Fall Fun

Connor loves to be outside, but Summers in Texas are extremely hot so our outside activities are usually limited to going to the pool or playing at “Connor’s park” in our backyard after the sun goes down a bit.  But as soon as the weather starts cooling off, we start spending a lot more time outside. 

In early October, we joined a few members of the playgroup for our annual trip to the Pumpkin Patch.  Connor rode a couple of rides, played in the bounce houses and we all rode the hayride before picking out two small pumpkins that Connor could decorate with stickers. 

I grew up in this area so I have been to the Texas State Fair many times, but have not been since Connor has been around.  This year, Connor and I joined our friends Becky and Reid for a fun day at the Fair.  The boys enjoyed eating lots of Fair food such as fried Ding Dongs, fried cake balls, fried oreos (notice a theme here?) and hot dogs.  They rode lots of rides and Becky and I got to go down the HUGE slide with them. 

We couldn’t get the boys to both want to go on the Ferris Wheel at the same time, so we took a trip through the air on the gondola and the boys had a great time looking down at all of the sights. 

Last year, I lost a dear friend to a brain tumor and started participating in the Brain Tumor Walk in her memory and to provide support to families going through a difficult time due to this disease.  The event is held at Trinity Park in Fort Worth in early November and I plan to participate as long as I can walk.  Although the morning started out a little chilly this year, it turned out to be a beautiful day.  We walked with our friends Becky and Dave while our boys rode in the wagon.  Surprisingly, Connor wanted to ride the whole time instead of getting out and running around like the crazy boy that he is.  After the walk, the boys enjoyed playing in the bounce house and got to pick a rubber duckie out of the water to win a prize.  We stopped off in Downtown Fort Worth to eat at Taverna, which is a Fort Worth favorite of mine. 

Castle Hills has over 20 parks, so there is plenty to do when the weather is nice.  Each park has a different theme and different activities, so we try to visit different ones to keep Connor entertained although he would be happy just swinging if that is all there was to do.  He has learned to kick on his own in a big boy swing and he can now swing so high that it makes me nervous. 

 Connor has enjoyed riding his tricycle for a long time and frequently rides it as fast as he can around the house.  But we have had to encourage him to ride his blue “big boy” bike.  It probably doesn’t feel as stable to him and he likes to ride fast, so he prefers the tricycle.  But he has been riding the blue bike a little more lately.  He frequently goes outside to the sidewalk and rides around the block on one of his bikes with Mommy or Daddy chasing him. 

We've had Connor in a class called Soccer Tots since he was 18 months old, but this Fall we get him on an outdoor "team" called The Sharks.  Brad coached the team of ten 3-year olds and had lots of fun.  Connor did pretty well with his skills, but since Soccer Tots wasn't a team environment, he wasn't used to having to share with his team and he got really upset when the other team would take the ball away.  By the end of the season he learned that it what they were supposed to do and it didn't upset him as much. 

The most exciting part of fall to Connor this year was Halloween.  So much fun that it deserves a special post...coming soon.