone in her body!

Ms. Kathy dressed up as the "Library Fairy".

Enjoying the yummy party treats.

Love to swim...but wishing for snow!

This boy is hilarious! For some reason he has started asking quite frequently, "Is it snowing, yet?" I am telling him it will be awhile before it snows (if it ever does!). So the other day, after we got home from Wild River Country, he put on his snow hat and pretends it is snowing outside. These are the memories I don't ever want to forget! I heart blogging!

Playing at the kiddie pool at WRC

These are the sunglasses Saigel and Cindy bought for him because when we went to WRC with them, he did not have any and Cindy promised him that she would buy him some. Thanks Cindy!

As you can tell, he did not want me to take his picture!

"Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!"

Oh Great....Autumn is 8!

I can not believe this girl is 8 years old. Autumn is my sweet little niece that was born the year John and I got married, 2001. The family got together last weekend to celebrate Autumn's birthday at Olive Garden. Happy Birthday pretty girl! We love you!

Dalton, Autumn, Abby

Dalton decided to wear Abby's pink sparkly hat. He is quite the clown!

Autumn and her "Little Mermaid" birthday cake.

Sweet baby Austin

Summer Reading Club at the Maumelle Library

This has been the greatest thing we have done all summer. First of all, it gave us something to do 2 mornings of the week. Second, it allowed me to see how Dalton would do in a some-what structured environment. (He did awesome, might I add!) Third, it gave us some Mommy/Dalton quality time together. At the beginning of the summer, I was only taking him to the 0-3year old Mother Goose Story Time. This was a lot of finger plays, rhymes, songs, and small story books. He loved this, but I decided since he was doing so well with this one, we would try the 3-5 year old story time too. This was more story time and less singing, but he also did great listening to the stories and participating in the activities. The teacher announced yesterday that there was only 1 more week of the summer reading club. I am sure she saw the sadness on my face! Can't wait to do this again next summer! Of course I took my camera this morning and got some pretty cute pics of him doing the activities.

This was one of his favorite activities: scarves. We pretended like the wind was blowing and waved it in the air and then we scrunched it up into a ball really tight (working on those fine motor skills!) and then threw it up in the air. Every time we walked in to the door for class, he asked, "Are we going to do scarves today?" One day, class was almost over and the teacher had not brought out the scarves. I asked the teacher, "You ARE going to do the scarves aren't you?"
I was thinking, "Because we can not leave until you do the scarves!" THANKFULLY, she did the scarves!

Playing Peek-a-boo with the scarf.

Marching to the beat of the drum. When the teacher said "Stop!", we had to freeze!

Here is our teacher doing our favorite song, "Two little Dickie birds".
Two little Dickie birds sitting in the clouds
One named soft, one named LOUD!
Fly away soft, fly away LOUD!
Come back soft, come back LOUD!

After class, we always took a walk around the pond, looked at the ducks, and played in the "cave".

I had a great time taking you to the library, Dalton. I was so proud of the way you listened and participated in all the activities. You are getting to be such a big boy. You also learned about checking out books and DVDs and that we are supposed to be quiet in the library. I am so thankful for you and loved being off with you this summer to do this fun stuff. Can't wait until next summer! I love you sweet boy!

Fun at Gran' and Pop's

Dalton got to spend time with Gran and Pop while Mom and Dad enjoyed some R & R in Dallas. Pop said one night when he got off work, he told Dalton he wanted some fish. Dalton said, "I like fish!" Here he is enjoying some catfish from Mike's. Mike's is a restaurant just down the road from where my parents live in Colt. They have THE BEST catfish! Gran' said he loved it and ate the entire piece of fish. I think Cocoa, Gran's dog, likes the fish too!


On Friday night, Aunt Kim and Jameson stopped by Gran' and Pop's house on their way to Gulf Shores for vacation. Gran' continues comment on how well these 2 boys get along and play so well together. She also commented that Pop was taking so many pictures of the boys she finally had to tell him to please put the camera away!

Gran' made the boys breakfast on Saturday morning. Due to Dalton's allergy to eggs, he does not have any on his plate. Gran' said that when she was making Jameson's eggs, Dalton came in and said, "I not like eggs...they make me sick!" She said later on when Jameson was eating his, he tried to get out of eating them by telling his mom that "eggs make me sick." Sorry Kim!

