Dinosaur Fun!

Before the dinosaur fun....take a look at Luke's fun with a plum! Sorry these pictures are out of order...I just about forgot to post these and they are too cute not to post....Luke is so good in the grocery store with me. He sits in the cart like such a big boy. I always let him pick the fruits that he wants to take home. This morning, the fruit of choice was a plum! He thoroughly enjoyed it! Check out these cute pics....

And, now onto the dinosaurs...

Fun, fun, look at those dinosaurs! Those were just a few pictures of the very, cool, animated dinosaurs that Luke and I visited last weekend. On Saturday, Luke and I traveled to the Greensboro Coliseum for a big dinosaur event - the event included huge, live, dinosaurs that made noises and moved just like the real ones. There was also a dinosaur dig, dinosaur inflatables, and dinosaur rides. Luke enjoys his dinosaur train book and his 5 dinosaurs (Trudy, Buddy, Lestie, T. Rex, and Eugene) that Santa brought him so I knew Luke would enjoy seeing these real life dinos!

For the most part, our dino adventure was super fun! Luke and I were a little disappointed and frustrated with the huge amount of people who were there. I guess because it was cold and rainy outside everyone had the same idea - go visit a very cool event INSIDE! The crowds made it a little less fun for everyone. Luke and I waited in line outside for about 20 minutes to buy tickets. Luke was a sweetheart while we waited. Because it was cold, he snuggled and snuggled and snuggled with me. Mommy didn't mind waiting nearly as much because I got a few extra snuggles! :) After buying our tickets, we had to wait again inside for the people at the door to let us in. Luke stood beside of me and ate some crunchies while we waited. Once again, he was super sweet - never complained of waiting, just looked around, stayed close to me, and waited patiently.

Once we finally got in, Luke was sort of scared at first. It was dark and the dinosaurs were HUGE! Luke would not let me put him down! I carried him around as we looked at each exhibit. In between the moving, life-like dinosaurs, they had some stone, statute-like dinosaurs. One of these had a baby triceratops that resembled Luke's dinosaur named Trudy. Because Luke recognized this dinosaur as a friendly one, I was able to get him to let me put him down and touch a few of the dinosaurs. From that point on, he seemed to warm up to the environment a little more and not be so afraid. We continued to walk around and look at and touch the dinosaurs.

Then, we went to the section that had the dinosaur inflatables and rides. We turned the corner and I could not believe the amount of people in that room! It was quite ridiculous! :) The lines were HUGE! Luke and I walked around and took a look at his options - in other words, what inflatables or rides could he actually do by himself since he's so small? Well, none of them! Most everything was for 4 year olds and up. I guess the good news was that I didn't have to feel guilty about telling Luke that I wasn't waiting in those lines.

Since we couldn't ride anything, I took Luke to the dinosaur dig. He enjoyed this!

As we continued to walk around to see if there was anything else that we could do, Luke saw a boy with two small dinosaur figurines. Luke said, "I want a baby dinosaur." Well, well, - of course, let's go find some! Inside the gift shop, they had a bowl full of small, dinosaur figurines that Luke called "baby dinosaurs." I let him pick out 5. We paid for them, put 3 of them in a bag, and he carried his 2 favorite. With his two baby dinosaurs, he was happy as a lark. I truly believe getting those dinosaurs made his day - he would have waited in that long line just for those. :)

With his dinosaurs in hand, he told me that he was ready to go home to show Daddy his dinosaurs. I couldn't have agreed more, so off we went. We looked at the animated dinosaurs one more quick time to get our moneys worth and then we headed back into the cold for the long walk to the car.

On the way home, Luke held his dinosaurs and tried to give them his paci. The paci was bigger than they were. :) Luke and I talked about what we saw and we talked to his dinosaurs. We were able to think of 5 names - one for each dinosaur - Slick, Spike, Junior, Brownie, and Ace. Don't ask how we came up with those! :) Mommy sure is silly sometimes! :)

Back at home, we continued with our dinosaur fun. Luke and I used his large legos to build a house for the dinosaurs. We even added a roof. :) Luke enjoyed putting the dinosaurs in the top of the house and then getting them out through the door.

After building a house for them, I lined them up in the window sill for Luke and the dinosaurs had a parade. Luke thought this was fun too! Throughout the night, Luke incorporated his dinosaurs into his playing somehow - the dinosaurs went shopping with Luke in the shopping cart, he put them in his bed a few times, and he put them in his airplane with the rest of the larger dinosaurs. He now has quite the dinosaur collection.

Overall, our trip to see the dinosaurs was worth every second. Luke and I had some snuggle time, we got a chance to see some really cool big dinosaurs, and we came home with some cheap, fun toys - our new 5 baby dinosaurs! Y'all know me by now and you know what I'm going to say - if I could do the day all over again, I would do it just the same! What a blessing this little boy is - what a blessing! In good times and frustrating ones, he finds a way to make me smile and he always seems to be smiling with me. Enjoy our dinosaur fun pictures....

And...here are a few pictures from our playtimes this week....this is Luke pulling his 3 Mickeys in the dump truck using a dog leash....I know, interesting.....
Just being happy...
Me, Luke, and Landis had a nice time on Superbowl Sunday. We went to my aunt and uncle's house for just a little while for a family get together and then we headed to Andrew and Liz Butcher's house for a SuperBowl party. First, here is Luke playing with memaw and Lexi...


And the horse...

And the tractor....

At Andrew and Liz's house, at one point, there were 13 CHILDREN ranging from 5 months to 9 years old. It was a lot of fun and it was great to some friends and children that I haven't seen in awhile. The grown-ups tried our best to catch up and talk and sort of watch the game as we chased the kiddos around. Luke enjoyed playing in Ella and Avery's playroom. He pushed the baby stroller, the vacuum cleaner, played with the kitchen set, sang a few songs with his buddy, Caleb, played at the vanity with some pearls and jewelry :), did a little dancing to the Justin Bieber CD playing in the background, and carried this Minnie Mouse around....

Did you notice a theme??? Could you tell that we were at the home of two little girls??? Luke was immersed in the land of girl toys and, crazy enough, against Daddy's best wishes, he loved it! Oh my!!! :) We all convinced Landis that he was 2!!! He's going to play with whatever is around - it doesn't matter whether its for girls or boys. In the meantime, Landis and I both are glad that he's back at home playing in the land of boy toys!!! LOL! Speaking of being a boy, here are some pictures of our outside time this week....digging in the sand....
Playing on the slide....

And, building this big tower of stackables and knocking it down by kicking a ball. He loves doing this!


I'll end with some videos....

#1 - Luke told me this morning that he needed to change his sheets, so he started removing the sheet and then was interrupted because he saw.....PACIS under the bed! :)

#2 - Luke kicking down his stackable tower!

Time to watch the TarHeels play - we don't have anything too exciting going on this week, so I will probably see you next weekend! Have a great week, everyone!

Toddy