Petting Zoo and Dancing too!

The Petting Zoo was the hit of the day... sorry Thomas, but it's the truth. Brayden loves animals and wanted to kiss them all! 

They had a minature horse which was just adorable...

Brayden wasn't sure at first what that thing was.. looked like a giant dog!

of course it wasn't free roaming so had to pet it through the fence....

.....or try kissing it through the fence!!

but once that horse saw some food he nearly

squished Brayden to nibble off the spoon!

There were gobs of baby goats and sheep roaming around everywhere...

again it was all we could do to keep Brayden from

kissing every single one of them...

Now the bunnies were his favorite... maybe because they were small like his kitties at home... or maybe because he just couldn't get to them as these too were protected by a little fence but Brayden tried everything he could to get through to those cute little guys to pet them... after all, it was a Petting Zoo, not a Looking Zoo... come on guys!

Once he started to try to disassemble the fence we decided it was time to go...

doesn't he look like he's saying "I just wanna pet the bunnies!"



Come on sweetie, let's go find some more things to do...

So next we buzzed through the miniature train museum where they have a gob of little trains set up on tracks running through all kinds of towns and villages... very cute and entertaining.. not sure who had more fun, the little kids or the big kids who were running the trains!

After that we happened to hear some guy singing some fun kids music songs. He had all the kids in the audience up dancing and singing with him on this giant camouflaged tarp, using hoola hoops or tambourines and just having a good time...

so we tried to get Brayden in on the fun... right???

After all he loves to dance to the music at home...

Put your left foot where?

He's like, what the heck are these kids doin'....

Mama do I have to?

Holly handed him a little tambourine and he politely just set it on the ground...

 He wasn't gonna have anything to do with it...

So the music ended, it was the last show, the guy packed it up and they folded up the tarp and collected the music instruments for the day... and Brayden was still just standing there... not moving a single muscle in his body ... wouldn't ya just LOVE to know what he's thinking....

I wanna go see the bunnies....

So that was our adventures with Thomas the Train...

and all his animal friends!

A Day with Thomas!

Friday I was able to take the day off work and spent the day with Brayden and Thomas the Train! Well of course he's Brayden's very favorite.... and Holly had found this event that the Orange Empire Railroad Museum puts on each year... that's actually in Perris which is about twenty minutes north of Murietta where the kids live.

It's an old Railroad Museum park, similar to the Midland Poway Park as it's run by volunteers who are constantly working on restoring the old trains and engines. Anywho, each year the OERM hosts two weekends with Thomas the Train... Park entrance includes a ride on the full size Thomas the Train Tank Engine and all the park activities... they had a Petting Zoo, which was Brayden's absolute favorite... along with live music, storytelling, bouncie jumpers, miniature train museum, and all kinds of food vendors of course!

I had no clue that Thomas the Train has been round for 65 years!! Where have I been? I knew Sesame Street and Mr. Roger's Neighborhood.. but never knew about Thomas.. gosh I feel like I deprived my boys! And this was the 16th year that the OERM has hosted this event! Here I thought it was something brand new! But never fear... Brayden will make up for it.. here he is definitely enjoying his Day with Thomas...

We started out putting on the new Thomas shirt I got for him.... a little big but was perfect for the day...

So once we get there we can hardly stand the wait to see Thomas.... coming down the track and ready to get on board to take our ride...

OK it's our turn to get on!

He even got a Welcome Aboard certificate from Thomas!

We wandered around the park and saw alot of old trains.. here's a cute picture of the kids coming down off the Caboose...

We stopped for lunch and had hot dogs... but of course Grandma got an ice cream cone and shared with Brayden.... ok so honest truth .... Grandma sucked out most of the ice cream and Brayden got to chew on the pretty much empty cone.... but he loved it!



Even the food vendor's got into the act and had train decor galore!

Tomorrow I'll show you the pictures of the Petting Zoo... lions and tigers and bears, oh my!!   Not really... but there were bunnies and goats and a pig and a cow and a horse!!! 

E-I-E-I-O!

Nothing

Yep..... that's the answer to yesterday's quiz...

NOTHING!

Quiz

So I have a Quiz for you today... kind of a brain teaser... see if you can answer all seven of the following questions with the same word.

1. The word has seven letters

2. Preceded God

3. Greater than God

4. More evil than the devil

5. All poor people have it

6. Wealthy people need it

7. If you eat it, you will die

 I'll send the answer on tomorrow's blog.

Ho Ho Ho Stocking Banner

Ohmygoodness.... do you guys have the Sizzix Stocking Die Cut?  If not, let me know if you want to order it.. cuz look at this darling Stocking Banner made by LeeAnn:

 Here's her hints on how to do it and

some close up views of some of the stockings:

You can see the candy cane beside the stocking here.  That is cut from the Stocking Accents die.  I actually cut two of the white stockings from the backing inside our Designer paper packs. Then I cut one from our Red Glimmer paper.  Just cut the Red Glimmer one in sections on the perforated lines so you can use half on one white stocking and half of the cut pieces on the other.  Instant red and white candy canes!  

Use the Holiday Stocking die and the Stocking Accents die in the Holiday Mini catalog on page 24.  The beautiful Frostwood Lodge designer series paper is perfect for them.  

The Ho, Ho, Ho letters are cut using the Serif Essentials Alphabet dies.

Add a little Dazzling Details glue on some of the tops of the letters.

Use various embossing folders to add texture to each of the main stockings before adding the cuff, heels and toes to them.  

It's so easy to make these with this big stocking die!

The snowflake is punched with our snowflake punch. 

Punch two and emboss them with the Square Lattice embossing folder.  

Careful; this makes them very fragile.

You might want to also add some of our

cute mini jingle bells as accents.  

See them on page 30 in the Holiday mini catalog.  

 Santa will be impressed for sure!

Sounding Joy!

Here's another sneak peak to one of the cards you'll be making if you attend my Secret Santa Swap on December 10th...

Joy to the World!

Evening Bag Clutch!

Can you believe it... this Evening Bag Clutch is not REAL !!! It's made out of paper... doesn't it look incredible!!!



Becky from Idaho displayed it on her blog.... she used the new Silver Glimmer Stampin' Up! Paper... and of course the Embossing Folders for the actual purse. If any of you came to our Rubba Sista Fall Festival last month, Tina taught us how to make the ribbon roses...  here's a couple of pictures to help remind you.... of course there are gobs of You Tube videos you can watch to learn too... it's not hard.. just alot to hold on to at once!

Start with the ribbon on the roll

(because I have no idea how much it really takes)

and tie a knot in the end.
Start rolling the ribbon around the knot.

You can twist it if you want it to be fuller.

Once you have it the desired size, then cut it from the roll,

leaving a very short tail.

Stick it to several  Mini Glue Dots or one large glue dot.

Or cut one inch circle out of cardstock and fill with sticky tape

and adhere ribbon rose base.

Peel from the Glue Dot Paper and attach to the project.

Hummmm.... may just have to make one of these for my

December Secret Santa Swap....

Let me know if you're interested in attending!