Summer Recap

Hello World! We are back from our summer hiatus from the blog-o-sphere! Warning: This will be a long post with lots of pictures filling you in on what went on in Owen's world this summer! That disclaimer aside, I give you....the summer of '11!


June: Owen had a very life changing experience joining Sam in the musical for Calvin Christian School. When I say life changing, I mean...the child has not stopped pretending he's on stage, and reenacting the final moments of "Puzzlement". Sam was asked to do a few numbers from the roles he played in high school, so on closing night Owen joined him for his song from the King and I. There is a part in the song about "What to tell a growing son", so Owen got all dressed up (thanks to Grandma!) and really did a great job standing next to Daddy! Especially since it wasn't his turn until 9:30pm!! 

Owen also got to attend half of the week of his first Vacation Bible School! Apparently at the closing assembly on the first day, he was asked to tell everyone what he had learned about at VBS and his answer was, "I learned......about......MASSACHUSETTS!!!!" yeah.........good one O ;-) When he was a bit more focused his report to me of what he learned consisted of Daniel, the scary scary lions, big big Nebuchadnezzar, and Auntie Jenn's fruits. (Auntie Jenn was the story teller) One day she had some fake fruit on display and he just couldn't quite get past what they were doing there, so it's all he could talk about that day!! "Why did Auntie Jenn have fruit? Did she eat it? Can I eat it? Is it a banana? Do the lions eat fruit?" All of that to say, he enjoyed his few days at VBS :-)

Towards the end of the month he got to go on a plane ride to Massachusetts! On the ride there he did so great and played with all the 'airplane presents' I had wrapped up for him to open throughout the flight. Little did he know that they were from the dollar store, but I tell ya - the kid thought it was Christmas! Later that evening the 3 tired travelers... well maybe just two....actually probably just me, arrived in Worcester (which I just discovered ranks 7th in the "Most Commonly Misspelled Cities of America"....I would venture to guess that it's probably up there pretty high on the list of "Most Commonly Mispronounced Cities of America" as well)! Owen got reacquainted with everyone in no time ;-) That weekend we got to be a part of Sam's Grammie's 90th birthday party! It was a lovely party and a wonderful tribute to Grammie. In Owen's opinion, anytime you can sing "Happy Birthday" and eat cake is a pretty good time! The whole week was full of exciting things for him to do and there were lots of cousins to play with and be entertained by! The flight home was not so good... he cried A LOT towards the end, but thankfully we were in the front row so we weren't disrupting the whole entire plane. That's another perk about JetBlue though - everyone has their ears plugged up with head phones watching their in-seat Direct TV, they can't hear a toddler crying for an hour saying "Where is my new house!?!!" (11mo later it's still 'new' to him) :-)

An anxious smile from me before take-off

Playing with one of his "Airplane Presents" - Toy Story Stamps, these worked for a LONG time!!

Watching a movie with Uncle Karl

Visiting with Grammie at her 90th Birthday Party

Owen and Grammie

Running around with Daddy in the woods he played in as a little boy

July: After coming home from Massachusetts I dove back into the world of Mickey Mouse that I had been living and breathing in before we left. For Owen's 3rd birthday party we had a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme. I was pretty disappointed with the party supplies available, so I decided to make it a DIY party! I may have gotten a little carried away...but I was very pleased with how everything turned out and Owen had a BLAST!!! All of the guests had their own ears to wear, we had a fun slip n slide, hot dogs, fruit kabobs, pin the nose on Mickey, a Mickey pinata, delicious cake and cake pops....it was a wonderful day!! By the way... some may wonder, "What's the big deal, he's just 3. Why all the hoop-la?" Well, I can tell you. I spent many pregnant hours wondering if a) Owen would survive b) I would survive c) Owen would come out of everything with the capabilities and mental capacities that other kids his age would have. Because of that, I have made every birthday of his a big deal because it is still a HUGE deal to me that we are both here, wonderfully healthy and alive by God's grace. 

I free handed this Mickey face and suprised myself with how it turned out!

Yummy desserts and DIY Goodie Bags!

DIY Mickey Banner

At the end of July we went to Beach Camp at Doheny State Beach with the youth group at church and Owen had such a fun time with all of the campers! He played in the dirt, sand, water and tracked it all into our tent in the process! What more could a 3 year old boy ask for?? I confess I have never taken him to the beach just for the fun of it, I know a lot of you not living near an ocean are probably horrified by that confession....needless to say, it was very exciting for him!

August: I started training Owen to sit in church during the afternoon services and he has done wonderfully well! He usually colors in his coloring book, but every so often will look up at me and repeat (whispering, thankfully) a word that was just said in the sermon. It's nice to know that he is listening and coming away with a little something each week. He also learned where he lives and is always wondering where we are, or where so and so lives. He now knows that he lives in La Mirada (which 9 times out of 10 is Canada when he points to it on a map) and also the name of our street. Given his outgoing personality and enthusiasm for talking with strangers I'm not sure that the benefit outweighs the risk of him knowing his address..... I can see it playing out in my head *waiting in the check out line by a potentially creepy individual* "Hi! Hi! I'm Owen. I'm 3. *holds up three fingers* This is Mommy. We're at the store. Then I'll go to my new house. We live in La Mirada on ______ Drive. Okay. Adios!!" At that point I'd probably just end up throwing in there, "Yes and I'm generally alone all week long, so feel free to come pounding on my door after dark."


And here we are on the 6th of September! Sam is now back to school, so its just me and the little man during the week, so there will be more time to write! 


A few funny/new things Owen has done:


*Embarrassed me on an outing to Sur La Table after noticing an inordinate display of wooden spoons by exclaiming , "That's a lot of spanking spoons Mama!!!" 


*Seems to be into geography jokes. He heard me say Grandma Mecke lived in Orange and asked if we lived in "Red" as he laughed hysterically at himself. He also asked Jenn, upon finding out she lives in Long Beach, "Does it take 'long' to get there?" 


*Loves loves loves to be read to. We are reading through the Beatrix Potter set and he's loving it. You can never read to your child too much! It's some of my favorite moments with him.


*Started riding a big boy bike with training wheels and is getting really good!!


*He has also proven to be an incredible baseball player. He loves to have the ball thrown to him over and over and over and hits about 75% of them without a tee! I'm considering getting him into t-ball next spring to see if he can improve on the other areas of baseball and get some good social skills from it as well (making new friends, listening to his coaches, waiting his turn, winning, losing, etc. etc.).


I'm getting tired and feel like I'm blabbering at this point... I'm sure I'm forgetting lots of things. The plan is to not have such a huge gap until my next post so that I will remember all the new and funny things he does, which is practically a daily occurrence! 


Owen's Favorite Book of the Week: The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle