Totter's Otterville

For Alexis' 2nd birthday, my sister and brother-in-law took her to Totter's Otterville and we tagged along. It's kinda like a children's museum. Our first stop was the vet hospital. Fia checked out Marshmellow the bunny.




Meanwhile, Dr. Madeline worked on a horse.

Then we made it to the dance hall for some ballerina lessons.

Then it was time to catch some fish.

They got matching butterfly face paint thanks to yours-truly. As you can see, the kid next to us was getting a little more creative.

Oh, the grocery store! Madeline LOVED this. But she got mad when the scanner didn't beep. I lied and told her I could hear it.

Notice the sparkly red shoes she put on from the dress up room next door. It was hilarious watching her clip-clap around the store shopping. And she was one serious shopper!

Fia decided to go to the diner for some lunch.

I think it was tie between the grocery store and the ball pit for Madeline's favorite activity.

All in all, it was an absolute blast and I will definitely take the kids back. I only wish it was a little closer as it's a good 40 minute drive away. But it's worth a trip every few months or so.

Father's Day!

On their way to their first Red's game together for Father's Day.

Columbus Roadtrip

I received an email from Madeline's old school that they were planning a zoo trip and were wondering if we wanted to come. I jumped at the chance because I LOVE the Columbus Zoo and any good reason to take a road trip to Columbus. And it's better than the Cincinnati Zoo (there I said it). I thought my niece Alexis would enjoy the trip so we made a day of it with just me, Madeline, my sister and Alexis.

We had really good luck with the animals this day. I think it was because it was the first decently cool day in weeks.

We got to see Beco, the baby elephant.

They LOVED seeing the tiger. Alexis kept calling him Rocky. Rocky is one of her doggy's. haha

Of course we had to stop and see the fish.

And then make a stop at the playground to get their sillies out.

Don't ask why they are going down the slide head first. They saw a big kid do it so of course they had to.

Seeing the kangaroos was great. You actually walk inside with them. And one was jumping around.

After we left, we made a quick visit to a friend's house and then stopped for dinner at Graffiti Burger. Oh deliciousness it was! Jackie's review was "just okay".

Before we headed home we stopped at Jeni's for some ice cream.

It was a jam-packed, fun-filled day and we all had a blast. We may just have to make this a yearly trip.

Madeline's 3rd Birthday Party, Part 2

Madeline's party was an absolute blast and I think everyone had a great time. Most of our closest family and friends were there and that made the day extra special. She's been talking about her party for weeks so she couldn't wait for it to start. We took entirely too many pictures to post here on the blog, but I hate not to show them all for those that want to see them. So I posted a few here but to see the rest, click on this LINK. It will take you to an album with all the pictures.

The party started with coloring and getting dressed up with necklaces, earrings, bracelets and tattoos.

The adventure I posted about earlier went great and the kids loved it! However, Madeline did cry about Swiper stealing her cake. But once she got her backpack, she was over it. Now she keeps saying that Swiper is a sneaky little fox for stealing her cake.

She wasn't too comfortable with everyone singing to her, but she was definitely gonna make sure that candle was blown out.

Madeline's 3rd Birthday Party, Part 1

As Madeline's big day was approaching, I asked her what kind of party she wanted and there was no doubt what her answer would be. She is obsessed with Dora. So off I went in search of cool party ideas. I'm glad I planned in advance because as soon as I came across the idea of making backpacks and having an adventure, I knew that was it!

The idea was that after we ate dinner, I would take the kids to see Madeline's birthday cake. However, the cake would be missing because Swiper came by and stole it. For the uninitiated, Swiper the Fox is a character on the show that steals things and Dora has to go find them. After we would discover the missing cake, each kid that attended would receive a Backpack complete with a map (made by yours truly) and we would be off on our adventure in search of the missing cake.

Here is the Backpack I made for each kid. And all the goodies inside they needed for their adventure.


On our adventure, we would need to go over the bridge, through the tunnel and to Dora's friends.


Grumpy Old Troll was here and each kid would need to give him 2 coins before they could cross. Afterwards, they would use their flashlights to help guide them through the dark tunnel.

The first friend, Lisa, would have a bubble machine for the kids to play in.

Benny the Bull would have a CD player to play music for them to dance. Their maracas would be handy here. And lastly, Boots would have Madeline's cake. However, to get Boots' box open they would need to wake up the sleeping lion by blowing their whistles.

The following questions remain....

- Would Madeline cry when she discovers Swiper stole her cake?

- Would the kids be successful in their adventure and find Madeline's stolen cake?

Letter to Madeline on her 3rd Birthday

Sweet Madeline,

This past year we watched you transform from a lovable, chubby toddler into a sweet-natured little girl. You are endlessly curious about the world and constantly ask "Why?". You are very intuitive and often pick up on things you have seen or heard just in passing. You quote phrases like "That's not appropriate" and "I'm checking my email". You are slightly hesitant to try new things, but you catch on very quickly. Once you do, you are very proud of your accomplishment. You love your new tumbling class and learning how to do a somersault. Sadly, you aren't the voracious reader you once were. Your interest in electronics are starting to take over that time.

There has never been a doubt that you are Daddy's little girl and your bond with him grows deeper and deeper as each day passes. When you do something fun, you have to go tell Daddy. When you find something cool, you have to go show Daddy. When you want to go somewhere, you have to go with Daddy.

You have a very sensitive and sweet disposition. We always get compliments on how well behaved you are. However, this also means you cry quite easily at pretty much anything. The smallest of boo-boo's require a Dora bandaid. If Fia isn't playing with you, your feelings get hurt. You don't like it when people laugh at you, unless you are in on the joke.

