Gymboree + Ice Cream = One Very Fun Day!

I'm so excited, I finally figured out how to take video clips with my digital camera!!! So I know what you're thinking...new camera...which would make sense, but nope, this is my trusty Canon PowerShot that I've had since December, 2005, so don't laugh, okay?!? Problem is I misplaced the instruction booklet that came with the camera and never took the time to look up how to do it online. Anyhow, even better, I figured out hot to rotate video clips portrait to landscape AND I figured out how to upload them to blogger, so I'm super excited. Technology and I are not always the best of friends, but in this case, we're playing nice :)

So for my video debut, here's Grace at yesterday's Gymboree class. There was a new little girl in class and the teacher asked Grace to show her how to go through the tunnel, and (warning: mama brag alert) she went right through! Such a good student already - he, he, he!!!


And who says all fun and no work - here's Grace and some of her classmates pushing the air log. Such hard work, don't you think?! When she started Level 3 (10-16mo.) at just under 10 months, she couldn't physically do this activity, then she wasn't interested, then she wanted to do it but couldn't keep up, and now she can do it all by herself and gets frustrated with anyone slowing her down!


After class Grace and I went for a little frozen treat to TCBY. Grace definitely has a sweet tooth, just like her mama. She kept turning on the charm for some older ladies that were there and they just loved it!! Good thing so no one would pay attention to the crazy mama filming her kiddo eat ice cream ;)


I don't know if this will make sense to anyone else except me, but just this past week I noticed that Grace's laugh is turning into a little girl's laugh versus a baby's laugh. She also knows how to laugh to be funny in addition to when she's really tickled about something. It's bittersweet for me. I love seeing every new stage, but I miss my little itty bitty pumpkin baby!!! I can't believe she's almost 15 mo. already - time flies when you're having fun!!!

Let's go already, Mama!!!

Every Friday, Grace and I get to do one of her favorite things - go to Gymboree Play & Music! To say she loves her class is an understatement. Her face just lights up at the mention of "Gymbo the Clown". Here she is last Friday right after I mentioned, "let's go see gymbo". She runs to my purse, gets out my car keys, and waves bye, as if to say, "hurry up already". Once we're there, she goes straight for the exercise balls and smiles. Melts my heart to see her so happy :) We've been going since she was six months old. At first it was just to give her (okay, both of us) a change of scenery, but as she's grown and become more able to do things, she just gets so excited to do all the activities and play on the equipment. I credit Gymboree with Grace's obsession with stickers. You see, as a first time mom I wasn't educated on the proper protocol for kids' name tags. I was given a name tag that read "Grace & Jessica" and what did I do? I put it on my left side right above my heart as I've done all my life. No, no, no - the KIDDIES were supposed to wear them on their back to help the teachers and parents learn their names. So for over a month, I wore the silly tag and Grace was mesmerized by the colorful clown on the tag and would just peel it off of me every time and play with it, amazed that it would stick to her little fingers. In return, I would say, "yes, it's sticky" and hence the love of "tickies" as she calls them began.
Here she is almost telling me "hurry up with the photo, I have things to do, places to go". At first she wouldn't crawl through the tunnels, but now she loves them! When we get home, she is in such a great mood! She wants to crawl under stuff as if tunnels were everywhere. Here she is trying to squeeze herself between the legs of one of her activity tables. And finally, my little pumpkin having a very rock star moment!

Kiddie Vintage

You all know I LOVE hunting for vintage treasures!! My most recent obsessions (ahem, "likes") are vintage junior elf books and vintage children's hankies. I've been very good lately and haven't bought much, but I did find these two treasures and had to bring them home. The first one is a lot of vintage books that I *won* on ebay for a steal! The main reason I bought this lot is for the last two books, "Little Yellow Chick" and "Little Bo Peep" - love the colors on the covers!! The second one is this sweet hanky. I just love the soft colors and the sweet little kitty and duck. I don't really like cats, but I guess sweet little vintage kitties have a soft spot in my heart. And this last one, unfortunately, is a little out of my price range, so for now I will just have to love it from afar. And here's another edition of the same sweet book. May you enjoy the little things in life that bring a smile to your heart. ~Jessica

