Painting, Planting, and Snow Cones

Max met a friend at the mall for a gardening activity. Each child got to paint their own flowerpot and was given a butterfly with embedded impatient seeds to plant at home. Max jumped right into painting. I had to turn the pot over because he wanted to paint the inside. Once I turned it over he kept jamming paint down the drainage hole. I finally was able to convince him to paint the entire surface. He did a really good job with the painting. He wasn't too thrilled with the mess it would leave on his hands.









He kept asking me for wipe to clean his hands and I just kept telling him that we would get all clean once we were done. After finishing the flower pot we headed over to the snow cone line. This was Max's first snow cone. He wasn't impressed. He loved watching them shave the ice and color it with flavor. He was brave enough to take a bite but then proceeded to scrape the ice off his tongue. I convinced him to try again by licking the ice and he still was not interested in the texture. This is from the guy who spits out the cookie chunks from an Oreo Shake. We planted our butterfly in the newly painted pot when we got home. The directions said it would take about two weeks to grow. Stay tuned.

CPK Tour

Max met up with some friends at the California Pizza Kitchen for a tour of the kitchen. We arrived an hour and a half early in hopes of grabbing some lunch at the mall food court prior to the tour. We just happened to be passing by while they were setting up the line and decided to go ahead and get in line so we could be first. An hour and a half in line with a four year old, sounds like fun! All in all Max did really well while we waited, it helped to have some of his friends there. We did go ahead and eat lunch in line and as the time for the tour approached they came and pulled him out of line to make sand art. Once the lined opened he was given fresh lemonade, colored a pizza box, made his own pizza, toured the kitchen, and then got to eat the pizza he had made. What will he remember most from the day - playing with his friends in the play area after the tour - but I will still have the pictures to prove he has toured the California Pizza Kitchen.

Max Visits Mommy's Work

I work one night per week at The Dinner Station. The owner pays me in food which works out great - less meal prep at home. Here is Max helping me on a weekend make our meals.

Splish Splash

Here's Max at a friends birthday party. The party was held at a local splash park. Max was all excited about going to the splash park until the water actually started hitting him. Did he think he wasn't going to get wet? The first thing Max ran to was the water guns. There were two pointed at one another. Some little turkey sprayed Max in the face (which could have possible ended the day) so here I am jumping in to defend Max while balancing all my cameras.

Here he is taking a break during the party to color. Max was the only one who actually wore the Mickey ears during the party.

The final two pictures we like to think of as Max practicing for his future roll as a Disney character. The first being a friendly character like Mickey Mouse and the second slinking around like a villain.

Cows for a Day

Friday was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-fil-A. If you dressed up like a cow you ate for free. Max and I met some friends at our local Chick-fil-A for breakfast. Then we headed into Target dressed as cows. Lots of interesting looks from people. From there we headed over to another Chick-fil-A for lunch. The second location was having a big party with face painting, the cows, balloon animals, and multiple contests. Max won a free car wash!

The Autistic Moment of the day was when Max had his face painted. I thought we were about to have a major breakthrough because he actually let the lady paint his face - that was amazing. However, she then handed him a mirror before I could tackle her and he saw his face and freaked out. He immediately started crying and asking for a towel while rubbing his paint off. I didn't even have time to get a picture of him before he rubbed some of it away. I did get him calmed down enough to pose with the cows while his face was still half painted and then we headed to the bathroom and took it all off. Once his face was back to normal he headed back out to the party and had a great time.

That evening for dinner I moved my spots over to Daddy's clothes and had him take Max once again. So that's right Max had an entire day of Chick-fil-A meals and we didn't pay a dime for any of our food. What a great day to be a cow!

Back to the Library

We headed back to the library to have Max's reading passport stamped again. His first prize was the circus ticket and for his second prize he got to choose from a prize stand. Here is Max at the stand choosing his prize. He chose the largest sea shell they had.
After getting his passport stamped, we stayed for the puppet show of the day. Here is a pic from the show Piggy in the Puddle.


Autistic Moment: Had to count those bubbles on the end of the aisles again, at least this time it wasn't every aisle.

Mall Fun

What a surprise to find a giant caterpillar had taken over the mall. Max couldn't wait to get his turn inside the inflatable bug. The lady in charge took her job way to seriously - no running, only two kids at a time, only four times through. Max had a great time despite the crazy lady. You entered through the bugs nose and shot out his "tail" via a slide. Do Caterpillars have tails? Too early to spring a digestive tract lesson on Max.

At the same mall we took Max to play miniature golf for the first time. This was a black light golf course so everything was glowing. Max thought that was too cool! Here he is with Daddy and cheating during the game.

Max the Bowler

The family went bowling the other day. Max had been twice before and had always rolled the ball down the lane himself. It would go so slow that once it actually stopped in the middle of the lane completely. Fortunately for this bowling excursion we were able to get Max a bowling ramp for him to shoot his ball down. This will definitely be our new preferred bowling method until he is a little older. He was having so much fun with the ramp that he even started trying to carry our heavy balls over and slide them down as well. Max scored a 62 and I was able to come back from behind and beat Daddy :)

Neighborhood 4th

Today was our annual neighborhood 4th celebration. The event always includes admission to the McKinney Marshalls baseball game at our local ballpark, food, bounce houses, and other fun for the children. As always Max's favorite activities were the inflatable slide and the bounce houses. He actually wanted to watch the game and lasted three innings before asking to go back home. We had great front row seats to the left of home plate where Daddy was the hero by catching a free t-shirt. We came home and then went back outside at night to watch the fireworks after the game. Pictures - Max and Marshall, Sliding Max, Bouncing Max, Max and Dad at the dugout, Max watching the pitcher warm up, and Max watching the game.

Kaboom Town

We met up with some friends from church for the annual Kaboom Town Fireworks Show (7/3). We arrived early to a parking lot and set up camp. We had brought lovely cupcakes that ended up turning over and getting destroyed, popsicles, and glow bracelets for all the kiddos. Prior to the show vintage airplanes did a fly over. Max had a great time pointing at all the planes flying through the sky. He loved playing with all his friends and enjoyed the lengthy well - worth the wait - fireworks.

Dinner and a Movie

Max was invited to a special screening of the new movie Ratatouille. It was held at Studio Movie Grill. For those of you unfamiliar with Studio Movie Grill. The theater is sloped like a regular theater but you have either a table or a bar in front of you and you are sitting in individual chairs. They give you a menu and a light up coaster that you use to signal your waiter. Here is Max looking over the menu prior to the movie starting. He eventually chose the grill cheese with french fries.