Yesterday we went to hang with some friends for a mid-day play session. It was Mak and a couple fellas, and boy oh boy did they have fun.
Her boyfriend got a new buzz lightyear ride on toy that was quite the hit, and surprisingly they all played together on it, instead of fighting for it. I think I hear angels singing.
At one point the boys took turns pushing Princess Makaela around. She had a smug look on her face the entire time.
Good thing her buddies have big strong muscles.
Well who is going to push me now?
Later she finally gave up the seat and realized it was rather fun to push (err pull) her friends around...
Not long after that they decided to pull some books off the bookshelf and climb up and down the slide and THEN Mr. Man tried to give Miss Makaela an open mouth kiss on the lips. It was romantic.
When we got home I told Makaela to tell Daddy how her friend tried to kiss her, and he said "Well tell him I'll cut his BEEP off!" I'm sure you can imagine what word was actually used in place of the beep.
Yep, that's my husband making threats on a toddler. He's probably shining his guns now in preparation of the teenage years. Sigh.
That, my friends, is the face of a cupcake thief. I (mistakenly) set a cupcake dangerously close to the edge on the dining room table and while I was away for just a moment (that's all it takes!) a certain toddler activated her super stretch arms and reached up there and SNATCHED it!
Sneaky Mc-Sneakerson quickly shoveled as much as possible into her mouth when she saw me coming and then offered the wrapper to Rocky. She is VERY thoughtful, what can I say.
Here are my thoughts:
1. I did not know she could reach/see up there. Good to know.
2. She was obviously plotting this move or she wouldn't have bothered waiting for me to leave the room.
Monday afternoon we went on an adventure. We'd never been strawberry picking before and for whatever reason the idea of picking our own fruit sounds so much cooler than grabbing a pre-picked carton.
I am naive and know nothing about farming and actually attempted to visit this farm in November to go strawberry picking. Ha! Turns out strawberry season is March and April here. I was just anxious, okay?
Mak felt extra special holding the bucket.
But walking while holding the bucket wasn't really her strong suit, so I took over bucket duty while she ran free...
Then we told her to "find a red berry and pull it!"
The problem was, she wanted to pull it from the ground and IMMEDIATELY eat it. Mmm dirt. After some negotiating we got her to drop them in the bucket. She of course followed this with a round of applause for herself.
Such an awesome family day at Country Best Farms. We got about a pound of beautiful strawberries (that I have yet to use, but that's not the point - haha) and plan to go back before the season is over. See I'm starting to understand the season thing now.
We finished off the evening at Cheeburger Cheeburger. Chili cheese fries, burgers and milkshakes? Yes please. Oh and lemons for the baby girl ;-)
Even though she is almost 13 months old, this is baby Mak's first Easter! Last year Easter fell on March 31st...the day I went into labor and was admitted to the hospital. This Easter was SO much more fun ;-)
We "hid" Makaela's Easter basket and started out the morning with a hunt to find it. She was super excited, not sure if it was because Elmo was on the basket or because of all the sugary treats inside. She picked out the basket around Valentine's when her love affair with Elmo first began.
Her basket was stuffed with plastic eggs, rubber duckies, a ball, chips ahoy cookies, mini m&m's (she is obsessed with shaking the tube), kit-kats, and of course peeps!
Yep, those are her infamous Christmas PJs, my baby sported her "Sunday Best" all day.
The day before Easter we colored eggs. It was a messy good time.
Our fingertips were dyed pink for a good 24 hours. It looked like a manicure gone horribly wrong.
Oh Daddy, don't you want this blue egg?
I think they turned out pretty darn cute. Good job master finger painting baby!
Was that enough close-ups of eggs for you? Haha. Turns out we aren't the only ones who like Easter Eggs...good thing the one this little guy is playing with is made of plastic :)
Next year I have HUGE plans...they entail dressing Makaela in current holiday appropriate attire, and making these delicious delights for breakfast. Go big or go home guys, okay?
There have been SO many events and festivals going on the past couple weekends, it's been a lot of fun. Tim also is on a new class schedule and we are loving it. He is home early enough during the week that we can actually do family things in the evening and aren't quite as exhausted on the weekends <3
A couple weekends ago we decided to try out a restaurant called Shivers.
And would you look at the cuties I spotted sitting out front? They are keepers. Shivers is in a quaint downtown setting and had super yummy food. Southern specialties for sure. Fried this, fried that and yummy local fish like mahi maui and grouper. Delish.
After dinner we walked down the street to Milky Moo's for some tasty treats. Tim and I had ice cream, and little miss thang handpicked a rice krispy treat dipped in frosting and (of course) sprinkles. The girl has good taste.
Definitely a fun family night. The next day we went back to the same area for the local Annual Crawdad and Music Festival. Talk about a good time! There were such talented musicians. Makaela loved the jams and the people watching
They had all sorts of food like Alligator on a Stick, Fried Twinkies and of course Crawdads. I'd eaten crawdads before, like in pasta dishes, where apparently the chef had already done the hard work for me. I never had them in this form where I had to dissect them to get to the good stuff.
We had no clue what we were doing or what parts we should or shouldn't eat. Luckily someone sitting by us picked up on our hesitation, asked us if we were first timers and showed us the ropes. Thanks dude.
Last weekend was a busy one too! We started our Saturday off at the Tristate BBQ Festival. The air smelled of BBQ for miles. My mouth is watering thinking about it.
It was an awesome festival. There were cook-offs, demonstrations, live music, a car show and all the BBQ, beer and tea (unsweetened for me!) you could ever imagine.
And the best part? Makaela got to experience her first pony ride!! It was so adorable. I don't think she knew what to think. She wasn't crying, but she wasn't giggling either. She had a very straight what-the-heck kind of face and clenched onto her goldfish crackers the whole time.
After that we zipped over to the Children's Festival right by our house. They had tons of activities for kids of all ages - pictures with the Easter Bunny, Easter egg hunts, bouncy houses, arts and crafts, magicians and a petting farm.
Makaela thought the Easter Bunny was an okay guy (gal?).
Gosh I'm glad I wasn't the one in the suit. It was H-O-T out. Bunny was probably pretty darn sweaty under all that fur...mmmm.
I think the best part was the Easter Egg pick up. They had actual hunts for the older kids, but for 3 and under they just dumped out some eggs onto a gym mat. It was so sweet.
Mak didn't really understand the concept of "collecting" the eggs. She preferred to set them back down after she was done with them. And by done I mean, after she clinked them together and shoved them into her mouth :)
She also enjoyed looking at all of the farm animals. Naturally this was a pretty popular spot, so we didn't spend a ton of time visiting.
She was pretty impressed with the ducks. One of her favorite books at the moment is 5 Busy Ducklings so I think she was SHOCKED that these little creatures existed outside the pages of her board book.
We finished the afternoon off with a funnel cake and some deep fried bananas, dinner of champions. I'm pretty sure I consumed a pound of powdered sugar.
Thank goodness we only had a 2 block walk home, I was ready to unbutton my pants and the princess girl was ready for bed <3
