Nora's Birthday Shirt . . . and it may not fit her :)

Nora's birthday is coming up and I decided to make her a shirt. Mostly because Carter's can con me out of my twelve-or-so dollars for a birthday shirt Nora will wear for a week and then never put on again, unless I convince myself I can make something cuter. :)

Case and point, Nora's first birthday, a shirt from Carter's:

(Granted, first birthdays are different. Moving on.)

I decided to get my money's worth and make her birthday shirt out of a shirt she already has (lying in the bottom of her drawer.) I took a plain pink shirt, matched it up with some cute fabric and some Wonder Under I already had, and came up with an adorable shirt similiar to the ones I have seen all over blog-land:

I am pleased with how it turned out! Just what I was going for.

. . . BUT - it's a 24 month shirt, in a brand name that runs small. It's possible that this shirt may be a little short on my extra-tall little girl!! I know I should have tried it on her first to make sure, but we still have a month before the party - she could grow an inch before then anyway. So here's to hoping that it fits . . . otherwise I will be out buying a longer shirt to go underneath! :)

Until next time . . .

County Fair 2011

My hometown is where our county fair is held, which means I went to the county fair every year as a kid. As an adult I haven't been at all, but apparently it's like a rule you have to take your kid to these kind of things when they come into town. :) (Just kidding.) Anyway, Cory, my mom, and I took Nora this past week and had a really good time!

We started out by getting something to eat. It. Was. Hot. But nothing comes between me and my fair food!! I got a Lemon Shake-Up, a corndog, and a deep fried Snicker bar. YUM!!

Then we decided to take Nora on one of the free pony rides:

She was excited at first, but a little scared while up there!

But she did enjoy it! :)

We took her around to see all the horses, cows, chickens, pigeons, and even a few baby pigs. Then . . . we hit the rides!

Nora is an old pro at the cars. :)


She thought she was really driving! Too cute.


We took her on the airplane ride . . .


. . . and the boats:


Then Mommy took her on her first Carousel ride . . .



. . . and Daddy took her on her first Ferris Wheel ride! (Which was very hard to take pictures of!)




Then we played a few games, and won a toy ball, a stuffed snake, and Nora's favorite thing that she got to pick out:

A Pink "Poo-tar" (Guitar)

All in all, it was a pretty fun night at the fair! Hot, but fun. :) If you are local and looking for something to do this week, I think it runs until Saturday. Good fun for little kids!

Until next time . . .

WHEW!

Has it really been this long since I posted?! Well, I do apologize, it's been the equivalent of madness in my life for the past two weeks. BUT - things are settling back in to "normal" starting today. YAY!

The week before last was the week of the Fourth of July (which I posted about). Besides our usual playgroups and MOMS Club stuff that went on that week, it was also a week where my dad came to visit, I had my first produce co-op delivery, and Nora started Gymnastics at the YMCA. Plus I was in prep-mode for the following week, in which I volunteered in the two's room for Kids Bible Kamp (KBK) at my church. Also the weekend after KBK, we had company, had Cory's Birthday BBQ at our house, went to see Harry Potter, went to a winery, and a birthday party. Whew! It was a lot to have on our platter. I thought I would do one extensive entry about all of it, so here you go! Forgive the book-length of this post:

MOMS Club Stuff
Nora woke up from a cranky 4th of July ready to head to a water playgroup at a friend's house. She got to slide on a slip-n-slide for the first time and LOVED it! We also did an Art Camp that week, and Nora got to finger paint, do salt art, color with markers, use dabbers, decorate a cupcake, paint a flower pot, make a pizza, and much more! This camp was right up her alley. Probably the most important thing she got to do there was . . . discover her love for playing in shaving cream! lol She had such a good time.

Slip-n-slide . . .



Dad's Visit/Co-op Food Delivery
Dad came to visit and play with Nora last Wednesday. We also went to dinner at 54th Street. And, I know you all are wondering: did we actually USE all that produce we got in the co-op delivery? And the answer is . . . mostly. If I had a less-busy week and we were home a little more, I can guarantee that we would have definitely used it all.

Gymnastics at the YMCA
This is the highlight of Nora's week. SHE. LOOOOOVES. GYMNASTICS! We are doing a mom/tot time one for now, where we go in, sing some songs, get some free play time where they assist the kids if needed, sing "Ring Around the Rosie" (Nora's new favorite song), and then get a stamp on their hand or foot. Nora's excitement level goes up the minute we walk in the door! (In fact I have no pictures because she would have to stop for two seconds in order for me to get some!)

KBK
Last Monday-Thursday from about 8 A.M. - 12:45 P.M., I was the point leader in the two's room for KBK. Nora was supposed to be in the one year old room, but she ended up jumping over to my class. We got there each day and did some free play, Bible stories and a craft, went swimming in the kiddie pools outside, had a snack, played on riding/push toys in the large church atrium, watched a Veggie Tales movie, ate some lunch, and did a little more free play until it was time to go home. It was fun, but exhausting! Thursday Nora, her Mimi, and I all went to the KBK Carnival, and Nora enjoyed playing her first carnival games. It was an awesome week!!!!!!!!

