3.5

My sweet, funny, sassy little girl is officially 3.5 today. Along with a little playdate with one of her favorite people, we are pulling out half of her birthday presents we put away after her party to celebrate. Having a birthday 4 days after Christmas makes this plan work well!

Let's start with her stats- everyone who meets Abby tells me how tall she is! We literally skipped 3T and went to 4T and size 5. Everything else shows her belly or doesn't cover her booty. She can wear a 3T short in the waist, but the legs are often too tight. She has visible thigh and calf muscles. It amazes me! She wears a size 9 shoe. Thank goodness she has stayed that size- she has a fun shoe collection I don't want her to miss out on. She weighs about 43 pounds and is 40 inches tall.

We aren't super girly, yet. With the exception of a couple of times, I still pick out all of her clothes. I thank God we don't have those fights. I am sure they will come, but I love that I still have control. I do let her select her hair style- bow, ponies, or loopys. She has no idea who the princesses are and won't sit still for any of the Disney movies featuring them. Thanks to her Daddy, she can name her super heroes.

Her favorite foods are: cheese, almond milk, cucumbers, crunchy carrots, cheese crackers, watermelon, purple grapes, fig newtons, ginger spice cookies, and Fruity Pebble bars. She doesn't eat oatmeal, red meat, hot dogs, hamburgers or traditional pizza. At restaurants, we most often order her grilled cheese, quesadillas, or chicken strips or nuggets. We are at a good point where she will try most anything and tell us yes or no. She would drink milk, especially almond, all day if we would let her. We keep milk to meal times only. She might have tea, lemonade or apple juice once a week. She will down a tall iced water from Starbucks faster than Marcus or I can. 

She is still a Momma's girl. Makes me happy I chose to stay home with her! She likes to "love on your shirt" (hug) me and gives lots of kisses all the time. We counted once and she said I love you 23 times in 12 hours. She will come get me and tell me she wants love and that means hold her and hug and kiss her. The most affectionate child I've ever met!

Most of her favorite little friends are her church friends. She still super duper loves her buddy Michael motorcycle as she calls him. I think his Mom, Miss Natalie, ranks as her favorite non-family member. She asks to go to their house at least daily. Marcus and her still spend most every Saturday morning at story time with her friends Madeline and Eva and their parents. It is fun to watch them all grow up together. She hasn't seemed to miss interacting with other kids at school this summer. I think she is enjoying being home more and playing with her toys.

Our favorite toys right now are: small Dora figurines, our doll house, "colored cars", glowsticks and flashlights. We always leave the house with at least one baby/stuffed animal and often have to bring them a blanket, bottles and snack. Her favorite shows on TV- Jake and the Neverland Pirates, Doc McStuffins, and Word World. Dora, Diego, Mickey Mouse and Yo Gabba Gabba come up every now and then. 

We love her to pieces and are so grateful she is healthy, happy and ours!

VBS 2012

Working full time I always wished I could be involved in VBS at my church. This year I was able to jump in and help out and while I was tired and got sick from all the kids, I am so glad I did it!

Because I was a worker, Abby was able to go. VBS technically starts at age 4, but her little class was all her friends (since their Moms are our friends and they were working, too!) and they did crafts, went to worship, and played outside. She had the most fun!

I volunteered in the grade school crafts room. My role was to design, purchase and prep all of the crafts for the kids in 1st to 6th grade. In that range, there were almost 300 kids! We had two big craft rooms like this!

These were my inexpensive centerpieces :) Every table had one of these all hot glued together! The q-tips were to help kids spread glue. 

Thursday night of VBS week they had family fun night with inflatables outside! After Abby Lu joined the kids to sing on stage (bold move!) she enjoyed cotton candy, face painting and jumping!

That girl loves the big slides!

That night our buddy Michael's big sister accepted Jesus into her heart so we took Michael to play with us. Sweet kiddos! I hope they fall in love with Jesus and accept Him into their hearts, too!

Marcus flew back from his business trip to Chicago in time to juggle. Abby wanted him all to herself after missing him for 4 days! She pushed the other kids away- that is my Daddy!

What a fun week at VBS!

Father's Day Weekend

The blog has been dead this week because I have been dead! We had my Mom and Kyleigh and Cohen here for the week for VBS at our church. It was fun and rewarding, but also exhausting. More about all that to come... let's go back in time to Father's Day weekend!

Friday night we went swimming and had dinner with our friend Matt, Tabriah and cute little Kiersten and Kaylinn. I love these little girls and love seeing them. We had a yummy dinner on the back porch with fresh watermelon- my favorite!

