A Spooktacular Halloween!

I have been swamped at work, so pardon me for the lack of postings last month. I meant to get these pictures up the weekend of Halloween, but with Grandpa in town, it just didn't get done.

Anyway, Parker had a lot of fun during Halloween. The fun started at school on Friday. Parker wore his costume and went trick-or-treating. He got a lot of goodies from the other class rooms. Below, Parker posed for a few photos near some of the decorations in the hallway.

Saturday, we all went to the Houston Zoo for ZooBoo. Parker got a stamp on his hand as you can see below.

In addition to getting some more goodies at various places in the zoo, Parker got to pick his own pumpkin and decorate it. As you might have guessed, Parker took his time picking out his pumpkin. He must have pulled out 20 of them before we decided on one as shown in the pictures below.

We ended the day at the zoo by taking a train ride around the grounds. Parker loves trains. He rides them at the malls around Houston all the time. This was a much bigger train and it was outside compared to just riding around inside the mall. Parker loved it.

On Monday, Parker, Grandpa, and I took a trip to see Great-Grandma Hogan in Beaumont. We arrived a little before noon and visited for a bit before going to lunch at Cheddars. Parker found some wooden apples on Great-Grandma Hogan's table and starting playing with them. He thought it was so much fun to take them all out and put them all back in again.

Parker visits Dewberry Farm

This past Saturday, Parker took his parents to Dewberry Farm, located a few miles north of Brookshire (about 20 minutes from the house). It is a neat farm-like place that has a bunch of fall activities mainly geared towards kids. Parker got to visit the petting zoo and see a lot of animals including bunnies, goats, cows, chickens, horses, and ducks.

Parker had a lot of fun riding on the "corn train", which was a series of 55 gallon drums on wheels pulled behind a tractor. It was dusty, but it was a blast. As you can see from the next three photos.

After riding the corn train twice, once with mommy and once with daddy; Parker wanted to take a break. We sat on the hay in some shade while we had a drink. Parker watched all the kids playing on the rope swings, wishing that he was just a little bigger so he could partake in the fun.

After doing some other fun stuff like riding a real pony and sliding down a tall slide with daddy, Parker took off in a corn maze. As you can see from the photo below, he fell a few times because the ground was quite uneven, but he didn't cry or get upset. He just got back up and kept on truckin'.

Baby proofing the house

Well, now that Parker is walking, he is getting into everything. As if he wasn't doing that before when he was crawling. But now it is slightly worse, because he can reach higher. Just this morning as I was moving the car seat from one car to the other, he proceeded to open the door to the garage and walk out into the driveway to see what I was doing. He is so curious. It's a little scary, but it is cute at the same time. Obviously, I don't want him to get hurt, but he just wanted to see what his daddy was doing. It makes my heart melt to see him so interested in what I am doing all the time. I love him so much!

So, that brings me to the point of this post. I spent some time a few weeks ago baby proofing some of the cabinets. It worked well. Some of the cabinets he used to open, like the one under the kitchen sink with all the cleaning supplies in it, is now locked from his little hands. He hasn't gotten too upset about it. He just tries to open the cabinet a few times and then moves on to something else when he can't do it.

Well, this past weekend I had to baby proof some doors. He knows how to open them as I mentioned in the opening paragraph. So, I put door locks on my office, the guest bathroom and the pantry. He isn't quite sure why he can't open those doors anymore, but like the cabinets, he just moves onto something else after he tries a few times. Below is a picture of the door locks I installed.

Parker is walking!

Here is some of the first video of Parker walking. Enjoy!

Parker loves pizza

Yesterday, Parker got to eat cheese pizza for the second time at his cousin's birthday party. The first time he tried it was at his 1st birthday party. He really likes it! Later that day, we went to Old Navy and I saw a Halloween costume that I just had to try on him. Check it out!




- Posted from my iPhone

Campbell's 4th Birthday

Happy birthday Campbell! We had a lot of fun at your party today. Parker enjoyed seeing everyone. He loves to eat pizza and he really enjoyed the cupcake for dessert! Thanks for inviting us. We hope you had a great day. Below is a sketch that of Parker and I that was created by one of the game machines. I think it turned out pretty good.

My cousin, the actor!

My cousin, Sara Lawler, was very busy with rehearsals in June. That's right, rehearsals. She had a part in the musical, Rent at the Smith Opera House in Geneva on July 15 - 18.

Rent is a Tony and Pulitzer prize-winning musical based upon Puccini’s opera La Boheme. It depicts the story of one year in the life of a group of young bohemian friends struggling to survive in the East Village of New York City. This group of beleaguered young artists and musicians contemplate the meaning of life, love and hope while dealing with issues of poverty, loss, drug addiction, and AIDS.

This powerful musical is headed up by a talented cast hailing from across the Finger Lakes and Rochester area and includes Mike Witter (Mark), Nick Faruch (Roger), Kyle Knapton (Collins), Sarah Mull (Mimi), Derrick Frenney (Angel), Chelsea Miller (Maureen), Sara Lawler (Joanne), Darius Greene (Benny). Ensemble cast members include: Kaleigh-Marie Fremouw, Abigail Adams, Sylvia Queener, Vinnie Loucks, Ben Raha, Justin Doyle and Jonathan Garcia. Rent is directed by Steve Duprey with Music Directors Bob Cowles and Deb Hodgeman and choreography by Caitlyn Schrader.

Below is an article from the Finger Lakes Times about her performance. Congratulations, Cuz! I wish I could have been there to see it. Maybe when you are on your national tour and stop off in Texas. I will definitely make it then. :)

Click on the image to see a larger view.