Fun at Luke's Great Aunt's House

My husband's aunt lives out in the country and is about an hour and a half away from us. Luke loves to visit her and so do I. She is like a grandmother to Luke and me. All of my grandparents passed away before Lee and  I were married, and spending time with my husband's aunt brings back memories of my grandmothers.  Her cooking isn't too shabby either. Good, wholesome, country cooking.  Yum, yum.  

Andy, our cousin's kitten

Luke loves our cousin's two kittens. Our cat is older and has never liked children, so Luke doesn't get to interact with her.

  

Day Out with Thomas the Train

Last month we took Luke down to Calera, AL to see Thomas in person. Luke loves trains, and he watches Thomas videos on Netflix and on my tablet.  He has two different Thomas and Friends track sets, and he says "Toot Toot" several times each day.

It was not a great day for it. It was a bit cool, and then it rained really hard. Luke was not in the best of moods, either. He was "that kid" that day.  You know, the one who has tantrum after tantrum and generally causes distress for everyone around him. Poor fella didn't have a real good night's sleep the night before. By the time we were scheduled to ride the train, he was exhausted. He almost fell asleep on the train.

He really enjoyed playing with the Thomas tracks that were set up for the kiddos. He wouldn't share his table with anyone, though.

Played putt putt golf for the first time. Was going fine at first, then Luke began taking balls from other children's greens. Then he started taking clubs. One of those kicking and screaming til we got him out of there moments.

Luke was scared of Sir Topham Hat.

Not to fond of the train "engineer" either.

We will have to return to the Heart of Dixie Railroad Museum next year when Luke is older. I think he might enjoy it better then. I hear they have a nice Polar Express-themed outing around Christmas time.

Energy Bites

I was looking for something new for us to have at breakfast and for snacks that would give us some protein and whole grains, so I decided to give these energy bites a try.

They were a hit with Luke, and he even enjoyed helping me make them.

They are a mix of peanut butter, oats, honey, ground flax seed, chocolate chips, and vanilla extract.

Roll them into balls, coat with some extra oats, and then store them in the fridge.

You can find a recipe at Lil' Luna's blog. She used coconut flakes as well, but as a general rule, I don't do coconut.

DVD Case Turned Mask...or Something

From this

To this

In just a few seconds, he turned a boring ole DVD case into, well, something. Can't turn my back for any length of time. He was so funny, though. He was walking strangely, almost like stomping, and moving his head around funnily, and making weird noises. He hasn't displayed much make-believe behavior akin to what other kids his age are doing, but sometimes he becomes another character just by picking up a stick or, well, putting a DVD case on his head. He's always (almost) good for a laugh and squeezes.

Love this boy!!!