Butterfly Flutterby

A couple Saturdays ago we went to the Butterfly Flutterby held by the City of Grapevine. It celebrates the migration of the monarch butterflies as they make their way to Mexico for the winter. We put Harper in her butterfly shirt and shoes, and put her wings from last year's Halloween on for good measure. She was too cute!

The main highlight of the event is the live butterfly release, where they hand each person participating an envelope containing a live monarch butterfly. As they countdown from 10 to 1, everyone lets their butterfly go, and watch them all fly off. It was a pretty cool sight! We got there a little too late to participate in the first one, and we left before the second one, but we loved watching it anyway!

I had really hoped to have some adorable pictures of Harper's face painted like a beautiful butterfly. But alas, after we waited in line for close to an hour, she sat down and her little two year old self decided she didn't want her face painted. oy. Such is life as the parent of a moody two year old!

Arboretum

Last Sunday was my birthday and Daddy decided to take us all on an adventure. We first went to a cute cafe near White Rock Lake in Dallas where we had a really yummy healthy lunch. Everything was so fresh and tasty. We loved it! We then went to the Dallas Arboretum to spend the day checking it out. They were having a fall display with about 10 million pumpkins there. The great thing about the arboretum is that at every turn is a beautiful spot for a picture.

While we were there, we ran into Jon's coworker and our good friends, Wes, Jessica and Mia. The guys promise they didn't know the other was going to be there -- what a coincidence! It was everyone's first time at the arboretum, so we all had a good time exploring and looking around. It was really beautiful and thankfully Harper was in a great mood and loved playing with Mia. One side note: Jasper was really overdue for a meal, so I was desperately scoping out every corner, bench and place to sit so I could nurse. Well, as I said before, literally every spot is a beautiful picture spot, so I had a very difficult time finding somewhere discreet and out of the way! It was annoying at the time, as I didn't want to hold up the whole group, and I felt really bad for Jasper. But now I can just chalk it up to one of those moments that is so short-lived and I'll probably miss soon!

We had a great time and it was a wonderful day to celebrate my birthday!

(Since Daddy didn't tell me where we were going, Mommy couldn't make sure Harper was appropriately dressed in fall clothing to go with the scenery. She was the only girl there dressed for spring! However she loved looking at all the pink flowers, so I guess it was good she coordinated with them.)

Jasper was not too thrilled to be sitting on the pumpkins.

Here she is talking to a squirrel. She was very sweetly waving at it saying "c'mere squirrel!"

Pumpkin Patch

Last Sunday we took the kids to the big pumpkin patch in Flower Mound. We've seen this pumpkin patch several times and knew it was a huge one, however we hadn't braved it with Harper the past two years since we always went to the pumpkin patch with my sister and her family in California. While we were really sad not to be in California this year, we were looking forward to finally checking this one out. And we were not disappointed!

Just like at the farm the day before, Harper did not warm up to the newness of everything right away. However once she saw other kids her size running around and having fun exploring things, she did too. This pumpkin patch is primed for parents to take a billion pictures of their kiddos. So that's what we did! They have all sorts of character cutouts to pose with, cut outs to put your face through, kid-sized tractors to sit on, houses to run in and out of and huge bales of hay to climb on... amongst other things!! We did it all and I tried to snap as quickly as I could!

Before we left the house, I was getting the kids into their pumpkin gear, and Harper put on Jasper's pumpkin hat which used to be hers. Just for fun, I included a picture from her first Halloween -- wearing the hat when it actually fit her. :)

Peas, Please

Peas is the 4th solid Jasper has tasted, and by far was the most decorative. He looks like The Incredible Hulk, but perhaps his disposition makes The Jolly Green Giant a better name.

Nash Farm

We've been quite busy! Taking advantage of the beautiful fall Texas weather, we've been out and about finding all sorts of adventures.

Last weekend we went to Nash Farm to check out their Fall Roundup. Nash Farm is owned by the City of Grapevine, though it used to be a full working farm. It's down the street from Nana and Papa's house and at one time long ago, the land their house is on used to be part of the farm. Now the Farm is used for city activities and private parties. Every few months they open it up to the public and hold interactive seasonal activities. The local 4H and FFA clubs are on hand to tend to the animals, and overall it's a really great opportunity to see a great part of Grapevine history.

Even though the farm is just down the street from their house, none of Jon's family had ever been there! Harper has a huge love of all things farm, with a special fondness for tractors. We live in a rather rural area, and it's not uncommon to pass several tractors on any ride home. Each time we see one, Harper shouts "TRACTOR!!" from the backseat and wiggles and squeals with excitement. We knew this event would be a fun time.

