Touch a Truck day

On Saturday we wanted to make a run to Costco in Nashua, but we didn't want Nicholas to spend the whole Saturday bored.  So we looked online to find out if there was anything fun nearby.  Lo and behold, they were having a "Touch a Truck" charity event in the mall parking lot, literally across the street from Costco.  It cost $2 per person, and they had all kinds of big trucks for little kids to look at and explore.  Done and done!

The thing that really made this totally worth it was the big army helicopter!  We were expecting a fire truck, ambulance, maybe a semi, and some police cars.  We had no idea that there would be an army helicopter, a dive squad vehicle, a bomb squad vehicle with their robot, big army transport things, a police motorcycle, a tow truck, and a big black windowless van (yeah...we didn't get in that one).  Nicholas headed straight for the helicopter and we spent most of the time there.

They also had a big monster truck shaped bouncy house which was full of kids and super fun!

Here's Nicholas with "Rescue Squad Mater!" as he called it.  It's a big red, shiny, tow truck.  Rescue squad mater is from Disney's Car Toons--- Nicholas asks to watch these shorts on YouTube every day.

There were a bunch of vendors that were giving away swag with their company logo.  We got two big green water bottles from the black windowless van with the Newbury Comics logo emblazoned on them.  When we saw the balloon stand, we just assumed they were giving away this balloons.  So we said, "Nicholas! Do you want a balloon?  Let's go get a balloon!"  We walked to the stand, picked out a McQueen balloon that he was super excited about and then found out it cost $5!!  FIVE BUCKS for a little balloon on a stick!  I had $4 cash in my pocket, so I said, "Aw, I only have four dollars, I guess we'll need to put the balloon back."  Really, I'm thinking, whew, we can't buy this ridiculously overpriced, useless item that will junk up my home forever.  And I was trying to tell Nicholas and let him down easy.  But the girl selling the balloons over heard and said, "Oh, that's okay, just take it for $4.  I'll let it slide."  Great.  Now I had to fork over my cash because 1.) the lady was "doing us a favor" 2.) I had no other excuses except, "I don't want to buy my son a balloon."  

So we got the balloon.  He loves it.  Now he runs around the house carrying it---which means he's running around with a big stick.  Great.  just great.  And it cost four freakin' dollars.  I'm still irked.  There are a lot more things I'd like to buy with four dollars.  oh well.  

My attempt to get a picture of Nicholas in the back of a police car with bars on the windows.  Too sunny...

Yes, I'm still in maternity clothes.  No judging.  Also, I didn't know he was going to take this picture.  Not flattering-- I didn't realize I slouched this much.  It's the monstrous milk jugs attached to my chest.  I'm posting this picture for my own motivation.  Exercise and posture!

In the back of the dive squad car.

Even Lauren got into the car thing... we volunteered her during a demonstration and they wrapped her up in duct tape.  She cried when we had to rip it off, but it was worth the photo op.  :)  just kidding.  We found this doll wrapped in duct tape in the back of the truck and we couldn't figure out what it was used for.  Weird, right?

I called the Knights before we left to see if Max could come with us, but he had a birthday party that morning.  We were really sad he couldn't come because it was pretty awesome, and I think Nicholas would have loved to have someone there to get excited with.  

All in all we had fun :)  Afterward we went to Costco, ate lunch, did our shopping and came home.  We thought for sure Nicholas would fall asleep in the car on the way home, but he didn't-- little stinker. So he finally conked out at 4:30 and slept through until the next morning!  We're not sure what time we woke up because when Mando woke up at 6:30 to go to the bathroom, he found him playing quietly with his cars and playdoh on the coffee table.  This is one of my favorite things about Nicholas--- he doesn't wake us up if we're sleeping.  Really nice when you want to sleep in on a Saturday, not so great when you realize he could be up and about playing with knives and we would never know.