soccer, a movie, and bats...oh my!

We started our weekend off by taking Lane to his first movie in a theater on Friday night.  Kyle met us after work at Alamo Drafthouse after work to see Finding Nemo in 3D.  Alamo Drafthouse is right down the street from us and is just like Studio Movie Grill.  They serve food and have lots of space to spread out.

The movie was really cool in 3D, but our strong willed child refused to wear his 3D glasses, so to him it probably looked a little fuzzy.  We are proud to say that he made it through the whole movie!  We ordered Lane a kids cheese pizza and he munched on that, then Kyle and I split a sandwich that came with fries, so he ate some of those too!  He started getting a little restless, so we took a bathroom break and got him some Reeces Pieces.  An unhealthy night, but you gotta do what you gotta do!  He was into the movie at times and would shout out things like "no!" when the shark was coming and he chimed in with Nemo when he was looking for his dad yelling "Daaad!"  At one point he randomly started saying his preschool prayer that they do before they eat..."God our father, God our father, bless this food...."
And at the very end he said REALLY loudly, "they're ALLLL the way under the water!"

At least it was a kid movie and it wasn't too crowded because nobody seemed to mind.

READY FOR THE SHOW WITH A BEVERAGE AND HIS BOOSTER SEAT.  

NO 3D GLASSES ARE GOING ON THAT HARD HEAD!

Saturday morning was soccer again.  Something I want Lane to enjoy so badly, but he wasn't quite feeling it again this week.  It was an improvement from last week, and he still wasn't the worst in the class...which is a plus for me. He had moments where he refused to do things and didn't follow directions, but times where he did ok.  He will miss soccer next week because we will be out of town for a birthday party, so maybe a week off will do him some good and he will be ready to go next time!

ONLY 4 KIDS THERE THIS TIME

THERE HE GOES!

HE SHOOTS....

HE SCORES!!!

BROKE OUT THE BRAZIL JERSEY THAT ROSS BROUGHT HIM!

Saturday night we decided to go for a walk around Town Lake.  We walked the trail for a while and ended up deciding to stick around the Congress bridge to see the bats.  We waited (for a while) and finally, out they came.  By the time they flew out Lane was kinda over it and he said "those just look like birds."  So we headed back to the car and finished off the night at La Madeline.

 PLAYING ON THE TRAIL

GOTTA HAVE THAT BUS!

WHERE ARE THOSE BATS?!?!

 WAITING FOR THE BATS UNDER THE BRIDGE! 

GROWING A LITTLE IMPATIENT

THERE THEY GO!!  CAN YOU SEE THE TRAIL OF THEM RIGHT ABOVE THE TREE LINE?

Weekly Update

I am having a hard time coming up with catchy titles these days!  This blog is mostly for grandparents, close friends and family, and for ME to remember all the fun things we are up to-- so, oh well!!

We had a pretty good week.  I decided I was going to cook more often, so last weekend I sat down and planned out nightly dinners and made a detailed grocery list.  I made cilantro lime chicken in the crock pot, baked chicken packets, and quinoa stuffed bell peppers, which were all really good!  On Wednesday nights we get take-out since Lane has little gym, and most weekends we go out to eat for dinner.  It felt good to plan out meals and follow through instead of getting fast food and going out to eat!  This week I have plans to make skillet lasagna, orange chicken with rice, a baked chicken/new potato/green bean dish, and pesto pasta.  Mmmmm!  We will see how long I can keep this up!

FOUND THIS LITTLE TEMPLATE ON PINTEREST AND TWEAKED IT TO MY LIKING USING PHOTOSHOP.  

IT WAS A REAL TIME SAVER!

QUINOA STUFFED PEPPERS-THANKS FOR THE RECIPE, CARRIE!

 KYLE DOING DISHES----HAD TO DOCUMENT THIS!!

Lane is at such a fun age.  He is constantly surprising us with how smart he is, and makes us laugh ALL.THE.TIME!!  Some funny things he said/did this week:

-I put a UT shirt on him last night and he said "this shirt is a lot of good!"

-He told Kyle last night "why don't you put it on Facebook."  (We don't know what he was referring to!)

-He is really into dinosaurs right now.  He loves watching a show called Dino Dan and can name a lot of different dinosaurs and describe them.  (he knows T-Rex, stegosaurus, triceratops, spinosaurus, compsognathus, brachiosaurus, and brontosaurus!)
**And you better believe I had to google some of those for spelling!!!

-He is constantly doing naughty things and immediately says "but, I'm sorry" in this sweet little voice.

-He still asks us "Are you happy?"  when he knows we are upset with him!

-He has started saying things like:
"Of course I will"
"Sure"
"Wonderful"
He sounds like a little adult!

