Planting Sunflowers

We decided not to plant a garden this year (two small kids, Scott traveling, a yard of weeds) but I did promise Calla we would plant some flowers. So now that we are back from vacation Calla and I got to the work of planting. Calla picked out sunflowers to plant and we planted them next to our three free tomatoes from a co-worker. Calla very proud of her seeds before we got to work.

Calla took lots and lots of care placing each seed.

She then carefully covered each seed with a little dirt.

It was amazing to watch her taking the small seeds from my hand with her little fingers.

Calla also watered her seeds and the tomatoes when we were done. What a great helper!

Vacation Part 2

The second part of our vacation took place on Myrtle Beach, SC, with all of my family. There were 26 people sharing two condos for one week and we had a BLAST! We are the only part of the family that does not live in OH, but Calla did not miss a step playing with her cousins that she had not seen in a year.

There were holes to dig in the sand.

"Walks" on the beach!

Sand castles to build.

Sand and seashells to eat.

and waves to enjoy. Unfortunately the kids were not super found of the ocean. We spent most of the week in the pool, but did have a few short visits to the waves.

Both girls really loved the pool and by the end of the week Calla was a little fish.

Vacation - Part I

We just returned from a wonderful vacation to the East Coast. We got to visit with lots and lots of family and had a wonderful time. Calla made lots of new friends and referred to everyone she met as her "new friend".
The first part of our trip brought us to Washington DC and MD to visit my wonderful cousin Pepper and her two wonderful children Grant and Anna. Calla and Grant were like long lost best friends. Pepper and I spent so much time playing together as children it was really great to see our children playing together like best friends.

Pepper lives very close to a wonderful park so we spend one morning running around after the kids. Scott had lots of fun, but would have prefered a little less humidity.

The afternoons were spent keeping cool by playing with the water table.

Calla has developed a great imagination and had Grant playing house with her. Calla was the mommy and Grant was her baby.

We did venture outside one afternoon to a local petty farm. Again Calla and Grant were side by side exploring all of the animals.

Anna and Hannah also had some fun together.

We were able to get a quick group photo. Thanks Pepper for a Great Visit!

Happy Hannah Turns 1!!!!

What can I say my baby turned 1 today! She makes us laugh and is keeping us on our toes. Today we celebrated with Papa Rex and Grandma Cindy at home, visited the zoo, dropped Grandma and Papa off at the airport and went home. Some of the tricks my little Hannah is up are:
1) She now loves to drink from a straw.
2) She says Mama, Dada, Papa, and according to Grandma, Kitty.
3) She is pulling herself up and now moving her feet.
4) What is she NOT doing, rolling over. She likes to play turtle. She refuses to roll over. I think we have a very stubborn little girl on our hands.
Enjoy these pictures from her BIRTHDAY!

Dinner fun

I know they say you should not compare children, but of course we do. Calla ate EVERYTHING. She was a little piggy from day 1. Hannah is a different story. Sometime Hannah likes something and the very next meal she will not have anything to do with it. Last night we had spaghetti and turkey meatballs and she ate it just fine. Tonight was leftovers. Scott and I had out back to Hannah and Calla as we were finishing getting the salad ready and turned around to find most of Hannah's food on the floor. I guess she decided she was not into leftovers:) Hannah does love her mandarin oranges, carrots, and her all time favorite food is O's from Trader Joe's.

Tulip Picking

I left work early on Friday for some fun in the sun. Calla, Hannah and I went with our neighbors at her neighbor's house. We had a great time!

Birthday Party

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of Calla's 3rd Birthday Party. We had a BLAST. Calla helped me decorate her cup cakes and she was soo excited. We had 6 of Calla's friends come over for a two hour party. We had a butterfly hunt in the living room, ate cup cakes, opened presents and it was time to go.

The younger kids even had a good time. Above is Jackson and Hannah (Jackson is one week older then Hannah, but you would never know since he is fill on walking and Hannah decided to start crawling on Calla's birthday)

Madison and Calla enjoying chips and juice. Madison is Calla's NICU buddy.

The butterfly hunt.

Calla's friend Astrid stayed after the party for a little while and the girls found some left over sprinkles to share at the kitchen counter.

Friends saying good bye.

Just one more quick snack for the road.