Our Week - Returning to Normal

I don't have anything too exciting to write about, as not much has really happened this week.  It's just a normal week of us getting back into a normal routine.  The big things that went on included Chris starting school...

And Sara Kate moving up classrooms, which I was so surprised to find out!!  She's a Skipper now!!

Other parts of our week include...

We've spent a good deal of time outside since isn't 1000 degrees anymore, although our humidity ramped up this week so it was warmer than last week...

We made a trip to Berryville to celebrate Uncle Jason's birthday (Happy birthday Jason!!)...

A trip to Berryville included fun play time with cousins...

A lazy Saturday night involved chalk and impromptu sprinkler play...

 

Sunday involved our normal routine of church and play...

Our afternoon has included a certain 2 year old refusing to take a nap (but the animals are going 2 by 2 all around the house!)...

 And that's what our week has been like.  Like I said, nothing too exciting, just getting back into our normal routine with Chris going back to work!  Hope you all have had a good week.  One more week until football season starts!!  WA-HOO!!! :-)

Fan Day!

Yesterday was 'Fan Day' at the University of Arkansas, and we thought it would be fun to take Sara Kate down there to check things out.  As you know, my child has to dress for every occasion (ha!), and this day was no different.  Her Mimi is in the process of making her a new Razorback pillowcase dress, and she has her smocked Razorback dress from last year that still fits, but daddy bought her a new dress at Wal-Mart last week that she decided to wear (yes, she picked it over the smocked dress, what?!  Ha!).  She was VERY excited to 'wear the pig!'  Yep, her words.  She was also very excited that 'mommy wear the pig and daddy wear the pig.'  So cute.

 

The event was set up in and around Bud Walton Arena, and the doors opened at noon.  We got there around 11:50 or so, and the lines were wrapped all around the arena. The football team was set up inside Bud Walton Arena signing autographs, and we certainly weren't interested in standing in the SUPER long lines with a 2 year old for those (although we did manage to snag a picture of Sara Kate with a player!  And we did get a sneak peak of our awesome quarterback Tyler Wilson, who was flanked on all sides, of course!).  We were interested in the kid area outside which had some little games.  They also had our live mascot Tusk outside, and the cheerleaders and other mascots were inside.  We saw Tusk, which Sara Kate LOVED.  Seriously, I think she would have gone right into his cage if she could have.  She wanted to get so close.  His handler was so nice and tried to get him to lay down so she could pet his back.  But he wouldn't listen, ha!!  A man with CBS Sports was there doing some filming for a special, and he did some filming of Sara Kate standing by Tusk's cage.  Maybe she'll make her TV debut at some point!  She played a little game of throw the football into the hole, which of course she couldn't do but she figured out she could just walk up there and put it in the hole.  Smart girl. :-)

We made our way inside and walked around to check things out and we ran into just the people we were looking for, the cheerleaders!  She was in awe of these girls!  You can't see in in the first picture, but the one on the right let Sara Kate hold her pom poms and it was cuteness overload.

 She let this big guy hold her and she's still holding the pom poms.

 I am seriously in love with this picture.  She looks so small yet so big, and she looks so proud.  Future Razorback!! :-)

 

 

I mentioned that we managed to sneak in front of one of the lines and get her picture with a football player.  So here's Sara Kate and her new friend Austin Tate, who is a tight end on our team.

She was not afraid to go up to any of these people for pictures.  Who she would NOT get a picture taken with was the mascots.  She was terrified of them!!!  I'm confident one day she'll be so excited to get her picture taken with them.  Before we left, she got her face painted, which they were doing for free.  She got her face painted for the first time last week at her school when they had an after school fun night so she knew what to expect.  She sat there and did so great while the nice lady painted a running Razorback on her cheek!

We had a great time at Fan Day and are glad that we went.  This was Sara Kate's first real event to go to on campus...she's been tailgating with us before games but that's it.  She did great there and of course, we got some great pictures of a fun day!  Football season will be here so soon and we can't wait.  Go Hogs!!

Friday...school, doctor, and play!

We've had an interesting but fun day today.  Our mornings start with Sara Kate getting up and getting dressed, getting her milk and poptart, and always saying a 'picture mommy!'  Which means, take my picture before leaving for school.  It's no wonder she says this because I think I've taken her picture every single morning before school ever since she started going 2 years ago...if not every morning, almost every morning.  All those pictures are so precious to me.  So it's just part of our routine.  I mentioned in my last post that they studied the ocean last week.  Well, this week they studied farm animals.  So of course in keeping with the theme, my perfectly dressed child (HA!!) had to dress the part and wear her smocked farm animal bubble.  And she was being so goofy in her picture, too!  This is a terrible picture but it's terribly funny to me!

