Dallas Arboretum!

Last Friday, we met up with some friends at the Dallas Arboretum. I was really excited because I don't get to see my friend as often as I like because she lives east of Dallas, and well, I live over an hour in the other direction. We try to meet up in the middle somewhere as much as we can. On Fridays at the Arboretum, they have children activities there such as a petting zoo and face painting. We had a great morning hanging out and letting our littles run out some energy. 

E loves animals. She was so excited about this bunny. 

Petting the baby goats

Hanging out with her future BFF

My pretty girl standing in front of the garden peacock

Boys....hahaha

I really feel like her facial expression is saying "Seriously mom what is he doing?"

So E was smelling these pretty flowers, and I was snapping pictures when all of a sudden she fell forward and straight in to the flowers. There was definitely some smushed areas because of it...oops. 

Running around getting out some energy. She loves to chase and be chased. 

I love this little tunnel of trees. It is so so pretty. 

Holding hands...melt. my. heart. 

 The Dallas Arboretum was a lot of fun. Would you believe I have never been and I've lived here for 7 years.  What a great time with friends!

Zoo Trips

On Mondays in the month of June, the Fort Worth Zoo opened an hour early for its zoo members. Plus the carousel and the train were free as well to members on that day.  E LOVES the zoo so we took full advantage of it. However, the weather wasn't cooperative for some of those days so we could only attend 2 times. We had such a good time and hopefully if it doesn't get too hot we will be going again soon.

Following her friends

On the train 

Staring longingly at the carousel 

Happy girl on her horse. She still talks about this carousel and I may be in trouble the next time we go to the zoo.

 Playing in the play area in the Texas section

Entertaining herself while waiting for the train to take us back up to the front 

Oh look another day another time on the carousel. Like I said, obsessed. 

"Mommy I need one of these for our backyard. "

Looking at the otters - she thought they were hilarious. 

More otter gazing with her friends

Crawling on the alligator sculpture

Zoo days are the best. Looking forward to more zoo days with my little animal lover. Now if the weather would just cooperate =)

4th of July Weekend (a week late)

We had such a great fourth of July! I love 3 day weekends!!

E and I had a play date on Thursday with some friends, and we did a fun little craft while we were at the park. 

Isn't it cute? I love that I'll get to have it for years to come. I want to start doing canvases for each holiday so I can have a collection of these for the years to come all over my mantle.  We played with bubbles before we left the park. My girl loves her some bubbles. 

On Friday, we went to a parade in a nearby town. We played at the park first, and then sat on the side of the road to watch all the floats and see the fire trucks.  I loved the parade. It was really cute,  and E is still talking about it a week later. 

Playing at the park with her daddy 

Looking at the horses. She wanted to ride them. 

Isn't this the coolest float???

My sweet American beauty

We went to eat BBQ at Dickies for lunch because nothing says America more than BBQ. It was delicious. 

After nap, we went on a little family walk to feed the ducks and to have a photo op because E looked so cute in her little outfit!

 

She was trying to give the ducks bread but they didn't want to be near her and she didn't want to throw it. 

Favorite photo from the walk! 

 No fireworks for us this year because E still needs her bedtime. =)

On Saturday, we went to the BRIT in Fort Worth for their farmer's market and story time with Bella (the puppet). The story time was perfect. It kept E engaged and was short and sweet. We enjoyed looking at all the things that were sold at the market too. We got some yummy bread that is almost completely gone now. 

They had these cool activities set up outside that had to do with the book that they read. The book was about water and rain. They also had tables to paint with sponges because the books illustrations were made with just sponges. 

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing and enjoying family time. Hope everyone had a great Fourth!

22 months!

Oh my sweet E! You are such a joy and you make us laugh everyday. Watching you trying to figure out the world and discovering new things is such an wonderful thing to watch. You have a such a strong, sweet, precious personality and we love watching you growing into the person you are going to become.


Here is what you are doing this month:

- You love your "God" songs --That is what you call the worship songs you listen to.  I love that you want to listen to songs that sing praise to our God and pray that you always have a heart to worship him. They help you calm down and you go to sleep to them at night too. Some of your favorites: O God of Our Salvation, God of Victory, Behold the Christ, Look and See

- You like to "read" books. You will pick a book that you know and actually say words that are on that page. It is so cute. One of my favorites is the Caps for Sale book you will get to end and say slowly, slowly.

- Lately, you won't eat meals unless there is a bow in your hair!

- You want to say prayers yourself at meals and bed time. We say the words and then you will repeat it. We love it and want you to always know that you can pray to God.

- You can go upstairs without any rail help and go down a couple of steps without holding on either.

- You love all your stuffed animals/ babies. You carry them around and put them in chairs or on the couches. You will put them in your high chair or lie them down and cover them up. It is so precious to watch you take care of them.

- Lots of two word and three word phrases appearing this month: Mommy do it, daddy do it, mommy or daddy _____ (play, sit, etc), see ___,  daddy home, yes you do or yes I do, lots and lots of phrases

- Funny phrases you say: Okie dokie (except it sounds like oh dokie), oh boy oh boy, shoo fly,  ok but with a reluctant tone

- You can now open the trash can in the kitchen (it has a push button on the bottom for it to open) and now I have to watch you so that you don't throw anything away that is important

- You can match colors (red to red etc) with only mild prompting

- You can recognize and name the color black

- You love to play with flashlights and pretend to "sing" into them. A lot of times you want me to sing and then you pretend that you are doing it while holding the flashlight to your mouth.

- You love trains, ambulances, tractors, and fire trucks. You get so excited when you see or hear them.

- You like to pretend that you are asleep when we get you from your car seat. We open the door, and you will close your eyes and wait for us to tickle you to "wake up". So hilariously cute.

- You wore your first ponytail this month and I almost died from the cuteness!

- You love to laugh! Love love to laugh! Your laugh is such a wonderful thing to hear.

- You like for us to make a fish face so you can put your finger in our mouth while we do it. You also try to make the face but you just move your lips up and down.

- You have started to yell out Jason's name instead of daddy when he's not in the room because you have probably see me do it a couple of times when I need him. I have a hard time keeping a straight face when you do it.

- Another favorite song of yours is clang clang went the trolley from Meet Me in St. Louis. You love it!

- You ask us to sing songs that we have no idea what you are talking about. You told your daddy to sing the rainbow song so he started singing Testify to Love and that seemed to work for you so he went with it.

- You started dance class this month and you really love it.

- You like to put your baby dolls night night and make daddy and mommy go night night too.

- You can recognize and name the letter c. You can recognize the number 10 pretty consistently.

- You can built a 5-10 block tower!

- You like to flip your bottom lip and make noises. You think its hilarious.

- You wear a size 6 shoe and are wearing 24 month clothes.

- You still only have 6 teeth!!!

You are such a joy to us, sugar pie!