Day 39: Favorite Toys

It happens pretty often:  We give our kids trash to play with.  Ell enjoys making his own selections straight from the trashcan, which rarely yields the results he would favor.  I prefer to pre-screen the trash toys. 

Day 38: Old Abilene Town

I have lived in Abilene for 5 years now...maybe longer.  There are a lot of things in this town I haven't done.  I'm not going to name them, because you might not believe me.  But, one of them was Old Abilene Town.  I'd driven through it, eaten at the Hitching Post and walked through the parts I could when it wasn't open.  That's it. 

We recently changed all that. 

While some of it was cute, and I do enjoy the history, if you want to do anything, it is SO EXPENSIVE.  Which explains why I was merely the photographer for this Stagecoach ride. 

We did get to witness the "shootout" demonstration.  Ell cuddled in really close and trembled throughout most of it.  And Gabe's cars that he plays with have been shooting one another an awful lot every since. 

Day 37: Jake's New Hobby

Jacob's school has recently begun a technology initiative that gives each teacher and student an ipad.  Jacob is a science teacher and is looking for apps he would use in the classroom.  Our favorite so far is called Project Noah.  I highly encourage you to check it out ~ it's SO COOL! 

The possibilities educationally are endless.  What we are enjoying is taking pictures of the leaves, bugs, and critters we come across and logging them on the site.  You enter the location, pic, and description of the organism and other people identify it, or just comment on it.  Here are just a few of our pics.  (Some are better than others.  We would LOVE to get a better camera.)

Jake's name on the site is: sciencemre.  Check out his stuff!  And let us know if you use it!

Day 36: New Playground

They built a new playground in our big city park that is especially for toddlers.  It was PERFECT for Elliott...and Gabe enjoyed it, too.  =)

And then, we tried to take a pic of the two of them together.  So sweet.

And one more:

Day 35: Cupcakes!

The mere mention of cupcakes sends Gabe into songs of Joy and jumps of excitement.  As we were making the cake part, Gabe was helping me pour in ingredients and I explained how most of these cupcakes were going to Aunt Shannon's baby shower, but there would be a few left.  The plan was to make the cake part one day, then ice them the morning of the shower.   So, Gabe could have a cupcake the next day when they were all done.  I think he missed the part about tomorrow and only heard the word "frosting" because he immediately burst forth in singing "God our Father, once again, we are here to thank You, Amen."  Sweet song of a thankful heart.

So, as we're frosting them, I hear, "Can I eat a cupcake?" every 23 seconds.  So I explained again, these are for the shower, when I get them all done, you can eat one."

"Oh, Mommy, that's so sad!"

I think he got over it.