We brought fun shortbread cookies from Kellie's Kreations in Cedar Park. 

Since Mom and the kids came into town on Saturday afternoon, we went to dinner Sunday night as a date night/Father's Day celebration. We snapped Marcus and the little girl that made him a Daddy before we left.

She is pretty cool and I wanted my picture with her, too!

We had dinner at Eddie V's thanks to my very generous bosses. They surprised me with a gift certificate for Admin's week a while back and I saved it up for a special night. The Kung Pao Calamari was AH-MAZING! I will go back just for that!

Saturday before our company arrived, we showered Marcus with gifts! I bought him new wrinkle free pants for work to thank him for being such a good provider for us and Abby bought him a super hero book filled with little plastic heroes. 

Our Week- A Random Post

Look at my yellow lantanas! So excited to see them blooming and growing over the wall. I wish I had a green thumb and a green yard! We ended up hiring a lawn service- our yard was so bad and we just couldn't get it turned around. I felt like we were wasting money, doing treatments at the wrong time, you name it. It is getting there! We have lots of retired neighbors and I know they must think our big corner lot is wasted on us kids!

Abby is growing like a weed! Seriously, so many unworn clothes in the hand me down bin. We really skipped the 3T size and moved into 4T and more 5s for dresses. She is tall (the first thing everyone notices about her) and she has a thick build. She is muscular! A bunch of her shorts are tight around her thighs- strange. On top of that, we are now a size 9 shoe. I love her new converse and a fun new pair of jellys from Baby Gap.

We have had a low key week in preparation for next week- VBS! I am working on grade school crafts and am happy to report that are planned, prepped and ready for the kids. Please pray that our church would have a powerful VBS and the volunteers would be blessed for serving. I have wanted to serve at VBS for years and am happy to do it this year for the first time!

This morning we went to the park and splash pad with our friend Cora and her little sister Carys. Abby had a wonderful time and it was really nice to do something one-on-one with another Mom and not a big group. 

We decided not to put Abby in MDO this summer at the last minute. I had too many concerns and our schedule didn't seem to warrant school every week. So, we had a Shelby from our church come over to play with Abby on Tuesday and Thursday this week. It was perfect! Abby got to play all morning and was happy to see me in the afternoon. 

We are loving swimming after Daddy gets home from work, too! It is a great summer so far!

Show Week at The Little Gym

Abby had her final performance for family and friends at The Little Gym last Friday. We signed up for the summer session, so it felt mid-stream to us! But, it was fun timing since Kyleigh was here and Abby could show off her skills!

We started Little Gym in March after leaving dance class and I was so amazed at how much better Abby did. That never changed- she did as much or more than the other kids at show week and many of them have been going all school year. She has shown determination, courage, and pride in her work.

The balance beam terrified her in March. This time, she did it! She didn't bend over or do high kicks, but she walked across it! I was laughing because just before she jumped off, she told Ms. Michelle, "don't let me hit my head".

After their performances, they had about 10 minutes of free play time and Abby showed Marcus how she can swing on the little bars.

She loved running and jumping around with her Daddy there!

 Kyleigh got into the action, too!

Here is most of her sweet class of Funny Bugs (the name for 3-4 year olds). Notice her medal is on her like a beauty queen sash :) She corrected us that it was rescue pack- thanks Diego!

I am super proud of her and she is pretty proud of herself, too!

Abby's First Sleepover

 I can't believe I forgot to blog this.... Abby had her first friend spend the night late last month. Michael is her best buddy and at three, we just ignored the fact that he is a boy! We talked about Michael spending the night for days, always asking, "is it Friday yet?"

We went to a nearby splash pad and let them run around and get wet.

Then, we had dinner at Rosa's. Every kid we know loves to watch them make the yummy tortillas. Michael is 3 months older than Abby and almost a head shorter. He is super light- Marcus likes that and feels confident Abby could take him!

After dinner, Michael drove Abby around the neighborhood. The best part of this picture of their first little "date"- he is holding a gun and she has a baby!

Michael shares a room with his big brother and had no problem going to sleep with another person in the room. Abby, on the other hand, was up until 11 PM. She was talking, playing, reading Michael books, you name it! At one point, I went in to check on them and both of them were standing up- I asked them what was going on and she told me they were "giving love". That is what we call hugs and kisses. Oh boy!

