My Day Out with Thomas!

Guess what... I got to go visit the Island of Sodor and ride on Thomas the Tank Engine this weekend!! We got up really early in the morning, and went to Nana and Pap's house. Then we drove for a really long time to a place called Pennsylvania (that must be where the Island is), and found Knapford Station - although everyone kept called it the Strasburg Rail Road, but whatever.

We had to park far away from the station, but we got to ride on a school bus to get there! It was really fun!

There were lots of people and different conductors walking around, looking at the coaches.

We had to be really careful at the level crossings and watch for trains!

There were lots of other steam engines resting in the sidings, like this big black one - I thought he looked like Thomas' friend, Hiro!

There were lots of kids there with their mommies and daddies, and their Nanas and Paps, too. We walked around for a while, and then Thomas puffed into the station! We had to wait our turn to ride on his coaches, but when we boarded and sat down, we got to take a ride through the countryside and see horses and cows in the fields! The conductor even walked by and took our tickets, and Thomas had puffs of smoke while he chuffed down the line, and wheeshed steam, just like in the stories!

Here comes Thomas!

Thomas is always so happy - and really cheeky and useful!

Mommy and I watched all the trains pull in with their coaches.

I'm glad Mommy and Daddy were there with me - it was a little overwhelming sometimes!

Daddy was explaining about all the engines to me. I really learned a lot!

Me and my Daddy :)

My seat, riding on Thomas!

Daddy and Mommy pointed out all the cool horses and cows while we were riding.

The countryside was so pretty!!

After our ride, we got to eat hot dogs and drink lemonade for lunch, and then we walked into a big tent that had everything Thomas you could think of - t-shirts, cups, towels, books, lunchboxes, and even toothbrushes. They had all kinds of engines, and Mommy and Daddy let me get a couple, including Patchwork Hiro (I'd had my eye on him for a while!)

It was such a fun day, but I was exhausted, so I fell asleep as soon as we got back in the van to drive home. I want to go back and ride on him again, and Mommy and Daddy have been smiling when they say, "We'll see," so that usually means that we will :)

This was me, five minutes after we started driving home - I'm still holding onto my Thomas and my Diesel engines, though!

My Nana and Pap are the BEST! I hope they come with me next time we ride on Thomas!

I hope Nana and Pap are ready for LOTS of time playing with my new engines the next time they come over for a visit!

I gotta go play with my new engines now - hope you like the pictures! Maybe next time you can come with me to ride on Thomas!

Preschool Graduation!

Well, not MY graduation, but some of my classmates graduated from preschool today! Me and the kids in my class (the 2-and-3-year-olds) got to participate in the program and sing songs with the big kids who are going to kindergarten next year. Daddy took some video (which will be posted once we figure out how to upload it) and Mommy took some pictures, so I thought I'd post them up.

We got to wear special shirts and hats that we made with fish and sharks and other ocean animals on them!

We sang songs and did hand gestures that our teachers taught us!

Then me and my best friend, Vincent, found some balloons to play with :)

This is me and Vincent and Olivia (my two best friends!)

We even got cupcakes after the program, and Vincent and I laughed at all the icing on our faces!

Well, after all that partying, I'm pretty tired, so I'm going to bed now - good night! Until next time!

Yay, Springtime!

I love Spring! I get to play outside again, which is one of my favorite things to do, and this year I learned about the Easter Bunny - he comes to your house and hides eggs, and leaves candy and other cool stuff in a basket. I thought I'd post some pictures of all the fun!

We took a walk in the park, or the "countryside," as I like to call it. It was a beautiful day!

I like pointing out birds and airplanes for Mommy and Daddy.

We found a big playground that had lots of slides - I love slides!

I went down big slides...

...and small slides...

...and I made Mommy nervous climbing UP the slides, too! :)

It has been raining a lot, too, so we've had to be inside a LOT. But it's okay, because I have fun with Daddy and Mommy reading books and playing with my Thomas engines.

This is me and Daddy - just us guys, hanging out :)

I love my Daddy!

It was really fun when the Easter Bunny came - he put eggs full of jelly beans all over the house, and I had to go find them. It was a really fun game, and he even left a basket of candy and books for me - and more coaches for Thomas to pull on the track!

It took a while for me to find all the eggs the Easter Bunny hid - he put them everywhere, including in my toy box, on my train set, and even in my shoes!

By the time I found them all, I had a whole bucket full of jelly bean eggs!

The Easter Bunny left me Annie and Clarabel, who are Thomas' coaches.

I was really happy about Annie and Clarabel - I'd had my eye on them for months!

The Easter Bunny also left some books about Thomas and his adventures - this is me showing Mommy all the cool pictures in the stories.

