"Horsies" and "Ba-flies"

Yesterday we brought Caroline over to a children's carnival that they were having at the church where she goes to Mother's Day Out. They had rides, games, clowns and ponies rides. Caroline was very excited to ride the "horsies", although she only enjoyed the ride for the first half and spent the last half trying to convince Brett to get her down! Same with the little ferris wheel-loved it for the first half, but the ride operator had to stop it early to let her get off! She did love the "choo choo" ride that she took with Mommy and the ducky pond game that won her bag of goodies. I think her favorite part, though, was the hot dog she had for lunch and the "Ba-Fly" (a.k.a butterfly) balloon that the clown made for her. Of course, Caroline requested that her balloon creation be made with "PINK!" balloons! I mean what other color is there after all?

Sad News

I am very sad to announce that our last birthday fish has had a wonderful two and a half week stay with us, but has now moved on to a better place-"fishy heaven". You might think we're crazy but we're going to give the tank a good scrubbing and start all over. Maybe we shouldn't get goldfish this time. We'll let you know...

Finally!

I finally have some pictures of Caroline not only looking at the camera, but smiling, too! Her pictures from Sears came out really cute. Certainly not as cute as when Becky took her pictures, but actually really good for Sears. I was very happy! Here are two of my favorites. Check them all out and tell me which one is your favorite!

https://www.searsphotos.com/?shareid=S205342391l99JQ64MH8C

"Princess" Dress

I was getting Caroline dressed yesterday morning and I took out a dress of Bailey's (Kelly's daughter) for her to wear. The minute I put it on her, she said "Oh, Wow! Princess!" I have no idea where she got that from, b/c she really doesn't have any "princess" things. She just loved this dress though and all day kept saying, "Princess, Princess!" Later, we were at the mall and I decided on a whim to take her into Sears and see if she would sit still long enough for them to take a couple of pictures of her, since she liked this dress so much. Brett and I haven't been able to get a picture of her smiling at the camera in many, many months. Even her Christmas pictures were a struggle and I didn't even end up liking them in the end. When we got into Sears, they were able to fit her in and would you believe she was just laughing and smiling away the whole time? Granted she kept running away after every 3rd picture to pick up some random prop and pull it into the picture with her, but still, at least she was actually looking at the camera and smiling. I wasn't actually able to SEE the pictures, though, yesterday b/c when they finished they couldn't get their system to pull them up. I am going back today at 4pm to look at them and decide which ones I want. Hopefully, it goes as well as I thought it did! I'll make sure I post the website where you can view the pictures, too.

One Lonely Fish

I think it's pretty sad when my dead fish get more attention than my family on our family blog, but regardless, it is necessary to spread the news that we are offically down to one fish!

Seriously...

Ok, this really isn't funny anymore. I just found ANOTHER dead fish! Now like I said in an earlier posting, at least Caroline will enjoying counting fish up to her favorite number-2!!! I don't want to buy any more until I see if these last two survive for at least several weeks. I'd hate to subject some poor innocent fish to some fish disease that exists between the last remaining 2. Poor little guys. What a terrible birthday present idea!

Caroline's "ABC" Birthday

Saturday afternoon we had Caroline's 2nd birthday with an "ABC" theme. She is so into her letter and knows the names of all of them, I figured it would be a fun theme for her. She had 11 other children here and 25 adults! Five of the children were from her weekly playgroup and the rest live in the neighborhood. Thank goodness it was a beautiful day outside-75 degrees and sunny all day!

Caroline was able to wear a T-shirt that said "C is for Caroline" made from iron-on letters. Then, I created a menu of A-Z things to eat (or things you need to use to eat -U: Utensils, N: Napkins, etc.). I used cookie cutters to cut bread for sandwiches into letter shapes, and found Seaseme Street cookies that had the letters on them, too. We ordered a cake that had the entire alphabet written around the outside borders and cupcakes that had "ABC" on them. We covered all the tables and kitchen island with butcher paper that I painted alphabet letter on. Up the front walk I wrote the ABCs in chalk leading to the front door and on the three front steps I wrote "A Birthday for Caroline!" She was so excited when she saw all the letters all over the sidewalk. I think the kids had a great time coloring ABC pictures, getting their faces painted their initial and something that stood for that initial (Caroline had a C on her face and whiskers and a nose for a "Cat"), playing outside and of course, eating the cupcakes and ice cream! The kids were all given goodie bags on the way out the door that had Disney ABC flashcards and a Rice Krispie Treat cut into the initial of their first name. Now, the only question is, what should I do for next year??!!