a relaxing Memorial Day at home

After such an exciting weekend, we decided to spend Memorial Day at home. While Jim cooked ribs and corn on the bbq, Jessica played in a water ring in the yard. Once again, rather than run through the water, she wanted to fill buckets to make birthday cakes.

memorial day weekend with friends

On Sunday of Memorial Day weekend, we went to the kid's amusement park nearby with friends. Jessica and her friends had fun riding rides and playing in the water play area at the park.

Here Jessica is riding the mini carousel with her friends Leilani and Luke.



The park has a large waterfall that Jessica and her friend enjoyed running under over and over again.



Jessica was even brave enough to go on the large water slide. There was quite a long line, but Jessica always managed to sneak under the arms of the older kids to get to the front of the line (despite protests from both Jim and I who stood below and were really not able to do anything).



She thought the big water guns were fun even though she couldn't see what she was shooting at. I'm sure she sprayed plenty of parents on the other side who were hoping not to get wet. Sorry!



Finally, we worked our way around to Jessica's favorite part of the park where she got to ride the real carousel, the goldfish, and the strawberry. This is Jessica flying on the goldfish.



And, here the girls are misbehaving on the strawberry ride as they aren't sitting down. When they sit down, you can't see the tops of their heads.



And, finally, Jessica and I at the end of a very long day. She is carrying one of the many stuffed animals Jim won for her. This photo is simply put in for those folks who have been asking what I'm looking like this pregnancy. Too big is what I say.

memorial weekend trip to the water park

It proved to be a nice Memorial Day weekend as the sun finally came out and the weather reached about 80 degrees. On Saturday, while Jim was stuck inside working, Jessica and I went to the water park to cool off after lunch. Jessica was very interested in collecting water with her shovel and bucket.

She spent a lot of time trying to collect water in her shovel and then would transfer it to her bucket.



Obviously, this took a long time.



But, it did mean lots of fun and laughs.



She eventually figured out that filling her bucket directly was much more effective and just as fun.

Jessica at gym

Jessica still goes to gym once a week. This week she did lots of tricks. She walked on the balance beam without much help using her airplane arms.



She practiced hand stands.



And, she took a ride on the tire swing with her friend Isabella.

well, I'm glad this was a school activity

Today at Jessica's school, one of the play features was a flour table where the kids could use various molds, utensils, sifters, etc. to play with flour and see what it could do. Evidently, they shared what foods they made at home using the same tools, built and destroyed flour mounds, and sifted the flour to create "snow". Everyone was laughing since everybody was covered head to toe in flour. Check out Jessica all covered in flour.



I guess I will be doing laundry tonight.

color, color, color

Jessica is back into coloring in her coloring books all of a sudden. She likes to sit down every night and work on them. She seems to be more concerned that things are colored the right color and prefers pencils over crayons all of a sudden. Here she is sitting at her art desk coloring away while we make dinner.

Jessica at school

Jessica has been having a lot of fun at school lately. New things she has been exploring are balancing and climbing and she still has her all-time favorites of storytime, singing, arts and crafts, and water play. She is also developing relationships with her schoolmates and refers to them as her friends. And, she spends a lot of time asking why and what type questions.

In the art room, one of the activities is beading that gets attached to a mobile in the room. Here is a picture of Jessica checking out the mobile.

Sunday was a day of rides

Sunday, Jessica ran more errands and got to play at the park. Surprisingly, she got to go on a few rides too.

First, she rode the Duck at Ducky's Car Wash. This seemed to be a consolation prize as she was hoping for popcorn, juice, and a horse ride, which she typically gets at the other car wash. I guess I shouldn't change up the routine on her.



This was also the first time she seemed a bit irritated that people were in her car. Oh well. They have to clean it.

Later in the day, we went to the park near nana's house and Jessica got to ride the train 4 times.

Jessica's music class

Jessica has been going to music class for about 2.5 years. Saturday was the first time that Jim came too.

Here she is shaking the eggs.



Then dancing / running with the bells.



Then singing the horse song and getting a horse ride from her daddy.



And finally playing other instruments during instrument time.

Birthday Party for Jack and Nicky

This weekend, Jessica went to a birthday party for her cousins Jack and Nicky. She had a great time jumping around and sliding at the indoor bounce house facility.

Her favorite part was the slides. Here she is sliding down the big slide.



She also roped a bunch of us into going down the slide with her.








She also had a good time playing with the cars.



And her Daddy helped her climb the tall mountain.



Finally, no birthday party is complete without cake. Jessica liked the frosting best.

no more errands!

Last Sunday, Jessica and I ran lots and lots of errands. By the end of the day, she was done with errands. so we went to the park to play for a bit.

The first stop was the sand areas where she made lots of birthday cakes.



The second stop was the car where she drove around town running errands. Go figure.



Then, she al had lots of fun playing in the tunnels and going down the slide.



And, she finally showed me that she has mastered the corkscrew. I guess all that time on the preschool playground is really paying off.

making Mother's Day gifts

Another late post. This year, Jessica went to the pottery paint store to make her Nana a painted picture frame. She had lots of fun painting it with many colors and then stamping her hand on the frame.

Kite Day (from April)

We're a bit late in posting, but back at the end of April, one of the nearby cities had a local kite day where kids got to fly kites. Jessica tried it out with her Daddy. Here she is trying to throw her kite in the air.



Then, she helped her Daddy fly the kite and even flew it for a bit herself.




Overall, she wasn't that into kite flying this year. Maybe next year.

our latest zoo trip

A few weekends ago we went back to the zoo. We always start off by going to the giraffe and zebra exhibit. This morning the baby giraffe was being especially frisky as it jumped and ran around.



Despite all the action, Jessica still likes the little metal giraffe donation box better. In fact, she demanded we take her picture with it.



Jessica's attention span was definitely short that day. She had gotten a map at the park entrance and wanted to follow Map around the zoo (like Dora in her adventures). Here she is skipping along with her map to the next exhibit.



And, back to frisky animals, it seemed like everyone wanted in on it-- even the lions and grizzly bears.

a weekend jail break

Last weekend, both Jessica and I needed to get out of the house. We had both spent too much time at home as Jessica was sick with some stomach bug that lasted about 7 days. Once the weekend rolled around, we decided to take her to a Happy Hollow to enjoy the warm weather and run around a bit.

We put Jessica on the Frog Hopper by herself this time. That may not have been such a good idea.



She was very excited when the ride was over and did not want to do it again.

There was a specific request for the fire engine car so she could ding the bell. We were lucky that worked out for us.



The tree swing is still one of her favorites.



As well as the ladybug ride.



There was also no escaping the carousel this time around.



Jessica had a great time on all the rides. She now thinks that there are rides at every park however.

obsessed with the princess game

All of a sudden, Jessica is into board games. Candy Land is her favorite as it has a princess in it. She wants to play first thing when she wakes up, any waking moment that she is at home, and right before bed (at least 2 times). She knows the object of the game is to get to Candy Land, but she prefers to collect all of the special cards even if it means going backwards.