Day out With Thomas 2012!

Last weekend, Mom and Dad and I all went out to Baltimore to take part in the Day out with Thomas! In case you don't know, I am a huge fan of Thomas the Tank Engine...Dad found this event where you get to do a whole lot of fun activities, and you actually got to ride on a train that was pulled along by a full-sized Thomas engine! How COOL is that!?

We travelled up to Baltimore, and even though I should have taken a nap, I was simply too excited to do so! I was exhausted, but very much looking forward to the day!

When you first arrived at the train museum, it was a bit overwhelming. We were in a huge roundhouse that housed the full-sized trains that were on display.

Dad and I checked out some of the trains that ringed the building, and it was really neat! They had mannequins set up to show what the conductors looked like, and even though they were a little creepy, it was cool.

They even had some tables set up with Thomas trains on them so that we kids could play with them. They even had a motorized one. I figured out quickly that you could activate a braking system on the tracks to stop and start the trains. Very fun!

We walked around to the different places, and got to see a lot of fun stuff, and play with a lot of different toys.

The building was set up nicely so that even though there were a lot of people, it never really felt that crowded.

As you can see, there were a lot of old trains here. Some of them you could even go inside and look around!

I got to look through the floor to see the mechanical parts that resided under the floor of the wheelhouse. They spun the floor around so that you could move the trains out of the building to the correct tracks without anyone bumping into each other. You can see the track I am standing on...

Then came the moment of truth. Our ride on the Thomas train! He was RIGHT...THERE! His eyes moved around, and his horn tooted just like in the show. (He also blew steam in my face...not cool, Thomas) I was so excited, and kept asking if Thomas talked. Though I was disappointed to find out that he would not be having any conversations with us that day, he was still amazing to look at.

Mom snapped a picture of the conductor who looked just like the ones on the show!

I picked a spot on the train, and got cozy with Mom and Dad...

After a few minutes of waiting, we were off! I had a decent (but not amazing) spot to look out the window. I, of course, only have myself to blame. I picked the seat, after all. Dad was nice and helped me get to a spot where I could see out the window.

Though Baltimore is not exactly the most...how do I put this delicately...scenic place to take a train ride, it was a little dull, but I still enjoyed knowing that it was Thomas that was pulling us along.

So really...how could you NOT have fun doing that? One of the men on the train walked around and handed out Junior Conductor certificates. I was excited to be part of such an elite group!

This was the closest to a decent picture that I would allow of Mom and I with Thomas. You can see all the people...it was definitely getting busier as the day moved on!

And at last a couple more shots of Thomas to round out the series...it seriously looks JUST...LIKE...HIM. I have seen plenty of the shows, and have lots of the toys...I know what I'm talking about, people!

When we went back inside, I really wanted to take a picture with Sir Topham Hatt, the gentlemen who is in charge of the trains in Sodor...I was so excited and talked about it a lot, however, I don't think I quite understood just how creepy Mr. Hatt was, and how tired and worn out I was....as much as Mom tried (We tried a hand-off to Dad too, but no dice) I was too scared and tired to pull it off....

I'll skip the picture of me crying...poor Mom didn't even realize I was crying, because I was doing so silently...once she realized, she cut me loose, and we skipped the rest of the picture...

Dad was nice enough to let me wave to Mr. Hatt, and he sort of waved back...I mean, come on....that dude looks creepy. You know you think so, too!

In the gift shop later, I saw a train ride that you pump a quarter into for a ride (and by "ride" I mean it rocked you back and forth, eliciting the above expression of sadness and annoyance) Luckily, we went to the train store, and got to purchase the extra set of Thomas tracks that I needed to make the full track at home!

And yes...as you can see, I passed out pretty much right away after the day out...I was exhausted and even though there were a few bumps in the road (I'm looking at you, Sir Topham Hatt) in general, it was a great day, and I was happy that we all got to go out together as a family to enjoy the day! Hopefully we can do it again next year, and check out the stuff that we missed!

Official Easter! (Or, How many people can we get into our apartment!?)

Once back in Bethesda, we prepared for the arrival of not only Gramma Mindy, but also JustRichy and FutureAuntMallory. It was to be a very full house, and I was SO excited to have everyone there to spend the holiday with us and to visit for a few days.

