Chugga Chugga Choo Choo

Little Rhodes' 2 year birthday party was this past weekend and it was a "Train" themed party. They had a jump house, pizza, balls, and even a train to drive the kids around the neighborhood. Super fun! Charlie has been enjoying reading his "Little Engine that Could" party gift book this week. Last night we were reading it when Patrick walked in and Charlie just looked up and said "choo choo" and went back to the book. Funny man.

Sleepy Man

On Monday Charlie was a little under-the-weather, so we spent the day together. He typically sleeps from 9-10 am and from 12-2pm when he's with me. On Monday we where on a walk in the morning and Charlie took a quick 20 min. snooze in the stroller, but wouldn't go down when we got home (don't you love when that happens??). For the afternoon nap Charlie literally cried for 2 hrs. straight while in his crib. Everytime I went in he acted awake and ready to party. (Usually he will put his head on my shoulder to let me know he is still tired.) So, at 2pm I let him get up. No nap Charlie. We went to the grocery store around 4pm and I let him drive one of the carts around. By 4:30pm this is what I found:

Bless his tired, little heart.

Another week in OKC

The Leclercq clan has recently moved into a new house, so Charlie and I went up last week to help in any way possible. On Wed. I spent the day (sort of) unpacking... except that in the new environment Charlie didn't allow for much work to get done. On Thursday I stripped a bedroom of it's wallpaper. On Firday, I went to Home Depot to collect items for their upcoming garage sale. I also got to go eat lunch with Jul's, which was a much needed break. On Saturday we held the garage sale and decided that we should start ripping up carpet in the living room. On top of all this, I also had baby duty every day from 2-5:30ish (the nannies where there from 9am-1pm every day). Julie and Manny closed on the house Thursday morning and by Thursday afternoon the downstairs air condition was out. We spent the weekend in an 85 degree house (miserable). At least the upstairs AC was working. So, not many pictures where taken, but the ones I got are pretty good. The house has a great new play room upstairs.





And a couple of videos:

NO!!

I think we have entered the "NO" phase...

(The bruise on his forehead is from a fall off the couch. We had some restless 2 1/2 and 3 yr olds over the other night who where jumping off our couches. Charlie now thinks he can do the same... except he really isn't there yet.)

Splash Park!

Look how excited Charlie was to go to the Splash Park. So stinkin' cute!

Truckin' Across America

As mentioned, we took Charlie to Six Flags two weekends ago. Bad idea. It was SUPER hot and Six Flags is not that kid-friendly for a 17 month old. Still, it got us out of the house and gave us something to do. Charlie got to ride the small parachute ride, the Batman Wings ride, and train called "Truckin' Across America" which happened to be his most favorite ride. We also stopped for a little water spray, vists with some cartoon characters and super heroes and some food. Not a horrible way to spend a Sunday!

Zoo Saturday

We were supposed to meet the Bates' at the zoo at 9 am on Saturday morning, but due to Charlie's 5:00 am (ugh!) wake up call, he required an early morning nap. We ended up getting there at 10am. First stop was the new exibit, Wilds of Africa. It was pretty amazing. Here Charlie is acting like an elephant:
You can feed the giraffes now! They get SO close.
Charlie enjoyed the jaguars
Hello
Driving the jeep
Charlie liked traveling on P's shoulders
We met up the Bates' after seeing the new exhibit. Here is Ryan taking a ride on a camel. He couldn't understand why we all thought it was so funny.
We hit up the Kid's Zoo at the end for some sliding...
play time with Olivia...
and, of course, water time sans bathing suit (again)

4th of July Weekend

Our internet is FINALLY working at our house, so I better get this blog post in fast before the rain takes it away again. We had originally planned to spend the weekend in Spicewood, but according to the weather man Austin was going to see a lot of rain over the weekend, so we switched our plans to stay in Dallas. Saturday was my birthday.... thanks to all who emailed, called and texted. It was perfect just spent with Patrick and Charlie at home...we went to the Lake Highlands 4th of July celebration. It was super fun complete with a train, a petting zoo, a sand box (possibly the highlight for Charlie), balloons (another highlight), men on stilts, and good food. We missed the parade due to Charlie needing an early morning nap, but this will become an every year event for the Allen household.
Petting zoo fun!
There is also a splash park at the LH Rec Center. So fun!! Charlie had a blast. (Again, we failed to bring a swimsuit... when will we learn?)

Special thanks to Patrick for making my birthday so great... he really went all out with Sprinkles cupcakes and my gifts! Thanks babe!

On Sunday, we celebrated the 4th by going to watch the fireworks at Royal Oaks Country Club with the Hamilton's and William's. It too might become a yearly tradition. We kept Charlie out until 10:30!! All of the boys did great. The fireworks started at about 9:30 and by 9:40 Charlie was passed out on my chest. Bless his heart, he missed the whole show! But before that, when he would see a firework he would say "Oh, wow!" So cute.
Rhodes and Charlie wrestling. They would fall on top of one another and roll down the hill and then do it all over again. It is so cute to see them actually playing with one another rather than just beside each other.

Charlie got SO sweaty from all the playing and rough housing he was doing!
Sweet baby Drew
Dean
This was at about 8:30. Charlie just fell over and layed down right in the middle of playing. Poor thing... it was only 1.5 hours after his bed time!

On Monday we went to the YMCA for a family swim. Here is Charlie trying out dada's goggles.

And, I will leave you with this. Charlie has a new face that he LOVES to do. It's so funny, but I'm pretty sure he is saying "You are an idiot" with this new face of his!

Last Weekend

On Friday, Charlie and I cheered on the Frogs for the baseball game:

On Saturday, we went to our neighborhood 4th of July celebration in the morning:

And in the afternoon, went to a Rangers game with the Bates family:

On Sunday, we painted out bathroom. No fun pics from that day.

High Five Cuz

A week in OKC

Here's how the week went down: On Monday all of the babies went to Mother's Day Out. They were nice enough to let Charlie "drop-in" for the day. He couldn't be in the triplets class because it was full, but still had a great day. It was quite interesting picking up 4 babies, a backpack, a lunchbag, and 4 napmats. When we got home we all had a grand time playing in the pod:

On Tuesday Julie's nannies (I say this in the plural sense because Julie had a fabulous nanny who also bring her 3 daughters to help watch the babies... they are ALL super helpful) took the kids to the zoo for the day. On this day, the Leclercq's were getting a new roof and it was so loud that the house was shaking... good thing the babies weren't there. On Wednesday I got all 4 babies to myself! We hit up the park in the morning. I contained them by putting them all into a pack and play so that I could do a shoe round-up:

The park was short lived because there was broken glass and Charlie was trying to eat it.

I got a workout in by lugging four humans up and down hills to and from the park.

We got our groove on:

The babies "helped" me pack up more stuff from the house.

And we played and played. The house was a wreck when Manny came home, but the babies were all alive... mission accomplished! That night we went to see Julie and Manny's (hope-to-be) new house... it is a GREAT one. 5 bedrooms, 3.5 baths, over 3,000 square feet... much better space for a family of five! On Thursday the nannies came again. I got to go to lunch with Julie and Manny and then go check out Manny's new Texadelphia that is in the process of being built. I can't wait to see it when it's finished! Thanks to Jessica for bringing Charlie and I back home!!