Mini San Antonio Vacay

Abby and I spent the beginning of the week with my Mom and nephew in San Antonio. My sister is a teacher who has 2 work weeks after school is out, so my Mom wanted a little trip in the middle of her 2 weeks with Cohen. We met in San Antonio at my favorite hotel on Monday afternoon and went non-stop until Wednesday when we departed for home.

The highlight of our trip was Morgan's Wonderland on Tuesday. I had sent a message out on FB asking for something to do with a 7 and 3 year old that wouldn't cost a fortune and this was suggested by numerous people. It is an all abilities park with museum and amusement park like attractions included. It is just $15 for adults and less for kids. The park was built with all kids in mind- the rides were equipped for wheelchairs, they had swings for kids with challenges, no gravel, and lots of shade. You could tell it was designed by parents- you were allowed to bring in your own food and everything in the park was included with admission- fishing, remote control boats, etc. Many of the park workers were special needs as well.

Here are some pictures from our adventure....

this screen was inside the museum area and the blue/green lines chased your movements from the screen

the butterflies on the screen would land on you if you could stand still for long enough :)

the water works area allowed you to shoot water to make things move and redesign pipes to move water around

this is one of four playgrounds on the property, it is near the wharf area with water guns, real life fishing (catch and release), and remote control boats.

Cohen drove the go kart and Abby and I enjoyed a leisurely ride in the back seat

Nana and Abby hanging out... there was a butterfly theme all around the park

near the wharf, we found Captain Hook and I burnt the back of my legs trying to get a picture with him. The bench had a metal trim that was HOT!

Inside the fake supermarket, Abby bought groceries and other kids there checked her out. When they asked for money, she didn't know they were still pretending and looked really sad. I had to give them $1. Abby bought all fruits and veggies :)

At the hotel, we spent most of our time outdoors. Cohen was our smores maker and he learned quickly that Nana and I do not want ashes in our smores!

Cohen went on this water slide 20 times at least. Abby and I went once, but she really enjoyed watching him slide more.

Someone has two fair skinned parents and someone does not :)

Yea me for catching the big jump at the right time! 

Snacks are always best when eaten in your swimsuit!

This girl was worn out on Tuesday and fell asleep in the car on the way to dinner. She slept on my like this for 30 minutes. I had a moment where I realized at 3.5, she may never do this again. So, I let her sleep a little and captured her baby face taking a nap on me.

On the way home, we visited with a college friend of mine and Abby got to run and play with her little girls. She had the most fun and I got to catch up with Alison and admire her decorating skills. I want to be her when my house grows up :)

It has been a busy two weeks with Kyleigh and Cohen and we are now back to a more normal easy schedule... until VBS starts on June 18th!

Whew, what a week!

 Kyleigh (almost 11) has spent the week with us. We picked her up on Monday morning and we have tried to pack in lots of fun since then! But, I have quickly learned a few things:

- 10 year olds and 3 year olds like very different things

- a certain little girl does not share her Momma very well

- living in your swimsuit all day for a couple of days is fun

- I don't know how you Moms with multiple kids make everyone happy!

We have no joke been swimming for 6 straight days. We have visited 4 different swimming pools and been to the splash pad twice. Here is our week in reverse, because I am tired!

This morning we had a play date with about 15 friends at the splash pad. Kyleigh loved holding baby Cohen who shares his name with her brother.

Abby spent more time in the sand than the water.

Tonight, we met Marcus at the local YMCA to swim more. They have two big fun slides that Kyleigh loves and Abby loves to cheer for her!

Thursday afternoon we saw Lorax 3D. It was cute- the 3D part was funny to watch. Abby would almost fall our of her seat reaching for things or she would duck and flinch when things came out. Cute movie!

You would think this picture would be after one of our many hours swimming, but apparently a movie is more exhausting!

 Kyleigh was super helpful with Abby, yet I tried to remember she is only 10 and this is supposed to be fun for her. Abby was sweet to Kyleigh for the most part until she got embarrassed, jealous, tired, grumpy, sad, you name it :)

We visited the park on Tuesday morning. That is when I learned that 10 year olds don't like the park anymore. We left after about 30 minutes because Kyleigh was playing on my iPhone and Abby was sad Kyleigh wouldn't play with her.

Monday we spent Memorial Day swimming at Marcus' coworkers home. We spend every Memorial Day there and just love it! In her little vest and intertube, Abby can go everywhere in the pool with confidence. Marcus gained confidence after seeing Abby's skills :)

We are taking Kyleigh to see another cousin tomorrow after our family reunion and then Monday Abby and I are back to our favorite hotel in San Antonio to spend a couple of days with my Mom and Cohen. 

It is summer and I am loving it!