First, I’ll say this thing comes with about 5000 pieces, so beware when you first open that box! The instructions are actually very good though, and the way that Ikea has designed the bed to be put together makes it very simple for one person to be able to build it. For instance, I know I have built many pieces of furniture before, and most of them require you to hold some piece of wood up or something while screwing it into a different piece. With this bed, before you have to screw anything together, there are little wooden pegs that hold the pieces next to each other so that you can easily screw them in.

I took me about 3 – 3 1/2 hours to put it all together by myself…well…the boys would tell you they helped, but I’m not so sure if I would call it helping more than I would call it ‘They arranged my tools and screws about 50 times’ . In the end though it was actually one of the easiest pieces of hardware to put together and the instructions are very clear on what goes where, no having to sit there for 15 minutes figuring out which piece they are talking about and what screw hole a screw needs to go in. There is no drilling involved and all you really need is so hex keys (they come with it if you don’t have any) and perhaps a flat head screw driver for turning the cam heads if you put them in wrong.

The boys really liked it, and it’s the perfect height. I think my wife said it’s only 54 inches tall or something, so for toddlers – you don’t really have to worry about them falling out. The only bad thing about it is that the top mattress has to be 5 inches tall at maximum. Most mattresses are like 6+ so that could be a problem, but then again you could just buy the Ikea bedding – we happened to have a 5 inch tall mattress ourselves. I guess you could also use the bed as just a single twin bed with a frame around it – all you have to do is flip it over.

This would make it great if you have one kid now and want to plan for another one somewhere down the road and need the space. On the other hand, you could use the frame to hang some pink shear or something and make a nice princess bed

Anyways, now they have more space in their room, and we have a crib mattress for Kaden. Who knows, perhaps this will keep Ethan in his bed more at night since now he has to climb down a ladder to actually move about

On Saturday we decided to go talk to the furniture people about our couch. It has a stain and, since the furniture people cannot get it out and we had bought the warranty on it, they owe us a new couch. They had sent out a Stanley Steamer truck that morning and even those guys couldn’t get it out. We had got the fabric protector stuff applied, so supposedly any stain should have come out of the couch – however we didn’t think it “really” got applied. Since I get a brand new couch after two years though – not like I care. Anyways, we talked to them for a bit (have to go back in a few weeks to buy a new one) and then headed over to Bubbalou’s Bodacious BBQ – undoubtedly the best BBQ joint in town (and from what Dad says – one of the best places he’s ever been to – and he’s been to a lot of BBQ joints). The boys like it there – it has a little train that goes around a track on the ceiling, so they like to look at that.

Next we went to Best Buy and looked at the TV’s and netbook computers. My wife is thinking about getting a netbook just because 1) they are cheap 2) The are extremely portable 3) she wants to get rid of her computer so she can move my PC into our bedroom in it’s place. We looked at the new OLED TV’s. At 3mm thick, it was like looking at a pane of glass – quite impressive (and equally expensive). They also had some surround sound speakers – two speakers @ $1,299 a piece – insane!

For our last stop we went to a plant nursery and butterfly garden. It was REALLY nice and all the plants looked very healthy. We wound up staying there for a couple hours while we browsed the selection. We got some flowers to make a little garden (where no sun shines in our yard in a certain corner) and some sod. Let me tell you – the Home Depot sod is like garbage compared to this stuff. Home Depot charges $5.00 for a 2 x 1 foot piece, whereas this place charge $1.39 for the same size. The Home depot grass is normally half dead as well – this stuff looked like they had just plucked it from the greenest field you ever saw like 5 minutes ago. We took all the items home and planted them all – Ethan had a fun time digging with the rake and shovel as it was something he had been looking forward to for a while. We rounded off the day with another trip to the pool where Ethan did even better than the day before.