-Still fusses each Tues/Thurs morning when he has to go to school.  He is fine once I get out the door, but has been crying when I drop him off.  On Thursday I bribed him with a new set of hot wheels if he didn't cry, and sure enough-he didn't!!  To make it even better, he FINALLY tee tee'd on the potty for one of his teachers, Ms. Leslie.  He has never had an accident at school, but has been holding it in.  I take him right when we get in the building at drop off and again when I pick him up, and it just seemed like that was what he was going to do all year! (He is there for 4 hours.)  Then on Thursday he walked right up to Ms. Leslie around noon and said "I need to tee tee."  Good boy!!  We praised him like crazy and rewarded him with iPad playtime that night before bed.  He was pretty proud of himself!  (This was also the same day that I showed up to pick up Lane with my shirt on inside out and didn't realize it until long after we got home.  NICE!)

-Has started becoming a ham when out in public.  He will wave at strangers with this sweet smile, loves to wave and talk to little babies, and sings so loudly--demanding people's attention!  They always laugh and say "how cute!" So I guess he has it down!

-During dinner the other night, Kyle asked what Lane learned at school.  His reply was: (word for word)

"I saw a boat at school today!  There were 5 animals.  2 elephants, and 2 giraffes, and a monkey and another monkey. Then it started to rain and rain and then the rain stopped and the earth was o.k."

His math was a little off, but I asked his teacher and sure enough, they had learned about Noah's Ark the day before!  He is LISTENING and LEARNING.  Hooray!

One evening while dinner was in the crock-pot and Kyle was still at work, Lane, Scout, and I ventured off to the local elementary school park to play.  It was a short little walk from our house and a really fun playground!  There was only one other little kid there, so Lane had the place almost to himself.

On Wednesday I took Lane to a trial music class at a local art school.  It was free, and he loves music, so I figured we'd give it a try.  Well, it turned out to be a little different than I expected!  All of the other moms had been going for a while and evidently had a class CD to be practicing songs with.  They knew all the words and hand movements to these songs I had never heard, and they were really into it.  Breastfeeding during songs was welcome (without any kind of cover-up,) and the kids were encouraged to just do their own thing.  It was just different than any music class I have ever been to or heard about!  Lane enjoyed some of it, but I could tell he was a little skeptical at some points!  The times didn't work out for our schedule anyway, so that was most likely a one time deal!  

On Friday morning we went to story time at the library again and checked out some new books before we left.  Lane was excited to check out a dinosaur DVD and a Halloween themed Barney and Bob The Builder movie, along with his books!

Lane decided this week that he wanted to start carrying this stuffed leopard around everywhere.  We got this for him at the Dallas World Aquarium when he was like 3 months old, and he has never cared about it or any other stuffed animal for that matter.  We named it Lance because the day we bought it one of Kyle's work friends who was at the aquarium thought Lane's name was Lance and kept calling him that!  So Lance the Leopard came almost everywhere with us this week.  Here's Lane feeding Lance some of his muffin.  :)

And that wraps up our week!  We had a fun and busy weekend, so I'll post about that next......

livin'

We are starting to get into a good weekly routine.  Kyle has been working from about 8:30am -6:00pm (or earlier) each day and Lane and I have been keeping busy with weekday activities while he's at work.

Last Wednesday morning I joined a group of moms from our neighborhood for a walk on a nearby trail.  My friend Megan introduced me to Meetup.com and I have joined 3 groups that are geared towards moms with young children.  There are various activities and meet-ups posted each day and you just RSVP if you will come or not.  The moms on the walk were really nice and all had babies at least a year younger than Lane, but it was still fun and nice to meet people.  We made the Wednesday morning walk a reoccurring meet-up, so Lane and I go again tomorrow.

On Wednesday nights Lane has Little Gym.  We had been going to the one in Arlington since Lane was little tiny, so I knew I wanted to keep him enrolled after we moved.  The location is great, only minutes from our house, and the class is full of other rambunctious 2 year olds!

We tried out story time at the local library on Friday and it was fantastic!  They offer 2 different times each Tuesday and Friday for toddlers his age, which is nice for us to be able to choose a time that is best for us.  The story reader was really nice and fun and had puppets, songs, and books.  Lane enjoyed it and we will definitely go back!

Friday night Kyle, Lane, and I went downtown for dinner.  We tried to go to a place Kyle had eaten with work, but the wait was over an hour.  We walked next door to Lambert's BBQ and ate on the patio.  It felt so nice and was almost chilly!  After dinner we headed home and my mom and Kori arrived soon after for a short weekend stay.  Lane was pretty excited to see them and show them his room and toys.  They got here close to Lane's bedtime so we didn't do much that night.

Lane had his second of ten soccer practices on Saturday, and he was NOT as enthusiastic about it as he was the first time.  He was grumpy, refused to do some of the skills, and kept saying he wanted to go home.  Mums and Kori were there to watch, so we were disappointed that he wasn't into it!  For some reason he acts up any time guests come to watch him.  He did the same thing at Little Gym back in Arlington when family would come watch.  Such a stinker!  Hopefully he will be ready and willing by this Saturday's lesson!