You are a wonderful big sister. You love to play and share things with her (well, most of the time). Mommy often finds you two buried in a pile of books in the playroom together when she notices you are being too quiet. You are also a very big help to Mommy with Fia. You help change her diapers and tell Mommy when she is getting into something she shouldn't.

It seems impossible that our love for you can continue to grow, as our hearts are already overflowing. But with every sincere "I love you" said in your sweet little voice, you've taught us that the amount of love that the heart can hold is endless.

With love,

Mommy and Daddy

Memorial Day

Memorial Day was beautiful! I was hoping to take the kids to a parade but it just didn't happen.
We did get to spend some time in the backyard though.

Fia and her "I'm cute" move. She does this all the time.

We made some BBQ chicken on the grill and ate outside.

No BBQ is complete without a popcicle.

I took a dip with the kids after dinner. I kinda had to because Fia kept dunking herself in the water. On purpose. She thought it was hilarious.

She LOVED sliding down the slide into the water too. Don't worry everyone, she was fine.

Memorial Weekend at Nana and Papaw's

All kinds of fun were had at Nana and Papaw's house this past weekend.

Aunt Phyllis was reading books.

There was golf.

Not sure what Grandpa Harold was up to.

Papaw was teaching how to blow raspberries.

And of course there is always fun when Daddy is around.

Where have I been?

I feel like my blog has been lacking in updates lately. And it's not for the lack of subject matter because we have plenty going on around here. I think it's mostly because our laptop died. So I'm forced to use the desktop computer which is far away from a little 16-month-old troublemaker. I can't leave her alone for more than 5 minutes so that severly limits blogging time. My free time has also been consumed lately with preparations for Madeline's big 3rd birthday bash coming up this weekend. I have tons of fun planned for the kids and I can't wait!! You will certainly see posts about this. I've been working too hard not to share all the fun.

Other big happenings around here have been potty training Madeline and getting a new minivan. I think we are on Week 5 or 6 with Madeline and she is doing fantastic! We followed the 3-day potty training guide and it worked wonders for us. It was a long and frustrating 3 days, but she got it by the end of the 3rd day. Going #2 took a bit longer but she is getting the hang of that too. Staying dry at night has been hit-or-miss. She finally woke me up in the middle of the night this last week to tell me she had to go, so that is progress. But on nights when she is dead tired, this hasn't been happening. So we'll see how she continues to progress.

As for the new minivan, this was NOT planned at all. However, with Andy's car being 13 years old, we knew this day was coming. We were just hoping to be able to wait it out another year. But he ended up taking it in last week and it needed $1000 to fix its various issues. We decided this was our breaking point and we were done putting money into his old car. Since one of the problems was a safety issue, something needed to happen ASAP or we would be living with one car for awhile. Neither of us wanted that so off we went shopping for a minivan. Fortunately we had been kinda window shopping earlier in the year so it helped us decided on a minivan rather than an SUV. We knew we couldn't afford new so we went looking for a used Toyota Sienna or Honda Odysessy. As luck would have it, Toyota was turning over its fleet of courtesy vehicles. So we found a "used" 2011 Sienna with only 2000 miles on it for the same price as the 2008's we were looking at. It's their base model, but it still has a lot of extras like power sliding doors, XM radio and a back-up camera. And the space!! How great it would have been to have this on the many road trips back and forth from Columbus with 2 kids, 2 dogs and days worth of luggage. It will serve us well on our road trip this summer to the beach.

Just Because

Top Chef Tour!

The Top Chef Tour came to town this past weekend and I was beyond excited. I love this show but when I found out Richard Blais would be here, I knew I had to go. I am a huge fan of his! It could have only been better if Michael Voltaggio was here. Oh, and both of them together?!? I don't know what I'd do.

Madeline was my buddy and came along for the show. We got there early but not early enough to get seats. Bummer. So we staked out a spot as close as we could and waited......and waited.....and waited.

The show finally started and it was great. It was a 15-minute cook-off between Richard and another Top Chef alum, Eli Kirchtien. If you don't watch the show, here is Richard showing off one of his secret ingredients.

Eli is a great chef too. He's just not Richard. Sorry man.

They talked and answered questions while they cooked. It was definitely worth standing in the rain while holding Madeline for over an hour. It was torture though watching everyone in the tent get to try their food.

Madeline was a trooper so we grabbed a bite to eat from a tent nearby. We did just get finished watching a cooking show after all. We were hungry.

Fia is 15 months!

She is definitely in between being a baby and a toddler now. She still loves to snuggle when she gets tired and of course I love that. But when she is full of energy, she is ready to move. She just recently started cruising but she doesn't go too far yet. She took a few steps with me holding her hands the other day so we keep working on that. She also discovered she can climb so walking has taken a sidestep to climbing on everything she possibly can. Her current obsession is our fireplace. I have to pull her out of there about 50 times a day.


She has started to babble a lot, but she doesn't consistently use words. In rare instances, I've caught her saying bye-bye, dog and wow. Her favorite song is Itsy Bitsy Spider and sometimes she will try to sing it too. It is absolutely adorable! This means, of course, that we sing it constantly.

Her emotions are starting to come through and she gets her feelings hurt when she gets in trouble. This particular development has really made me feel her transition from baby to toddler.

As for her stats, she is 23 pounds 6 ounces and 30.25 inches long. Both right around average and smaller than Madeline at this age.

Despite her progress, her doctor, Andy and I were concerned how slowly she was developing. I decided to contact Help Me Grow, a state-funded program that helps infants and toddlers achieve their milestones. I figured it couldn't hurt and since it was free, we had nothing to lose. She had an evaluation and did qualify for services for speech and gross motor delays. I'm now in the process of figuring out where we go from here so we'll see how this program can help her move along.