On Sunday we went to Toys-R-Us and purchased a 6 foot around hard plastic swimming pool. I had to tie it to the roof rack (lucky thing I keep rope in my car!) and, after having to stop once to “enhance my rope placement”, we managed to get it home. We had a picnic in the back with some Publix subs and fried chicken we had bought on the way home. Logan went down for a nap, but Ethan was excited to go play in his pool. We filled it up and he had fun going down the slide that was built into the pool. After about an hour we got Logan up and tried to get him into the pool. He wasn’t into it much though as the water was too cold for him. Eventually we dumped about 15 gallons of nearly boiling water into the pool and, although that made it about normal temperature, we still could not get him in. We went ahead and put Madelyn into the pool to see how she would like it and she splashed a little before we had to get her out (Ethan was treating the pool more like a “wave pool”. Logan must have decided not to be shown up by his baby sister after that though cause he jumped right in.

All in all we probably stayed out there for like 3-4 hours; the was just a beautiful day and it felt so nice to just sit there and soak up the sun – I even dozed off a couple times heh.

It was just a perfect weekend really, and the weather just couldn’t have been any nicer. I did feel a little sad at the end of the weekend though because I just kept thinking about how the boys were growing up and how in a few years they just wouldn’t be content to just play with a pool for so many hours – no matter how big or how many “cool features” the pool had. Ah, life goes by so fast; babies grow up so quick.

Anyways, figured I would put it here for posterity sake – since I figure in about 10 years he’ll be 13 and won’t want a thing to do with us anymore heh

The boys enjoyed seeing him of course. They played trains and we went to Cracker Barrel on Saturday morning. After a nap, we decided to go check out his plane as he was going to be leaving early in the morning and the we were sure the boys would want to see it. After a quick 20 minute drive to the airport, we were able to go out and the boys we able to climb into the plane. It’s a four seater plane, and I must say it was a lot more spacious than the two seater he used to have. The boys of course were all into the controls, so I pretty much had to play referee and stop them from hitting buttons. I can just see Ethan now “I pressed this red button, but nothing happened…why?” “You mean the one that says ‘eject fuel’?!”.

At night time, the instructor and his son came over and stayed the night as their plans to stay at a friend’s fell through (they had come up with my father-in-law). Of course Ethan saw the little boy and could not fall asleep as he was too excited. “I just play with that little boy. He came to play with me!” “Well Ethan he wants to go to sleep” “But I want to play!” Early the next morning they were able to play together for a little bit, so that made Ethan’s day.

Anyways, we got some good pictures of the plane Of course my wife was more interested in the Jet that was sitting next to my father-in-law’s plane, so we had to get a picture of her next to it.

We initially went to a Saturday class for 2-3 year old’s, which was great for Logan, but sort of easy for Ethan. That being said, we decided to take Ethan to his own class on Tuesday nights which is for 3-4′s. The difference between the 2-3 and the 3-4 is pretty much just the level of structure to the class. Int he 2-3 class, the parents walk along with the children, and although there is some structure at the beginning and end of the class, the majority of the class is just letting the kids run around and exercise on their own (be it jumping into a ball pit or bouncing on a trampoline). For the 3-4 class, the parents sit on the sidelines and let the teachers handle the kids. The kids must sit on a circle dot they are given, and wait their turn to do the exercise (only one kid at a time, although there is multiple groups doing different exercises).

In any case, he has a blast at the older class as well, and I really think that while he might have had fun at the “do what you want” class – the structure of this class was more to his liking. I enjoyed the structure of the class as well as, up to this point, Ethan has had no “structured” class in his entire life, so I thought it was good of him to get more into a “wait your turn” and “sit still until you are called upon” mindset.

First they did stretches for about 15 minutes. Ethan had to do lunges, toe touches, jumping jacks, and other stretches to reduce the possibility of him hurting himself with his “gym workout”. Next they did some somersaults and cartwheels. After that, they split into two groups and Ethan did some stilt walking, following by some high bar pull ups and other high bar exercises. After that, they got back in a circle to do some additional stretches and exercises to wind up the class.

