Our 9th Wedding Anniversary

On Thursday, July 24th, we celebrated 9 years of bliss! We always go to the same restaurant every year in Fair Haven. It's the one that we ate at after Robert proposed so it's sentimental to us. This year we had a "third wheel"... hee, hee! Seriously, we didn't mind having our wonderful daughter with us. We would have talked about her anyway... now she just gave us more to discuss. We dined on burgers, chicken strips, french fries, and onion rings. I know, exotic stuff! Afterwards, we walked down to the water's edge for some pictures.

Here's Kendyll posing by the HUGE anchor. I'm sure she's saying, "CHEESE!"

As we walked along the water, this mother swan and her baby kept following us, probably assuming that we were going to feed them. I went back to the car and got out a couple bags of crackers. Kendyll just loved feeding them, and so did I, until the daddy swan came along. He started hissing at us, so I decided that feeding time was over, and we high-tailed it outta there!After dinner, we drove down to New Baltimore to treat ourselves to frozen custard... yum! We ordered up a couple of cones and a blizzard-like concoction (for Robert) and sat down to eat. But...Kendyll could hardly contain herself when she saw the "park". We told her that she needed to eat her ice cream (custard) first before going on the slide. She quickly licked her cone a few times and told me she was all done. Isn't that surprising??? The child who makes and sells imaginary ice cream cones ditches her first love for the "park"!

We had a great evening, and what made it better was spending it with Kendyll.

Playdate at Krissy's

What do you have when you get three wonderful and adorable 2 year olds together? A great day! Today we went to Krissy's house to play with Kaitlyn. Tracy and Sofia joined us too. The girls had a fun time playing outside as well as inside. Kendyll was busy serving up "wee wee" cones to everyone inside of Kaitlyn's playhouse. For the most part, the girls took turns with the toys. Kendyll, unfortunately, had to sit in time out a few times for hitting. I don't know why she does that!?! It's frustrating because I know she plays nicely at day-care. Why can't she do it at her friend's house? Oh well, I guess that is one of the mysteries of childhood.

Kaitlyn is driving the bus while Kendyll is a passenger... I just love imaginative play!
Krissy took her iPod outside, and the girls started dancing immediately. Krissy got roped into the action too! CHEESE!!!

Lunch break! Krissy made mac n cheese for the girls. I tricked Sofia into looking at the camera... the other two didn't fall for it though. Either that, or they are just too hungry! How cute am I in this hat that I borrowed from Kaitlyn? (I think Kendyll has juice down her shirt... oh well!)

Cupcakes

Tomorrow night is my night to teach Vacation Bible School. My mother has graciously agreed to help me again for yet another year. Each year, I say this is my last year, but I always come back. Our theme is "King of the Jungle", and we choose to teach about Daniel in the lion's den. I came across a cute lion cupcake idea, using carmel corn for a mane, and today was the day to make them. It was very difficult to finish them with a 2 year old wanting to help who decided that she didn't need a nap today. Anyway, we made it through and there were hardly any tears.

Of course, I let Kendyll "decorate" her own cupcake. She actually spread her own frosting! Adding the necessary sprinkles... Enjoying the fruits of her labor... check out her lips!!!I tried to upload a picture of my finished cupcakes, but the picture kept loading crooked. Oh well! Take my word for it, they are really cute!

Fun With Mimi!

My mom, Mimi, as Kendyll fondly calls her, came over tonight to spend some time with Kendyll. She must have taken her vitamins because she was using quite a lot of energy tonight. Some people say that Kendyll has the energy of 10 kids, but tonight, my mom did too! She totally kept up with Kendyll. They were dancing, rolling on the floor, and Kendyll actually talked Mimi into doing somersaults!!!! Yes, somersaults!!! I tried to get a picture, but the camera was so darn slow that by the time it clicked, Mimi was done. Kendyll had a wonderful time with Mimi, and was, of course, upset when she had to leave.

Kendyll is copying Mimi's dance moves... adorable!Kendyll and Mimi used to do this when Kendyll was younger, and lighter. Rolling along... Kendyll and Mimi are going night-night. Just pretending!!! A cute picture after all of the excitement!

