What we've been up to...

So please bare with me as I give you guys a marathon post of some of the fun things we have been doing this past month. I have gotten myself SO FAR behind because I have been so busy with school. So, sit back, relax, and enjoy a super LONG post with tons of pictures! =) (I really tried hard to narrow the pictures down, and considering how many I actually have, I think I did a pretty good job!!)First off, at the beginning of the month we went to the free Tulsa Drillers game with some friends. I guess the game was sponsered by the law enforcement down here or something because before you walked into the game, they had all kinds of police equipment and cars out for the kids to look at and climb up in. We saw police men who actually rode horses around downtown, SWAT team trucks and tools (guns, helmets, and all kinds of other things), police cars, police motorcycles, and more! I think the motorcycle was Chase's favorite.

I signed Chase up for a little class at Whiteside Park here in Tulsa called "Snacks and Storytime." He has been to one before with Nuna, but this time I was able to go and we had a fun time. It was themed around bunnies, bats, and milk. When we first got there, the teacher had her pet bunny out for the kids to pet and Chase thought that that was pretty fun. We cut out a bunny puzzle and read a book about bunnies. While the teacher read the book, Chase got to decorate bunny cookies with icing and make chocolate milk! Then we made a little bat (below) and read a story about bats. Next, she had the kids get up and listen to music, Old McDonald Had a Farm and The Hokey Pokey. Chase thought the Hokey Pokey was pretty fun until we started recording him. The last story the teacher read was called "It Looked Like Spilled Milk." Chase thought that this story was pretty fun.On a Tuesday, we drove out to Porter, OK--Oklahoma's peach capitol with Lacey McMurry and Riles to pick some yummy peaches! We had a good time and I think Riley and Chase picked every peach off the trees that were in their reach, whether they were ripe or not. By the time they were done, I think they each ate about 10 peaches!! We got some yummy peaches and I think the boys had a good time. They were both a sticky grassy mess at the end of the trip!Looks like Chase picked a few other things....this picture cracks me up! =)After we got done picking peaches we stopped off at McDonalds for a yummy lunch. Even though they may not act like it sometimes, these 2 boys love eachother and are best buddies! =)Friday after we picked peaches we headed to the Tulsa Zoo with the Briggs, Carney's, and McMurry's. I was hoping that it would be cooler like it had the whole week, but it ended up being pretty humid and hot. We had a good time though. Right now at the zoo, they have the Feather Fest going on where you get to go in a little building type thing and feed the birds with a seed stick. We came at the end of June and did this when the family was visiting and the birds were eating off the sticks a lot better then. Chase still really had a good time feeding the birds though. I had a gray cockatoo on my stick and it decided to just climb right up to my shoulder. I am not a huge bird fan, they kind of gross me out, but it was pretty cool and Chase thought it was funny.Haha, gotta love this picture. Poor Nolan got bird poopie on his forehead.
Jack, Chase, Tressa, and Riley looking at the Jaguar in the Rainforest building. This building is probably my favorite part of the zoo. When you walk in the have little pigmy marmosets that just roam free around you. It is a really cool building.Riley, Jack, Chase, and Corbin looking at some fish!This is probably Chase's favorite part of the zoo...the "GWEEN FWOGS!!" There is a section at the zoo that has tons of little poison dart frogs...green, blue, and yellow/orange. It is opened up so you can see them and is really cool.
Lacey climbed the big rock and Chase thought he needed to be up there too. There was no way I was getting myself up there and Jack is afraid of heights so we just switched and Chase thought he was pretty cool stuff. I signed Chase up for soccer at the YMCA and this is from his first little soccer gig. It was called "skills-n-drills." Chase had a pretty good time. He had a hard time remembering not to touch the ball with his hands, but overall I think he did really well.In this picture Chase is pouting in the net because he had to share "his ball" that really wasn't even his. It was the ball the coach gave him at the beginning to do a few little drills with and when it came time to share he wasn't too happy about it and he couldn't quite grasp the concepts that it wasn't actually HIS ball. This cracked me up!Chase looks forward to Papa coming home from work because that is when the TV (most of the time) gets to come on and he can watch Justice League! He especially loves to watch movies on Papa's Ipod, right next to Papa while he works.Now for the Messy Art. I signed Chase up for a Messy Art Class and all these pictures are a collaboration of the past 3 weeks we have gone. We are done with the class until a new one starts up in October! In the picture above Chase is spraying a coffee filter with colored water to make a butterfly. After the filter dried you put it in a clothespin (the old fashioned kind that don't have a spring thing to pinch) and it makes a pretty butterfly! This was probably by far the messiest day of art class, and probably the most fun! It started out with making visors in the room, then the kids did the rest of their art activities outside. They had the coffee filter butterfly that they made, then they had a spot that had different kinds of goo to play with. In the picture above, Chase is playing with a mixture of water and cornstarch. The teacher told me that this is fun to let the kids do outside becuase once it dries you just sweep it up and it's not a mess at all. Chase LOVED it. Below, is instant potatoes and water which was goopy and a little too chunky for me. Chase wasn't too fond of it either. They also had another mixture that was dream whip and milk that the kids really liked.

Chase REALLY liked this part of Messy art. He got to paint with feet! Finger painting is always a winner with Chase too. I bet you can only imagine how many posterboards we have hanging around the house!
This picture sums up our art class in 2 words...MESSY and FUN! Chase had a blast and was a totaly disaster at the end of the class. His feet were died a light blue for the rest of the day from painting with his feet!One day at art, Chase got to paint a wooden snake that he really likes to play with now.This was really cool. In the little cup looking things is melted crayon wax. The kids then used q-tips to paint with. Chase painted on this yellow tray and they also made a butterfly magent out of cardboard that they got to use this "wax paint" on.

The kids were able to use A LOT of glue and Chase liked the idea of glue. He placed HUGE globs all over everything and I had to keep telling him that the object of glue is to stick things to paper, not paint things. We made a smiley face with noodles, beans, and rice in the picture above. This was our last messy art class.
And, on the last day, they had shaving cream to play with. Chase LOVED that idea the first time they did it and had a blast the second time. I think this would be something fun to do at home because you can just hose down the aftermath...outside of course! =)

There aren't any pictures to go with this story, but the other day I took Chase to McDonalds to get an ice cream cone. As we were getting ready to leave there was a homeless man sitting in the little lobby area. I always hate walking by the homeless people because they kind of freak me out, but I held my breath and we walked on by. Just as we were walking by, Chase asked me, quite loudly, "Mommy, why hims teef missing?" I just said, "I don't know Chase" and kept walking praying that this homeless man didn't hear us and wouldn't come attack me for what my kid said! A few seconds later he was behind me as I was walking to the car and I kind of freaked. He asked me if I had any change and that every little thing would help. I told him that I didn't really ever carry cash or anything and Chase usually uses up all my change in the candy machines, but that I would look. I then proceeded to pull out my wallet and I know he heard the change jingle. I gave him a nickle and a dime and told him the rest was zoo coins, and that I didn't think that they would help him out too much. I really didn't have any zoo coins...in fact, I really didn't have too much change at all. I had another dime and quarter, a ring, and some of the flattned pennies that you get at the zoo/aquarium. He told me thanks and said "God bless you, every little bit helps." I told him no problem and hurried to the car. Once Chase and I were locked inside I buckled him in and drove off. I am pretty positive that he wasn't going to hurt us, but I get myself freaked out easily. Chase's comment made me giggle and the whole few minutes of it all makes a good memory.