All in all, Ethan really seemed to have a blast. He had trouble listening some times – although I think that was more that he didn’t understand what they wanted (i.e. – he’s never done a jumping jack so he didn’t know how to do one). Luckily the teachers were there to put him back on track most of the time.

Logan is going on Thursday night, we’ll see how that goes – he had a smile on his face that entire Saturday class though, so I’m sure he’ll enjoy the Thursday one just as much.

I pretty much recorded the entire “workout” on my phone, but since that’s like an hour long, I’ve remixed the video’s into a five minute video with the best parts – you gotta see Ethan attempt the jumping jacks and lunges, it is quite hilarious. Ethan is the boy (the only boy in class that night) with the blue long sleeve shirt on.

In any case, we did have a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner that my mom prepared. We ate it at the condo with my family, even Granddaddy Dow was able to make it. The meal consisted of all the normal Thanksgiving food – Turkey (duh) sweet potato casserole, green bean casserole, mashed potato’s, cranberry jello, etc. – It was very delicious, hats off to the cook! After eating, we went down to the beach so the boys could run around in the sand. They loved darting up and down the beach; Ethan even darted all the way from the condo to the gulf at one point . They had just had the annual sand sculpting competition three weeks earlier there, so we went over and looked at the sculptures. I must admit that it still impresses me how crazy good those sculptures can be. Even though it was three weeks after the sculptures were done, they were still in decent shape (although my Dad said some of the infer details of the sculptures had eroded away with rain).

The next day we pretty much stayed around the house at Mariel parents. We were able to see my father-in-laws newest invention : a bicycle with an motor scooter engine on it to make it go on it’s one. Apparently it’s some kit you can buy to add to any bike, pretty cool if you ask me. I took the boys around on a bike ride (different bike – not one with a motor ) and they enjoyed that. Later that day we went to the Everglade wonder gardens, which is kind of like a small zoo. They have LOTS of alligators and crocodiles – one was like 25 feet long (crazy, I know!). They also have lots of other animals, mostly (if not all) stuff you would see in Florida. We were able to see Florida Panthers, Tortoises, Deer, Raccoons, snakes, a Black Bear, many different birds, even an otter among other things – it was a pretty neat place.

On Saturday we went to the new Fort Myers Chuck E. Cheese. If you don’t know much about Fort Myers, FL – let me tell you this: it is mostly a place where people from all over the nation come to spend there retirement. That being said, there isn’t too much in the way of fun for kids, which explains why the Chuck E. Cheese – the only video game arcade and general ‘fun spot’ for kids in town – was absolutely packed that day. In fact I talked to my parents about it and they said the place was pretty much overcrowded like that every day. Whoever set up the franchise location in that town is rolling in dough right now. In any case, we had fun there – the boys liked doing the skee ball and some car racing games. Ethan enjoyed the tunnel system they had set up (sort of like the McDonald’s play place) while Logan enjoyed some games in the toddler section. the Chuck E. Cheese was a lot bigger than the one in our town, but then again I’ve never seen people almost falling out the door in ours either heh

We were supposed to go to this place on I-4 on the way back called Dino World, but unfortunately it was raining by the time we got back so we didn’t get to do that. All-in-all, it was a fun trip that really packed in the excitement for the boys and, while I can’t say that I miss the town, I did like visiting the beach for once in a while.

So, last Friday – he got his wish. I woke up early and we ate breakfast together and got dressed, before heading off to work. We even put a child seat in my car so he could ‘ride in Daddy’s brown car’ to work (I only ever drive my car to and from work, the rest of the time we ride in Mariel’s van). Mariel even packed him a little ‘lunch’ bag.

