Dampa's Birthday

This past Saturday we celebrated Dampa's (K's way of saying Grampa) birthday by going to a local MetroPark. We had such a great time! The weather could not have been better (lower 80's) and the gardens were absolutely beautiful.

Top Lt: Heading into the twig maze. Top Rt: Peeking around one of the many twists and turns.
Bot Lt: Working their way through the maze. Bot Rt: A cute and cuddly moment in a hiding spot.

Top Lt: Playing in the sand table. Top Rt: K with two of her main men, Dampa and Daddy.
Bot Lt: JAK (love the faces on K & Daddy). Bot Rt: Soaking wet K after playing in the sprinklers.

Some of the flowers from the gardens and a Ginkgo Tree.

We have had the most amazing sunsets the past few nights. Here are two different nights taken in our backyard.

So what do you guys think of the new layout? Do you like the collage photos or single photos better? As always, thanks for looking :)

Fall Fun

The past few days, K and I have had the opportunity to enjoy some incredibly beautiful weather by getting out and doing some fun Fall activities.

On Thursday we met our Buddy Pal and his Mom at one of the MetroParks near downtown and after playing at the playground, K and I walked around this beautiful park for at least another hour. We met a very friendly squirrel who really enjoyed looking at K and she certainly enjoyed the attention. We also collected tons of leaves and sticks to throw over the edge of a beautiful red bridge so we could run to the other side and watch them float out below us. I couldn't resist taking some pictures of the changing leaves. I love Fall :)

Top left: bridge at the MetroPark. Top right: pretty tree at the park.
Bottom left: yellow trees along a street downtown. Bottom right: trees across the street from our house.

Along with the 80 degree days, we've had some beautiful sunsets and lots of quality time with Daddy.

Top left: sunset. Top right: the streamers on the playroom door casting a rainbow along the hallway.
Bottom left: Playing guitar with Daddy. Bottom right: collecting sticks to throw off the bridge.

Left: wearing Daddy's shoes on the bathroom scale. Middle: watching the sticks float back out. Right: tree by our house.

Our next door neighbor has a beautiful garden right outside her front door and it attracts these very cute white/yellow butterflies that K absolutely loves. She wants one to land on her so badly! She chases them around the flowers and tries to put her hand out for them to land on. My Mom has a book that K really enjoys and this happens to the main character. I think she really wants to reenact that scene.

On Friday we went with our other Buddies to an exotic animal ranch. It was ...interesting. Not bad or anything but smaller and more tightly packed than I expected for the price (not that it was super expensive but more than I realized it was going to be.)

Top left: the butterfly she was chasing. Top right: holding out her hand for the butterfly to land on her.
Bottom two: kangaroo and mountain lion from the exotic animal ranch.

Top left: miniature horse. Top right: coyote. Bottom left: camel. Bottom right: giraffe.

Top left: pot belly pig. Top right: deer. Bottom left: elephant. Bottom right: horses.

Top left: Highland cow (on my gosh, I loved this guy. I really wanted to take him home). Top right: donkeys for my Sis.
Bottom left: She is going to make a wonderful big sister. Bottom right: I was the only one brave enough to ride the pony.

Sorry for all of the pictures but like I said, we've had some very fun Fall days lately =D

JAK's Fall Family Fun Day

On Saturday we had Fall Family Fun Day which involved going out to breakfast, picking out pumpkins, Daddy making gingerbread cookies, Mommy making oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, and decorating/carving the pumpkins. We were going to make caramel apples too but ended up running out of time. Maybe tomorrow...

K-Bear did really great this year. Like last year we let her use permanent markers to draw on her pumpkin but UNLIKE last year, I put the markers away immediately after she was done with them. To fill in anyone who didn't hear the story of the permanent markers from last year, I failed to put them away after she was done decorating and the next day, while A and I were upstairs hanging curtains, she managed to get the red Sharpie off the table and drew all over her face, hands, Lilly (her once-white stuffed lamb), a changing table we had disassembled to donate, and of course, the flat screen TV. Thank goodness baby wipes and dry erase markers get permanent marker off almost any non-cloth surface. It was almost a heart attack moment but like I said, thankfully we were able to get it off of pretty much everything. But this year I made sure not to repeat that mistake!

She also did much better this year at using the safety carver and actually doing a bit of carving on her pumpkin herself. She started by just making holes but then after Daddy carved some eyes and a nice toothy grin for her, she decided that I was the tooth fairy and she hacked out all of the teeth with the carving saw. I was having flash backs to Steve Martin as the Dentist in Little Shop of Horrors. I tried making my pumpkin a bit more scary this year because I always have the cute happy one but my pumpkin is nothing compared to the hacked out mouth of K's! Lol =D

Seriously concentrating on her work

Daddy adding a few drawings of his own.

Adding stickers.

She was very happy and proud of her pumpkin.

Daddy's, K's and my pumpkins.

With no flash to see their true nature.

How To Spend A Rainy Afternoon

What do you do when it's too rainy to go outside and play? You pile up all of your stuffed animals on the bed and catapult yourself onto them, of course!

Again...

and again...

and again.

Yeah, it was pretty fun :)

Baby Pictures!

The Hubby had the chance to scan our ultrasound pictures in so here I present, Baby Pictures!

