Mommy's Birthday

It was my birthday a week ago and I was greeted in the shower by "open the door, Mommy, open the door!"  When I did I heard, "Happy birthday!"  Then a minute later she was back, "Mommy hurry up with your shower so I can open your presents!  They're in the kitchen!"  Who said birthdays at 31 can't be fun!

We had a great little celebration putzing around on a pontoon boat in Lake MacBride!  Aria even got to drive!

It was Aria's first boat ride and she was a little cautious at first, holding on tight to Grandma.

Life jackets were required for those under 12, so naturally Papa wore one, too!  Actually, Aria requested he put it on.  Pretty sure he can't say to no to any of her requests.

And here is our cute family of three shot!

On our cruise we saw three deer, a family of five raccoons, a beaver house, a blue heron, several other birds, and some fish!  Then, when we got back to the beach, we saw the smallest and cutest turtle I've ever seen!  It was so fast and slippery.  It's shell wasn't even hard yet.  What a fun experience!

We finished our night by going out to eat and my ice cream cake didn't have Justin's name on it this year!  I am so blessed with a beautiful fun-loving daughter, husband, and parents!

At Julie's House

One thing I love about our church group and our close friends in our same life stage is taking care of each others' kids when appointments and such come up.  It really is awesome to trust Aria with other moms who have similar faith, values, and parenting styles.  Plus, she has fun with friends her age! 

But just to put up fair warning, when kids come to Julie's house, they may or may not do things like color faces with chalk...

At least they erased, right??

Patience is...

waiting for a two-year-old to:

• put on her own shoes
• put on her own shorts
• put on her own shirt
• put on her own pajamas
• take off her own shoes
• take off her own shorts
• take off her own shirt
• take off her own pajamas
• eat a meal
• pick up her own toys
• put away her own toys
• climb into the car
• climb into her car seat
• buckle her car seat
• open containers
• close containers
• get her toothbrush
• get her toothpaste
• open her toothpaste
• brush her teeth
• rinse out her own toothbrush
• get a drink
• be ready to be potty trained
• follow instructions
• say please
• say thank-you
• get out one fork at a time to set the table
• walk into a store
• walk around while shopping in the store
• walk back out to the car

Basically, patience is letting my toddler do things herself because in the long run it will be beneficial for her to learn to do things for herself instead of having mommy or daddy do everything for her.  My list could go on and on and man oh man is it hard to wait sometimes.  So hard that sometimes I don't wait and I do things for her.  But she wants to do it herself and I want her to become independent.  So, I guess I'll keep on waiting....and I'll make sure to schedule extra time when getting ready to go somewhere!

Wisconsin Dells

Recently we got to take a little trip to the Wisconsin Dells with Justin's family.  It was a two night stay at the Chula Vista Resort and this time we returned home safely with all of our body parts!  It was a fun little get-a-way and insanely different weather wise than our St. Louis trip.  In fact, it was almost too cold to be swimming outside while we were there.  Aria didn't seem to mind, though.

 
Apparently Aunt Teran thought it was a little cold!  Other than swimming we also played in the inflatables...

...and went to the newly opened Timbavati Wildlife Park with some awesome animals!  It was unique because it was newly opened and you could tell they were renovating an old go-kart/amusement type place.  They had some different types of animals that you don't see even in zoos and you could get a lot closer to (and feed) some of them than at a zoo.  The giraffes were very incredible!
   

Finally, our condo was a large two bedroom place with a full kitchen, pull out couch in the living area, and a hot tub/jacuzzi.  Aunt Teran dumped a half a bottle of bubbles in the tub and created the biggest bubble bath I've ever seen!  Aria had a blast!

Grandma's Boat

I wish I would have thought to bring her life jacket so she could have went on a little ride.  Next time, Grandma!

Dark River Road

Dark River Road is a novel by Virginia Brown.  It was a Kindle Daily Deal and really caught my eye by being set in Mississippi.  I thought it was set in the Civil Rights Era (my favorite), but I misunderstood and it actually was in two parts; one in the 1980s and one in the present.  However, that didn't take away from my interest and liking of the book. 

It is the story of Chantry, a young teen at the beginning of the book, trying to navigate life as an adolescent with several strikes against him.  Chantry has a drunken step-father and lives in Mississippi, which even in 1980 was still very segregated by socio-economic class and race.  Chantry is white, but his neighbor and best friend is black.  The town Chantry lives in is dominated by a rich white man.  He pretty much controls everything in the town with his money and everyone is afraid of him, except Chantry.  There are many secrets revolving around Bert Quinton and Chantry is determined to learn the truth.  Unfortunately, sometimes the truth hurts.  Chantry is a troubled young man and has many run-ins with the law, but you can't help but root for him in this story. 

It is a long book with some language and teenage sexual promiscuity, but definitely worth the read.  It has two parts, one when Chantry is a teenager and one fourteen years later when he returns to his hometown as a grown man.  I couldn't put it down because I was never really sure what would happen next.  It also tugged at my heart strings that so much could happen to such a young kid.  It was a realistic story that I could lose myself in.  I highly recommend it!

XYZ

I told myself I wasn't going to do this, but it has been so long since we even did anything for the letter of the week, I am just going to combine XYZ.  I didn't want to do it because when I searched for things for those letters so many of them were combined and I wanted them separated for my three separate weeks.  Turns out I didn't really do a whole lot for the letters, so oh well.  These activities (or lack of) happened back in the middle of July, so forgive me if I can't remember much.  That may also be because we didn't do much.  I really enjoyed doing the letter of the week with Aria and I am even considering doing it again at some point with a little different focus, but I just burnt out and got distracted by a busy summer.

Bible: I don't remember doing anything in particular for X or Y, but Zaccheus starts with Z!  That is a story (and song) Aria knows very well!

Activities: During X week, I bought Aria a xylophone.  She absolutely loves it.  Not only did she play all X week long, but still plays it almost every day.  Definitely a great investment.  The other day I heard her playing it in rhythm with Twinkle, Twinkle!

During Y week we made bracelets and necklaces out of yarn.  Aria didn't really want to learn how to braid or tie yarn together like I was doing.  Instead she just wanted to tie one piece into a bracelet...and another and another and another. 

We were in St. Louis during Z week and we went to the zoo and saw zebras.  It just doesn't get much cooler than that! 

People We Know: Zoe

Foods We Ate: I only remember yellow squash and zebra pudding (recipe found in Aria's Wild Animal Baby magazine). 

 I didn't take my time enough on the stripes, but it is just chocolate pudding, cool whip, repeat.  I put chocolate chips on top.  It was delicious!

Pictures to color: xylophone, x-ray, yak, yo-yo, zebra

Books:  I deleted my list of X books, but I remember something about a fox.
     It's Z!
     My "xyz" sound box
     An XYZ adventure in Alphabet Town  
     Yellow foods  
     The yippy, yappy Yorkie in a green doggy sweater 
     Yoshi's yard : the sound of Y   
     Zebra  
     Zoomer
     ZooZical

Songs: Zaccheus, Your Personal Penguin, Yes We Have No Bananas, You Never Let Go