Nora was quite the little monkey at KBK! :)



Philip Coming/Cory's Birthday BBQ
Thursday evening Cory went to pick up our good friend Philip to spend the weekend here. He was able to help us set up for Cory's Birthday BBQ, which was probably fun for everyone! lol I say that because Nora did not nap well that day, and I had a hard time with her that evening. But things eventually worked out, as things usually seem to do. :)




Harry Potter/Winery
The next day I went to see Harry Potter with some friends. Yes, I am about to talk about it, so don't read this part if you haven't seen it! I really LOVED IT. I didn't like how they left out the part about what happened to the son of Tonks and Remus, and I found the end on the train platform a little unbelievable seeing as how they used the same characters to play themselves nearly twenty years later. However, after saying that - I am also kind of glad they did that as well because that seems the way it should be! lol After the movie we went to the Grafton Winery and the Aeries Winery, which were both very nice places. The Aeries Winery had an amazing view of the rivers coming together!



My sister and some of her in-laws . . .


Mason's 2nd Birthday
After church on Sunday, I went to pick up Nora at Mason's 2nd birthday party. Nora enjoyed herself a LOT - and they let us swim in their pool after the party! It was Nora and Mason's first chance to officially try out their new "Puddle Jumper" life jackets that I bought them, which is a VERY NEAT little learn-to-swim PFD. They both did really well in them! They are nice because your child can stay upright in the water, and swim and float somewhat independently. And since my little girl's favorite sentence is "ME DO IT!" . . .

So that's what we have been up to! I enjoyed the last two weeks immensely, but I am also glad they are over! :)

On an entirely unrelated note, looky what I picked up from the flea market before the 4th of July:

If you are thinking that they look familiar, let me show you why. :) To be continued!

Until next time . . .

Crazy-ness!

Whew! The past week or so has been SO BUSY for us. I feel like the Whitaker family is on fast-forward right now. This week it seems like everything hit all at once - and next week will be the same amount of crazy because Nora and I will be at Kids Bible Camp all week.

This year I got suckered into asked to be the point leader in the 2's room. Seeing as I used to teach the 2's class at KinderCare for a few years, I was thinking I could do it. It's only a week, right? . . .

. . . RIGHT?! Come on folks, I need some validation here.

Anyway, so besides all the playgroups, and usual errands, and MOMS Club stuff we have been up to this week, I also have been shopping and prepping for KBK. I am pretty excited about it now, but it took awhile to get to this point. :) It's a lot of work, but it will be worth it all next week. I thought I would take a little blog break before going back to it!

Also coming up next week is Cory's birthday. He will be the big 2-9!! We will likely have some friends over to BBQ next weekend.

Today was also a special day for us around here - we picked up our very first co-op food delivery! YAY!!!!!!! It. Is. AWESOME!! We got soooo much yummy fruits and veggies! You get just a few of each product, with the average being about 4. Our bag included: green onions (1 bunch), cauliflower, broccoli, bananas, green grapes, green peppers (3), a jalapeno, a mango, tomatoes (4), peaches (4), romaine lettuce, oranges (6 or so), apples (5), and corn (4), to name most of it. If you live in the St. Louis area, check here to see if they have co-op deliveries in your area. Let me tell you, it looks like pretty amazing stuff - I tried the tomatoes already and they are SO YUMMMMMMMMMMY. Health food in the Whitaker house!

Have a great weekend all! Until next time . . .

Grizzlies, the 4th, etc.!

Happy belated 4th to all. This past weekend Cory and I got to spend some time together while Nora was at Nana's house - including going to the Grizzlies game with the Baum's on Saturday night. On the 4th, Nora and I watched fireworks at the neighbor's house with Mimi, since Cory was doing his usual thing: working as a volunteer firefighter for our community. Here are some photos from our weekend.

IT. WAS. SO. HOT. at the Grizzlies game. I think it was at least 100 degrees, with a heat index of way more than that. But Cory and I still made it for the food!


Me, Mom, and Raych.


LOL, I had to include this picture my aunt took. It's ME! (It's also a joke!)


On to the 4th. Nora and her Mimi eat some yummy food . . .


This was the only picture I got of Nora playing. Nora took an early nap on the 4th, and then ran around and expended all her energy . . .


. . . which led to a very crabby girl when it was about time for fireworks! *sigh* Oh well! Despite what this picture may tell you, she did actually enjoy the fireworks.


It was a really fun weekend for us. How was yours?

Until next time . . .

Guest blog

I guest blogged last week over at my friend Jen's blog about what has been going on with our family lately. I debated about whether or not to link it here or not, and finally decided I would. Read at your own risk!

Until next time . . .