And daddy always gets kisses before leaving.  Although this was his last day to see us off because usually he leaves right before we do when school is in session.

Sara Kate went to school but got to leave early (which she was very upset about and threw a fit on the way out the door...lovely) because we had to take her to the doctor.  She's not sick or anything, but something has come to our attention and started to concern us.  This summer Chris, his mom, and my mom noticed her right eye started wandering to the right, mainly when she got tired or was very relaxed.  The good thing is as soon as you would get her attention it would snap right back into place.  Weird thing is, I've never seen it!  But I asked her teacher at school if she had seen it and she had, mainly when she's tired but it was very mild.  We were told we should get her checked out just to be on the safe side so we took her to the pediatrician first.  And we reaffirmed the fact that she HATES the doctor.  I'm talking screaming-bloody-murder-as-soon-as-the-scales-come-into-sight-much-less-the-doctor!!!!  She clung onto me so tight, nuzzled into my neck, and screamed at the top of her lungs.  I finally got her calmed down and the doctor came in.  She wanted nothing to do with him (even though she said he had on a pink shirt) and gave him the evil eye.  He was being so kind and silly trying to get her attention, too.  Poor guy.  Probably goes through that alot, though, ha!!  She also wanted nothing to do with following his little light but he took her monkey and she did follow that with her eyes.  She managed to give him enough information that way.  He said that a wandering eye like we described is very common and kids her age usually grow out of it.  A concern would be if the eye stayed off to the side or started bouncing, that would be reason for more concern.  So that's good news and hopefully she will just grow out of it and it won't be a problem.

An unhappy girl clinging tight like a monkey to her mommy!

We made a stop by daddy's school before coming home and getting ready for a play date!  My friends Elizabeth and Noelle came over with their little ones to eat and play!  We had a 4 year old, two 2 year olds, and a 1 year old.  The kids had a great time and all played so well together.  Sara Kate did GREAT sharing her toys (like the best she's ever done, yay!), and she was being a total copy cat with Madelynn (2 yrs old) and Grace (4 yrs old). She cracks me up.  We had storms last night so it was a good night for outside play after dinner.  The swing set was a big hit.  

I love how they all smiled (sort of) but no one is looking at the camera, ha!!

 

Graham was so proud of himself up there like the big girls!

It was a little cool for pool play, but you know how kids are...nothing will stop them from playing in water, ha!! 

This is a terrible picture but it cracks me up...Sara Kate is smiling, Madelynn is looking down, Grace's behind is in the picture, and Graham looks like he's drowning because he had just gone down the slide.  Kids are funny.

We're so glad our friends got to come over and play, and we look forward to more play dates soon (and we missed our friends that couldn't make it!)!  Sara Kate sacked out really fast.  I'm sure she was exhausted from a full week at school (which usually takes alot out of her), a complete meltdown at the doctor's office, and playing with friends.

Happy Friday!!

Reading

I mentioned in my last post about Sara Kate going to school that she's really good at her colors.  One of her favorite books is 'Brown Bear Brown Bear What Do You See.'  We read it all the time (along with 'Green Eggs & Ham' and her 'Llama llama' books), and she always has to say all the colors on the front cover and the back cover.  I took this video about 2 weeks ago (it was when she had her black eye, you can see that thing pretty good), and after she finished listing the colors she started 'reading' the book herself instead of me doing it.  I know she's not actually READING but it still melts my heart.  I've always been a big reader and I love that she loves books.

In other school news from this week, it was 'Ocean Week' where they learned all about the ocean!  Their song of the week was ocean related, their book of the week was ocean related, and their craft projects were ocean related, including making a jellyfish, an octopus, a lobster, and an ocean in a bag.  They ended the week with a special treat of watching 'Finding Nemo.'  I didn't see her teacher Friday afternoon to see if she actually liked it and watched it!  In honor of ocean week, Sara Kate wore a couple of her ocean themed dresses, which she was very proud of.  Thank goodness she didn't come home covered in filth (like Monday when she came home in her back up outfit because at lunch she covered herself with spaghetti, nice!)!

 

This is the last week before public school starts back and we went to Chris' classroom after church today to check it out.  He's done a whole 'man cave' thing for his guys choir.  It's cute.  And I couldn't resist getting a picture of Sara Kate and her daddy in his classroom.  I absolutely LOVE the way she looks at him.  So sweet.

Hope everyone has a good week!

Back to School!

