Daddy day - parks, picnic and zoo

Andrea is out of town this weekend with her tennis buddies for a girls' tennis weekend. I haven't had the kids with just me in a long time, so I didn't really have a lot of ideas on what to do with them today. I decided to just ask them what all they'd like to do. I threw out a few options and they said yes to all of them. So, we decided to just start doing stuff after we got up and see what all we could fit in to our day.

After breakfast we got the car packed and set off. We had a little time before Connor's soccer game and they said they wanted to go to a park, but they wanted to go to a new one. Since we had to stay near Veteran's field for Connor's soccer game that really didn't leave a lot of options. We drove through Aberdeen and found a little park off the road and decided we'd play there for a bit.

Paige wanted to go down near the pond to look at the birds and wanted to pose for a quick pic.

There wasn't a lot to play on, so after a little while they agreed we should head over to Veteran's field to play.

At Veteran's, Paige climbed to the very top of the rope course, so brave!

Soon it was time for Connor's game, so we got our chairs and enjoyed the nice weather for the game.

Connor didn't play a whole lot in the first half, but thankfully played a bit in the second half. Unfortunately their team lost 1-2.

After soccer, we let Chloe out and then headed off for our picnic. I stopped by Chick-fil-a for some sandwiches and the kids wanted to bring a random assortment of food from home. They wanted to go somewhere new, so I punched in "Park" to Google Maps and drove to the closest park. It turned out to be Losco park. The last time we went there was the last Daddy day, when Andrea went to Vegas in February (http://babyvernon.blogspot.com/2014/02/day-out-with-daddy.html). The kids loved the park and decided it'd be fun to go again so we found a nice spot under a pretty oak tree and had lunch.

After lunch, we played at the park for a long time.

We ran around and played for a while and finally the red swings, which are always popular, became free.

The kids love the red swings. I told the kids to just relax on them and I pushed them for a while and would tickle them if they fell asleep. They really enjoyed it. At the end of the day, I asked Paige what her favorite part of the entire day was and she said it was the "Relaxin' swings".

At around 3, I got the kids in the car and left for the zoo. It's getting darker earlier, so I knew we didn't have a ton of time there. On their website, and on Google Maps, it said they were open until 6 however they were actually only open until 5. We decided to go in anyways, and thankfully they only charged me for one adult admission. Probably because we only had an hour and a half before closing time.

In the reptile room, I decided to ask Connor to see if he could take a pic with me in it. He did a pretty good job!

Paige really really really wanted to try too, so Connor and I posed for her.

It kind of created a problem I didn't realize I'd have. Connor really wanted to take pics the rest of the day, I was more than happy to let him try, but it made me a little nervous since he was using my new camera.

Paige took another pic of Connor with the elephants.

There were some neat animal statues that were designed to climb on. The kids loved swinging on the elephant tails and balancing on the trunk.

We rode the carousel once. Connor picked the eagle, even after he was told that it didn't go up and down. It was just too cool to pass up.

Paige rode the dolphin.

Connor wanted to take a pic of me, so I jumped on with Paige. Only after I got on, I realized the picture spot wasn't designed with tall adults in mind.

A nice man passing by offered to take a pic of all of us, so I got another pic with the three of us in it.

We ran through some mazes and then went to a neat little bird themed park. The kids liked the slide and the climbing ropes.

They loved the little nest at the top of the park. After I took a pic of them relaxing on the egg, I pretended I was a bad dinosaur trying to eat it and they were the daddy and mommy birds. We fought and played for a bit until Paige elbowed me in the eye. It was getting a little too wild and crazy, so we decided to do something else for a bit.

At five, the zoo shut down and we were ready to go. We got home, cleaned up, and the kids went to bed without much of a fuss. They had a fun day, and were definitely worn out. We all missed Mommy today, but we still had fun together.

Storytime with the kids

Before bed, for as long as I can remember, I've been doing storytime with the kids. Typically, while I play with one of the kids Andrea will read to the other. It's a good way to work on reading and also use our imaginations. Some nights, we'll just lay in bed and I'll tell stories based on whatever characters or themes they think up. Sometimes we'll play with their toys together, or really do whatever they're interested in at the time.