All in all, it was a great Easter, and it's a fun Spring so far! This summer is sure to be busy, since we're going to see the real Thomas in June, and pretty soon the pool will be open across the street. I'll make sure to take lots of pictures of my adventures this summer and post them here for you. Until then, go outside and enjoy some sunshine - I know I will be!

Picture Day!

I've been so busy at school learning my letters, doing art projects, and reading Dr. Seuss books (it was his birthday last week, you know), that I forgot to post my school pictures! We had picture day last month, and even though I had to change my clothes to have my picture taken (which I was NOT happy about), I think the photographer captured my more thoughtful side... what do you think?

Anyway, there's lots going on this month, with St. Patrick's Day and our upcoming field trip to the grocery store, so I'll put up another post as soon as I can to tell you all about it! Until next time!

Lazy Weekends and Playtime

I realized I hadn't posted any stories since right after Christmas, and Mommy and Daddy snuck a few photos the other day, so I figured I'd better post again!

We just had our first REAL snowstorm of the winter, and the snow (or "'now," as I call it) is everywhere! It's been really cold lately, so I haven't been able to go to the playground, or slide down the slide at school. Once in a while, we get bundled up and go outside in the Moon Bounce, but we can't do that when it snows. I really like being outside, but not in the winter!

It's okay, though, because my teacher always has fun art projects and stories and games for us to play inside. I really like to paint, and playing with Playdoh is pretty cool (but honestly, nothing beats snack time!).

I also really like to learn about colors and shapes. My teacher quizzed us on our letters, numbers, colors, shapes, and our names last week, and I was the only kid in class who could spell the letters in my name! I like practicing what I learn so I say my letters and numbers all the time - sometimes I count all the way home from school in the car! That is, if I'm not serenading Mommy from the back seat - my favorite songs are, "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star," "These are the Months of the Year," and of course, "Thomas and his Friends!"

On the weekends, when it's windy and cold and we don't have to go anywhere, Mommy and Daddy let me stay in my jammies all day and we play with my Thomas engines! If I help Mommy and Daddy by eating my breakfast and doing something called "cooperating" during my diaper changes, they let me watch a Thomas DVD while we play :)

Sometimes I take Percy and his mail cars on the windowsill so they can puff around up there while I watch my Thomas stories.

The stories about Thomas and his friends are really interesting! My favorite DVD lately has been, "Thomas' Merry Winter Wishes," because there's a lot of snow in it :)

Mommy gave me a haircut right after this was taken... but don't worry, it's not too short! :)

You can tell by my "moustache" that I'm a big fan of orange juice :)

That's Toby that I'm holding - he's the only steam tram engine!

That look on my face in the last picture is because I'm about to drop Toby and tackle Daddy, which is another one of my favorite things to do when we're playing inside. I can run all the way across the room and knock Daddy over! I tackle Daddy so much, he even went to the store and got me a Troy Polamalu jersey - he's Mommy's favorite defensive player for the Pittsburgh Steelers (psst... they're gonna play in the Super Bowl!)

Well, I really should get to bed - I have a play date tomorrow with my friends, Peyton and Trent! Night night!

So Let Me Tell You About My Christmas...

Christmas started early this year, in more ways than one! I got to go see my Nana D and Pap on Christmas Eve, and I got to open presents, even though it wasn't Christmas yet! Nana also made me lots of fruit salad and special cupcakes, which everyone kept saying were muffins, but I know a cupcake when I see one. I got to play with my Mom-Mom and Pappy, and my goofy Uncle Scott, Aunt Pam, and cousin Megan, and was so worn out from the morning that I was asleep in the car before we got home. I felt refreshed after my 15-minute car-nap, so I wanted to play with my new engine, Rosie, but Mommy and Daddy insisted I go to my bed and take another nap. This is where my stall tactics came in handy - they let me take Rosie to bed with me, so I had something to help me pass the time until they decided my quote-nap-unquote was over.

Our tree - I made my first Christmas ornaments in school this month, so we put them on the tree!

As for Christmas, all week long, Mommy and Daddy were talking about how Santa Claus was coming and that I had to be good and listen, and he'd leave me a bunch of presents while I slept on Friday night... well, then why were they surprised when I woke up at 4:15 a.m., ready to open presents?! I'd been really good all week, but they still made me go back to bed! But, at least I managed to go back to sleep in THEIR bed, hahaha....

Four hours later, they finally said it was time to go downstairs - and they were RIGHT! Santa Claus DID come, and he left me all kinds of presents to open! But of course, I can't do anything on an empty stomach, so the first order of business was breakfast. COOKIES!!!!! with chocolate kisses... yum! I'm beginning to like the "Christmas version" of Mommy and Daddy - they let me get away with eating dessert for breakfast!

Daddy helped me open some freight cars for my train set.

It was hard to be patient, but I managed to control myself! You'd be surprised at how distracting my Mommy's cookies are!

