America the Beautiful

I love the 4th of July and now that Sierra is old enough to enjoy it I thought we would give the parade at the Marietta Square a whirl. I used to go there as a kid and remembered loving it so we hauled the fam, Ron, and Paul, Sarah and Mary along for the ride.

I realized the day before the 4th that I didn't have a patriotic outfit for Sierra. What kind of mother am I!? Geez! So I ran all over the place and found cutie little star shorts, a darling shirt and my favorite...sparkly shoes. Who cares if they don't fit exactly right, they are killer gorgeous. My baby is so stylish.

Sierra snagged a great seat, front row, on the parade round and got ready for the main event.

Her cohort in crime Mary was right there beside her.

We were all in place for the highly anticipated floats but more importantly, the candy! Love the candy!

Flag galor were handed out so here are our little Stars waving them proudly. (Sierra calls them Flaggits! No idea why but it's sort of funny hehehe. I think she mixes Wave It and Flag.

The girls watched all the floats, waved at all the beauty queens, teen misses, Tot princesses, veterans, trucks, and politicians. Sarah was getting frustrated when no one was throwing candy and left disappointed at the end. What kind of parades have street sweepers at the end when no one threw candy? Lame.

Joe chased this guy down in the middle of the street to get a good picture. He went after another solider but he almost sliced him down the middle with a confederate sword. For real.

Who knew that politicans ACTUALLY kissed babies?! Not me! It took some prodding from Joe, of course.

By the end of the parade Sierra was spent. We quickly recharged in the car and headed over to the Foye's for a sweet pool party. I'll get around to posting those sooner than later. Good times. I love holidays!

Jealous!

Look what my baby did today with her daddy...jealous!!!!

Celebrating Early

Sierra is almost 2 and since we didn't do a big party last year, we decided to invite all her little friends and do it up right. Celebrating almost a month early to ensure all the grandparents and friends could be there we had pools, sprinklers, cute party favors and a fabulous cake made by the best Mommy in the entire world...ME! (ok, besides my mom!)

Check out all the fun!

We grilled out so we had hamburgers and hot dogs galour. The kiddies had their own table complete with their goodie buckets and all the needed supplies for a 2 yr old party: funky cup, sunglasses, bubbles, and candy watches.

Here we have all the party-goers:

Ms. Sophia.

Hottie Ollie

JakobAnnaliese
Haydon

Eli
Solei (Sierra calls her Lolei)
Hannah Bannan Haymore
Kate
Parker & Lincoln And where are my pictures of Molly & Abby!?!?!!?!?!?!!?!

Sierra had a blast. Lots of Hugs and Kisses were shared - I swear she hugged the girls too!

What can I say? My kid is a lover, not a fighter!

Nice Speedo Eli!

I was excited for the presents but my not so material girl daughter really just liked the paper...still! She would tear off each little piece and everyone wanted to help her, so they did!

She has lots of helpful friends.

The best part, I have to say, was her really super duper cute cake. I wanted to be creative and fun and make Sierra's cake but I also didn't want it to just be a regular cake, I wanted it to be amazing! So I didn't hit amazing, but I go pretty close. Check out my marshmellow fondant super duper cool cake!

It was a fabulous party! We had tons of fun! I can't wait to celebrate on her real birthday, July 15!

Memorial Day Madness

Monday we went Strawberry picking. Here's a little teaser into just how much fun we had. More pictures to come.

BBQ with the Boots

We had a super fun time with our buds the Boots last weekend. Here are the highlights:

They have 5 cutie kids so you can imagine with us and Sierra we had a full house. Sierra loves playing with them though, especially that handsome guy Oliver. He was a bit put out that Sierra insisted on driving on their date but she did and insisted that Sophia tag along as the chaperone.

He was trying to impress her all night. Everything he did was, "Sierra, watch me! Sierra, watch me!" I mean, look at this little stud. Who wouldn't want to watch him?

The girls had a great time playing together. Bubbles are their thing so they more than entertained themselves while the boys grilled up the burgers, and some really salty steak.

Post dinner we had some ice cream fun! Yuuuuuuummy!

We love the Boots!

Beginning of the End

I received this email from Joe today:

"Little bugger has officially taken her shirt of by herself for the first time. I think we are in trouble..."

Potty Pals

Sierra's church nursery friend Solei (who she calls Lolei) came over to play last night so her parents could go out and play. She's a bundle of energy and super smart and we had a blast with her. She's 8 months older than Sierra and is already potty trained so she decided to show Sierra how it's done when it comes to the potty.


We have a few pottys around the house for Sierra to get used to but she's not really grasping the concept, and we aren't pushing it, so Solei took matters into her own hands. She dropped her pants and settled in for the long haul. Sierra followed suit, almost.










Aren't they cutie?!

My Little Fish

Sierra and I definatley don't spend enought time together so I decided to sign up for a 5-week swim class at the local aquatic center. Such a good idea! Every Saturady Sierra and I put on our "baby suits" and head to the pool bright and early for our 30 minute mommy-and-me class.


She was such a fish last year at the pool but she was only one and didn't know any better. Now that she's older she had been resistant to putting her face in the water and even having us wash her hair because she didn't like getting in on her face but I am proud to say that she is back to her old self.







I must say that she is the BEST student in the class and she does look killer (for a baby) is a baby suit.

The first week was sort of...interesting...and so freakin' cold, even I was shivering the entire time. Poor Si got out of the pool and her lips were blue for an hour. She was shaking so bad that I couldn't even get a good picture.






The first week she just got used to the water and by the end she was cool going under water but, look at her now!


She's a master kicker and look at that arm action. Her teacher says she's a natural.

And she even jumps in! She's awesome! And so cute!

Super fun, so glad we did it. She'll be our little water baby this summer.