Yesterday Sara Kate went 'back to school!'  She's been in school part time all summer, but the day she starts going back full time we always do her picture and say it's her 'first day of the new year.'  It's not really the first day...they won't officially start new curriculum until the first of September when everyone is back in the swing of things and she's not moving up classrooms yet.  But it's momentous and memorable to us.  It was 2 years ago when she started school for the first time, and my oh my how things have changed.

First day of school (ever) 2010

First day of school 2012...doesn't she look like such a big girl?!

 

 I LOVE this picture!!!  What a doll!!

Last week she seemed to turn a corner, as far as her separation anxiety when I drop her off.  Of course, going only 2 days a week and spending 3 days at home with daddy plus the weekend at home with us was hard on her.  But last week I dropped her off, she saw her friend Maddie (her new bestie), and she said 'I play with Maddie.  Bye bye mommy.'  She gave me hugs and kisses and went to play and was perfectly fine.  She's done great this week, too.  It's hard on me when I leave and she's crying so hopefully we're on the right track now.  Also, her teachers are very impressed with her knowledge of her colors.  She also knows her shapes, her ABC's, and can count to 10, but she LOVES talking about colors and we do them all the time.  She's really thriving in school and is just learning so much there.  That makes us feel good.  Our baby girl is getting so big!!

Yay for school!!

Mommy-Sara Kate Day

Yesterday Chris was out of town so Sara Kate and I had a mommy-daughter day.  Sara Kate is very much a mommy's girl and we spend alot of time together.  With Chris staying home with her 3 days a week during the summer, he's had lots of days with her but she and I haven't had a whole day together in a while.  Sweet girl let me sleep in until 8, which was great since I stayed up way late watching the Olympics and then had to get up at midnight to deal with Cody because he was barking like a crazy dog outside.  So an extra couple of hours was lovely.

We got up and played for a bit before I thought that we may try and run to town for some fun.  Sara Kate was so good while I was in the shower and sat outside the bathroom playing iPad.  I downloaded a new app called Talking Tom Cat, and she LOVES it!!!  It was free, and you can talk to the cat and it will mimic you, you can pet it and it will purr, you can beat up on it and it makes noises, and you can give it milk.  If you have young kids (or not), download it...they will love it!

After I was dressed, it was time to get Sara Kate dressed.  She said she wanted to wear puppies.  But then said frogs.  I handed her the 2 dresses and told her to pick one.  The concept of 'pick 1' is completely lost on a 2 year old.  I chose puppies since that's what she first said.

 

I tried to do a little fall shopping for her since it's tax free weekend here.

 

Unfortunately I didn't have alot of luck at Kohl's (where I racked up last year for fall during tax free weekend), where I had an extra 20% off coupon.  I'm nervous about buying her stuff for fall because she's got such a long torso like me but is short as far as pants go, which is also like me.  Poor kid, ha!  So I just got a couple of babydoll type tops, which should be long enough, and a pair of pajamas for fall.  I also managed to score 2 dresses and 2 pairs of pajamas for next year that were all on clearance (including her first nightgown!).  Hard to believe it's already time to buy 3t (for next year)!

I wanted to make a trip to the mall but due to the timing and needing to get home for nap, it just didn't happen.  But before we headed home, we stopped for a little treat!!  We have an awesome little cupcake shop called Bliss Cupcake Cafe that has 2 locations in town, one off of the square and one near the mall.  We stopped in and Sara Kate immediately said 'I want pink!'  So we shared a strawberry cupcake and she loved it, although she loved the frosting more than the cake.  Yes, she is my child.  :-)

 

We came home and had nap time, and then our mommy-daughter day turned into mommy-daughter-cousins-Mimi day!  We all went swimming for a little while, which all the kids loved!  I got one picture of all 3 but it's terrible so I won't subject these precious children to having a terrible picture of them floating around the internet, ha!!  So just enjoy a cute picture of Sara Kate and Hannah!

 

By the time we were finished, Chris was back (yay!) and we enjoyed pizza at his parents house with everyone before a little more playtime before bed.  I'll be honest and say that spending an entire day alone with a 2 year old can be trying at times, but when she's sweet and good, it's oh so sweet!  I enjoyed my day with my precious girl, and I'm sure we'll do it again soon!

Playing Catch Up - Project 365

I knew there would come a time when I would get behind on posting my Project 365 calendars, and that time has come thanks to summer craziness!  I've been keeping up with it on my phone, just not the blogging aspect of it.  So I'm going to play a little catch up...warning this will be long!  If anyone has any desire to look back, here's January, February, March, and April's posts.

So lets start with May!