This was the coolest Thomas set I'd ever seen (and the biggest!) Once Daddy takes some pictures of the new-and-improved track, I'll post some pictures.

The only frustrating thing about getting Thomas presents is that I had to wait while Mommy and Daddy struggled with getting everything out of the boxes! I don't understand why every piece has to be locked down with four different steel ties, plastic bindings, and super-sticky scotch tape.

Anyway, Santa brought me lots of cool stuff for my Thomas the Tank Engine set - my Nana D gave me a little engine named Rosie the day before, and I got the big tender engine, Spencer, and some neat freight cars with aquarium and zoo animals in them. Santa also left me lots of supplies to do my artwork, including a big Ironman art book and an easel of my own!

This book has markers, stickers, puzzles, coloring pages, and all kinds of other stuff, and it's all about Super Heroes! Of course, I had to take a few of the IronMan and Spider-Man stickers out right away :)

This is my new easel. Priceless works of art forthcoming...

I LET the Grinch steal my bean bag - this is RoninGreyWho, waiting for the Grinch's heart to grow three sizes so I can get my bean bag back. In the meantime, I'll be playing on my living-room-sized Thomas track that my Daddy set up...

I had lots of fun playing with my stuff all morning, and then after I took my nap, we all went up to Nana K's house - we ate lots of yummy food (my favorite, of course - the dinner rolls), and I got to open even more presents. I had so much energy after dinner that my Aunt Michelle and I played "Ring Around the Rosie" in the kitchen about 100 times! I was the only one falling down, though, until Daddy joined in - he always has fun falling down with me :) We were having so much fun that we got home WAY past my bedtime. I still wanted to play when we got home, but since it was really late I had to go straight to bed. It's okay, though, because we've had a couple of days to play since then. It's going to be tough to go back to school tomorrow and away from my toys, but I get to see my friends and my teachers, and we can talk about Santa's visit!

Cheesin' it with Thomas...

Mommy and Daddy slacked on getting the Christmas cards out, so this shot will have to do... Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

I hope your Christmas was as fun as mine was, and if I don't see you before then, have a really Happy New Year! It's gonna be a great one!

A Long-Awaited Return...

Hi! Yes, I'm finally back! It has been a very long time since my last post, but I really do have a good reason for that - Mommy and Daddy got a new computer, and they're so busy playing Thomas the Tank Engine with me that they haven't really had a chance to set up the camera and download any of my latest photos until now.

Quite a bit has happened since I last wrote - I went trick-or-treating for Halloween in TWO different costumes (Thomas, and Clinton Portis, my favorite Washington Redskins football player), I visited a pumpkin patch and a fire station with my class at preschool, and I got pneumonia for Thanksgiving... don't worry, Mommy made sure I got some turkey a few days later!

Do you see how small I look on this slide?! It's not an optical illusion. That slide was HUUUUGE!!! And as you can see I did it all by myself!!! Pretty sure I scared the you-know-what out of Mommy and my teachers. Hehehe.

This is me in the maze at the pumpkin patch. It was pretty awesome. Again, I didn't have to hold anyone's hand or anything. It was such a blast. I was pretty worn out after all that running and laughing with all my friends from school. After the maze we went to pick out our own little pumpkins, which was cool with me 'cause I was able to chill out a bit.

I also got to visit my school on a Saturday night to see the Christmas Light Show! Mommy and Daddy and I drove through thousands of lights and they blinked to the Christmas music on the radio - but the best part was when we got to go inside and have s'mores and lemonade.

We ended up wearing some of the s'mores on our faces :)

I've also been making a lot of time for my indoor hobbies, now that the weather has gotten colder (and I've been sick recently with pneumonia, which is counterproductive to my efforts to go to the playground).

Daddy lets me play his drums once in a while - I'm getting pretty good!

Mommy and Daddy sometimes let me play on this cool new iPad thing - it's got animal flashcards that make the actual animal noises! I really like to listen to the lion and the fish (which sounds like water bubbling, hehehe), and it even spells the name so I can practice my letters. Oh, and by the way, my latest obsession is singing my ABC's ad nauseum to the girls in my preschool class :)

And, of course, I always make time to play with my Thomas and friends engines.

You can see some of my school artwork in the background of this picture. I had to get my hands messy for that one, but that's not such a big deal anymore.

You can see one of my latest "engines," Alfie, who isn't really an engine, he's a front-loader friend of Thomas's. He likes to feel included with the rest of the engines, though, so I make sure he gets some time on the track, too!

Mommy probably took this picture while I was watching a really exciting part of a Thomas story... he and his friends seem to get into trouble all the time!

Well now that Mommy and Daddy got the camera set up on the new computer, and are figuring out something called Red Eye Reduction, there will probably be a lot more pictures in my next post. Until then I think I'm gonna catch some Z's. 'Night.