It was a wild wild weekend!

While we had a very active - and somewhat exhausing weekend, the biggest part was the celebration of Father's Day. Matthew just loves his daddy. He's always walking around the house shouting "Da-da?!? Da-da!?! Da-da?!?" Matthew knows daddy is always good for a quick wrestle, a swing out front, a walk around the block in the cozy coupe or a welcome shoulder in the middle of the night. Happy Father's Day hon.

While Father's Day was pretty low key - lunch a Marvin's favorite restaurant Lawry's, we had a very busy Saturday. We started out by going to a birthday party for Ashley as she turned 3! Matthew just loved being part of the big kids and seeing the Reiters and D'Agostinos as well as making new friends! We followed the party with a quick trip to the mall to return a pair of shoes. While mommy did a little shopping, Matthew played his little heart out in the play area.



After all that excitement, Matthew needed a nap which he did all the way to Midlothian. We don't get down to Midlothian enough to see Nathan and Lori, so we though we'd stop by and say hello before heading out to the Midlothian Balloon Festival. This gave us an opportunity to introduce Matthew to Nathan and Lori's pets - well a few of them anyway as Miss Lila was off being trained. Matthew got to interact with Bach and the kitty. Even after hanging out for a while, he was never comfortable around Bach. The cat was another story. He could spot her almost anywhere and actually pet her. This is a very big deal for our little guy who is a little afraid of animals.

We headed out to the Midlothian air strip to have dinner and check out some balloons. Unfortunately it was too windy for the balloons to go up, but Matthew did enjoy watching the planes (and now points to the sky anytime he hears and airplane overhead). Matthew had more than enough entertainment with his aunt Lori and uncle Nathan. The bunny ears where a hit! As dusk was setting, we got to see a moon glow. Not as cool as it would have been with all the balloon inflated, but it elicited a quite a few "wows" from Matthew.

Matthew's 1 year pictures are posted!

Yea - between being colds, ear infections and family activities, we FINALLY took Matthew's 1 year photos.



He was 14 months old and I know that he changed alot between March and May, but better late than never.



Karey did a fabulous job and I just love the shots she got.




I think she did a good job of capturing his personality - though some of the pictures here have that "huh" attribute to them. :)



If you'd like to see more, you can go to www.rinkphoto.com. Click on the client proofing tab at the top and the password is amy5.



Which one is your favorite?

From the mouth of babes

Imagine my surprise when I get Matthew's daily progress sheet from school and they say that he is chatty. Chatty? Sure Matthew uses a few words now and again - he'll "oooh and ahhh" over a toy, say "bye-bye" when daddy leaves for work or sees a passing car. He may even shout "duck" if the neighborhood fowl decide to grab a snack in our neighbor's front yard. Talking sure, but chatty - I wouldn't say that necessarily. THEN, we spent the weekend together. Matthew is FULL of babytalk. He babbles away - talking to everyone and about everything. What I am finding is that he has responses that are really in context of his activities. I guess he really knows what is going on.

This past weekend we took a trip downtown to check out the CityArts Festival. It was very very hot, so we took advantage of all the museums being open and - our favorite four letter word - FREE! Matthew expored the toddler room in the Dallas Museum of Art and even got to hang his texture rubbing on the wall. (Daddy is so proud to say Matthew had his art handing in the DMA. :) )

After the DMA, we checked out the Trammel Crow Asian Art museum. We rounded one corner to see a jade statue and Matthew's response was "Oh Wow!" He was mezmorized by the statue. I wonder if he realized what he just communicated. My favorite expression for the weekend wasn't the expression itself, but the context. While downtown we went to mass at the Cathedral. I don't know if it was the fact that it was someplace new, or he was really getting into the service, but he punctuated every activity with a "Yea" and clapping his hands. After every song, every reading - the homily too. I don't know if it was a "yea - thank goodness this is over," or a "yea, being in church rocks!" type of response. I guess we'll see as he grows older. For now we'll welcome the enthusiasm.

Celebration time!

Do you want to know how to celebrate a birthday in style? You need to get with my grandfather. 90 years old - 10 kids - 26 grandkids - 12 great-grandkids with one one the way. Though the whole family couldn't make it, there were plenty of us to make it one heck of a party. (You can see our pictures here.)

We decided to do things a little old school and let the kids run around on the front lawn and play games. When I say old school, I mean old school. The great-grandkids got a tractor ride. We did potato races (put potato on a spoon and run w/o dropping), three-legged race, watermelon seed spitting contest, etc. The grandkids had fun running on the oil drums while the great-grandkids loved pushing them around.



It was a very relaxing and enjoyable day - one which was sad to see come to an end. Alas, we have a kiddo now and bedtime is now our indicator for how long we can stay and enjoy the party. I miss being able to stay late, play cards and catching up with everyone, but am so glad that Matthew had the chance to experience his big, crazy extended family. I love "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," because I have a "big fat German family" and can totally relate. Now, my grandfather may not spray Windex on everything, but our get togethers are large and loud and always have a ton of food and this one was no exception!