You Are Not Willy Wonka....

And we certainly don't live at the chocolate factory, but tonight it looked we did!  Apparently while Austin was supposed to be playing and watching TV in his room he was having fun with the chocolate and strawberry syrup!  He had got the syrups out of the fridge without us knowing and when he was done and came to me this is what he looked like.

He had chocolate all over him!!  It was caked in his hair.  Oh what a mess it was!!  So then he said "mama come look at my room" and honestly I didn't even want to go look because I knew it was gonna be bad...and it was.

Just look at that mess.  So after a spanking and a 2nd trip to the bathtub for Austin, Brandon and me spent the next 1 1/2 hours cleaning up this mess.  It was all over his toys, his chalkboard, his bed, pillows, his chair...EVERYTHING!!!  We had to just throw away his area rug because there was just no cleaning that mess.  The toys all got a bath in the tub and the washer was full of sticky sheets, stuffed animals and even a sticky comforter.  I have never seen such a mess in all my life.

Here is his bed

And his table

And these two bottles caused it all...along with a little help from a 3 year old!

While we were cleaning up I found the two empty bottles hid in the corner.  Not sure why he did that because it's not like we didn't know that he made the mess.  Brandon and I had to laugh about it just a little because he was so proud of what he had done.  Of course we didn't laugh in front of him about it because we DO NOT want a repeat performance!!

Everybody Put Your Seatbelt On

This is just random, but I thought it was funny.  As we were headed down the driveway one day Austin asked if we all had our seatbelts on.  After finding out that we did he decided that Woody needed to be in a seatbelt too, because after all "it's the safety thing to do" he says!  So when I looked back this is what I found...

He wanted to make sure that Woody was safe too.  I'm really surprised that Buzz wasn't stuffed in on the other side!

Crusin' the Dunes...

Or better known to us as riding around DeGray Lake in the boat!  We went camping at DeGray for the July 4th holiday.  Austin, me, and my niece Ayla went up on Tuesday night and Brandon didn't come til Friday night.  We had a really good time just relaxing and doing nothing but swimming, playing on the playground and swimming some more!  I forgot my camera at home so I've only got a couple of pics from my phone.  Brandon brought the boat up with him so on Saturday while we were out riding Austin wanted to know if we were cruising the dunes...I'd say he watches too much of the Backyardigans!  So here are a couple of pics from one of the boat rides.

Welcome to the Austin Ship

I'm not sure what kind of superhero he was this morning, but doesn't he look cool in his bandana cape, Buzz Lightyear pj's, John Deere boots, his cowboy belt and a Christmas hat stuffed into it?

And don't forget this stylin' tin foil crown he's wearing.  It's made from one of my headbands!

Who Needs Tim the Toolman Taylor?

When you've got Robot Repairman Austin!! Yes, he watches the Backyardigans a little too much. But doesn't he look cute in his tool belt?

y

Of course now we must use our shorts for our tool belt.  Because "that's what us boys do" he said!

Alligator Farm

We took a little trip to Hot Springs on Tuesday to take Austin to the Alligator Farm and on a ride up West Mountain. We also went to Lake Ouachita for a visit with Brandon's sister while they were camping.

I'll honestly have to say that the gators creep me out.  I'm just not a fan of them and it's almost like they just watch every move you make and would like to just pounce on you.   Nonetheless, Austin loved the gators.  Of course he doesn't understand that they can take your arm off in one quick bite!

Look at all of them piled up here.  It just gives me the heebie jeebies!

Hello Mr. Balloon Man

Austin got new paints at Wal-Mart a couple days ago and while painting a picture he decided that he wanted to paint his face like the balloon man that we saw in Ft. Worth. He started painting his face himself and then Daddy helped him out to finish it up. All I can say is thank God for washable paints. He was so proud of his painted face so I let him wear it a while before cleaning it off.

Vacation, Plan B - Day 2

On day 2 we spent the morning shopping and then in the afternoon went to the Ft. Worth Zoo and I just have to say that it was awesome! It was a huge zoo and they had a lot of neat things there. We about burnt up it was so hot, but we really had a good time.

Austin playing in the hay loft

Daddy and Austin on the train.

Cooling off inside with a little ice cream and of course an elephant drink.

Riding the alligator.

Getting ate by the shark!

He was telling us all about the turtle. Turtles are his new animal fascination.

Checking out his "wing span"

Vacation, Plan B - Day 1

Since February we had a condo booked in Orange Beach for our vacation in June.  Brandon' sister and her family were going with us, but things didn't quite work out for us to go.  Thanks to BP and the wonderful oil spill that they had we had to cancel our trip because one week before we were to leave the oil started washing ashore in different places along the beach and we just couldn't see spending our money to go and visit an oily beach.  After all it is called a "beach vacation" and not a swim in the pool vacation.  We can do that at home.  So we had to come up with a Plan B.  After giving Austin a couple of options we decided to carry him to Ft. Worth to the Stockyards and the Zoo.  He absolutely loves horses and cows and bull riding so this was a perfect fit for him.  It was actually a lot of fun.  We spent two days there before heading home and beginning what others call a "Staycation" or going to do different things during the day, but coming home to sleep in our own bed at night!  We've been in the road since Saturday morning at 4 a.m. and today I've "staycated" at home because I'm wore smooth out from all the road running.  So tomorrow we'll begin again and do something else and on Friday we are all geared up for the opening of Toy Story 3!  Austin is so excited to finally see the new Toy Story!

Waiting for the cattle drive to head down the street!

This was a Texas Longhorn hat that he wanted really bad, but Mama just couldn't see spending $30 for it.

Of course you can't go anywhere with out riding the 25cent ponies.

And then you have to feed the goats too!

Here he is with the "Balloon Man" getting his longhorn balloon hat!

at the Rodeo

Riding the ponies

Sitting on a Texas Longhorn.  He was really loving this!

Feeding the donkey.

Mr. Stagecoach Driver

"Branding" his cow at the Cowboy Museum

Our little "jailbird"

The cattle drive down the street

Austin doing his 8 second ride!