Harper usually takes a little while to warm up to new situations, so even though we hyped up the animals and the tractors, she still wasn't sure for a while after we got there. We finally got her to touch a goat and a sheep, and she loved seeing the mama and baby cow. She got into a few of the other things once she saw other kids having fun. We went on a tractor ride around the farm, and she tried her hand at pumpkin bowling. We were so thankful Nana had come with us so she could mind Jasper in the stroller and both Mommy and Daddy could run around and do all the fun stuff with Harper. Thanks Nana!

We tried to get a family picture, but Harper was having none of it!

Waking Jasper

September 2010 138, originally uploaded by holly hanes.

Like his Daddy, Jasper can be difficult to wake up. Here is proof of that.

Updated Stats

Nana will be very happy to know that I've updated Jasper's stats on his growth chart on the right hand side. I've also added how old they were at each appointment to make it easier to compare the two of them at their appointments. Obviously Jasper was much bigger than Harper was at birth and the early months, but she caught up to be average right around the age he is now, so it will be interesting to see how they compare from here on out.

To compare them at 6 months, Jasper weights only 1lb, 1oz more than Harper did, but is 1 3/4 inches taller than she was!

At his 4 month appointment, Jasper was 15lbs, 4oz and was in the 50th % for weight. He was 25 3/4 inches and in the 75th % for height.

At his 6 month appointment, he was 17lbs, 7oz and was in the upper end of 50th% for weight. He was 27 1/4 inches and in the upper end of 75th% for height.

Meeting Barney

A few weeks ago we went to Stonebriar Mall in Frisco. The Sprout Network was doing a mall tour with two of their most popular characters: Barney and Chica. When Harper used to be home with Daddy a couple days a week, they would watch the Sprout Network (aka PBS kids) and Harper fell in love with Chica, the chicken puppet who co-hosts the show (along with one of three rotating human hosts). Much to my dismay, she also fell in love with Barney, the lovable (to most) purple dinosaur. I am not a Barney fan. He has always annoyed me and I had hoped that I could manage to avoid him while my kids were growing up. Unfortunately Daddy discovered that Barney was a great distraction for Harper while he was trying to get things done... and sometimes Daddy would watch too. ;)

When we heard about the mall tour, we decided we would try to go, but not get our hopes up about what it might be like, or if the crowds were too big to really do anything. After we participated in a work gathering early in the morning in downtown Dallas, we headed up to Frisco and went to the mall to try and figure out where this thing was happening. When we finally got there, Harper saw the cardboard signs with Barney and Chica and was very excited to see their pictures. Little did she know what was ahead! We saw the line, decided it was do-able and proceeded to wait to meet the Big Purple Guy. We were very fortunate to get there when we did since the line quickly stretched past many, many storefronts. I videotaped Harper's reaction upon first seeing Barney. She still hadn't known exactly what we were doing there, and it has given me a glimpse into what our future might look like when the Justin Bieber of her time comes around. oy. Sheer excitement.

Jasper was a little less excited than Harper was.

As we got closer, the line kind of wound around in a funny way and the last little leg actually led us away from Barney before we turned around and got to him. Explaining this to a 2 year old is very challenging, but eventually we worked our way closer, and she was so excited, she actually tried to break the barriers a few times to run up to him before it was her turn. We managed to keep her held back, fixed her hair, and got her all ready for her big moment. They gave each kid a "backstage pass" which had a barcode that they scanned to identify each child as they took their picture. The parents could then download the official Sprout picture a couple days later.

Here she is with her cute pass (before I had fixed her hair)

Here is Harper waiting (patiently) for her turn.

We had actually joked that it would be funny if Harper was terrified of him. But "nah - she's way too excited to get scared". Ha!! Well, we shouldn't have been surprised. She is wary of new situations and people. The following series of pictures tells the whole story. She was terrified from the moment it was her turn. She didn't walk up by herself, so Daddy had to carry her up there. She then wouldn't be put down for a picture, but instead held on for dear life.

As you can see, the official Sprout picture turned out a little less than stellar! Here she is a few minutes later when we walked around the other side of where Barney was to see Chica. She was much happier. 1 - to see Chica, and 2 - to have a safe distance between she and the puppet!

After the Barney fiasco, we wisely decided not to wait in line for Chica. Though I think Jon would have not minded if we had. The human host there at Stonebriar was Kelly, who is Jon's favorite. :)

Harper waving bye bye to Chica.

The excitement wore her out, and she was crashed out on the way home.


Despite my lack of adoration for Barney, I'm glad we went and it was so fun to see her get so excited. And it's yet another thing we will be able to talk about to her friends (and boyfriends!)