More of this & that...

I haven't felt like blogging this week, but at least I have been taking pictures, here's what we've been up to!

Our irises are in full bloom.

It's getting warmer, time to fire up the grill.

1st ice cream sundae at Colonial Kitchen, she ate the whole thing all by herself!

And loved it!

Doing great with her booster seat; fruit and raisin bread toast for breakfast-yum!

I got a haircut, and decided to go with bangs for a bit. I also have been making some summer outfits for Belle, here she is wearing a little jumper I made.

It's hot out, time for water play!

Love our little frog pool.

Hopefully this week I'll feel more inspired to blog, have a good week everyone!

Little bit of this and a little bit of that...

I sometimes have a few pictures from the week that never make it into a blog post, just some random shots from the weeks activities. Here are a few from the past 2 weeks.

Downtown Naperville has an amphitheater that Anabelle loves to run around and climb on. It is perfect for practicing going up and down steps. It also has a wide open space to run around in. It's a great way to wear off some toddler energy.

Here we are at Riverwalk Park, one of our favorites. It was SUPER hot this day and Anabelle had been running around on all the bridges slides. I finally got her to stop and drink some water. She definitely inherited the ability to get very red-faced after only a short amount of time running around from her Momma.

It was so hot that day that we left the park and went straight home to get into swimsuits and play in the water. Here Anabelle is modeling her new bikini from Aunt Steph and Uncle Mike. I think it is just about the cutest thing ever!!

Another favorite thing for us to do is to walk to the fountain by our house. It is just a short 10 minute walk along the river. On this day it was the first time we had seen it running since they turned it off for the winter months. Anabelle was very excited!

Brookfield Zoo

John and I decided to get a membership to the zoo this year, it is a great deal if you think you'll go to the zoo more than 3 times in a year. I like having a membership because then I don't feel pressure to get the most out of every visit. You can go and if it starts to rain or Anabelle decides to be cranky, you don't feel like you wasted money.

My Mom joined Anabelle and I today for a trip to the zoo. We got there early, just in time to see lots of animals out either eating or enjoying the sun. It was pretty crowded with children on field trips, but we still managed to see plenty of action. Anabelle definitely was able to see some of the big animals and often made her signature "barking" noise that she makes for animals when she doesn't know what sound they make.

It was a beautiful day, sunny and in the 70s, a great day to go to the zoo. This zoo is so large that it is best to just pick a few exhibits that you want to see and rotate with each visit, otherwise you will never make it around to everything. Especially when you are trying to make it home at a reasonable time for a toddler nap. After looking at all the animals we had a lovely picnic lunch. I really appreciate that they allow you to bring in your own food, so you can save money. We had a great time, and will definitely get a lot of use out of our zoo membership.

Water play!

Anabelle got this wonderful sensory table for her birthday last year from Marena and Adam. We have had it in our rec room since September and have used it a few times. As you can imagine Anabelle has not yet learned how to keep the water in the table, so I haven't been able to take any good pictures of her playing because I am usually busy hovering nearby making sure she doesn't decide to put any non-water toys in the table or dump all the water on the floor. She loves playing with water and today played outside for well over an hour. I am thrilled that it is now warm enough here to move the table outside to play, and I can relax and take pictures. I look forward to playing with it all summer!

Picnic table pics

Got a picture of Anabelle with her new table after nap today, love it!

Rockin' the shades.

How you doin'?

Happy Friday!

Hi everyone! Hope you are having a great Friday, b/c I am!!!

The number 1 biggest reason is that my wonderful friends Marena and Adam are having a little baby, and today was the 20 week ultra sound where they found out that the baby was healthy and happy and moving right along. SO HAPPY!!! But they also found out some other news, of course, the sex and name of the baby. Although as I write this I am unsure if they want to share that info with the whole blogosphere? Hmmm..... here's an idea; Marena and Adam if you do indeed want to share that info you could put it in the comments! Yeah I like that idea. All I can say is, now that I know, I have some shopping to do ;)

The second reason I am having a great day is because of some awesome stuff I scored at garage sales this morning. My Mom came over to share in the fun with me and Anabelle. I was looking for a 3 main things and I found them all. I budgeted $40, but came in way under. Here's what I got:

1. A step stool: Anabelle is approaching the age where she needs to learn how to step up to the bathroom sink and wash her own hands. I am tired of holding her heavy, squirming body over the sink. And standing on a chair (as seen in previous blog photos) is not very safe. I was looking for the nice 2 step, wooden kind; but instead found a large plastic one. Marked $2.50, I paid only $2.00 and snapped that puppy up!