Foot :)

Profile :)

Definitely a girl - someday she'll kill me for posting this ;)

There you have it! Pictures of our newest member. She must know I'm posting about her because she's kicking like crazy =D

A Day Out With Thomas

We've really been enjoying our weekends together lately. Today we had lunch with friends from back home who were here visiting family. We haven't seen them in a while and it was really great getting to spend time with the two of them. Last weekend we went to A Day Out With Thomas, the Disney Store and the Renaissance Faire. It was a gorgeous day and we really had a wonderful time. I thought I'd share some pictures from the Day Out With Thomas.

K with Daddy in front of the train.

K, Daddy & Lilly riding in Thomas' couches (she decided it was Clarabelle).

This is the professional picture we ended up buying.

We didn't buy this one but I might now that I look at it
again. We don't have too many pictures of the 3 of us.

K driving The Little Red Caboose.

The three of us in front of The Little Red Caboose.

She really enjoyed the train ride and seeing Thomas. I love this time of year and we are taking every advantage of the wonderful Fall opportunities around our area. I can't wait to take a Leaf Hike, get more apples, and pick out a pumpkin.

A Summer of Firsts

As we begin drawing to an end of the summer (I don't count the summer as being over until the official first day of Fall on Sept. 21 - probably because I don't have school age kids yet) it gives me time to pause and reflect on all of the many "firsts" The Bear has done this summer.


The Pool: While her being in a big pool isn't a first, this summer she actually stood on the ground of the shallow end (it's 3 feet deep), she voluntarily got her hair wet (which is big deal for her), and jumped into the deep end into Daddy's arms. But of course, I never thought to bring the camera so I have no pictures to share with you. I'm hoping we may get at least one more warm day this year so I can get some pictures of her instead of this rain we've been having every day.


Bowling: Oh my gosh, does this girl LOVE to bowl! Unfortunately, the place where we tried bowling only had the ramp available 2 times and we tried bowling once without it but the ball was just too heavy for her to roll it down the lane. She still loves it and talks about it almost on a daily basis. Daddy says he's going to make her one (maybe out of PVC pipe) so we can try and go more often.

Movie Theatre: KBear, Daddy, Nana, Papa and I went with on her first experience at a movie theatre. We saw Cars 2 and she did really great. She got up three times (twice for potty breaks and once just to run up and down the long hallway) but for being at the theatre for 2 hours, I'd say she did awesome!

Haircut: Bear got her first haircut the night before her third birthday party. If you missed those pictures, here's a link back to them.


Mini Golf: It just so happens that mini golf is an activity that both the Hubs and I really enjoy so I was very excited to take The Bear to play mini golf and check out their kids play area. She did ok with the mini golf. It was hard for her to understand how to stand sideways to the ball and how to hold the club. She also got a bit too impatient to hit the ball from the start of each hole so we ended up just walking up to the cup of every hole and hitting the ball in. She HAD to hit the ball in herself and sometimes that took several tries so that got her a bit frustrated but we probably did 15 out of the 18 holes. I think next time we'll only do 9 holes - that might help. The other two things she did that really made me proud is go down the HUGE, fast slide with my friend's niece AND she rode on the train ALL BY HERSELF! I can't begin to tell you how proud I was!

The Carnival: While visiting Nana and Papa during Labor Day weekend there happened to be a neighborhood carnival going on. They had three kiddie rides available but only two of them allowed an adult to ride with her and of the two, she really only liked one (which she rode twice - once with Nana and once with me.)

Raspberry Picking: Also during the Labor Day weekend, the family all drove up north to our favorite apple orchard to indulge in apple cider doughnuts, pumpkin fudge, Jonamac apples, and fresh picked raspberries. I had hoped to go apple picking but it was just a bit too early for that so we had to get a pre-picked half peck from the barn (they're still delicious, just not picked by us). Thankfully we were able to pick raspberries though and that was a HUGE hit with the Bear. She probably ate an entire pint herself while the rest of us tried to fill our buckets faster than she could eat them. Needless to say, there was a seriously upset tummy later (which was also a first for her) but she's eaten raspberries since then and there were no residual side effects so thankfully I think it was just a fluke.

Sidewalk Chalk: The Bear loves to draw on the chalkboard side of the easel she got from Great Grammie and Grampie for Christmas last year but I don't love the dust the chalk makes. (I know, I know, I need to get some dustless chalk). So I figured, let's take that chalk outside where it make all the dust it wants and I don't have to clean it up. Turns out, she LOVED it! (In fact, we went out and did it again today when the clouds finally parted and we saw that elusive sun.) We drew pictures, I made outlines of her laying on the sidewalk and one of her favorite things to do was draw a line on the sidewalk, jump as far as she could, draw another line, jump, throw her chalk, run to go get it, and say "Hopscotch!" Lol! Today I drew a legitimate hopscotch for her and while she didn't jump on one foot, she did really great jumping on the actual hopscotch. However, I have to admit, I definitely enjoyed watching her play her version better.

All things said, I have to say this has been a truly wonderful summer. There have been some major stresses but we've come out on the other side just as positive as ever.We're thankful as always for our precious little girl and all the joy she brings to our lives. We love you, Bear!