Released!

WooHoo!!!! Just got back from the podiatrist and I was released! Yipee! My foot is healing nicely and I'm free of "the boot". My new walking shoes are working nicely and I can slowly start to work my foot more and carely transition to other shoes. What a huge blessing! It's such a nice week, I'm ready to go on some walks with Megan! Now I can with the Dr's blessings.

This past week Megan lent me a hand in the kitchen. She is always interested in what is going on above her eye level. "Interested" is probably too kind a word. How about if I'm making noise up there and she can't see what it is, she throws an absolute fit! But for the sake of this blog we'll just say she's "interested".... (note the chewed on apple on the counter - that would be Megan's - she is getting 4 teeth at the same time and is a bit grumpy..... she loves chomping on apples right now).

She was a pro with the food processor. She can't get to the blade, or get the cover off, so it was safe to let her push the buttons to make it grind everything up. She loved it. She loved it so much so that she got so excited that she fell off the step stool....... Oh dear. I caught her in mid fall but lets just say it scared both of us to a fare ye well.
After a few minutes of crying (for both of us), Megan recovered.... especially when she reached over my shoulder and grabbed what was on the counter...

Which was....

an oreo.... (we were making Oreo Balls)

Needless to say - she liked it!

Thank You!

Thanks Kenny! I love my new slide!!!!!!

What to do at the mall?

So on a hot day when you don't really want to be outside... a trip to the mall is always nice. Especially if they have an indoor soft playground. BUT..... What if that playground were overrun with kids - especially bigger kids who by the posted rules aren't really allowed to even be playing there..... you must find an alternative!

So here's the fun we found at the mall.

If you walk to the opposite end of the mall from the playground - you've got a "mini-ride" area. It's got everything from a trolley, a race car, a rocket, a bus, etc...

I'm not sure who's having more fun - Megan and Nate or the mommies?

There was even a "Nu Nu" - if you don't know who Nu Nu is then I'm not telling you.
And once the attention span wans.... head to the "rental shopping carts". You don't actually have to pay to have fun. Just don't "unpark" it.

Weekend Festivities

This weekend was full of celebrations.
Happy Birthday Kenny! We got to go celebrate Kenny's 3rd birthday. Megan is trying to sneak out the gifts she liked.

Then later on Saturday we were off to celebrate a belated birthday with Grandma.
After dinner out we went back to Grandma's house and Megan got to practice some "fork skills" on a little chocolate cake. Lets just say she acted like she'd been eating with a fork her whole life. Now I know the trick to get her to eat with utensils.... cake.
All the grandkids wanted to help open up presents.
Uncle Kevin and Anna made sure Megan was happy and occupied.
And just because Saturday was over doesn't mean the fun stopped!!!!! On Saturday we got to visit with some out of town friends - Renee, Cory and Nate (We have 2 Nate's in our lives) who were in town from TN. The little kids (Megan, Nate and Andrew) got to bounce in the jumpy house while the bigger kids supervised (Amber and Cory).

Megan decided she'd impress dad by working on some golf type lessons with a rousing round of croquet.
Last time we had everyone together none of the kids were walking - now they were all over the place.
Megan is about 2 1/2 months younger than the boys (Nate and Andrew are just a few weeks apart) so it's cute to watch them play together. They were all about trying to get the Elefun game to work.
It was time to leave and Megan decided taht as a thank you she would take care of mowing the grass...
It took us a long time to actually say goodbye because Megan was mowing her heart out - that is until she saw the dog across the street.

Where did the week go?

In all the hoopla of getting back in the groove after our beach trip - this week just vanished. I know I was busy - but suddenly I realized, it's the weekend and it's August and where did the week go?

Megan has been enjoying her little table. I picked this up a couple of months ago at our neighborhood garage sale for a few dollars. It's great and she loves being at a big girl table. She'll haul a toy up there and sit and play, then get down and go to the next chair, and start all over. I can now actually empty the dishwasher without her climbing inside. woohoo!

We also went to meet up with some teacher friends of mine (Thanks Kerri and Suzanne). I didn't really get a good picture of Megan and May playing, but it was fun. On the way home we stopped off at a playground. It was awesome!

Megan had a great time and I loved watching her explore her new skills and sense of adventure. Don't think I didn't hold my breath a few times as she tumbled down some slides head first but it was great. They have 2 playscapes - one for toddlers and one for older kids.
Megan could navigate it pretty well. She even showed me she could not climb UP slides. Yeah, every ounce of the teacher in me wanted to say NO, we go down slides and up ladders... but it was so fun to watch her excitement at trying something new that I let her do it. Oh well, a bad habit that I'll now have to break. But a neat "milestone" to watch.

It was so much fun that the next day we went back with our friend Nate.
We ended up having to rush out of the playground when a big storm just opened up on us. I wrote about that in a previous post. We came home and I got megan out of the car and she RAN into the rain. Little thrill seeker.....

She had so much fun in the rain that I let her play... until it started to thunder.

After it dried off we went back out to play since it was cloudy and a little cooler...
hula hoop anyone?

And all this happened... before the weekend! Maybe I'll have time to get all our weekend clebrations on there later today.

And to edit my previous couple of posts... the fountains were NOT in Rosemary Beach. It's actually in Sea Crest Beach - which is next to Rosemary beach (which has a great ice cream shop).

Just when you thought I was done...

OK - more beach things. I had taken a couple of video's that were really cute. The first one is of the fountains at Rosemary Beach. You can hear Megan screaching as she plays. There is another little girl who's in a pink shirt. It's funny because she and Megan are about the same age and their reactions are totally opposite. Megan is definitely the dare devil.

This is a video of Megan in her "pool"/raft - swimming away.

Ok - now I have to officially close the "beach chronicles". I think I'm just enjoying dreaming that I'm still there....