Labor Day Weekend

We had a great long weekend this year. It started early with a visit from Rachel, and even though Jill misses her and asks all the time, "What my fwiend Wachel doing?" I forgot to take a picture of them together! We spent some good time with her nephew as well, and Jill LOVED him too.

with the stone lion "He just pwetend, Mama."

watching the penguins eat

by the kangaroos

with the owl she threw a fit over

petting a goat (I can't keep their names straight, sorry.)

Then we went back to the museum for even more fun.

holding a rubber matzo for Daddy

the masterpeice she painted

washing the apples

She loved it so much she came home and painted in the backyard (after a trip to Michaels for supplies).

the thirsty artist

After that we had a meetup with our bestest friends for the park and pizza. Jill discovered a love of the merry-go-round, and Steve discovered that he has lost his love for it, so I took over in that department!

Daddy's ready to get off!

Mama and Jill could do this all day!

push me!

cheese!

wet's pway the pi-pano

playing "pi-pano" with the rooster

For the rest of the week we just hung around home and played.

ready to go to Petco

pretend ice cream cone

playing with Legos

feeding her baby

The Rest of August

We had a great rest of the month! On the 24th Jill and I went to see the toddler play "The Green Sheep" at the Children's Theatre. She LOVED it. It's based on the book "Where is the Green Sheep?" by Mem Fox. What a fun day, I am so glad we got to go and see it.

outside the theatre

sitting in the big chair

the wave sheep

the moon sheep

playing with the instruments after the show

petting the green sheep

Then we had a rainy day trip to the zoo where the Siamangs were hooting like crazy, and Jill and I got to watch and listen to them for a VERY long time. It was amazing. She is still telling us about how the Daddy monkey was taking to the Mama monkey, and how they sang a song together. Adorable.

my monkey with a monkey

On the 27th Jill and Steve went to his friend's house to visit his 3 cats and new kitten since Jill is OBSESSED with cats. My allergies and Henny's um...let's call it aversion to them have prevented us from getting one. She had a great time there.





Steve celebrated his birthday on the 28th, and we really did it up! He and I went out to dinner on the 26th, then on the 27th we had cupcakes. On his birthday we went out to lunch and had ice cream sundaes, and then on the 29th he and I got to go and see Inception. What a great (and calorie laden!) birthday it was!

opening Daddy's present

making cupcakes "to Daddy"

Happy Birthday Steve!

I took her to the Children's Museum on the 30th and she loved it so much we bought a membership and went back again that same week. SO much fun! If only it didn't cost $9 to park EACH TIME!

making cookies

eating tacos

painting

in the fountain with Daddy

Finally, here are some random pictures and videos from this month. Enjoy!

sitting on the potty for a gummi bear (she's developed a fear of the potty lately)

reading The Sneetches

really Mama, ANOTHER picture?

Back to the Beach

We went back to the beach last week, and though it was fun, it didn't top our first time. Jill did not sleep very well. She must have had a bad dream because she woke up at 4:30am and cried about being stuck in a hole. For the rest of the trip she referred to the portable crib we borrowed as "da hole" or "da cave"and cried whenever she woke up in it. She requested Daddy to sleep with her both nights after waking, so Henny and I were left in the other bed. No one got much sleep, but it was nice to get away and we all loved being home in our own beds that much more when we got back!

We stopped at a school on the way there, and this was the only swing for little kids.

We also stopped at Lake Quinault on the way there so we could stretch our legs and soak up some sunshine before we drove to the cloudy beach.

Henny loved swimming in the lake.

Jill loved rolling on the grass.

Finally at "da beach!"

Our fearless girl running into the ocean. She would draw lines in the sand and tell Steve, "You stay dere, Daddy. I go in wadah now byyyyy myyyyy SELF!"

So beautiful, even when it's cloudy.

In her element. Seriously, this girl LOVES the beach!

We made some sand castles, though Jill is more of a destroyer than a creator.

When she woke up from her nap she said, "I go yay wif my Daddy and my Heenny now!" So she did.

More time "in da wadah."

She enjoyed flying our kite, but was upset that we insisted on holding the string with her. She wanted to do it, "byyyy myyyyy SELF!"

Our gecko kite was very cute.

One of our favorite parts of the trip is getting ice cream from the store.

A man stopped us and asked if he could take our picture, and we told him yes as long as he took some with our camera too! Notice Jill clutching "Deeming-o" in her hand.