Paint and Party

Our Saturday morning started out much the way it usually does--slow and low key.  We lounged around, watched some cartoons and ate breakfast.  Olivia did her usual playing, which included a visit from her sensory bottles.  Then we did a little finger painting.  It's been a few months since we last did this, so it was like a whole new experience for her.  She loved it and ended up painting four pages.  Then it was straight to the tub for her!

After nap we headed to our old Little Gym location for a birthday party!  Carter and Olivia have been in the same class since we started when she was 7 months old.  We were one of the only non family members to attend.  Olivia had a blast!

 Shaking her bells for the hello song.

Running as part of the warm up--with Carter and his mom

Apparently the splits are her new thing?  She was doing this during the warm up.  Then when it was time to go around and the circle and say your name and do a trick, she said her name and then did a full on splits.  I think even the teacher was a little impressed.  I'm not sure it was 100% intentional on her part, but I had to laugh.

Loving the parachute--we went around, took Carter for a ride while singing "Happy Birthday" to him, played on top, and all of the kids favorite--went underneath.

Balance beam with Boppa!

Michael helped Olivia hang from the bars and she was SO proud of herself. ;)

We got a kick out of this--the teacher's were getting the air track ready and Olivia just went right over and sat in the middle like she was suppose to.  Most of the kids aren't Little Gym regulars, so they had to wait for instruction.  Not Olivia.

Next up was food.  How cute, yet simple, was this set up!

Such a big girl!

I wiped off as much of the inch thick frosting as I could.  I was going to skip the cupcake, which is why I gave her the cookie.  But then she was given one.  Luckily, she was more excited about the Capri Sun.  She didn't touch the cookie.  She ate about two bites of the donut and just licked the cupcake.

This is the best picture I got of the two friends.

Then it was back in the gym for balls, bubbles and the good bye song.

The regulars are doing their tummy drums! :)

Wordless Wednesday--Helping make muffins

"Oh Mr. Sun..."

It was 85 degrees last Monday.  In July.  In Texas.  Yep, that's kind of crazy! (Yes, I'm a week behind...)  So when Olivia asked to go to the park, I thought I better jump on it.  85 is still hot, but it's not 100!

 Olivia wanted to play on the bridge.  I was fine with that.  It meant shade! :)

Talking about the dirty water below.

Next she did some running in the field.

Of course we had to do a little swinging!

She climbed all over the playground equipment but has recently decided that she doesn't want to go down the slide.  I'm not sure what that's about.  Hopefully she'll get past it soon!

After dinner we decided to take her out on her new bike.

She was NOT happy about the helmet!

She got over it when she realized that we weren't budging and the ride was going on.

She enjoyed the ride, but got sick of pedaling after a bit.

So rode the rest of the way like this.  Then, she eventually just got off and walked the rest of the way home.

I'm sure she'll enjoy this more and more as she gets stronger and figures it all out!

Puddle Jumpers

We are trying to take advantage of having a pool to use.

We went first thing last Saturday morning, and it was great because NO ONE was there!

Olivia will still use the floating device from last year.  It's one that she can sit in.  She likes it, but I worry that she's probably a little too heavy for it.

I have heard people raving about puddle jumpers, so we went ahead and got her one.

She cried and cried when I was putting them on.  She wanted nothing to do with them.

But once Michael got in the water with her in them, she warmed up to them.

After a while she really started to like it.  She kept saying "I'm swimming" and "I'm such a big girl" and "I'm doing it!" :)

After I snapped the pictures, I got in and we took turns swimming with her.  Of course, these days she is preferring Michael.  She's with me all day, so she eats up any attention she can get from him!

We even let her "swim" without holding one of us once she got comfortable. She did pretty good.  She does not like going on her back, so she got a little concerned when she started tilting that way.  She'll figure it out though.

We've come a long way since the swimming lessons where she screamed bloody murder!  We'll have to try them again soon!

Independence Day

Our day started out by sleeping in!  Olivia is our alarm clock, or at least she makes have to actually get out of bed, and she slept until 9!  We had a slow moving and relaxing morning just hanging out.  She was happy that Michael was here when she woke up.  She is usually still asleep when he leaves, and that makes her sad almost every morning.

We decided to head to the local splash pad.  We had been earlier in the week (I'm behind on posts!), but thought it would be a good chance to go again.  One, because Boppa could join us and two, because we were hoping most people had family plans elsewhere.  It wasn't nearly as crowded as it was a few days earlier, so I guess our plan worked!

She played for about 45 minutes.  Then we stopped to have a snack.

The splash pad is right next to the newly renovated Hope Park.  We had yet to check it out, and it was on our list so this was a great opportunity.  We threw her cover up on and walked over.

The park is HUGE and definitely one of the nicest parks Michael and I have ever been to.

We mostly hung out in the tot section.

Playing music

Walking across the shaky bridge

Excited about the barn

Some Frisco favorites!

Playing with the sensory wall

She also did a little swinging while I went and got treats from the ice cream truck.  

It was just too hot to pass up!

After our treat we headed back to the splash pad to cool off.

We headed home and had a late lunch.

Then it was naps for everyone!

We had a low key evening at home and then headed back out to see the fireworks. This was Olivia's first time.  We originally had planned on going off the beaten path, but oddly we ended up VERY close.  Actually, it's the closest I've ever been to fireworks going off.  I wasn't a fan of all the debris falling on us!

Olivia just kept saying "The fireworks are SO loud!", so we told her to cover her ears.

It was a GREAT twenty minute show.

We thought we were going to be stuck in traffic for a bit, but we found a way out and were back home in no time.

Olivia was in bed by 10:30 and was out almost instantly.  It was a good family day.