Recently, Paige has enjoyed playing some Xbox during her storytime. I was a little resistant to it at first, but it's been very good for her coordination and the Lego games (Batman and Pirates of the Caribbean) do a good job of teaching problem solving and have some neat puzzles.

Last night, I was a little surprised Paige didn't want to do Xbox and wanted to do "Princess Storytime" again. We were having fun and about halfway through, I realized I probably never had a video of us doing her storytime with her characters so I started taking a video. Sometimes I cut videos a bit short, so I let this one run for a while.

Connor gets in to his cars every once in a while and recently we got out all of his cars from the "Cars" movies. He set up a racetrack on the table and during his time we did some racing. I used to try and help him push the cars around the track but he's got specific things in mind and prefers it if I just act as the announcer and talk about the awesome stuff that's happening during the race. Last night he actually asked if Paige could participate too, so Paige had her princesses come and watch the race.

Cold soccer day - Last game of soccer for Paige I9

Saturday morning, the day after Halloween, we had some soccer to play. Overnight it got cold and super windy. Connor had two games, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. We had to be at the soccer field at 7:45 for the first game. Andrea found some gloves and a warm hat for him. I snapped a pic of him out front with some of our Fall and Halloween decorations before we left.

He was nice and warm for the game. He was a little cold until he got going, then we fairly comfortable. It was very cold in the shade and I was pretty frozen by the time the game ended.

After Connor's game, I went home to pick up the girls and we went out to the I9 fields to watch Paige play her last game. She was bundled up pretty warm for the game.

In Paige's last game, she scored a few goals and worked hard again. She's definitely improved throughout her season and has enjoyed it. There is one little boy that pushes everyone around and trips everyone. He was as irritating as ever, but thankfully only managed to hurt himself today, although he did trip and fall with Paige a few times.

Paige was SUPER excited for her trophy after the game was over. I'll never forget at her first game she was asking me if she'd get a trophy, and today was the big moment she's been dreaming of. The trophy is actually a pretty good size and Paige was absolutely thrilled with it.

After the game we went to lunch and Paige insisted on bringing her trophy in with her. We're very proud of her and looking forwards to putting her in a Creek's recreational all-girl team this coming season.

Connor's second game was in the afternoon and he did a good job in both games. They won the early game 1-0 and tied the second game 1-1. We are happy to be home and warm now, but we did enjoy our soccer day.

Halloween night!

Halloween was on a Friday night this year and we were excited to get the kids dressed up and see everyone in their costumes in the neighborhood. Paige dressed up as a peacock and Connor was a cobra snake. The weather was absolutely gorgeous in the 70's and it was a perfect night for Halloween.

We headed over to Gina's house for her party and took some pictures before we left for trick-or-treating.

Gina was dressed up as a firefighter and had on a long wig. She said she wanted to have long hair like Andrea and said she was Giandrea this year.

I took a pic of Andrea and their hair for comparison.

Paige got to play with some silly string.

All the kids got together for a pic.

Grandma Alice and Grandpa Rick came by to spend Halloween with us too, the kids were excited to see them.

A little before 6pm, we set off to do our trick-or-treating. In the past, it'd been too crazy to try and stick together with everyone so we set off on our own and Logan came with us. Before long we had Trevor and Logan's mom Lynn too.

We saw Paige's friend Olivia and her family trick-or-treating and they took a cute picture together.

Anna had a bunch of food out and had their house open for people to come and hang out. It was right across the street from the house that goes all out with decorations, so it was a popular place to congregate.

Connor and Paige went inside to hang out with Charlie and Owen. Charlie was cutting up candy with scissors and making quite the mess.

After we got done trick-or-treating we went back to Gina's house to play some more and eat candy. They had a fire going and it was nice to rest after our long walk.

Both kids had a lot of fun and got to stay up past 10pm. It was nice that it was on a Friday this year. It was also great fun to have family and friends to spend it with.

Happy Halloween!