There was A LOT of active play while they were here...we engaged in much pillow fighting...

I often lost, but I insist that it was because of my height, and not my skill level. Typically I gave as good as I got, until there were simply too many pillows to overcome the madness...

We all developed a game called "The Chocolate Factory" where I would act as the mechanism by which the "chocolate" (or in this case, pillows acting as a chocolate substitute) would be tossed on top of me while I agitated around and mixed it all up. It was SO much fun and SO chaotic. Two of my favorite things wrapped together into a game that simply had to be experienced to be believed.

FutureAuntMallory brought along my Uncle Mat's Oscar the Grouch t-shirt that I really liked.

He was wearing it in the pictures they sent out on their wedding Save The Date magnet...ever since then, I have been simply in love with it. I feel like the shirt should be bigger on me since it was made for a grown-up, but I guess this just means I am getting big. :-)

We thought it would be fun if we did a semi-reenactment of the save the date picture featuring me in my Uncle Mat's role. We posted it on Facebook, and received the expected excited response from him.

FutureAuntMallory also proved adept at playing lots of different games...not only did she pull off a solid helicopter noise for Harold the Helicopter (with accompanying silly face) she exerted more energy playing with me throughout the weekend  than I thought any human could actually have...

I approve of FutureAuntMallory in her bid to become CurrentAuntMallory.

Below is a picture of the nice outfit Mom convinced me to wear....since I wore the nice outfit, my compromise was that I would make whatever face I wanted for the picture....everyone wins!!

Aunt Mallory brought along what had to be the coolest Easter eggs ever...Gramma Mindy and her filled them with jelly beans, and they went along in a lovely way with the enormous and awesome Easter basket that Gramma Mindy brought down with her from Connecticut. (For some reason I do not have a picture of the lovely looking basket...I think I tore it apart to get to all the treats before anyone had time to take a picture of it...in short, it was pretty darn spectacular!)

A very happy belated Easter, everyone!!!

An Early 2012 Easter at Grandpa and Gramma Debbie's!!

We're getting caught up, folks! I'm only a month behind....in SamTime, that's actually not too bad, right?

Right?

So yeah...as is typical, I had a nice deluxe Easter holiday...one back in Connecticut, with my Dad's side  of the family, and one back home with Mom's side...let's get right to it!

Dad managed to time our trip to Connecticut a little while before Easter so that we didn't hit a lot of traffic, which was a nice way to get up to see the family...when we arrived we got to see everyone!

Auntie Steph and Braelynn were there, and so were Aunt Amy, Uncle Steve (who took several days off of work to hang out with Dad and I) and Nicholas. We were all at Grandma Debbie and Grandpa's together and it was super nice.

Everyone was really nice and got me a ton of Easter presents! Look at that cool Easter egg bag!? Neat, right? Not only did I get some delicious candy (some of which were hidden within some brightly colored plastic eggs to up the fun factor) but some neat little presents as well!

Gramma Debbie helped me open my Easter basket which had even more special treats in it. I can't even tell you how excited I was. Everything is blurry because when you give me a bunch of stuff wrapped in plastic, I go kind of crazy. It's just so much fun crinkly goodness!

Once I had torn through everything, I unwound by playing with Braelynn and Nicholas....they have some great toys, and are lots of fun! They are also great at sharing!

Later after we got a bit more comfortable, Braelynn, Nicholas and I ran around the house in our underthings for a little while, and then we played on the bed for a bit, wrestling and jumping around. We knew that it was only a matter of time before someone got hurt, and sure enough Braelynn and I clunked heads, and the fun and joy ended with both of us in tears. Eh, we had fun while it lasted, and we all knew it was going to end that way, right? :-) Good times...

Later, after we had all calmed down, the family engaged in the age-old tradition of dyeing Easter eggs. Apparently you hard boil some eggs and put them into colored water so that it changes the color of the eggs.

Gramma Mindy even joined us for our first Easter egg dyeing...she helped me a lot!

If you want, you could draw on the eggs with a special crayon that you can't see until you put the eggs in the dyeing solution. It was pretty cool!