Painting

We bought this easel at a thrift store for about a dollar a year ago, but have had it in our basement until Kendyll was old enough to use it appropriately. By appropriately I mean not using it as a fort, ladder, or slide! We ventured to Michaels today and bought some washable paint for $0.99 each. I had recently bought some paintbrushes in anticipation of breaking out the easel, finally. So today was the day. I can't tell you how excited she was to paint. I let her do it in the kitchen because we have old linoleum that we will eventually tear up when we redo the kitchen, plus paint can easily be wiped up from it. At first I was going to have her paint in the sunroom, but that room is carpeted.

Here are her first few strokes...
Shhh... artist at work. Look at that concentration! The finished product!

A Wonderful Surprise!

Look at what Kendyll got from Auntie Maggie!!!! Isn't it the cutest thing? Nancy, Maggie's mom, has started embroidering things so Maggie had her create something very special for Kendyll, just because! I couldn't resist taking pictures of Kendyll wearing her adorable hoodie. After I captured these pictures, I literally had to chase her around the house to take it off for fear of it getting dirty. Hee hee! The back view. Nancy put the design low enough so it could be seen since it is a hoodie. A close up of the front... absolutely CUTE!!!
Thanks Auntie Maggie! I love you! ~Kendyll

Pool Play Date

Today we had a pool play date with my childhood friend, Tracy, and her daughter, Sofia. Sofia is three weeks younger than Kendyll, so we are making sure that they are great friends like we are. The girls had a wonderful time, and Kendyll was actually gracious and shared her toys with Sofia. Surprise, surprise! There were a few moments with tears, from both girls, but nothing that couldn't be solved quickly and easily. You'll also notice that Kendyll is still wearing her Dora bracelet, and actually, she wore both of them to bed tonight. I guess that was a good $2.88 investment! No matter how hard we tried, we couldn't get either one of the girls to look at the camera at the same time. This is the best one that I got. At least one of the is looking... all of the other ones that I have, neither is looking! Those little boogers!!! Having fun on the "whee"!!!!!

Here, Sofia is pouring water down Kendyll's arm... she loved it

A Dora Cookie

Nothing fancy about today... we just ran some errands to the Credit Union and Walmart. While at Walmart, Kendyll kept asking about the "food" section. So we wandered over there, and I let her pick out some snacks. After loading up on SpongeBob and Diego snacks, we went up to the bakery section, where we found this Dora cookie. Kendyll just had to have it! And check out her new Dora bracelets she's wearing too!

Happy Fourth of July

Today we went to my parent's house, where we celebrated the Fourth of July with Mimi, Papa, Meemaw, Maggie, Frank, Taylor, Kylie, and Bob and Ellen, my parent's neighbors. We had a wonderful BBQ that filled us up. Many of us couldn't believe how much we had eaten. Maggie's yummies were to DIE for! I know that I will dream about them tonight. Anyway... after eating, Frank and I started talking about how we used to play Jarts as kids and how my dad still had them, original box and all. My dad dug them out of the garage and the guys played first. Then my mom, Taylor, Frank, and I played a round. Next came the all girl game of Maggie, Taylor, my mom, and myself. But I have to tell you that Maggie had to be coaxed into playing, as she was very reluctant. So on her first toss, all you hear is metal banging, and lo and behold she had scored! Only it was in the downspout!!! We were all laughing hysterically, except my dad, who then decided to tell stories about how we could never have anything nice as kids because we always wrecked them (I think it was mostly Frank... remember the Lumina???) We finally got ourselves together and finished the game. Taylor and I lost... barely... and actually, Maggie threw the winning Jart.

Since Taylor had just gotten back from camp, she wanted to play some games that she learned there. What happened next was hilarious, but my storytelling can't do it justice. We played a game called questions, where you sit in a circle and ask the person next to you a question. But you don't answer the question, only continue asking a question to the person next to you. If you laugh or take too long to ask, you are out. Meemaw was funny as she kept answering the questions. One of Ellen's questions was, "Do flies have butts?" So you can imagine what some of the other silly questions were. The night was capped off with fireworks, and we made it home around 11:30. Kendyll went down like a ton of bricks, but I'm sure she will be up at the crack of dawn.

Here is the carnage left by Maggie's Jart:
This is what happened next: What would Kendyll do without her "Tay-Tay"??? Doing the Macarena... all right! Kendyll, with Taylor's help, created this gorgeous visor. Watching the fireworks put on by a resident of Clinton Township... they were SPECTACULAR!

This was Papa and Kendyll a year ago on the Fourth of July. She only then started to let Papa or any "boy" hold her so this picture is priceless to us. And now... (obviously, she didn't cooperate after 4 tries). What a difference a year makes!