1 - swinging

2 - at the doctor because she got Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease at school

3 - home from school and playing with daddy

4 - home from school and playing with mommy

5 - a picnic lunch at daddy's school

6 - playing in the dirt in the back yard after church

7 - sharing an ice cream treat from Coldstone after dinner

8 - attending daddy's choir concert at his school

9 - happy girl ready for school

10 - cleaning her plate during dinner

11 - Sara Kate and Grayson...best friends...at their Mothers Day brunch at school

12 - sweet cousins sharing a cart ride at Sam's

13 - Happy Mothers Day! me and my sweet girl

14 - having a snack in the car after school

15 - walking around 'talking' on her play phone

16 - good morning sunshine!

17 - a hot evening means breaking out the sprinkler for the first time

18 - cheese before leaving for school

19 - cheese while riding around with mommy and daddy running errands

20 - Sara Kate and mommy cheesing before church

21 - enjoying her dessert and licking her bowl clean

22 - first attempt at pulling her hair back

23 - playing on her slide

24 - before bed cheese wearing her new Elmo pj's for the first time

25 - Sara Kate and daddy hanging on on the floor

26 - reading with Gee

27 - a fun day of shopping with mommy and Gee

28 - pink painted toes, which she was very proud of!

29 - walking around using her hand as a phone 'talking'

30 - enjoying a messy Dorito's after school snack with Snoopy

31 - tickle time with daddy

Time for June!

1 - 'playing' cards with Poppa

2 - photo time with daddy

3 - ready for church

4 - eating corn on the cob like a big girl

5 - cheese for school...this was her first day of part time school on our summer schedule

6 - first 'real' ponytail!!

7 - cheese before school, wearing her new Elmo outfit from Gee

8 - at hot evening equals sprinkler time

9 - at Remy's 2nd birthday party, and Remy stole a birthday kiss!

10 - eating popsicles with mommy

11 - bath time silliness

12 - ready for school

13 - eating dinner with mommy

14 - laying in mommy and daddy's bed playing with a toy

15 - pushing the cart at Joann's Fabrics

16 - a Saturday morning spent working puzzles

17 - Happy Fathers Day!  sweet daddy-daughter picture

18 - wearing her new shades to run errands with daddy

19 - 'Mommy, I have blue hair!' she painted her hair blue at school

20 - celebrating the summer solstice with 1/2 price milkshake's at Sonic

21 - big cheese before school

22 - helping mommy 'fold' laundry

23 - first haircut!  big girl!

24 - all ready to head to the pool...such a diva in this picture

25 - Happy 7th Anniversary to Chris and I!

26 - cousins having fun on the slip-n-slide at Meme and Poppa's house

27 - playing with her bath crayons for the first time

28 - hanging out in her pool

29 - 'Elmo needs a bite!' sharing her breakfast Poptart with Elmo

30 - riding the Barbie bike with Elmo at Meme and Poppa's

And finally, July!

1 - kicked back in the car watching a movie while on the way to Alabama

2 - fun play day at the park with 'Uncle Pill' in Alabama

3 - meeting Liam for the first time (in Savannah)

4 - Happy 4th from the Michaels family!

5 - Sara Kate and Liam having a little picture time outside before going shopping

6 - first time to go to the beach!!

7 - Sara Kate and Liam having picture time in downtown Savannah

8 - looking at the 'pish' behind our table at the Rainforest Cafe in Nashville

9 - tired girl on the last leg of our trip, between Nashville and Fayetteville

10 - playing iPad puzzles with Gee

11 - playing games on Gee's phone

12 - a night of swimming at the Morton's

13 - playing with her new Little People Farm from Gee

14 - cool cat at the Farmer's Market

15 - eating dinner

16 - cheese with mommy

17 - back to school after 2 weeks off

18 - Remy, Sara Kate, and Grayson....school besties...saying goodbye to Grayson before they move to Mississippi

19 - bath time fun with water crayons

20 - helping feed the dogs

21 - Elmo love, walking around the park

22 - first black eye...we have no idea how she got it

23 - Happy Birthday to daddy!!!

24 - happy girl on the way home from school

25 - big hugs for mommy

26 - wearing mommy's running shoes...she went to my closet and put my shoes and socks on by herself

27 - drinking milk at dinner time

28 - a fun Saturday with lots of playing

29 - little diva getting ready to go swimming

30 - sweet girl laying on the floor beside mommy while fixing dinner

31 - wearing red, white, and blue and getting ready to cheer on USA in women's gymnastics and swimming!

  

If you're still with me, I'm sorry!  Ha!!  I know these are crappy little pictures to look at but I am using Project 365 to document our day to day activities.  I promise not to so behind again! :-)