We got to work @ 7:30, my work opens at 8. I brought him in to my office and sat him down at an empty desk next to mine. I had created a local user account on the computer the day before for him – with only an internet explorer icon that went to playhousedisney.com. I then gave him some papers and asked him to “sort” them by putting them away in the drawers of the desk. After he finished that, I had him show me where all the buttons were on the computers and monitors that site behind my desk. He played some games on the Disney site for a minutes while I checked my email, before I took him back to the break room for “snack”.

After we got back, I had him sort some more papers and then help me find a book off the bookcase (we have an IT bookcase with a bunch of older IT books on it). Then I had him point out all the orange, blue and green boxes on a SQL diagram I have on the wall next to my desk. About that time, it was 8:10 or so, Mariel came to pick him up – his work day completed.

He says he had lots of fun. I congratulated him on his “hard work” and how he did a “great job sorting those papers”. He even talked to me about it when I put him in bed that night. Although it was no “take your kid to work day”, I think he’ll remember it for a little while at least.

Ethan spent a of time with Olivia, I think he really likes her. I always think it’s funny when I hear them talking to one another, since they talk kind of like adults – you know, listening to what each other say and responding, instead of the normal “inquisitive” and childish speak that I normally get from him. It might be hard to explain, but as a parent I can say I can tell the difference.

Anyways, we did the bounce house and played with the train for about an hour or so before until Mr. Richard showed up and played songs for half an hour. I have to say Mr. Richard is a great children’s singer – my kids can’t get enough of him. The kids ran around in a circle pretty much the whole time, it was pretty funny. Every once in a while there would be a trip and someone would fall down, but within a minute or so (and some comfort from mom) they would be up and going again. At the end of Mr. Richard’s singing, he did a Happy Birthday song for Ethan and Logan – Ethan smiled so big!

After that there was cake and some more bounce house jumping. Ethan managed to blow out all the candles by himself this year

Overall I think everyone had a good time. Ethan and Logan really seemed to enjoy having Mr. Richard there. Logan would even get in front of everyone and show off his dance moves! We had Thomas ‘cake’ as well that was really just a bunch of cupcakes but with icing put on top of them to make it look like a cake – a really great idea. Unfortunately I can’t find any pictures of it at the moment, so I’ll have to see if I can find some.

Anyways, the boys loved picking out the pumpkins. For some reason Ethan is only interested in Gourds, not pumpkins. That being said, he went about picking up every non-pumpkin he could find in the pumpkin patch. Logan had a blast too – he picked out a pumpkin that he later told us was “soooo cute!”.

Carving the pumpkins was fun as this was the first year Ethan was actually into cleaning out the pumpkins. Logan didn’t so much like the idea, he thought it was just getting his hands dirty – it really reminded me of Ethan a year ago, so I guess three is the first age where they actually find this enjoyable.

Anyways, my wife and I got a pumpkin carving kit five years ago, and ever since then we have progressively been doing the harder and harder designs for the pumpkins each year. This year we decided to go with the hardest design in the book, but it still came out ok. We took the two pumpkins from the Green Meadows Farm and Mariel did the easy designs on them – it was her first time carving a pumpkin, so give her some credit

I think the pumpkins came out good – definitely our best pumpkin carvings yet

Well the boys loved it. Ethan was all in to touching the pig, milking the cow and even helped me catch a chicken. There was a hay ride that we went on, but before the ride started Ethan was scared to death that the tractor pulling the hay trailers was going to be too loud, which was somehow quite scary to him. Luckily once the tractor turned on and started moving, he settled down and even liked the hay ride.

Logan had fun too, he thought the cows and the ducks were fun to see and touch, although the part I think he enjoyed the most was the train ride that goes around the farm. They have one part where you put the kids on a horse and they ride it around a track – Logan had the biggest smile on his face for about half of it, then the train went by and for the rest of the horse ride all he could talk about was the train.

All in all, it was fun going back to the farm, especially since the boys were older now and could interact with the animals more. The Green Meadows petting farm is definitely a great place to take your kids.