Baylor's First Drawing of Me

Baylor rarely draws anything concrete; he usually sticks to making the colors look pretty or making tic-tac-toe boards.  (He did go through a tow truck phase a while back, lest you think he is crayola-challenged.)  So when he started to draw me (!!!!) I was pretty excited.  Then he drew this:

Yup, that's my legs and feet.  Hopefully he'll draw the rest of me someday.  Still, it's most definitely fridge-worthy.

Wahlfield Park: Best of Both Worlds

I had a sneaking suspicion that the kids needed some outdoor time, so I gave them a few options: go to a park with a jungle gym, go to a park with a trail, or go to a park with both.  They chose both, so we made our way to Wahlfield Park.  They chose to enjoy the playground area first, so away we went.

Mollie took her first solo ride on a big girl swing and did a marvelous job!

Baylor was more into the number puzzle in one of the jungle gyms, and that ended up being where he spent most of his time.

Occasionally I'd pull him away, though, so Mollie would have someone to bounce on the alligator with her.

All that play really works up an appetite, so we broke for a bit to have squeezie treats.

Soon enough they were back to playing ... Baylor found a sandbox and made a hand SANDwich for me.

Mollie, always wanting to be like her older brother, gave it a try too, but she really doesn't like sand much at all.

Still, she dove right in and helped Baylor pack the excavator full of sand.

It had malfunctioned a bit, so this was really the only way you could get the scoop full of sand.

I was surprised, but I had to drag them away from the toys to get them to walk on the trail.  Once we started, though, they were all about it.  At first they were a little perplexed that the trail itself wasn't all sandy like Provin Trails, but they quickly got past that and enjoyed the new landscape.  There were even a few wooden walkways and bridges, which the kids adored.

Best moment of the day, hands down.

Our walk ended in a different place than it began, so the kids got to take a look at the map of the trail and the pictures of native birds after our walk.

Wahlfield Park is a great little park, one we're sure to visit again and again!

Good Day, Sunshines!

With the end of spring comes the beginning of the summer sun, and I am loving sharing it with my little sunshines.  We spend a decent amount of time at my parents' house where there is just so much to do.  Mowing ...

... flying kites ...

... and helping Oma transplant flowers make for a busy day and lots of fun.

I am proud to say that, after all their hard work, I managed to actually get the snapdragons they took out of my mom's flower bed into the ground at our house safely, and they are thriving!  I do not have much of a green thumb, so this is an awesome accomplishment for me.

Of course, after the gardening was done, Baylor decided to lock himself in my sister's car.  (I am waiting for my "parent of the year" award in the mail any day now ...)

He knew how to unlock it, but he was having too much fun.

Eventually someone ran in the house to retrieve the spare set so we could unlock the car and get some air in there before it got too hot.

As the weather warms, I am so looking forward to all the little adventures we're going to have together!

405 Pieces of Accomplishment

Well, we finally called it ... Baylor is, for the most part, potty-trained!  We gave him his reward Lego set, all 405 pieces of it, on May 6th and he has been enjoying it ever since.  

We've been waiting to give this to him for months, just looking at it sitting up high on a shelf for him to see and yearn after.  It was so great to see the joy on his face when he finally got it.

All the little Lego pieces came in baggies, and Baylor took great joy in tossing them onto the floor to survey his bounty.

Oh, and it came with instructions!  Hallelujah!

Lego pieces are generally really small, but I was shocked at some of the accessory pieces this set came with.  The little Lego guy was dressed like a mechanic/handy man of sorts, and he came with teeny tiny, itty bitty tools that he can hold in his miniature hand.  It's adorable and amazing and infuriating all at the same time; do you know how easily these pieces could get sucked up by a vacuum cleaner?!  (If I ever vacuumed, that is ...)

