a day out with thomas (aka mini-disney world on a cranberry bog... with trains)

today we went to edaville railroad for their "day out with thomas." edaville is a little train-themed amusement park (i vaguely remember going there as a wee one) set on the cranberry bogs that are so plentiful around here. the main attraction is a train ride around the bogs. a few times a year, thomas the tank engine comes to town and pulls the train. they also have all kinds of thomas-based activities (meet sir topham hatt, etc.) pretty much, it's heaven for the pre-school set. so even though it was a bit overcast today with rain showers expected, we just had to check it out. -

quentin rode on the astronaut ride with daddy. we were there pretty early so we got to do the rides without any waiting.

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quentin demonstrates how NOT to get out of the astronaut ride

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quentin and daddy also rode the tilt-a-whirl. Q was scared when they spun fast but seemed to love it anyway. oh and the bar is just being held down by jeremy. who needs to lock fast spinning rides?

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quentin's first solo ride on the flying turtles. this ride has a height maximum.

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and another solo ride on the train. he was totally going to be in the engine but some stupid mom was too busy texting to notice her sons cutting in front of Q and stealing the engine from him. not bitter.

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hey! where do we board?

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thomas pulling an earlier train. what a useful engine!

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Q checking out the view from the train, making sure that thomas was not being cheeky

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quentin's first carousel ride. he was unimpressed until it started moving.

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and caroline was amused (as always)

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definitely a hit. we will be back. it is really nice that they have rides for the really little set (though i did see one little boy crying because he was too tall to ride the turtles!) it is also really close to our house and opens early enough in the morning that we can do some quality amusing before nap time sets in.

why do we buy toys?

when clearly trash will do? -

especially dozit trash! (the red on his face is the beginnings of a face painting. they were doing faces at his gym yesterday and he was NOT interested.)

time to make the dozits

quentin is already a huge fan of the dunkin. so much so that he knows the logo. every time we drive by a DD (which around here is WICKED OFTEN - 5 on the way to daycare, i think) he declares, "dozits!!" from the back seat. he even spots the more subtle ones that are part of gas stations. that's some brand recognition for you. i probably should be ashamed, but i think it's funny. we really don't go there that much, but i guess it has made quite an impression on him. - same goes for mcdonald's - we just see those less often. except at mcd's he announces, "fwies!! djickin!!" i had an old, empty mcd's bag in my car. last night, i brought it inside to throw it away and he saw it. he started chanting "fwies!! djickin!!" and he thought that's what we were having for dinner. so i cooked him some nuggets for dinner and he went crazy. recently he won't eat home cooked nuggets. maybe that's the new trick - serve grocery store food out of fast food trash and he'll eat it!

big boy bunk beds!

finally got the overstock coupon i have been waiting for, so Q's big boy bunk beds have been ordered! they are the kind of bunk beds that can also be two separate twin beds. our plan is to only set up one of them (the top bunk, with the built-in rails) and store the remainder of the parts for now.

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this is important so that Q can transition to the bed and caroline can finally have the crib!

blueberries!

there's this blueberry farm down the street from our house. we drive by it several times a day and have lived here for 3 blueberry seasons. yet we had never been. today is a gorgeous day so we decided to check it out. good thing we did, because we learned that tomorrow is the last day they will be open for the season. - we figured that Q would like it considering how much he loves collecting items in buckets (easter eggs, pine cones, rocks, etc.) he got his own kiddie-sized blueberry bucket and we were off. once he realized that he could eat the berries, he didn't just like it, he freaking loved it. he picked a lot of berries, yet his bucket was mysteriously empty. maybe because they all got eaten! he was extremely well-behaved. we got an hour of fun, some wicked cute pics, and a big bag of blueberries for $3. so worth it! - i apologize for the ridiculous number of photos - they are all so cute that i can't pick my favorites. -