Camping

Here is a cute quick video of Linda pretending to be camping.

It's always a fun day at the farm!

We headed to another local farm today and wow did Linda have fun! They had amazing play structures for the kids. We took a hay ride, saw the petting zoo, bounced in the bounce house, ate lunch and played played played! It was a playgroup playdate. The farm is normally closed, so we made reservations and had the whole place to ourselves. The weather was very hot today, but most of the farm was shaded, so it wasn't too bad. It was a really nice morning. The summer is flying by and we are staying so busy. I think Linda really enjoys being on the move. She plays so hard every day and is whooped by nap time and bed time. I'm so blessed to have such a happy, healthy little girl.

A hot day at the gardens

We headed to the gardens yesterday. It wasn't too hot when we got there. But by 11am or so, it was pretty warm. thankfully at that time we headed for shade and had a picnic lunch. We skipped the children's garden this time and did some exploring. It was a lot of fun. I really enjoying taking all their little paths and finding beautiful areas they have set up. We are so lucky to have this place near our home. We visited their butterfly house. It was neat to go in and see all those butterflies, probably hundreds of them. Linda found a caterpillar (the pic where she is bending down) and was trying her best to follow the rules of not picking it up. She didn't like that rule, b/c she wants to handle nature as much as she can. And when we are not in the butterfly house she can, but those were their rules. It really was a fun day!

how she loves nature

The other day Linda found a dragon fly that didn't mind being man handled, lol. She picked it up and was excited to look at it up close. It's eyes were pretty big and you could see it's legs and head clearly. It actually was pretty neat. And then today we were sitting eating breakfast, and we noticed our first sunflower has opened up. Linda was excited and was talking about it being a big yellow sunflower peeking up over the fence. The dress she is wearing was made by my father's wife, Barbara. We have had so many comments on how they love the dress. Linda loves it as well. She says she feels fancy when she is wearing it.

Dinner at Aunt Lynn's

What fun it always is to go to Aunt Lynn's house! We had a nice time as always. Linda found a small praying mantis and was very excited to hold it. The mantis did not seem as excited. Aunt Lynn also French braided Linda's hair. I definitely need to learn how to do it, b/c it was so cute. And she just whipped it together w/o trying to make it look nice. I took some cute pics, as you can see, of Linda w/Aunt Missy, Aunt Lynn, and Lynn's dog Cody. We are grateful to have such loving friends Linda can spend time with.

One PROUD Mama!!!!!!!!

Linda has really stepped it up a notch w/her reading this week. I'm not really sure why. When she doesn't want to read herself, I NEVER force it. I figure she is so young, and she loves books so much, I don't want her to hate reading. She has put several stickers on her library summer reading program sheet this week, all self initiated. I tweaked the sheet a little bit. It's supposed to be every 10 min spent reading you mark out and oval. I changed it to every book Linda reads (the books are beginner books obviously). She only had a couple stickers on there up until this week. I guess she just wasn't feeling it. Tonight we went upstairs getting ready for bed. I had to go to the bathroom, so I told her to get changed, and pick out some books. I'm in the bathroom and I can hear her reading a book to herself. I finished up and grabbed the camera. How cute is this little girl?!?!?!

We went to our local state park this afternoon for a little program. I didn't know what to expect since this was our first time attending a state park program. They talked about different skulls of animals found in the park. They also did a really cute turtle craft. It wasn't nearly as interesting as the city park program, but it was fun. The first couple of pics are Linda very excited about the caterpillars they found on the hike after the craft. There must have been 20 caterpillars in this tiny area of the path. They were grey w/really long hair. Linda was in heaven, lol.

The one pic I thought was a pretty pic of the swamp area off the boardwalk. The other is a cute pic of Linda and Ryleigh.

This is a pic of a red bellied water snake. I know this b/c we saw the snake while finishing up the craft. I was somewhat alarmed b/c of the size of the snake. It was HUGE. The park ranger said she sees this snake frequently. I told the ranger the story of Linda picking up the live snake almost a year ago and bringing it into my house. Linda took a step toward this snake too, and I reminded her that we don't pick up snakes in the wild!!!!!!!

The rest of these pics are the girls doing the craft and being shown the skulls. They had a great time as usual and learned a lot.

Fun with the cousins!

We are back from vacation. Linda had such a good time w/her two cousins. Here are some cute pics from their time together.

Ross Park

We took a great trip to Ross Park today. They have a wonderful story garden there. It reminds me a lot of the children's garden at botanical gardens. After that we headed over to the zoo. Linda had a grand time and the weather was gorgeous. I can't believe how grown up she is now. My little baby certainly seems long gone!