Everyone pitched in, although I actually got pretty bored after doing my first two eggs. Ironically, once I ran off the adults had more fun than the kids dyeing eggs. It had been so many years since they had done it, that they just dove right in and had a blast! Adults sure are silly sometimes!

Here is a random sampling of the eggs...Dad, even though he hadn't dyed eggs in more than a couple decades, still went ahead and drew the symbol of his favorite band "Faith No More" on his egg. What a geek. Everyone made lovely eggs, and the color palette sure was something to behold!

Throughout the weekend, we had a lot more fun activities planned! We had a nice little low-key faux Easter dinner...it's always fun to eat with my cousins!

....and before bedtime, Gramma Debbie helped me out with my somersault skills! She is a great somersault helper!

Before Dad and I went home, the weather perked up a bit, and we got to play outside. I brought my bat and ball just for the occasion!

I also discovered that in addition to his little kid-sized Dyson vacuum (Not pictured) Nicholas has a kid-sized lawn-mower....VERY cool stuff.

He was nice enough to let me play with it, and I got right to work!

Yet another fun-filled holiday weekend! Good times were had by all, and I looked very forward to doing it again in a few days back home!!

My Big Boy Bed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Following along with the theme of my last posting, there has been a bit more construction here in the past month or so...I am speaking, of course, of the Grand Transition! My move from my crib of over three years into a brand new big boy bed! It was a big deal around here! Mom and Dad decided to let me take the lead on this, and waited until I started talking about making the move before they did it, and sure enough, I expressed an interest, and they made it happen!

Gramma Debbie chipped in and bought me my bed, which I picked out all by myself! We went out to IKEA, and I looked at all the options, and picked the one I found to be the most complimentary to our apartment, in addition to matching my personality...we shopped for all the parts, and I helped!

Well, sort of...

I even helped them put it in the car, which was loads of fun! (I also climbed around a bit when the mattress formed a little bunker in the back seat...which was more fun!)

Once we got home, we had to store the bed for a few days...once it was time to build, I helped Dad carry the boxes from the living room to my bedroom...

I really enjoy helping out so much! The below picture shows the slats that build the foundation under the mattress...we had actually forgotten this piece initially, which necessitated a return to the store...it was all good though, since it meant we got to eat lunch there again!

Of course, no construction job is complete without my trusty toolbox!

Dad and I compared hammers, and once we did "Cheers", we were ready to go!

 He gave me the instructions (Which I refer to as "the map") and let me get started on the basic framing...
 

 He and I had some tight maneuvering to pull off, since the room wasn't really made for two beds, but we did it!

 Once the bed started coming together, it was really exciting to see it starting to look like the finished product I saw in the store!!

 Hm...now where is my wrench? Ah! On the floor next to the flashlight...Obviously!  Where else would it be!?

 I worked on the headboard, which features a dog and cat looking at each other...I like animals, and I also like the idea of two beings from different backgrounds getting together, if only on my head board....I'm worldly that way.

 I made sure the dog wasn't going anywhere...he is such a pretty blue, that it would simply be a shame to not have him around...

 Dad let me put the little metal pieces that held the corners together in, and hold them down while he tightened them. Even though building the bed took about twice as long with me helping, Dad is always great about letting me take part!

 I hammered them in afterwards, just to make sure they were nice and stable...I was gonna be sleeping here, after all! Didn't want to take any chances! Plus, I hoped that I would have some grownups sitting on the edge of the bed telling me stories, so I wanted to make sure it was safe and inviting all around!

 One last double check, and I think we might be ready for the slats and the mattress!!

 Ahhhh....celebrating a hard day's work with a little rest (And testing out the bed, of course...)

 Sooooo cozy...I love it!

 Then came the part I wasn't quite ready for...I told Daddy that was excited to get to have two beds in my room now...but he broke the news that we were taking apart the crib because I didn't need it anymore. It was a bittersweet moment: I was happy to be growing up and moving on to my big boy bed, but at the same time, it's difficult because the crib was such a big part of my life...I was sad, but took one last moment to do something I never could when the crib was fully assembled: Get in and out of there of my own free will.

In the weeks since my new bed was made, I have utilized my new found ability to  get out of bed whenever I want and visit Mom and Dad early in the morning...usually long before they are ready to get up. :-)