Outdoor Vehicles

Dawson loves riding his outdoor vehicles, and he had a variety to choose from. Here's he's riding his Tonka dump truck and his 2 motorcycles.

New Bubble Gun

Some pictures of Dawson playing with his new bubble gun. He really enjoyed pulling the trigger himself and making the bubbles come out, but he also had a great time running through the bubbles that I created with the bubble gun.

Little People Toys

Dawson loves his Fisher Price Little People toys. We have the dollhouse, 2 farmhouses (the current and previous models), the car garage/shop, the circus, and many of the vehicles. Sometimes he'll play quietly with them, but usually he has all the people and animals talking to each other. It's so fun to watch him play with them and hear the things that he has them say.

Making Cookies

Dawson helping me make cookies this weekend. He was a great little cookie cutter!

Gertrude and the Balloons

Our cat, Gertrude, has really enjoyed the balloons from Dawson's Shrek party. She's played with them more than he has. She'll bat them all around the house, and even when they pop, she's undeterred and will simply start playing with another one. She's such a silly cat.

Funny Phrases

Dawson has been saying some pretty funny things lately. Whenever he doesn't like something that Randy and I are doing he'll say, "Oh, stop that, Dad" or "I told you, Mom." And whenever he wants to go play outside and I mention that it is very hot outside, he'll just smile and say, "Go play in hot sun." One of the funniest things he says is when he's thirsty and wants a drink - he'll say "I'm so drinking, Mom."

Of course, the funniest things he says occur when he's involved in some form of pretend play. When he was sick last week, he discovered Micky's Clubhouse on television and since that time has been reenacting the episodes he watched. Frequently, he's Mickey and I'm Goofy, although we play the other characters as well. Amazingly, he's memorized a couple of episodes and we'll reenact them in their entirety in our living room. He also likes to march around the house saying, "March, march-edy, march" just like Mickey does. And he also does the hot dog dance that comes on at the end of Mickey. It's such a silly dance and his rendition is hilarious!!

Mall Play Area

The Woodlands Mall has an awesome play area for kids. We call it the big tree because there's a giant tree in the middle. And as you can see from the pictures, there are lots of things to climb on. Dawson particularly enjoyed jumping off everything.

Yee-Haw

Dawson playing with a stick horse at the children's museum. He's very safe too - he's wearing his helmet.

Digging for Dinosaurs

The Woodlands Children's Museum has a really neat pit filled with shredded tires where kids can dig for dinosaur bones and other treasures. Here are a few pictures of Dawson playing in the dinosaur pit. And of course, he had to wear the digging hat.

Water Fountain

Have I mentioned that Dawson likes fountains? He was enthralled with them at the Tyler Rose Garden and here he's playing at the fountain outside Barnes and Noble in The Woodlands. He would have happily jumped in and splashed around if I would have let him.

Incredible Pizza Company

This week our play group met at Incredible Pizza Company in Conroe, one of our all-time favorite places. It's located in the former K-Mart building so you can imagine how huge it is. The game room is huge. They have bowling, miniature golf, bumper cars, a race track, laser tag, and tons of arcade-style games. Our favorite feature is the toddler area, created just for young kids. It has a play ground, lots of things to crawl in, on, and under, a train ride, an airplane ride, a mini-carousel, and toddler-size versions of many classic games. We always have such a great time at Incredible Pizza!

Dawson flying the airplane. He kept saying, "Flying airplane like Daddy."

Driving the train.

Dawson really likes playing this basketball game. The basketball goal moves around, turning right and left to make it more challenging.

Driving the race car.

Dawson enjoying the fire in one of the dining rooms.

Motorcycles

Here are a few pictures of Dawson driving his motorcycles.

Scared

Dawson loves it when Randy or I hide and then jump out and scare him. He gets such a thrill out of it that he'll ask us to do it again and again. Yesterday we played the scared game with him for almost an hour. He wanted me to go into the bathroom and hide. He would then open the door, slowly walk in, and when I jumped out and said "boo" he would laugh with delight. After I did it about 20 times he wanted to hide and scare me. So he would shut the door, hide, and then call me in. Of course, I knew exactly where he was hiding as he was calling my name the entire time, but whenever he jumped up and I acted like he had really scared me, he was thrilled. So we did that about 15 times. Then Daddy came into the room and it was his turn to play the game. It was a very exciting afternoon at the Garner house. :-)

Northshore Park

There is a wonderful park in The Woodlands where Dawson likes to play. It has a small playground for younger kids, a huge playground for the older kids, a rock wall, a big sand pit, swings, a very nice lake, and lots of ducks. Here are a few pictures of Dawson enjoying the playground.

Cooling Off

Here are some pictures of Dawson cooling off in his little pool at the house. He started out playing with his water table, then decided to climb up into the water table, insisting that it was a pool. He finally ventured into the pool but wanted to bring the water table with him. And once again, he climbed up into it to splash and play. He considered it a miniature version of one of the pools in our neighborhood which has a shallow pool with waterfalls that flow into the bigger pool below. While playing in the water table, he would say "Now I go to shallow pool" and he would climb up into the top section, and a few minutes later, "Now I go to big pool" and then climb down into the bigger section of the water table. It was so cute!

Huntsville State Park

On Tuesday, Dawson and I attended a play group with some of our friends at the Huntsville State Park. It's a beautiful park full of trees, hills, winding trails, and a large lake home to many alligators. Our group ventured onto a couple of small trails and then had a picnic by the lake and played on the playground. It was a very fun morning. Dawson was excited to see his friends and they enjoyed running on the trails, balancing on the big logs, jumping off everything (a new and favorite skill of Dawson's), climbing up the fort-like playground, and swinging high on the swings.