Carnival

There is a little carnival in town this weekend so we decided it was time for Lauren to experience the fun. She did great and loved every minute of it. This little carnival come every year and it is set up only a few blocks from our house. It is definitely geared towards small children so it was great for Lauren's first attempt at riding the rides.







She and Elliott 'fished' for a prize and she won a stuffed fish.

















Then she rode on the pig train, the cars, the carousel and the boats. I think she could have stayed all night. I guess we'll be ready to attend the county fair in August this year.
















Here's a picture of Andrew in his snazzy new stroller. He enjoyed people watching!

Backyard Pool

Here are a couple photos from this weekend. This was Andrew's first time in a pool and he wasn't too sure about it. We have a little floatie for him to sit in but he absolutely refused to sit in it. After we figured out he was much more content on Dad's lap, he did great. I guess I'll be stocking up on swim diapers now.

Swimming Lessons

Lauren is taking swimming lessons this summer. Although I'm not really sure you can call them lessons . . . it's more like play time in the pool with Daddy. She is having fun and getting used to being in the big pool and that is what really matters. Last night was the first night Andrew and I attended lessons to get some pictures of our little fish.

We'll remember for next summer to schedule the kiddos for the last session as Elliott has reported the water to be a little fridged. Yet another reason why he is in the pool and not me! Remember you can click on the photos and make them bigger.

Tupperware

Andrew has found the Tupperware drawer! He'd been opening my mom's for at least a month now and digging all the things out but he had never touched mine until this week. Now it's a daily occurrence. Lauren loved playing in the drawer at this age also so I made a drawer just for her. Now Andrew will inherit the drawer if I can convince him to play in it instead of mine.

Lauren actually thought this was a pretty good idea as well. She turned over all the bowls and made them into drums. YEA!! She really likes to drum away on everything but I can assure you she will not be receiving a drum set for her birthday or Christmas. If one of the grandparents happen to not heed my warning, then the drum set will stay at their house.

Shopping . . .

Lauren's been down and out with a cold all week. We've had to cancel all the activities I had scheduled for us this week including our weekly trip to Target and she's pretty bummed about it all. In fact in the height of her sickness, a fever of 102, refusal to eat and absolutely no energy, she asked to go shopping at Target. I told her she had to eat her toast in order to go and much to my delight she did. What a girl will do to go shopping!! After holding up her end of the bargain I had to come up with another excuse why we couldn't go. Having a fever of 102 wasn't enough for her so I went with the tried and true of 'Andrew needs a nap'. Have I created a monster or what??

We did manage to squeeze in a short trip to Wal-Mart yesterday to get necessities like milk. She was doing pretty good and I thought we could make it in and out without an incident. I was wrong! She proceeded to have a coughing fit that led to a near puking episode. Fun! So I got her a drink and we carried on as quickly as possible. She proceeded to cough the entire time we were there and I asked her "Lauren, where is all the coughing coming from?" She looks up at me and matter of factly says, "My mouth". I needed that laugh about then!

Shopping with Lauren is never dull . . . Last week when we were at Target she started in on a rousing game of Peek-A-Boo with Andrew. So for the 30 minutes we were there everyone knew where Lauren was as she belted out, "Peek-A-Book Andrew, It's me". I always enjoy our outings together as she keeps them exciting.

Hail

Here is what happened at our house last night. We were in the basement when the storm hit as there was a tornado in the south part of town about 3 miles from us. We are very thankful this is all we got. After a quick survey this morning, we can't find any damage to the siding or windows. I'll be surprised it the roof isn't toast tough. We'll find that out shortly. Our roof is pretty new and survived the last hail storm so we'll keep our fingers crossed.

Everyday Stuff

Nothing too exciting happening around here right now. Andrew turned 10 months on Sunday and decided that he was a big boy and no longer needed help to stand. He is unwilling to take a step without some support and that is just fine by us. He can get into enough mischief with his super speed crawling. He is cutting his top four teeth right now and it isn't going too bad. He's been waking up in the night and has a runny nose but we can handle all of that.

Lauren's vocabulary is expanding by leaps and bounds each day. I caught her this morning using a new word and then telling me, "Mama you try to say it now." She is quite a little character now days.

Elliott had a softball game tonight that we all attended. They won. Actually they are undefeated at this point in the season. Other activities we have planned are swimming lesson twice this week, a playdate and music class.

I hear Andrew making his first debut of the night so I'm off to tend to him.