Pink Car

A big surprise for all of us came in a big box from Uncle Tim. I had no idea there was such a creature as an entry level Power Wheels! I asked Ed where the seatbelt was, and he said "it only goes 2.5 mph!" ;) I didn't even know this was something we would have wanted until I saw JJ hop right in and give it a whirl. A big part of me thinks kids should ride bikes, not motorized cars - but I've become a softie and this this car is a keeper. I laughed my butt off for a good 10 minutes watching her give it gas, then stop, gas, stop, gas stop. Funny stuff.



This shot in particular you can see her pony tail taken back by the initial step on the gas... makes me laugh.



It's all we hear when we step in the garage "PINK car! PINKKKK car!". Money well spent :)

Apple Picking

On Josie's birthday we even found a new (to us) apple orchard for her first apple picking excursion. Being early in the apple season and a weekday, we had the whole place to ourselves, and our very own chauffeur out to the orchard. We picked my favorite, golden delicious. I felt embarassed telling them I wanted to pick only two bags (1/2 bushels each) but let me tell ya, that's a LOT of apples. Seeing that my own apple tree didn't turn out to have such a great season, these two 1/2 bushels are gonna be plenty to make up for that.









my favorite photos of recent :)

I love birthdays...

because we...

wake up to rainbow pancakes!

Ed and I took vacation days to spend the day with Josie on her second birthday. The day flew by doing nothing but fun things with Josie. I'm so happy to be mama to this bubbly happy funny little two year old. She makes every one of our days sunny.

Being a week day, we knew we'd have the zoo all to ourselves. We had a blast and even toured the animals two times around!






And we're a bit early in the season, but we went to the apple orchard to pick too! Lots of fun and lots of pictures....

Cake!

We've been practicing with Josie for weeks. We say "who's having a parteeeee?" and she exclaims "CAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKKKKKKKEEEEEEE!!!" To say she loves cake would be an understatement. Lucky for us, Mimi makes a special cake just for Josie... second year in a row!

She's 2!

Happy Birthday to my sunshine!

We celebrated with a big party yesterday with all our friends and family. Today it's the three of us enjoying the day with lots of balloons, rainbow pancakes, a trip to the zoo and her own cupcake cake to finish it off!

our playhouse

We had such a great weekend, couldn't have asked for more beautiful weather and lucky dad is back to a normal work schedule and we were able to catch up on things before Josie's birthday party next weekend. Ed spent a lot of time outside around the yard with Josie the last few days, and to our amazement, Josie has figured out the ladder up to her play house! It may not seem like a big thing, but to see this little 25 lb girl have the strength and smarts to pull her body up those rungs and onto the platform, we're pretty amazed!



The playhouse/swing set was a generous hand-me-down from our favorite little cousins and it's really fantastic to see Josie finally getting full use out of all the features. We're finally getting good at the whole slide thing too. Again, may not seem like a big deal, but apparently it's a learned skill to land on your feet and not your bum! And Josie's getting GOOD!

Brookfield Zoo

Off to the zoo we trekked early Tuesday morning. The Illinois schools were back in session (ie, empty zoo), and it was a wonderfully perfect sunny 70 degree day (although, I could've done without the wind). For $50 we got a full round of tickets that got us into every show and exhibit for the day. Our first stop, Dolphin Show, but not before stuffing our faces with giant soft pretzels (pardon the mouth full).


I knew right off the bat it wasn't likely Josie was just going to sit down and watch, the show had to be GOOD if she was going to make it through. While the dolphins did some amazing stunts that she thought were neat, there were lulls between stunts and she just wasn't happy about sitting still. But lucky for her, Dad was listening closely to the informative lecture and was able to answer a tricky question and win J a cool prize! The prize (a stuffed lion) came not a moment too soon - I was moments from walking out with a flailing screaming little girl. ummm, no pictures of THAT!




Happily we moved on to find more interative animals and exhibits. I was surprised but the lack of animals at this zoo, to be truthful! While Brookfield is wildly popular zoo, we've see much more at the Indy and Fort Wayne zoos (for half the price)! A little disappointing, but still made for a beautiful day of animal watching and enjoying our "weekend" during the week when everyone else was in school and at work!

Blue Pops

I honestly thought it was gonna take days for the blue lips, teeth and tongue to disappear. Thankfully only a couple hours and it was gone :)

Labor Day Parade 2010

We've lived here only 5 years and haven't missed our hometown parade but one year. Every year it gets better and better. The first year we attended the parade it was a collection of local kiddos on their antique tractors or other unique set of wheels, talk about country ;) To go from that (which we loved) to a parade full of fire trucks, politicians and a marching band all within just a few years - this parade is going high class! We met up with our neighbors and friends on the same corner we did last year and plopped down waiting for candy to come our way.



And maybe a new tradition, we all gathered for an impromptu cookout in the afternoon. I whipped up some tie-dye cupcakes that were the hit of the party (if you asked any of the kids!). Once again, love my Wilton color gels that make such dramatic colors.

And hopefully yet another tradition for our labor day weekend, snapping a photo of all the kids at the same rickety old store on the corner. Hoping we look back at these photos in 20 years and smile!

Last year...
this year...

Long Weekend

For the first time in over a month, Dad finally has a day (2!!! holy cow!) off and so we're off to the zoo today and going to enjoy being a family of 3 again. Dad was off yesterday too, lucky us, and spent the day catching up on things around the house. Josie's is a great little helper out in the yard and putting around the garage. I especially love being able to get things of my own done inside the house while she hangs with dad outside. The annual labor day parade followed by dinner with friends made for a great day :) More pictures to come. E just got Josie up for breakfast and then we're off to see ANIMALS!!!!!