On the last visit with Gran' and Pop, the boys slept in the same bed. Since then, Pop found another bed at an estate sale. Looks like they still got to sleep beside each other and in the same room.

Close your eyes, Jameson!

Thanks Gran' and Pop for taking such good care of me!

Dallas Getaway

On Monday, Dalton and I went to Forrest City and spent some time with Gran' and Pop and took Gran' out to dinner for her birthday. After lunch on Tuesday, we stopped at a new consignment store in Wynne. I love consignment stores! I was able to get some shorts for Dalton for next summer and even the next summer. While Gran and I were shopping, Dalton was busy shopping too! He found a pair of shorts and shirt that he liked and before I knew it, he had both of them put on over his clothes and was saying, "I want this!" They actually matched....sorta....and the lady working there just cut the tags off and he wore them back to Gran's house. I laid him down for a nap and then snuck out and headed back to Maumelle. John and I bought season tickets to Wild River Country for the first time this year and have only been able to do the "kid friendly" slides and pools with Dalton. We were excited to be able to go without Dalton and ride the slides. We had a great time. My favorite is the Vertigo or as I like to call it, the "toilet bowl". It's a slide with a bowl at the end that you go round and round in and then finally it flushes you into the pool at the bottom. So fun!

On Wednesday, John and I ate breakfast at my new found favorite place to eat breakfast at: MiMi's. They have the best pancakes and french toast around! I love it! Then we set out for our roadtrip to Dallas. Roadtrips are great! It forces you to be in a small confined place where talking is about the only thing to do. It's funny, though, the amount of times the conversation wound up into talking about Dalton. It makes me wonder what did we talk about before we had him? I was made aware when we stopped for lunch how much John was in need of a vacation. We stopped at Whataburger and were at the counter ordering, when John asked the girl, "What kind of onion rings do you have?" The look on her face was priceless. John looked at me and said,"I guess that really was a stupid question, wasn't it?" The girl at the counter turned around and hollered at the cook, "What kind of onion rings do we have?" I don't think the cook really knew how to answer that, either. By this time, John had already changed his mind and said he wanted french fries. I am thinking the girl could have killed him! Ha! Don't think I let him live that one down for a while! We laughed about that all the way to Dallas!

We ate at Rainforest Cafe' in the Grapevine Mall that night. We both agreed that the chicken and steak fajitas may have been some of the best we have ever had.



On Thursday, we shopped most of the day at the Grapevine Mall. That night we went to Medieval Times Dinner Theatre.





On Friday, we decided to find a Red Box at Walmart and rent some DVDs and just stay in and rest for a while. We rented "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" (good, but wierd, especially at the end), "Taken"(great great movie! I highly recommend it!) and "Marley & Me" (so cute, funny, but sad at the end). I love the Red Box. I don't know how many times on this trip we said "Whoever invented the idea of this Red Box thing was a genius!" DVDs for $1 and you can return them to any Red Box. AWESOME! I am thinking WalMart had a hand in the invention because every time we rented one or returned one we had to go look for something at WalMart and usually bought something while we were there! It's a conspiracy! Ha!

We came back on Saturday night, went to church Sunday morning, and then went to pick up Dalton at Gran' and Pop's. Everytime I called Gran' during the week to check on him, she had nothing but good to say about him. I was glad they were having such a good time, but part of me was wondering, "Who is the child you are keeping and what have you done with Dalton?" Here are some funny things she said happened while he was there:

• One day they were outside under one of the trees in her front yard. She said Dalton was very intrigued by the moss growing on the ground. She told him it was called "moss" and while he was feeling of it with his hand, they talked about how soft it was. She said he immediately took off his flip-flop so he could feel of it with his foot!
  
• Then there were mushrooms growing nearby and she let him pick them. She said there were 3 mushrooms and he called them "Mama, da-da, and baby". He was playing with them and said, "Baby, do you miss your da-da?" She said he paused for a second and then told her, "He say he not miss his da-da, he miss his mama!" (Da-da was not impressed!)

• Gran' was extra brave while he was there and decided to begin re-decorating which involved painting one wall in the living room. She said he was watching her paint and said, "Are you going to paint stripes?" She wasn't for sure if he knew what stripes really were and said,"What do you know about stripes?" He said, "Zebras have stripes and tigers have stripes!" I think she decided he knew a lot about stripes!

