Happy Birthday Aunt Nic & Nana!

Aunt Nic turned 30 in October and we threw her a surprise party! To keep her wondering, we had a get together at Nana & Papa's house.We went to the pumpkin patch at Pioneer Farms. It was so much fun! They had beautiful fall decorations and so many fun things to do.Aunt Missy & Eric played the games with me! We bounced in the moon bounce slide and went down the big tube slide. I played in the ball pit and rode a pretend bull.
We went through a tree maze and watched Aunt Becky & Aunt Missy ride the kiddie go-carts.

It was so much fun! We had Aunt Nic's surprise party at a bowling alley. At first, I didn't really like noises the ball and pins made, but after a little while, I realized it was a lot of fun. I was a good cheerleader! Nana & Papa were the best bowlers.

I got to play with some of my cousins, like Sarah, Gavin, Liam, Rhyann and Steven. It was so much fun!

Happy 30th Aunt Nic! Love you!

And, Happy Birthday Nana! It was her birthday too :)

20 Months

Time really does fly when you're having fun. And, fun is what we've been having. At 20 months, Penny is doing all sorts of amazing things and she's got all sorts of amazing opinions. She asked if the pumpkin and scarecrow could be in her picture with the sign this month. I think she's actually starting to understand that her crazy mom does these monthly photos with her and she wants to play along. After you take a picture, she wants to see how it turned out. She LOVES to look at photos on the computer and my iPhone and recognizes her friends and family in various shots.
Her memory continues to amaze us. She is starting to use sentences. She talks about her friends and teachers from school. She says her ABC's and counts to 14 (we have 14 stairs before the landing on our back stairs and daddy counts with her every time they walk up or down). We love to hear her singing songs (she amazingly gets most of the words right, but my favorite part is when she makes up her own words for the ones she doesn't understand). She really likes Twinkle Twinkle, Ba-Ba Black Sheep, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Little Bunny Foo Foo and She'll be Coming Round the Mountain.
Over the past few weeks, she's really taken an interest in her doll babies. She loves to help put diapers and socks on them and then wrap them up in blankets. She also wants to feed them bottles :)

She still prefers to be outside. She has conquered the big kid side of the playground and loves her swing set. She also loves to "drive" her car and bike around the driveway. We still have endless hours of fun with sidewalk chalk and bubbles. And, she's getting more creative in her drawing- instead of just straight lines, we get squiggles and the occasional circle. We try to get her to trace shapes with us, and she's starting to pick up on more every day.
Speaking of art- Penny loves to paint and color. She asks to finger paint all the time. We painted some pumpkins for Halloween.

She's got strong opinions about food and will tell us "Penny does not like this". Breakfast foods are her favorite and we try to load fruits and veggies into our pancakes and waffles. She's still not eating much meat, but she has started to eat chicken nuggets...never did I think I'd be excited for my child to eat chicken nuggets, but I am. One thing she loves this fall is squash! She asks for it in the grocery store and loves to hold onto the butternut squash as we walk the rest of the isles saying "SQUASH!" whenever anyone will give her attention. She loves shopping! We've been going after school if it's rainy out. We have fun in the grocery store looking for colors and shapes and different fruits and veggies. Her favorite foods at the moment are squash, broccoli, carrots, plums, peaches and pears. She'd eat nothing but fruit if we let her. Well, she'd want mac and cheese and ravi's, too. And, let's not forget pumpkin ice cream. She had her first and second taste this fall at MerryMead Farm and it was love at first bite.

We are having tons of fun with our little 20 month old :)

Another fun weekend!

Aunt Missy slept over on Friday night so daddy & mommy could go out to dinner for daddy's birthday. Becky & Adam, Eric, Virginia & Gary and Bruce & Diane all stopped by to see me while she was babysitting. Fun times!I had a blast with Aunt Missy- I woke her up super early so we could cuddle and then I showed her how to do laundry. And then, I taught her how to color. After Missy left, mommy & I went to the farmer's market. That was fun! I got to dance and see puppies and taste pumpkin hummus. We got all sorts of goodies like squash and broccoli. And a cupcake! Delish!

