September is Over???? Already?

Ever since Oma Ronnie and Opa took Liesl to the Rainforest Cafe for lunch she has been repeating "Elephants not real, Monkeys not real". She was a little afraid of the animatronic animals and Oma and Opa told her that they were not real to calm her down. I dont know if she necessarily knows what Not real means yet but she has been trying to apply it to a lot of other things. I let her know that the Elephants and Monkeys we see in the zoo are real and that is why they are behind barriers.

This past weekend, Liesl and I went to Dee Morrison's for a "girl's weekend". Liesl had tons of fun playing with Grady, making crafts, roaming in the woods and playing with his many trains. Friday, when we got there, we went for a walk for fall items to make a craft with. We took some items from outside like leaves, sticks and flowers, some ribbon and contact paper and made sun-catchers. After Grady had finished his, all of the ladies wanted to make one for themselves.

 Saturday, we went to Art Prize for the day to check out the entries in town. Liesl got to try out her new "hoppy" (sling) which I think she might have liked a little better than the usual one because there are no adjustments to screw up and she is always right close to me and at eye level. She enjoyed all of the art there. There were a few dragons, elephants, huge glass sculptures and water sculptures, wine cork paintings, carvings etc. She had a little bit of a fit in the restaurant waiting for her food because of nap time and the length of time it took to get her food but nothing I couldn't handle by taking her for a "break" into a quieter area. She was able to even see a whale skeleton and ride on a carousel.  When we were on our way back to Dee's, some of us missed the bus and were separated from the group. The next bus was an hour away and also running late but we were saved by Dee and Clara. They were able to ride the bus to the cars and come back before the next bus even arrived YAY. Funny thing, Liesl and Grady hadn't had a nap yet. Liesl was in the hoppy reasonably calm. When we were walking around I asked her to put her head on my shoulder and told her that she should just rest and I wouldnt tell anyone and she was out instantly. I thought that was hilarious!

 Sunday, we all went to the orchard nearby using various transportation means. It was really fun there. They had all kinds of kids activities including a train cart pulled by a tractor, a fire engine ride, pumpkin carriage ride, gigantic sandbox FILLED with toy trucks, bounce house, blow up climbing thing, face painting, petting zoo and apple picking. ALL INCLUDED IN ADMISSION! Liesl had a really good time there as we all did. She really enjoyed  the petting zoo where she could pet the bunnies. She mostly likes to ask someone else to pet the animals for her while she watches which is pretty funny to me. She did very well with climbing the blow up kid climbing wall and she loved the pumpkin carriage ride and face painting. She was completely out the whole way home to Shelby.

 This weekend we are going to try and go to some Mom to Mom sales to get ready for the winter as she doesn't have a winter jacket and all of her clothes are getting too small. A couple days ago she and Oma picked up the Flower Girl Dress from the bridal salon and she tried it on. She absolutely loved being a princess in it but she threw a tantrum when Oma took it off. The girls there gave her a little goody bag with some lip gloss and other things to help her calm down. She is a little princess who loves her dresses. She has a huge vocab now, probably over a couple hundred words. When you say a word to her she loves to use it and repeat it and she is repeating sentences I have no idea where she got them. We are working on her colors, numbers, animals and letters with flash cards and she is having a great time with that. Potty training is getting back into swing and we are always working on the naptime...because no naptime minimizes the dreaded tantrums. Looking forward to some sailing time with Oma and Grandad this weekend.

Let's play catch up again

Last week, mom invited a few of our girlfriends over for breakfast before we were going to Arts and Apples. Well we never made it to Arts and Apples but we did a lot of girl talk and had breakfast and lunch at our house. It was very nice to have people over. Our house is very comfortable for entertaining. Liesl played with her barbies all morning and showed off all of her plastic animals to the girls. We caught up with each other on vacations and such and shared pictures. Liesl is in to this thing with posing all of her Barbies one certain way and then mimicking them, I managed to get a picture of her lining all of her Barbies on thier bellies and then she laid next to them. very funny. She got an easel from Aunt Melisa and uncle Scott that is very cool and played with that all Sunday and was loving it. Thank you very much Melisa and Scott for the wonderful gift.

Friday night I met aunt Gloria, and the Omas at Mom's house. We were doing some last minute prepping for Melisa's shower. Liesl was quite ready for bed by the time I got there so we managed to get a few hours of decorating in while she napped. It looked quite cute with the tulle bows on the chair backs and the rose garland in the light fixtures along with mom's beautiful china on the tables. We had loads of fun making Melisa paper dollies that Liesl might play with if she doesnt decide to rip them to shreds like usual. I dont know what she has against paper.

Saturday we had a very nice day at the shower.Liesl had a nice time drinking tea, eating Liesl sized tea sandwiches and biting the heads off of swan creampuffs (Thank you Kimmee :P).  Liesl got to play with Ota and Opa and all of the other guys there and got to run around in her pretty dress and be doted upon. She was quite well behaved for the amount of sleep she didn't have again that day. She was very helpful to Aunt Melisa with opening her gifts and cleaning up the wrapping paper. When the party started to die down, she was the entertainment for all of us, posing and prancing around the room. She kept letting go of the balloons in the family room and wanted me to get them, so I pushed her up over my head by her thighs and she grabbed it. What she was having the most fun with were Melisa's shoes and a piece of tulle that we put on her head walking around in her pink spanky pants. She kept going like the energizer bunny without a nap until I dont want to tell you when. I was so happy when she finally laid her head down.

Sunday, we were supposed to go to the Renaissance festival with our friend Tamara and her son Vince but Liesl slept in until after they had left so we passed on that. It was a little disappointing but would have been more complicated than we were ready for yesterday. We decided to take Liesl to the Farm Center to visit the animals and have a picnic. The horses were out in the pasture and we were able to go out there and get very close to them. Liesl enjoyed that very much as they are a little elusive at times. After we left...we were hoping to wear "little girl" out so we took her to Blake's Orchard to run around and pick apples. She loved when we lifted her over our heads and let her pick the apples up high. It was a lot of fun out there but still took most of the trip home for her to fall asleep with assistance. .

Animal Fun

 This week Liesl has visited the Apple Orchard and Petting farm and the Stoney Creek Nature Center. She loves her animals and is happy to get back into a routine with Oma. Her vocabulary as usual is expanding exponentially each day and we all wonder where she gets some things from. her latest are:

"I dont know"
"I cant do it"
and
                                                 "I love (add anything here)"

Today she told Oma she has to go potty while at the Nature Center so got her first experience on the big potty with Oma holding her of course. When she got off, the auto flusher scared her.