2. A booster seat: Anabelle is ready to get out of her highchair and sit at the big table with the rest of us! But she can't reach yet, so we needed a booster seat. I found one at a sale early on in the morning marked $10, I got her to come down to $8. Then decided that was still more than I wanted to pay and walked away. A few sales later we saw the very same booster seat, in better condition, marked $3.00, so of course when she came down to $2.00 -I bought it.

3. A children's picnic table: I have been on the hunt for one of these for awhile. You can find them on Craigslist for around $25, but I thought I might find one cheaper at a garage sale. I had looked online and saw that Little Tykes makes quite a few and they usually run around $50. Most of them are yellow, red, or blue plastic and some of them have a hole for an umbrella. They also make some nicer ones that are faux wood (brown plastic) which I think look a little nicer. So after lots of looking and almost giving up hope today my Mom spotted one as we were driving past a sale. I got out and it was the faux wood table with an unbrella! It was marked $15 (already a pretty good price) I asked if they would take $10 and we settled at $12. The hardest part was fitting it in my car. It was a long SLOW ride home with my hatchback wide open and the table tied down. But after a good bath, it looks great! The umbrella is little sad looking, we may pick up a new one if I see a good deal. But overall I love it.

So the total: $16, and I found everything on my list!

After some garage sale-ing my Mom, Anabelle and I had a picnic lunch and played at the park. It was a beautiful day. Lots of sunshine and warm temps.

Finally the last reason I am having such a good day- my favorite magazine Real Simple came in the mail, and I am about to go lounge in the backyard sunshine with a cool drink and read. It's the little things that make life great!!

Ready, set, GO!

Last week it rained for a good portion of the time, so whenever the sun peaked out from behind the clouds and we got an hour or two of sunshine, Anabelle and I got outside to play. We tried out a new park by us...

Anabelle has been showing more interest in climbing on playground equipment and going down slides. This park has 2 different climbing structures, one smaller than the other. Anabelle liked the smaller one and was able to climb and go down the slide alone. On the bigger structure she was pretty timid, only going down the big slides if I went with her, and not wanting to walk on the bouncy bridge. I can't blame her the slides are pretty big.

Ready, Set,

GO!

Today we went back to the same playground with some Moms and children from playgroup. Anabelle must have decided that today she was going to conquer the big climbing structure. She went at it with no fear! She was running all over the bouncy bridge, climbing up the bumpy wall, and went down every slide MANY, MANY times -all by herself! She was FEARLESS! It gave me a few grey hairs, but I tried to stand back and let her do it on her own. She is so brave sometimes, and I love that quality in her, and don't want to discourage it. A few times she decided she didn't want to sit down before going down the slide and so she just stepped off the edge and kinda tumbled down. But luckily I was always close enough to run over and catch her. She got a few bumps but laughed the whole way. Even when she went down the slide properly, it was fast. She got air a few times and always landed with a thud on her butt at the bottom of the slide, but she always stood up with a smile. I think we may have a thrill seeker on our hands.

During the week when it was raining outside, we tried out our new art materials. Anabelle loved painting with her new brushes and paint. I don't have any pictures b/c I was busy helping her, but I do have her painting on the fridge, I should get a picture of her with it. I may be biased but I am pretty sure she is the next Picasso. Here she is washing out her paint brushes and cups when we were done.

Today after a long nap (probably from her dare devil ways at the park this morning) we played in the back yard for a bit. Anabelle wanted to know when it was going to be time to use the watering can?

Such a cutie pie!

While we were outside this little guy was having a snack, I love the zoom on my camera.