So, all in all, Baylor is potty trained.  Yes, there have been days of set-back, where accidents abound and I feel like we were premature in giving him his Legos, but for the most part he's done a good job of making it to the potty and telling us when he needs to go.  Nap time and bed time still require diapers; the nap one is almost always dry (but the one time you leave it off he'll have an accident ... trust me), and the night one is usually full because we don't give him much of a fighting chance as he tends to get a lot of his liquids at dinner and just before bed.  Obviously we'll have to work on that, but for now we're pretty excited that he's come as far as he has.  Good job, little man!  Mommy and Daddy are so proud of you!

Cinco de Mayo Mom

My mom's birthday was on May 5th, and we had a lovely little celebration for her this year.  The day started out with some special breakfast treats from the Wealthy Street Bakery, my parents' new favorite spot.  After dividing everything up into smaller pieces, we all dove in.

Well, everyone except Mollie, who just doesn't seem to be a fan of sweets, particularly in the morning.

But Mom sure enjoyed it; she had this blissful look on her face while we taste-tested our way through some of the delicious pastries they brought home that day.  It was so great to see her enjoying her birthday so very much.

Once "second breakfast" was over with, she opened some gifts, starting out with a word search puzzle I helped Baylor and Mollie make for her.  Baylor especially has been totally into making word puzzles (searches, scrambles, and the like) for the birthday people around him, and I'll do anything I can to encourage him and foster his love for words and reading.

Mollie, less invested in the puzzle, got a shoulder ride from Grandpa E.

Eventually though, she joined in the fun.

Soon we moved to the living room for more gift opening, and Oma was happily joined by her littlest helpers.

It's amazing how much the kids love sound cards.  If you get one for someone in the family, you better select one you would enjoy hearing over and over and over and over again!

Mom got an exercise shirt from my dad and tried it on Mollie for size.  It looked like an adorable, over-sized sleep shirt on her!

The Kentucky Derby was also run that day, and the kids were all sorts of geeked to see the horse race.  We turned on the television for a little early coverage, and upon seeing this on the screen Baylor asked why the horse was in time out!

Mollie has an odd affinity for horses (likes seeing them from far away but will absolutely freak out if you bring her close to one) and was more than content to just sit and watch the horses on the screen.

A while back (maybe January ...), after using my sewing machine to fix a strap on one of the kids' booster seats, I told my mom that I'd sew her something for her birthday.  I asked her what she wanted, and she said, "A bag."  Fast forward five-or-so months and I remembered, a week before her birthday, that I had said I was going to do that for her.  (Keep in mind that I hadn't sewed much before that project, and not at all since.)  Still, I found a pattern on Etsy, got some adorable fabric (enough for two bags, actually ... just in case I totally screwed up the first one), and made a bag!  She had forgotten about my hasty promise all those months ago, so she was super surprised that I actually made her something.  It turned out pretty well, better than the picture below would suggest ... with the kids swirling around me and getting into everything I didn't really have time to shift the scrunching back to normal after being bagged up for a day or so.

Once the gifts were open, we went home for lunch and naps so my parents and sister could do as they pleased for Mom's special day.  Once the kids were up, we made our way back to my parents' house for dinner and the derby.  As soon as we arrived, Baylor and Mom went back to the word search to finish things up ...

... while Bryson entertained Mollie with some play dough fun.

After dinner, we settled in to watch the horse race.

Mollie got pretty into it and assumed this rather adorable derby viewing position.

Of course, such a position barely lets you gesture with your hands, so she eventually switched back while talking with Aunt Christine.

Really, though, who am I kidding ... the kiddo can't keep still for very long.

Once the derby was done, we headed back to the kitchen for some cake.  Christine made a delicious tuxedo cake; while it didn't turn out quite as she'd hoped it would, it was beyond delicious!

Baylor had been okay on Christine's birthday during the singing, but for whatever reason he was upset when we sang for Oma.  Once she and Mollie got the candles blown out, though, all was right with the world again.

It was delicious!

After that we watched Wiener dog racing on YouTube, then it was time to head home.

As always, it was a lovely time.  We hope the birthday girl felt the same.  Happy (belated) birthday, Mom!