Fun Day Out With Cousins

Allary and I went to a fun park with Trisha and Jenna, Chase, and Paige. The weather wasn't all that great, but the kids had a fantastic time anyway. There was a petting zoo...

...A place to learn about the pioneers, tour their homes, and do some good old-fashioned hard work.

Paige and Allary teamed up to work the wheelbarrow and nearly ran me over as I was snapping the photo.

Just doing some laundry. They could pretend to wash, hang out, and iron these clothes. It made me very grateful for my washing machine, dryer and other such conveniences.



They got to ride a fun little train around a duck pond...

...Play on a ship...
...Check out some Native American living quarters.



...and even go on a pony ride. This was Allary's second time on a horse/pony and both times it has scared her pretty bad. She only goes because she sees her cousins wanting to go. Her horse was doing some weird snorting/coughing/shaking thing her whole ride and she was a little freaked out. But, she just held on tight and put on a brave face, at least until she ran out and got back over to me. I'm proud of her for being so brave and being willing to try things, even things that make her a little nervous.

It was a really fun day.

Dance Class

Allary started dance classes again last week. I can't even tell you how much she loves and looks forward to it. She found some ballet books at the library and has literally been studying them for weeks now. She is totally into all things ballerina.


And, I love it also because, Oh my gosh, how cute is she?!?!?

Summer Reading Program

I signed Allary up for the Summer Reading Program at the library this summer. We got her into the same class as her cousin Paige. Last week, they had a sort of kick-off party with games and activities and popsicles. The theme is "Make a Splash at Your Library," so the games all had something to do with water or fish or pirates or something.

Here are the two girls with their pirate eye-patches and their best pirate grimaces. They made those little necklaces which were also supposed to be their pirate names. Allary's was "Wreck Stub Bob" and Paige's was "Blind Wreck Sam."


Here they are tossing bean bags to sink enemy ships... at least I think that's what it was.


Digging for treasure.

After all that, we really did "make a splash." We went over to Trisha's house to play in the wading pool for awhile. I love Allary's face in this next picture... pure enjoyment. :)


Paige kept saying, "Let's sit down and enjoy." This would last for about 3 seconds, followed by more squealing and splashing and giggling.

Rice Krispies Treats

Allary and I made Rice Krispies treats together last week. I'm always looking for fun things to do and ways to entertain her and myself and to just get out and do something to stay busy. But sometimes, I find so much joy in just taking time out to be with her and enjoy her fun personality. This was a really fun afternoon of making treats, listening to music, silly dancing, and just giggling together.

(Notice the Rice Krispies treats are pink. When getting the marshmallows at the store, she would not allow me to get the boring white ones once she saw pink was an option.)

Her cute feet dangling off the kitchen counter. Just cute. :)

Zoo

As a sort of kick-off to summer, we took advantage of Jason's day off work and went to the zoo on Memorial Day.

Last Day of Preschool

This is a picture of Allary and her preschool teacher Miss Jenny on the last day of preschool.

Allary had a fantastic time at preschool this year. She learned a lot and it was so great for her to get to be around other kids her age. Most days, I would ask her what she learned and would instead get a full report on who said what and who was wearing what and who she sat next to and what they had for snack time. I feel so lucky that we got her into Miss Jenny's class, not just because she lives only two houses away, but because she is fabulous! I've already got Allary signed up again for the fall. She has one more year of preschool before she starts Kindergarten. I'm very proud of my smart girl.

Weekend Away

Jason had to go out of town for the weekend for work and invited Allary and I to go along. He knew he would be getting a nice hotel room but also informed us that we probably wouldn't see him at all the whole weekend because he would be working non-stop. Allary and I decided to take advantage of a weekend away from home. She and I had a great time just relaxing in the hotel room, playing at the pool, soaking up some sun, shopping, and eating out.

The first day we got there, Jason headed right out to work, and Allary and I went to hang out with Jason's cousin who lives nearby. We went with her and her little boy to a splash pad that was so much fun. Allary loves anything involving water. And, Chelsea and I had a great time visiting while the kids played.







After the splash pad, we went to a really fun pirate-themed restaurant. It was not only really fun, but really yummy too. It had an arcade and a playland for the kids as well as all the neat decorations and talking skeleton pirates and cannons shooting smoke rings and all kinds of things.


I don't know why Allary looks all pouty in this picture, but I like it anyhow.

Thanks Chelsea and Braxten for hanging out with us! And thanks for letting me steal some of your photos. :)

We also did a little bit of shopping when we first got there on Saturday. I let Allary pick a few things to play with at the pool. She picked a beach ball and a wacky noodle. She was so excited when we got to the hotel that night about everything, her big giant bed, watching the Disney channel in bed, taking a bath in the hotel tub with the little hotel soaps, etc etc. She was so excited about going to the pool in the morning that she wanted to sleep with her new wacky noodle. Sure, why not?


On Sunday, Allary and I spent pretty much the whole day at the hotel pool. The pool was fun and the weather was perfect.





Monday morning, we got up and went swimming again. Then we picked up some lunch to eat back at our hotel room, got all packed up, and drove on home. I really enjoyed the weekend away from our regular routines and I truly enjoyed having all that time to just have fun and hang out with my sweet girl. I really do enjoy being with her and I love that she is so fun to take shopping and eating out because she enjoys it as well. She is a girl after my own heart and I love her so much. What a fun weekend!