I will be posting some pics very soon of the week at Gran and Pop's. Stay tuned.....

A date with Grandma and Grandpa

A few weeks ago, Dalton got to go on a "date" with Grandma and Grandpa. We told him that Mom and Dad were going on a date together and he was going on a date with Grandma and Grandpa. He was pretty excited about that. Here are some pics of them after their "date".

Getting a good night kiss from Grandma and Grandpa.
(Sorry it's kinda blurry! I think my battery on my camera was going dead.)

We went last week to Quitman and visited John's Grandma Stacy.
Dalton loves going to see her because she has 2 horses named "Bo" and "Lucky". As soon as I told him that morning where we were going, he said, "We gonna see Bo and Lucky, too?" However, when he says Lucky it sounds like "Yucky". So cute!

Mr. Independence!

I thought this was a very fitting title to this years July 4th blog. John and I were just commenting how independent Dalton is becoming and wants to do everything by himself. Being a parent is very ironic. You work very hard to get them to do things on their own, but when they do, it makes you happy and proud, but sad that they are becoming more independent and less dependent on you. Crazy! It's moments like this that my faith in God is strengthened. I know that God is watching over him and he is in His hands, which is much much better than mine anyway!

One good thing about blogging is that I can journal the funny things Dalton says and does. Here is one for the history books......All day today, Dalton kept asking "When do we get to go eat fire crackers?" I am guessing he thought they would be the extra hot and spicy kind? It's funny how literal kids can be!

Watching firecrackers with Bear. He is becoming so sweet with this bear. He has taught bear this week how to use the potty, flush the potty, and wash his hands. He is begging all the time to take him with us when we go places. Most of the time he can take Bear along, but he has to leave Bear in the car. When he has to leave Bear in the car, he tells Bear "You'll be okay, Bear. I'll be right back!" and then gives him a hug and a kiss! It's worth letting him take him along just to see all this!

"It's too loud!"

I am pretty sure most people know the funny thing at our house with the "music truck" a.k.a. the ice cream truck. But, just in case someone is reading that hasn't heard.... we have never told Dalton what the ice cream truck is. He has always called it the "music truck" and out of fear for going bankrupt because we can't say 'no', we have never told him any different. I know one day he will figure it out, but he is happy for now thinking that our neighborhood has a great little truck that comes through everyday playing great music! Well, one day this week, the "music truck" lady stopped while we were enjoying some pool time outside and asked if Dalton could have some July 4th tattoos. I said yes and went to the truck and got them. John and I think this was a way to get him closer to truck so that maybe he would figure out what the truck really was. But now I am thinking he will start calling it the "tattoo truck"! Oh, well! Here is one of the tattoos that he got from the "music truck".

Summer Fun!

We are having a great summer! So far, we have made several trips to the library for story time, gone swimming at Wild River Country (pics coming soon of that), and got a visit from Gran' and Pop last weekend. He is also doing very well using the potty, much to my surprise. Once again, you never know for sure what kids will do. I thought he was not ready or interested in using the potty, but he was totally ready! The first morning he had some issues with wearing "big boy underwear". He cried because he wanted to wear the diaper. Who knew a kid could have such an emotional bond to a diaper!? I thought "Forget using the potty today, we just need to work on keeping the underwear on!" But once we got through that, he has been a trooper! He even wore "big boy underwear" to church on Sunday and did great! I am so proud of my little man!

Here are some pics of what's been going on at the Herring House lately.

Gran', Pop, and Dalton before church on Sunday.

Saigel got to come and spend a few days with us this week. Our neighbor asked Dalton if Saigel was his girlfriend. I said, "No, more like brother and sister!" They had fun playing "doctor" with Dalton's Elmo medical kit. Dr. Saigel is giving sick Dalton some medicine. She said, "All better!"

Dr. Dalton is checking Saigel's heartbeat. Cindy (Saigel's mom) and I both agree that we do not see how in the world Ms. Becky isn't calling one of us every day telling us how cute these kids are together!

We are also enjoying lunch time when dad can come home and eat with us. I got this picture of them today watching a movie together on dad's lunch break.

Ahhhh, how sweet is this! This boy can be a rascal sometimes, but sweet too! This morning, I was getting his breakfast together in the kitchen, and out of the clear blue, he says, "I love you, mama!" This is the hardest job in the world, but so worth it for moments like that! I love you too, Dalton!