Party Animal!

To say that Julia was a party animal at cousin Ben's wedding last weekend would be an understatement. She was more like Taz (tasmanian devil) + toddler with extreme adrenaline rush from being around family, friends and so many others having a good time. Julia's party began at the wedding ceremony. Mike had to watch her run around the back of church while I watched the lovely wedding ceremony of our cousin Ben to the beautiful, radiant bride, Jen. Once we got to the hotel for the reception, the adrenaline kicked in even more. I don't think the girl sat down for more than 5 minutes. Dinner was interesting. Mike and I had to take shifts running around with her inside the dining area and outside. She didn't want to sit and eat, she wanted to dance (we promised her a dance earlier-not a good idea). Mike inhaled his food and then I inhaled/devoured second.

While waiting for the hotel staff to transition the dining room into a dance floor/area, Julia ran around (and around, and around) with her cousin Ainsley and other 2nd cousins Callie and Finley. I thought for sure this would tire her out, but nope! The dance floor opened and Julia was all over the place. She was clapping, dancing, running, sliding, bouncing, twisting and other moves I don't know how to describe. She definitely had a great time! Once it was time to come off the dance floor for the grand march and first dance of the bride and groom, Julia was not a happy camper. All she said was "dance, dance?". She was not accepting of the fact that we couldn't be on the dance floor while we watched others dance (to slow songs). While the slow dances continued, we put her in her PJ's and she started to fall asleep on mommy's shoulder. She was a tired out party animal.

Sorry these pictures didn't turn out that great....kind of dark.

Julia on the dance floor bouncing and clamping amidst other guests dancing to a slow song

I am so happy! PAR-TY!

Julia and Cousin Ainsley on the dance floor

Uncle Dave being silly with his daughter, Ainsley

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Today is Mike's (aka: daddy) 31st birthday! We started the day with a yummy pancake breakfast at home and then Julia and I decorated a chocolate cake for daddy. Daddy thought I was insane for letting Julia assist with the frosting and decorating, but she did a great job.

Smoothing on the extra creamy vanilla frosting

Star-shaped sprinkles!

Jeez, I look so serious in these pictures! I was having fun, really!

More sprinkles for Julia!

Our finished product; beautiful, isn't it?

It was quite yummy too. Julia had two (yes, two) little gal sized pieces after dinner!

Pigtails and Painting

Ms. Julia's hair is finally long enough for pigtails and I couldn't resist. She usually won't keep anything in her hair (barrettes, headbands, etc...) but I got her to keep these in by distracting her with some Dora while putting them in. Of course like any mom, I snapped a bunch of photos...

Julia was so excited to wear her coat today...I was bummed myself since it signals the end of summer and the beginning of the cool/cold weather

Since the weather was so cool and windy which is not very conducive to playing with a toddler outside, I had to come up with something fun for Julia to do besides watch Dora and play with her other toys. So, I rigged up a homemade easel using a dinner table chair, some garbage bags and blue Solo cups. I put a garbage bag over the chair and on the floor and then cut the bottoms off the Solo cups and those were used to hold the different colored paints. A larger, non-trimmed Solo cup served as the brush holder. I duck tapped the cup bottoms to the garbage bag-covered chair and also duck tapped clothes pins to the chair. This made for a paper holder and an easy way to change out the paper once Ms. Picasso was finished and wanted another blank canvas. It was a lot of fun and Julia loved it. She wore her play apron and that served as a great paint catcher so it wouldn't get on her clothes (I should have worn my own apron since she threw a paint-loaded brush at me about 3/4 of the way into her creativity session!)

The set-up before the artist began her creativity

Concentrating on her next brush stroke

Did you have one of these?

Did you have one of these when you were younger?

I found this one at a garage sale for $1

It is was almost brand new; in great condition and all the black paper patterns were still unused! Julia and I had a great time putting in the colored pegs and watching them glow and twinkle.