We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out with Kori and my mom.  After soccer we all went to a luncheon at Lane's preschool.  They were celebrating their 35th anniversary and had a food truck lunch and activities for the kids.  Lane enjoyed playing on the playground after lunch and we headed home for his nap.  The ladies did a little bit of shopping while Lane slept and we went to dinner Saturday night at a Mexican restaurant down the street.  It was POURING rain all day Sunday, but we managed to make it out for brunch at Kerbey Lane before mom and Kori headed home to Mansfield.  I am so happy they were able to come.  I miss them like crazy, and know Lane does too!

KORI SNAPPED THIS PIC OF LANE AT SOCCER...

A RARE MOMENT WHERE HE ACTUALLY WAS DOING WHAT HE WAS SUPPOSED TO DO!

AND GIVING COACH T. A FIVE AFTER PRACTICE

PLAYING ON THE MONKEY BARS AT SCHOOL

PLAYING HIS BUS GAME THAT GRAN GAVE HIM WITH KORI AND MUMS

KORI READ HIM A TON OF BOOKS WHILE SHE WAS HERE

MUMS READING ONE LAST BOOK BEFORE THEY LEFT ON SUNDAY

THANKS FOR COMING MUMS AND AUNT KORI!!  WE MISS YOU ALREADY!

Practice Makes Perfect

This little boy.....

...got a new red soccer ball!  

And had fun testing it out in his new front yard!

Class Clown

Lane's class is doing a unit on family this month and his teacher asked for family member volunteers to sign up to come read to the kids during their lunch time.  I went yesterday and Lane was pretty excited to see me!  So excited in fact, that he decided to try to be the class clown!  The teacher had me read Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, and every time I showed the animal pictures and asked "What did he see?" little Lane decided to say some random animal instead of the right one!  He would say "lion" when it was really the red bird and would look around at his friends smiling and giggling.  If it's starting already at 2, I hope he gets this out of his system by kindergarten!!

His class was really cute and sat eating their lunch while I read.

A very busy first week!

So far we are enjoying Austin!  During our first week here, we planned lots of fun things to do since Kyle was off work.

ICE CREAM AT AUSTIN SCOOPS

STORY TIME AT BOOK PEOPLE DOWNTOWN

LUNCH AT THE FOOD TRAILER PARK ON CONGRESS-

LANE WAS IN LOVE WITH THIS SANDWICH BUS!!!

On Friday, we were excited to welcome our first "company" to our house.  Kyle's sister Sara was passing through on her way to San Marcos and came by to see the house and play with Lane.

Then, Friday night, our friends Josh and Carrie came in town to stay with us for the weekend and go to the football game.  We ended up just eating pizza at our house the first night since they got in a little later than Lane's dinner time.

Saturday morning Lane had his first soccer practice!  We signed him up with Soccer Shots and were so excited to see how he would like it.  His "team" meets at a nearby park on Saturday mornings at 9:00.  He has 6 kids total in his class and a coach named Tamas.  Carrie woke up early to come watch.  I am sure she was bored to tears, but she said she enjoyed it!  Lane looked so cute in his new soccer shoes and did pretty well!  We will have to work on remembering NO HANDS, and he needs a bit more practice on following directions.  :)  He was definitely in the top 2 kids in his class as far as behavior and participation go.  He did everything he was told, and was eager to help out.  A few of the other kids were clinging to their parents and crying, refusing to do anything, so we were very happy that Lane decided to do his best that day!

After soccer we walked to a restaurant nearby called Waterloo Ice House for brunch.  They had a good breakfast menu and an outdoor playground where kids can play.  The weather was really nice and Lane enjoyed playing after brunch.  Kyle and Josh got UT football season tickets this year, so they were excited to go to the game that night.  I dropped the crew off downtown and decided to stay home with Lane for the night.  Parking is a hassle and let's face it...a 2 1/2 year old at a college football game isn't my idea of fun.  Maybe we will get brave enough to take him to a home game this year, but we'll see!  Lane and I walked around Barton Creek Mall on our way home and had a dinner date at Panera Bread before heading home for bath and bedtime.  The others had a good time at the game. (It was a blowout- Longhorns won!)

CUTEST LITTLE LONGHORN IN HIS "GAME DAY SHIRT"

SAYING GOODBYE TO BISCUIT AND CARRIE-WE HAD A GREAT TIME!

Sunday morning Josh and Carrie headed back to Dallas and Lane and I made a quick trip to Mansfield for a night to celebrate Grandparents Day with Mums and Gran. We still had some leftover belongings stored at my mom's from the move, so I needed to get a load to bring to Austin.  Lane enjoyed playing at Mums' on Sunday and going to dinner with Mom, Kori, and Mitch that night.  The next morning we went to spend the day with Kyle's mom.  We ate lunch at Black Eyed Pea and Lane played at her house for a bit while I got my oil changed.  We missed seeing Pops since he was at work. :(  It was a short trip, but we are glad we got to spend time with the 2 greatest grandmas Lane could ask for!  Happy Grandparents Day Mums, Gran, and Pops!