Friday afternoon project

Al and I decided to take the day off the put carpet down on our sunporch. Here is the work in progress.....
And here is our finished product! It looks very nice, and we are pretty proud of ourselves! Becky would have loved to help and was a little sad she couldn't, but I don't think we would have gotten it done in an afternoon with her helping. We had enough trouble ourselves!

Dance

Wednesday night was Becky's first night of dance. It sounded like she was having fun, even though I didn't watch her. I didn't want her to get distracted. She jumped, did a somersault, and rolled over in tumbling. She was jumping around in a circle for ballet. She said she had fun, so I hope she likes it!

Emma Jo is two!

Yesterday was Emma's birthday. What a fun party! Even though she looks grumpy in this picture, I think she liked her presents. She kept saying, "Mine. Mine." She didn't want anyone else to touch any of them.

Here is a picture of Emma and Becky. Becky was pretty tired, so she really didn't want to pose, but this is what I got anyway!

Hard to believe she is two!

Ashby Park

The other night when Al was working, I took Becky to Ashby Park. The fountains were turned off when we got there, but the worker turned them back on for her. She was the only one there. She had a blast!

After the wading pool closed, we stayed and played on the playground for a while. It was fun! Here she is with the castle she built which turned into a bonfire when another girl started playing with her. I just love their imagaination at this age!

Adventureland

We have gone to Adventureland twice this year. I was able to get discounted tiscounts through the state, so it was totally worth it! I didn't take my camera much the first time, but I went back to the car and managed to snap a couple pictures before it was time to leave. Becky's favorite ride was the Galleon! (or Chameleon, as she kept calling it.) She loved it! I think we rode it five times. She's a riot!

Getting ready to leave, but posing for a picture.


Second time around, I took my camera. I decided they would be fun pages to scrapbook. If I ever get caught up, I'm sure they will be!

feeding the ducks and fish

riding the fire truck

first ride on the Frog Hopper

having so much fun!

Wow! What a ride!

waiting in line to ride the Frog Hopper yet again

going for an airplane ride

Going for a ride with her duck. The first time we went, she played the duck game and got to pick up three ducks, and got three small ones. Not wanting another duck, we only let her pick one. This time she picked the large one! She thought she was pretty cool.

Another turn on the Frog Hopper

And then we were all about done. What a couple of fun days though. Becky truly has no fear. She can just ride and ride and ride again and again and again and again. She even likes to go on rides two, three, four times in a row. Can't wait until she's old enough to ride the roller coasters with us! We checked out the height limit on the Tornado. By next year, she just might be tall enough!

Al wanted me to take this picture of him looking like a midget!

All in all, a great day!

state fair parade 2009

Becky and I went to the State Fair Parade on Wednesday. We got there pretty late, but managed to squeeze in in a pretty good spot. There was quite a lot to see. We only lasted about an hour, probably half the parade. Here are a few highlights.

The last 20 minutes, Becky spent playing with the ants. She was letting them crawl all over her and "tickle" her. It's kind of hard to see in this picture, but I tried. They were moving pretty fast!

I guess at least she's not afraid of them anymore!

smart girl

I made sugar cookies for a pregnant friend's birthday at work. She's been talking about them for a couple weeks, so I figured I would make them since she can't have a beer on her birthday. It's hard to know what to make in the summer. I ended up with tulips and butterflies. Figured that was okay for August. I have to say I don't ever recall having sugar cookies in August. Never even asked for them at my birthday. We always just had them when it was cold. Probably because that's when it wasn't too hot to have the oven on! Anyway. . . to my story and reason for blogging. In the car on the way home on Friday, I told Becky I thought I was going to make sugar cookies this weekend and asked her if she wanted to help me. She thought for a minute, and then she said, "No. You can make them yourself. I'll just eat them." Oh, she is a girl after her mom's heart. I started laughing so hard. I couldn't believe she came up with that all by herself. So . . . here are a few pics of Becky eating a sugar cookie before she headed up to bed. As you can see . . . she was very excited. She even was a little bummed she didn't get to help. I think by the time today rolled around, she had forgotten what she had told me. She sure enjoyed eating it anyway!

"sugar cookies!"

Yes. The rag is for her to wipe her fingers on so she doesn't get all covered in frosting. And she's the neat one . . . she asked for a rag so she could wipe her fingers. That's not to say she didn't lick them clean too!

feeding the ducks

The park in Ankeny where Jamie got married yesterday was great. A lot of time was spent down by the water feeding the ducks. Becky was sad when we left because she thought the ducks were still hungry! We had to tell her they went to bed because it was dark out. I don't think she believed us, but she was tired enough to go along with it.

dancing princess

My cousin Jamie got married yesterday. It was a great wedding and reception. It was nice to see family we don't see as often as we should, even if most of our time was spent chasing a 3 year old instead of talking to them! Becky could not wait to dance, so her and a cousin, Alex, decided to dance off to the side before the dance started. They became fast friends and had a blast.

Then Becky found another boy who liked to dance. She was all over the place. Good thing all the boys were related to her. Otherwise, we might have had something to worry about!

dancing with the bride

me and my cousin Jamie

Day at the Beach

Today was the first weekend in a long, long time that I wasn't working on transcripts. (I have one small one I have to read a couple more times, but then I'm caught up at least for a while!) YEAH! We decided to head to Saylorville to enjoy the beautiful weather. What a gorgeous day it was!

Building a sand castle

getting water
making footprints in the sand

So cute!

On her way back

looking for Daddy on the waverunner

ready to swim "with my green thing"

Gonna ride "the boat" with Daddy

Whoa! I'm not sure . . .

I'll go for a little ride anyway . . .

I'm D-O-N-E !!!!

We had a pretty good time, but since this was the second day with no nap and a late night dancing at the wedding, she was spent. It was fun to get the waverunner out, but Saylorville was pretty rough. It was really only fun to ride it one way. Al was nice enough to tell me which way was more fun first, so I went the other way taking about as many waves in the face as I could and then I turned around and had a great time! Becky wasn't sure she liked it, but she went for a little bit with Al anyway. It would probably be better at a calmer lake. We're contemplating trying a new one next week. We'll see what the week brings!
P.S. For those of you that don't know - it's free in the state of Iowa until the 9th to take your boat out on the lake. We were pleasantly surprised when we got there today. That made it that much more fun :)