Memorial Day Weekend Fun

What a fun weekend this has turned out to be! Lance was able to get off work early on Friday and we decided to kick off the holiday weekend by going downtown to an annual festival. Grace was so excited to go. Check out her sweet smile of anticipation! And although this is not a good quality picture, just for fun, check out this silly face! Grace kept checking out the slide, so finally we got some tickets so she could try it out! Oh, my - it's high up here! Yeaaay, let's do it again!! She was not happy when it was time to leave. Only a lemonade could pry her away! Soon the tears gave way since she realized we were in for some backyard fun. Grace loved being "dipped". Here we go!!! She wanted to go again and again and again!
It was SO hot on Sunday we decided to go for an ice cream treat. When we got there I realized that although Grace has had ice cream before, this was her first time in an ice cream parlor, so in true mama mode, I HAD to take some photos ;) Birthday cake ice cream - yum! Grace has been loving her mini sprinkler pool, so we decided to add a few others to our very own backyard water park! Here's Grace checking out the new arrangement. Where's the sprinkles, Mama? My fearless little pumpkin loved going head first! Yeaaay, this is the way to do it!! Lance probably hates this photo, but I love that he wasted no time getting in the kiddie pool to splash around with Grace! Can you see how happy she is?!?! And finally, drying off and holding on to her baby - my sweet girl, I love you! Hope everyone is having a fun Memorial Day Weekend!!

Splish Splash!

This afternoon I went shopping for a birthday present for a certain favorite cousin of ours :) It was so hard to decide what to get since I found the coolest toys! While there, I spotted what looked like a very fun summer toy - a sprinkles tide pool. I love toys that bring back that "lazy days of summer" feeling of yesteryear. Makes me think back to some of my favorite childhood memories...runnning around our neighborhood with my cousins riding bikes, setting up carwashes for $1.00, $1.50 if you wanted your car dried :), putting on talent shows, selling lemonade...ahh, to be young and carefree! Knowing how much Grace loves the water, I decided to get two of the sprinkles pool toys - one to give away and one to keep. When I got home, I got too excited and decided we couldn't wait - we needed to try it out right away! It was such a big hit!!! Here are some photos of my little water baby.

Hmmm, what is this? Mama, the water is COLD!! Okay, this is FUN!! Yeaaaay, water!!! Trying to "grab" the water Sad it's over :( Grace splish splashed for almost an hour and loved every second of it! This is going to be one fun summer!!!

Nieces and Nephews

I just love my nieces and nephews!! In February, my nephew Marshall was born and I haven't had a chance to meet him in person yet, but he's a cutie!! He takes after his big brother Emerson, who has the most gorgeous, expressive eyes ever. When he came to visit us last August, Grace, who is 4 months younger than Emerson, was in awe of him and wanted to do everything he did! Here they are checking each other out for the first time. Wow, how time flies - check out how little they look in this photo compared to now!! We've been planning for a while and hopefully by the end of the summer we'll take a trip to the west coast to meet him, spend time playing with Emerson, and visit with my nieces Nikki and Katie (who are growing up way too fast) and their wonderful families.
Here's our future NFL star! A sweet photo of Katie, Marshall and Nikki We're also hoping to take Grace to the beach for the first time and I can't wait!!

Birthday Party Fun!

One of Grace's friends, Beau, just turned one this past week. The weather was gorgeous for his birthday party this past weekend and all the kiddos had a blast playing in the backyard. Grace loved playing with the water-n-sand table. Can you tell she loves the water? She was drenched in no time flat, but she was having such a great time, I couldn't bear to keep her away from the water! The kiddos wasted no time setting up a make believe lemonade stand. And here's the birthday boy saying hi! While Beau waited to dig in his cake, which he devoured in no time flat, Grace loved playing with the stroller-turned-shopping cart! Happy 1st Birthday, Beau!!