Gardner Village

Every October it's become a tradition that we go with Paul's mom to Gardner Village. It's a little shopping place that they decorate really cute for Halloween each year. There's activities for kids and it's always a little crowded and a little crazy...but it makes for some cute pics!

*Penny was so excited to make a cute Halloween bracelet.

*Miss Violet chillaxin' in her stroller.

*They bring the same witches out every year, this one's my favorite.

6 months!

*It was a little bright and windy outside...this was the best smile I got!

*She kept trying to eat the stem. Mmm tastey.


I can't believe my baby is 6 months old! That's half a year folks!

Here are some 6-month stats:

- Weighs 18 lbs (85^th %), 27.5” long (92 %), and her head is 43.2 cm around (75%). What a big girl!
- Rolling all over the place. I have to watch her now so that she doesn’t grab anything too small and put it in her mouth. A few times this past week she got up on her knees up for a few seconds. Ah! I'm not ready for crawling yet! (But of course I am so thrilled that Violet is keeping right up with her age.)
- Got her first tooth, on the bottom in the middle. And her second tooth is coming through, too, right next to the first one. Those little baby teeth sure are cute but as a nursing mom, all I have to say is...ouch.
- Can sit up on her own for a while, but still too wobbly to leave on her own.
- In addition to rice cereal, we introduced bananas and after a few funny expressions she gobbled it right up.
- Loves to be tossed in the air, she just giggles up a storm.
- Blows raspberries like it's her job.
- Still a dream sleeper. Sleeps 8pm to 8am and takes 2 naps during the day. 

- Has little “conversations” with her big sister. Penny will go “ooo-eee-ahhh!” to her and Violet cracks a grin and tries to repeat the same sound. I love it!

T     This little girl sure is a good baby. It's gets kinda crazy with two littles sometimes, but Violet eats well, sleeps well, is healthy as can be and I am so grateful. Adjusting to two really isn't as hard as I thought it would be. I even have a couple times a week when I get a few hours all to myself; Penny has preschool twice a week and that chunk of time happens to be right during Violet's afternoon nap. Score! I know I should use that time for catch-up cleaning around the house or something productive, but let's be honest, I usually read a book or take a nap. Ha! I'm so happy Penny loves preschool. I love her little art projects that she brings home, she has an entire side of the fridge specifically for her works of art. I'm getting excited for all the holidays coming up and I can't wait to experience them with both my girls. And Paul too of course. :)

Hee Haw Farms!

This was our second year going to Hee Haw Farms and we loved it! There's so much to do - a petting zoo, an animal train ride, a hay ride, a giant slide, a corn maze and more - it's so perfect for kids. We went with my sister and her family, and doing fun stuff like this together always makes me appreciate having her close by.
  



  

See ya next year Hee Haw Farms!

Circus Circus

We got free tickets to the circus again this year through Paul's work and it was, once again, awesome! I love free entertainment, don't you?
The tiger act always makes me nervous!

This was awesome! These girls were in plastic orbs high in the air and did all these cool contortionist movies inside them.

Love me some elephants.

The theme this year was...DRAGONS.

And some blurry iPhone photos for your viewing pleasure.

circus circus

We got free tickets to the circus again this year through Paul's work and it was, once again, awesome! I love free stuff, don't you?
*I still get scared to death every time I see the tiger taming part.

*This was awesome! These girls were in plastic orbs high in the air and did all these cool ventriloquist things inside them. Scary!

*The theme this year was....DRAGONSSSSS.

*And some blurry iPhone photos for your viewing pleasure.

There was one thing that I didn't get a picture of that I'm totally sad about, and that is the cat circus! They just had ordinary house cats do all these little tricks that were way funny because I think cats are, like, really funny and it ended with a cat jumping from a 15-foot platform on top of a pole down to a pillow in the trainer's arms. Awesome.

Penny's Fourth Birthday Party!

Penny is currently obsessed with The Little Mermaid so we had an "Under the Sea" party. It was pretty fun! We had some little friends over and it was cute to see them all running around playing together.

We played with some bubbles...

And lined the kids up for a fishing game, where the girls got necklaces and the boys got squirt guns. Paul was such a good sport and sat behind the blanket and clipped the prizes onto the fishing rod. He may or may not have gotten clocked in the head a few times when an excited kid threw the hook over. 

We had snacks...

And opened presents...

And just hung out with cute friends.

The weather was perfect, the kids had a great time, and Penny got her Little Mermaid party. It was a fun day!

Four years old!

*taken on her fourth birthday (9/11/2012)

Some things about four-year old Penny...

- Loves The Little Mermaid and sings "Part of Your World" all.the.time. She knows it so well that I'll sing a bit of it and she'll fill in the gaps. Me: "Wanna a thing-a-ma-bob?" Penny: "I've got twenty!" 

- Still loves books and has to bring at least one into her bed every night. I think she gets that from her mom.
- Loves to play pretend with her princess dolls. I love when she doesn't know that I can hear her, she cracks me up with these funny conversations between her dolls. "Are you sad, Sweeping Bweauty? Here's some candy." 

- Loves pre-school and has no problem saying good-bye to me every time I drop her off. But then she also says "Mama!" and runs to me every time I pick her up.

- Likes to randomly stop what she's doing and says "Mama, you're silly" and smiles and waits, because she knows that I'll say "Nooo, you're silly" and then even louder she says "NO MAMA, YOU'RE SILLY" and then we go back and forth until I say "Okay, I'm silly" and she says "Yep" and then goes back to what she was doing.

- Has been pickier with her clothing lately. She used to never care what I put on her, but lately I'll put on a cute top and she'll say "NO! This is YUCKY!" so after I ask her to not yell in my face about her clothing, I have to search for something in her closet that meets her approval. 

- She's definitely a girly-girl. She loves to dress up and hates to get dirty. She'll be eating yogurt and get a tiny dab on her finger and whine at me until I give her a tissue to wipe it off.

- Loves to bust out her ballet dance moves. Her favorite one is to hold onto the coffee table and lift one leg as high as she can, while stretching out the opposite arm. I think dance lessons are definitely in our future.

- We're still going to physical therapy, and it used to be four times a month, but we recently got down to twice a month! Yay! She's mostly caught up to her age level, we're just working on a few gross motor things: jumping, climbing, going up stairs without hand support. But I definitely think we're on the home stretch therapy-wise. Yahoo!

- LOVES baby sister. Just yesterday, Violet was fussing and Penny walks over and pats her arm and says "Shhh it's okay, baby sister. You're all right, baby sister." So sweet. And she likes to get real close to Violet's face and then Violet will start swatting at Penny's face because that's what grabby 5-month olds do and Penny just giggles non-stop.  

I love my Penny and I can't believe she's four!