After the farmer's market, daddy and mommy took me to lunch at Applebee's. They played good music and I got to dance with daddy while we waited for our food. I ate most of my grilled cheese and all my applesauce. And a few of daddy's fries! YUM!

That afternoon, I took daddy and mommy to the zoo. They are all decorated for Halloween! I got to show daddy my favorite monkey. And, I took him to the best part of the zoo- the playground!

Did you know I can stand like a flamingo?I had so much fun watching the otters swim. Who knew there were two otters? We've only seen one before. They were such good swimmers!On Sunday, mommy clogged the kitchen sink, so Papa came to save the day. He fixed it and then we played! I showed him how I can use all of my swing set.And he did Super Penny with me! It was a great weekend :)

Peanut Butter & Marshmallow

I had my first taste of Peanut Butter & Marshmallow crackers. They were delicious! And messy :) Now I ask for them every day. I don't understand why mommy doesn't let me have them!

Penny & Daddy

The weekend before Daddy's birthday, mommy spent a night away with her friends. Daddy and I had so much fun together! He made me delicious lunch :)He took me to Home Depot for some shopping. I love that place- the isles are super fun for running! Then, he took me to the playground and I showed him what a big kid I am. I can climb to the top of the tallest slide and go down all by myself.Daddy took me out to dinner for pizza...my favorite! And the next morning, he took me to breakfast at Panera before church.

I had so much fun with daddy!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy birthday to the best daddy! I love you so much!

Penny picked out an Elmo balloon for daddy on his birthday. And a sweet birthday hat (she also picked out a hat for herself, but wouldn't wear it. No hat for mommy though- she said no thank you to that). We hope that daddy had a great birthday!

Fall fun!

After the Diabetes Walk, we continued our weekend fun. Penny decided to cheer for the Cardinals, with her daddy, instead of with the Phillies like the rest of the Kadingo's. So, she was busy getting ready for the start of the baseball playoffs. She enjoyed some time outside with Nana, Missy & Becky. Nana & Becky were taking a grad class near our house and decided to stop by for the game and dinner. Here she is "catching" Becky from the slide.
Penny, Papa and I went to MerryMead for some fall fun. Penny had a blast playing with everything at the pumpkin patch.She patiently waited so she could get a chance to drive the tractor.

She had fun on the hayride!

And, she saw just how much she's grown since our last visit.I still think she's allergic to hay. Her eyes teared up the second we got on the wagon. It didn't seam to bother her, but it's kind of crazy!After a good night sleep, we took advantage of the fact that Aunt Nic is back on the East Coast. We're so happy she's home! She & Dave moved to NJ last week and Penny, Papa & I made the trek out to see her new place. Nic & Dave live about a mile from the beach. We're a little jealous and super excited for more visits! Penny had a blast playing in the sand.

Penny had a hard time understanding why she wasn't allowed to swim in the ocean. There were quite a few surfers out in the waves (all wearing wet suits due to the windy upper 50 air temps). Since she couldn't swim in the cold ocean, she decided to take a swim in the sand.

We had a great day visiting Aunt Nic and can't wait to do it again soon!

Hope you're all having a fun fall!

Step Out 2011

This past weekend, Penny, Papa & I walked in the Step Out for Diabetes 5K walk in Philadelphia. We were part of team All Pumped Up! which was created by my friend Amy.Penny rode the first mile and then got out to walk, and push her stroller.We had a great morning walking by the river! There were boats out for the Dragon Boat Races and Penny loved watching the teams rowing on the river.She also had fun pointing out all the other babies who were doing the walk!And, when it was all finished, she took her first trip up the Rocky steps!Happy as a clam on the way back to the car now that she's got some balloons! We had another great year as part of Step Out!

There's still time to sponsor our team. Click on the picture above to make a donation to All Pumped Up! and the Step Out for Diabetes Event.