Grant's Farm...



...on Friday, my mom and I took AR to Grant's Farm. Camp's field trip was to there so we decided to tag along. It was a PERFECT day because there was almost no humidity and a slight breeze. Now sit back and get ready for a long, picture-filled post!

AR was such a good girl the entire day! She didn't fuss or cry the entire time and she even wore her hat the majority of the time.

She petted the Clydesdale...on the rump but she petted him and she giggled the entire time.

Oh, when we arrived. I got out to get the stroller ready. When I did, my thumb got pinched in it and OMG! I thought I was going to have to amputate it. It hurt so bad and I had to have one of the counselors give me a Band-Aid. Luckily, I only got one major cut, a blood blister and I'm hoping I don't lose my thumb nail but it's black and blue and VERY sore.

Cool girl wearing her shades and glasses.

When you get there, you take a tram to the main park where they give you a history of the park and you see some animals on the way there. Here are some elk and deer taking a dip in the pond.

Okay, so we had to pay $12 for parking but for 3 people that's not bad. We packed our own lunch and brought drinks. Then they had a great deal...for $5 you got 2 bottles of milk to feed the goats, a carousel ride and a snocone. If you bought them all separately it would have been $7 so we saved a couple bucks. Total, we spent $17 for an all day outing...not bad in my book!

The goat pen is freaky. The goats all crowd around the turn style you walk through to get in and attack you wanting the bottles of milk. We pushed our way through and headed to the far side in hopes of not being bombarded by goats. Here's Nana luring a goat away from the crowd.

At first, AR was okay with it...

Then as they kept pushing her, she wasn't a fan. This pic is blurry because I'm yelling at my mom to pick her up and my mom is trying to push the goats away-stress!!!

They finally backed up so AR was okay again...

But she preferred to watch from the safety of Nana's arms!

After that, we did our merry-go-round which she LOVED! No, she didn't ride it by herself, Nana is on the other side.

Loving it!

After the merry-go-round, we went to watch the elephant show.

Mom and AR waiting for it to start

Bud the Elephant needed lots of positive reinforcement through cheering and clapping...

AR was ALL over that!

She even raised her hand to help Bud

Here's her and Bud after the show

After the show, AR found the misters!

Her shoe fell off but she still loved it and wouldn't leave!

Since her outfit was wet, we stripped down and enjoyed our snocone...cherry and raspberry. It was the best snocone I'd had in awhile!

"Mom, quit taking pictures and eat this snocone with me."

Me and my girl

When we finished the snocone, AR changed clothes and led the way!

"Come on, girls, I'll push-let's go!"

Nana, AR and me

She was a big girl and sat by herself on the tram ride back

At this point, she was pretty exhausted but we all had a great day!

I can't wait to take her to the zoo! Definitely great weather and lots of fun!

Mary Poppins at The Cup!!!

...AR's babysitter is on vacation this week so Nana is watching her. Last week, I realized I had to take a day of vacation or I'd lose it. Angie told me last week that Mary Poppins, the actress from the Muny, was doing a storytelling at The Cup this morning.

 

The directions I had were kind of crazy but we found it and we got there early to save a seat. AR wandered over to check out the cupcake selection.

Then we all had a treat. OMG! The peanut butter cup cupcake was AMAZING!!! AR had some water and Nana's whip cream.

Then Mary came and read to the kids. AR sat in my lap the whole time like a good girl! I was so proud of her. Then when she was done, AR walked right up to her and said hi.

Mary showed AR her special umbrella.

Then AR got her autograph

Some other kids visited Mary then AR went back to check out that umbrella again.

Then The Cup gave all the kids a spoonful of sugar aka icing. This guy handed AR a spoon and instead of taking it from him, she leaned forward and took a bite! It was hilarious. Then she took another bite before I could take it for her.

It was the perfect size group of kids...not too crowded at all. I was surprised though that not very many of them went to visit Mary after the story but AR did plenty of visiting for all of them. Mary even read through the story with AR again.

It was a fun morning! AR had a great time!

And definitely go to The Cup for their delicious cupcakes-yum!!!

Drinking from the hose...

...two of AR's favorite things: being outside and water. Some evenings, after dinner and before bath, Daddy and AR will go outside to water the flowers.

 



This is usually the scene, Daddy waters while AR sticks her hand in the water stream

Then Daddy took a drink from the hose so AR tried it out...

She got it!

And she was very proud of herself!

AR's Class at the Library & DIY Streamers!!!

...The past 3 Thursdays, I've been able to get away from work to take AR to a class at the library. It's more like a workout for me because I feel like I chase her around the entire time. One thing to say about AR, she is NOT shy. Today she went and sat by another mom (mainly because she was eyeing her daughter's baby doll)! She'll walk up and wave to all the other kids, she goes and stands directly in front of the teacher, she'll carry all the sit-upons (the mats they sit on) to me, but sit down? Yeah right!

 

The class is great because it's only 30 minutes but it gives you some great ideas to do at home. Some other things they taught us was to let them play with wax paper because they can crinkle it, ball it up, throw it, lay it flat and it helps strengthen their hand muscles for writing. Also, to play with chalk on black construction paper because you don't have to push as hard.

 

I've also learned new songs like "Down By the Bay" and AR's learned "Head/Shoulders" and the hokey pokey although she does sometimes mix them up but she'll touch her head, toes and ears and she'll shake her arms when we sing those songs. If anything, I think the class has helped me because I know what I can do at home with her.

 

We're also doing the Summer Reading Program. For babies, they give you a list of activities to do rather than reading X number of books. Our daily three are read a book (normally we read more than one but we only count it once), let her turn the pages and sing a song (again, we sing way more than one but only count it once). We've already completed one page and we're working on our second sheet now. Oh and did I mention the class and the reading program are both free?

 

The first week of class, she let the kids dance around with streamers. AR loved it so I was on a mission to make some of my own. It was so easy! Shower rings ($1 for 12 at Dollar Tree) and a vinyl tablecloth...easy and cheap!

 

AR was pretty excited when she saw me working on them

As you know, babies aren't always easy on things. So the first round, I used the cheap tablecloths from Dollar Tree and Wal-Mart and they lasted all of 30 seconds. I ended up going to Party City and buying the $2 tablecloths which worked out great! We made these last week when H was here so it was a before camp project.

The verdict from AR...success!

She loves the movement it makes!

$4 for two tablecloths plus $1 for the curtain rings=$5 for 12 streamers and a ton of leftover tablecloths...any ideas what I can do with that? For my baby friends out there, I'll be bringing you some streamers!

Swim Day at Sha Sha's!!!

...today we went to my sister's to celebrate Father's Day. AR was in heaven with their pool! I coated her in sunscreen and put her in her bikini. I knew we'd be in and out of the water so I figured it would be easier to be in a 2 piece so I could just take the bottoms off and put on a diaper while we were out of the water...it seemed to work out well. The one downside of today was that AR is going through major Mommy separation even when I'm five feet away from her so I was pretty much by her side all day or if she was inside, I was out and vice versa. I feel bad because my family doesn't get to see her often and when they do, she will barely live my side. Luckily, she always goes to my sister so I get a little bit of a break.

 

See...happy as can be once we got in the water! My sis bought her this raft which worked out great.

She entertained me for a bit by wearing a hat...

"Ha, mom...I'll play along and wear this for a bit..."

"I'll even let you put it on backwards."

"But, I'm not leaving it on!"

"Yah! Bye, bye hat!"