Bubbles, Sidewalk Chalk and Playgrounds Oh My!

Mommy & Daddy celebrated their fourth wedding anniversary.I hung out with Aunt Missy
And Eric, so they could go eat.Godmother Kellie came to play with me too. I love bubbles!And Daddy!

I can go down the slide all by myself! We spend hours playing in the driveway with our chalk.

Did I mention that I love bubbles?

Smile!

Happy Birthday Luke!

Penny's friend Luke turned 1 yesterday. We met him in the hospital after his long awaited arrival and have had such a great time watching him grow this year! Of course I didn't get any pictures of them together at the party, but it was a great party! Penny loved the food and really loved watching the big kids play.Luke had a great time too! Don't you just want to pinch his adorable cheeks?Penny's favorite part of the party was singing to Luke and watching him eat his smash cake. She smiled and sang and cheered for the birthday boy!And, although it took a little convincing, Luke LOVED his cake!Happy Birthday Luke!

Sesame 5K

We ran the Sesame Place 5K this morning.We ran with the Jann ladies and Mr. Gavin.
What a fun race! Penny cheered the entire way!
Penny loved meeting the characters. I think she wanted Cookie Monster to come home with us.

Mommy was just as excited! I loved visiting Bert & Ernie at 123 Sesame Street and seeing the old fashioned set.

Penny had so much fun with Gavin! It was too cold for us to play on the water rides today, so we'll have to go back another day and splash at the Count's Castle!

We can't wait!

15 Months

Someone turned 15 months old this week! We thought 14 months was fun, but 15 months is even more exciting! We've been having a blast. Penny had her checkup at the doctor. It was the first time she knew that the shots were coming and she wasn't very happy about it. She started crying as soon as we undressed her to check her weight. She weighs in at 21 pounds and 9 ounces and she's 30.5 inches tall. She's in between the 25% and 50% groups for her age. She survived her check-up and her immunizations. She's doing great! After the doctor, we ran a few errands and Penny fell asleep in the car. We had planned to go to the zoo after the doctor, but we headed home for a nap instead. It worked out for the best- we postponed our zoo trip until the afternoon and Godmother Kellie was able to come with us! We had a great time at the zoo! Can't wait to go back and play again soon!

15 things about 15 months:

1. Penny loves to play outside. She also loves to tell us that she wants to go "ow-side"!


2. Penny loves sidewalk chalk. She looks for it in the garage every night when we get home from school. At first, she would just slam it on the driveway, but now she's drawing lines and curves.


3. Penny is no longer afraid to walk in the grass. But, if she falls in the grass, she won't touch it to stand back up. Instead, she'll put her hands in the air and wait for you to help her up.


4. Penny is starting to make animal noises. I think her "moo" was inspired by our trip to the farm, but she also says "neigh", "bah", and "roar"!


5. She's starting to get good at matching. We do our farm and safari puzzles almost every night!


6. At bedtime, she's reading three counting books that she received from the Halla's and Goodnight Moon. Her favorite page is "And two little kittens, and a pair of mittens, And a little toy house, and a young mouse". She points to each of them as we read!


7. She is says the beginning sound for many words. Her vocabulary is growing by the day.


8. She tells us when she is hungry. Sometimes she says "hun-gee", sometimes she signs hungry and sometimes she opens her mouth wide and makes an "uum" noise. Today she looked at me, signed hungry, and said "eat".


9. Penny moved from the Busy Bee's classroom to the Tumbling Teddies classroom. She is loving her new room and the new responsibilities that come with it.


10. Penny has been learning more about our house. She can now open the doors and turn the water on in mommy & daddy's bath tub. She also watches us open the gates and is so close to opening them even with the safety latch closed.


11. She still loves to dance! She's recently started to move her arms up and down a lot more while she's dancing. And, she's learning the chicken dance, which is so cute!


12. She recognizes the Sesame Street characters by name. We read a few Sesame Street books and review Sesame Street number, letter and sight word flash cards. She loves them all, but Grover, Cookie and Elmo seem to be her favorite.


13. She loves to roll. Aunt Missy taught her that it's silly to roll around on the kitchen floor and she will roll across the playroom like it's no one's business. She also loves to play the trust game and will fall backwards into your arms and laugh hysterically.


14. She can go down the stairs by scooting on her bottom.


15. She is sleeping from about 7 or 7:30pm until 5am. At 5am, she wakes up and tells mommy that she is hungry. She is napping from 1pm - 3pm or longer at school.

The Farm

This week, Penny & I took a day off from work and went on a field trip with Nana's kindergarten. We went to the farm! I've been on this field trip a few times in the past, but this was my favorite trip to the farm! Isn't it nice to know places like this still exist? We were treated to a hayride and Farmer Wilbur told us about his farm. The cows milk at 6am & 6pm. They farm hundreds of acres and grow crops like alfalfa.
Penny had so much fun! She made friends with the kindergartners and loved seeing the cows! She even managed to find a swing on the farm and treated those cows to a chorus of "whee"!

Penny loved seeing the school bus that brought the kids to the farm! She can't wait to ride on a bus when she is older.

We can't wait to go back to the farm next year! Penny's new friend will be quite a bit larger by then!

Moo!

Mother's Day Weekend

We had a great Mother's Day weekend! Aunt Becky & Aunt Missy hung with Penny on Saturday night so mommy & daddy could go out with some friends to celebrate their engagement.She had a blast with her aunties and they made me the best mother's day present ever! I love it!
Penny & I got up early on mother's day. We made waffles (her favorite breakfast food).After church, we took a little run. We found the best yard sale buy of the year so far:

$5 well spent. Penny has already had a blast driving her car up and down the driveway. We had a great webchat with Grandma and Grandpa. While Penny napped, we did some gardening and then took a trip to Aunt Becky's house for dinner with the fam.

It was a great day! I am so thankful that I have been blessed with the privilege of being a mom! I am also so lucky to have such amazing women in my life who lead by example, who teach me to be a better mom and who help me treasure each and every moment of this amazing experience. Happy Mother's Day to all!

Hair clips

Friday was a rough day! But we can laugh about it now. My day was just off from the get go. I was taking Penny to school for Mother's Day breakfast. While attempting to put her hair in pig tails (which involves a wrestling match), I made the mistake of letting her play with two hair clips. By the time the pigtails were in, the hair clips were no where to be found. I searched all over her room and couldn't find them. I worried that she ate them as I looked in every nook and cranny of her room. I gave her another clip to play with and she tried to put it in her hair, so my fear that she ate them started to subside. I wondered if I was going insane. I searched high and low for ten minutes until I found them in my shirt. Silly Penny! Needless to say, we were late! But it makes for a good story and although my day got worse from there, I can laugh about it today!

Weekends are fun!

Weekends are wonderful!

We love the time we get to spend with our little sidewalk artist.She thinks her daddy is the best at bubbles!
We could play in the driveway for hours!

Unfortunately, the weekends fly by...I could use a few more days with these sweet cheeks!

Penny, Aunt Missy & I paid a little visit to the local zoo. We had so much fun!

We saw big cats, got up close and personal with a peacock, watched the monkeys eat their dinner and spent some time watching the butterflies in the butterfly house.

Penny was a little bit terrified of some of the animals. Watch out for the llamas- they spit!

We can't wait to visit our zoo again soon!