May Recap

Getting back to "real life" after vacation sometimes takes a while. In this case, it also meant that Pierscen's Mother's Day gift for Oma would be late. We went to Pottery By You and he picked out some magnets to paint for her. I painted the fish for kicks and giggles and was undecided on whether we would send that one or not, but Pierscen insisted on it. I wish I would have let him paint it instead! That's okay. He had a lot of fun and I definitely think we will do it again in the future.

We caught an orange belted bumble bee in my bedroom one afternoon and Pierscen loved studying it. He is definitely a bug boy.

We let the bumblebee go in the backyard. P watched it for a while before it flew away. We have since seen several in our locust trees out front. Apparently they really like the flowers.

We attended an Eagle Scout project out at Fort Caspar. We have never been out there. As part of the playground, they have this fun stage coach. I thought it was pretty neat.

They also have a few memorials in the area. One was dedicated to a group of men Brigham Young called to stay behind and help ferry following groups of pioneers across the river. As I was reading it, I recognized one of the names...

Third name down is Appleton Harmon, Carpenter-Mechanic. I went to Ryan and asked him if that was the same Appleton in his family. Sure enough, it was! Uncle Appleton (great, great, or so). How cool is that?! I thought it was pretty neat.

Mother's Day was good. The boys brought me breakfast in bed. Unfortunately the only picture I got that day was this one:

Pierscen smacked his eye on the pew in front of us. I thought it split open but thankfully it was just a bad abrasion. Poor kid.

The big adventure of the month was our first camp out in the backyard. We have never taken Pierscen camping as we have been afraid of getting him to sleep. The only option (we figured) was to take his pack and play, which typically he hates. That, and our regular pop up tent it too small for it. However, Ryan's parents gave us a hand me down spring bar tent (lots of room), so we decided to try it. 

Rather than bring out his pack and play, we put his mattress inside. It went about as well as we figured it would - totally chaos. Haha.

He jumped and jumped and jumped and pounced and bounced and jumped some more. Ryan fell asleep fairly quickly (how does he do that?!) and I stayed up trying to convince P it was okay to lay down. We put the mattress between us and let him go like a wind up toy until he finally collapsed.

Throughout the night I had to keep rotating him to keep him on the mattress or cover him back up with blankets. I don't think I slept at all, but Pierscen had a blast. We have a camping trip with Ryan's family planned toward the end of summer, and so we viewed this as our first trial run. Now we know what to expect. It will be a late night and he will only sleep after exhausting all other options, but he loves it.

Memorial Day was a productive one with Ryan priming the kitchen wall. We still didn't have a color picked out, but white primer is better than red with a million patches on it. :) Pierscen was a great helper.

A great work out helper that is! His grip is pretty impressive, right?!

 That afternoon we took a nice walk down by the river. P refused to ride in his stroller and just ran the whole way. Dodger, who only likes to get wet up to his elbows at the very most, was so hot and exhausted he actually laid down in the water. This never ever happens, so yes, it was picture worthy.

As I have mentioned before, P loves trampolines. As luck would have it, the grandma of one of my piano students said she had a mini trampoline she was going to give away and asked if P wanted it. Um... YES! He loves that thing! Thank you!

The last big thing of the month was the Touch A Truck Event. They had dozens of ambulances, fire trucks, bull dozers, cranes, tractors, trailers, cop cars, you name it - all parked together to allow kids to climb inside and explore. Pierscen had a blast!

 Above: Firetruck. Below: Cop car. P loved it when I shut the door. He would hold onto the bars and just grin.

 We were excited to see the Green Acres Farm people out there. They have the corn maze and petting zoo we like to go to in the fall. They are the ones that have the giant bunnies too. I love those rabbits!

The truck above is just an old fashioned truck for State Farm Insurance, but they have a bunch of fun noises programed into it when you press the radio buttons. It blares a train horn, random jingles and the State Farm song. P loves pressing the buttons, but it got really annoying really fast, so I had to drag him out.

I definitely think that is something we will be attending again. There were lots of little kids there, but I think it was a boy's dream come true. 

To end the month, and this post, here is a little video of a typical morning at our house. P wakes up and we bring him to bed with us where he asks to watch, "Burn Burn" - meaning Burn by Ellie Goulding. He may, or may not be obsessed with the song. ;)