MBB – Page 506

Chugga Chugga Choo Choo!

May 8, 2012

On Saturday we took Maxwell out to Calera, AL to visit the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum. The (very small) museum is kind of neat but the main reason for going is to ride a train! Choo Choo! We took an hour long train ride in an open air car and I think Maxwell enjoyed it. The trip was about 20 minutes out with a ten minute engine switch from the front to the caboose so we could travel the 20 minutes back. It did get hot so I’m glad we went now and not later in the summer. They do really neat things all throughout the year including a Polar Express excursion during the holidays – I think we might go back for that one!

Checking out the trains before the ride…

All Aboooooard!

It was a fun way to spend the morning!

Weekend roundup

May 7, 2012

The top 12 observations from our beautiful and hot weekend.

1. Maxwell looks very pretty when all dolled up in LuLu’s jewelry!

We had a lunch visit from LuLu and Granddaddy on Friday and Maxwell had the best time playing “dress up!” 🙂

2. Maxwell learned it’s not easy to eat chips with a fork.

Good lesson learned.

3. We ventured out to another new playground on Friday afternoon and had a great time. Well, it was at his school so new to me but old to him. Maybe that’s why he’s giving me the stare down here?

4. I learned that I really have to stop letting Maxwell play with my car keys. He’s managed to start the car remotely a few times at home and, while we were at the playground, he not only pushed the panic button (which sets off the car alarm) 4 times but he managed to unlock the car and open the tailgate without my knowledge. I couldn’t see the car from the playground so only noticed 20 minutes later our car had been sitting completely unlocked with the tailgate wide open! Goodness gracious, he’s a mess!

But he’s a cute mess! 🙂

5. On Saturday Maxwell took his first train ride. I snapped a few pics with my phone before we got on the train, including one of him in this awesome engineer hat (don’t worry, it didn’t come home with us)…

and one of him playing with this train table (that might have to come home with us at some point!).

Lots more pictures of the actual train ride to come tomorrow.

6. Happy Cinco de Mayo! We celebrated with an early feast of beans and rice. Cheap Mexican restaurants are definitely the best places to go out to eat with a toddler. And my toddler ate this whole plate by himself! big boy!

7. This made me laugh…hard.

8. Maxwell got to wear his new Crocs all weekend. Since he broke his leg, I’ve been trying to keep him in tennis shoes for the support until he stops limping. He’s getting better and it’s getting hotter so I thought we’d try out the Crocs. While he still prefers his tennis shoes (his red Elmo tennis shoes to be specific), I do think he liked his new summer shoes. and hopefully this will help even out his pretty mean sock tan!

9. On Sunday, Maxwell “helped” Robert trim shrubs in the front yard. Gotta teach ’em early!

10. Robert works so hard in the yard and it shows. I think we’ve got the prettiest yard on the block! A pat on the back for you, Robert!

11. It was really hot this weekend. and it’s only May. This pregnant lady is DREADING July.

12. Maxwell has been saying a new word for a while – “Nano” – and we couldn’t figure out what it meant. The mystery has been solved. As I’ve mentioned, Nanner the monkey has been dubbed “NeNe” and, apparently, Mr. Moo the cow has been dubbed “NaNo”. Sounds like a good cow name to me!

That’s it for today! See you tomorrow!

New Park

May 4, 2012

We discovered a new park earlier this week and it was fantastic. I especially loved the spongey ground! It’s always fun to explore someplace new!

Maxwell loved the bzzz bzzz bouncing bee!

He also loved getting to swing (barely) on the big kid swings…

I just barely gave him the slightest push so he wouldn’t fall off and bonk his head!

The only bad thing about the park, and about AL in general this time of year, was the heat! There wasn’t a ton of shade and, as Maxwell is saying in this picture, the equipment was HOT!

We had the place to ourselves for a little while but then two little girls showed up and one of them was actually a friend from Maxwell’s school. Small world! Ann Margaret and Maxwell were born just 10 days apart and her mom and I had actually done pre-natal water aerobics together. We started talking and we’re both pregnant again and due within a few weeks of each other! Funny how those things happen.

It was a great afternoon exploring a new place! Here’s to some more new places to explore this weekend! See you all Monday!

Photography

May 3, 2012

If you look up, you’ll see a new page on the header titled Photography. Now, as I say on that page, I am in no way any sort of professional. It’s just a fun hobby for me and one that I’ve really gotten into over the last 2 years. People always see my pictures and ask, “what kind of camera do you have?”, so I thought I’d answer that question and a lot more for you. What I don’t do on the page is explain photography – there are plenty of other people who are much better at that than I. What I do on the page is list all of the resources that I have found helpful and hopefully will help you too. Go check it out and let me know if you have any other questions.

Here are some of my favorite pictures of Maxwell since the beginning. It’s fun to go back and look to not only see how much he has grown, but also to see that my photography has improved a little too! At least I think so! 🙂

September 10, 2010