A New House!

On Wednesday, I finally found a play house for Caroline (isn't Craigslist great?) and she has been totally entertained by it since. In fact, I have had to keep the blinds on the back side of the house closed in the mornings for the last few days. Why? Because if she sees the play house, she will want to go out and play with it before she even eats breakfast! She is really using her imagination these days, and I actually saw her talking to an imaginary "friend" as she was playing with the house. It was so funny! She told the "friend" to C'mon", while waving towards the house, as if she were inviting them in. Check out the video clip below of her playing in the house (be sure and don't miss the end!). Don't worry, Grandma Rogers and Grandy, she didn't get hurt! :)

It seems like Caroline is catching on to new concepts almost everyday and is talking a lot now. The other day, she just came up to me out of the blue, gave me a big hug, and said, "I love you!" It melted my heart! She has also been saying, "I miss you" to Ben when he comes home from work at night which, of course, melts his heart! This toddler stage, though challenging at times, is so rewarding!

Popsicle!

Ah, the feeling of spring and the warm weather that goes along with it! We had a busy day today, starting with Story time at Barnes and Noble. Caroline actually sat still and listened to one of the stories today! This is progress because usually she is asking for more "Mux" (music), which the lady plays in between stories, or trying to walk around. After Story time, we went to Davie Park with some friends and enjoyed the beautiful weather. I thought Caroline would take a nice long nap after playing so hard, but she only slept for 30 minutes! So, we filled our (long) afternoon with some fun outdoor activities. We played in the sand table, blew bubbles, went on the swing, and rode the tricycle. Caroline enjoyed a popsicle on the porch, as you can see in the video clip below. She loves to choose a color and today it was purple. :) She got a little distracted by a bug sitting on the screen of the porch. I guess she has heard me say "Yucky!" one too many times when it comes to bugs!

Hope the warm weather continues and we can enjoy some more outdoor time. Can't wait to start going to our neighborhood pool which opens at the end of May! We will be going every day that we can!

It's a Zoo Out There!

On Thursday morning, we took a trip to the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia, SC. It is about an hour and a half drive but we had some company. My friend, Mindi, and her son Samuel rode with us which made the trip fun. We met Chrissie and Ali, Hannah and TJ, and Alexia and Kate there. Caroline has been to the zoo one other time when we went with Ben's family in Knoxville. But that was last summer, and she really wasn't as responsive to the animals as she was this time. It was hard to take pictures since we were all trying to keep up with the tots, but sometimes it is nice to just enjoy the moment.

It was a warm day in Columbia. Our first stop was the bears and when Caroline saw one, she reached out her arms and said, "I hold you!". I told her that she really didn't want to hold that kind of bear, and we'll just have to settle for her teddy bears. :) She also enjoyed seeing the giraffes and they actually came right up to us! We even fed one of them. The monkeys were really making lots of noise and Caroline kept saying, "hang" since they were jumping from tree to tree. She didn't want to leave any of the animals when we had to move on.

After eating lunch, we all rode the carousel. It was Caroline's first time to ever ride one and she wasn' t so sure about it once it started moving. I thought she would love it, but surprisingly was really solemn for the whole ride.

On our last stop, Caroline and Samuel both got on a turtle (not a real one, of course!) right next to the real turtles. The turtles were huge and came right up to us.


It was a fun day, but I think I was more exhausted than Caroline was! She only slept for 20 minutes in the car and then was up for the rest of the day. It is so much fun to do these kinds of activities now that she is older. Hope you all have a good week and thanks for checking in! Until the next adventure...

Happy 2nd Birthday Caroline!

Time sure does fly- we celebrated Caroline's 2nd birthday this past weekend, on her actual birthday, April 5. We had a cook out with a farm animals theme (Caroline loves animals) to celebrate and several of her friends came. The guest list included friends Ali, Kate, Samuel, Lindsey, Kaitlyn, Knox, and cousin Eva, and all of their parents. I was bummed to wake up Saturday morning to rain, as this put a slight damper on our plans to have an outdoor party. But, I wasn't going to let anything rain on my parade (or Caroline's parade, rather!). We were still able to have the party on the screened porch and the kids played in the sand table. Since Caroline is allergic to milk and eggs, I had special cupcakes made for her. I was glad to find a lady who makes allergen free cakes and cupcakes, allowing Caroline to have a little something sweet. :)

Before all the festivities began, we had a couple of days with Uncle David, Aunt Wendy, and cousin Eva. The girls enjoyed being together so much and were showing their love through lots of hugs. On Friday morning, we went to Monkey Joe's, a place with inflatable slides, tunnels, and obstacle courses. Caroline didn't stop for one minute! Eva was afraid of all the commotion at first, but warmed up after awhile. When I told Caroline it was time to leave, she gave me a sweet look and said, "More Monkey Joe's!". I bribed her with a slushy for the car and that worked like a charm. (sometimes you have to do what you have to do!) Below is a picture of them playing in Caroline's bed after their naps. Grandma Rogers and Papa Sam arrived Friday night and Caroline was so happy to see them!


More excitement to come! Grandma Rogers and Papa Sam surprised Caroline with a tricycle on the morning of her birthday! We came outside in front of the house and they brought it around. Caroline loves it! She feels like (and looks like!) such a big girl on it.




I will let the pictures speak for the events of the party- sorry, there are a few! You only turn two once, after all! After we sang Happy Birthday to Caroline and she blew out the candle, she wanted us to do it again. So of course, we repeated the whole ritual (just once though!). Ben had his hands full at the grill cooking hamburgers and hot dogs- and in the misting rain, no less! I wish I would have gotten a picture of all the kids together, but that is a difficult task these days! They are off and running before you have a chance to snap one.

Caroline with Ali and Samuel- playing with her new sand table

Just Beachin' It!

I am just now getting around to blogging about our vacation to Gulf Shores we took with my family. It's hard to narrow it down with just a few pictures, but I will try! It was so nice to be there for a whole week, and the weather was beautiful the whole time. We got there on Saturday afternoon (March 22) and Caroline couldn't wait to explore the beach. In fact, we put on her bathing suit and sunscreen almost right away so she could have her first beach experience. She wanted to kick the sand at first, with Grandy and Poppy holding on to each of her hands. You can check out her reaction to the beach on the video clip below. Though she seemed to like the beach, Caroline was reluctant to go anywhere near the water.

The next morning was Easter and Caroline got a few presents from the Easter bunny. She even got a taste of a few sweet treats. :) She also got a few things to play with on the beach. The biggest hit of all though was when she opened her new Louie, just like her favorite bear that she takes everywhere. I have never seen her so happy! She kept saying, "Louie, Louie!". The plan is to keep the new Louie in her bed and let her take the ragged one everywhere else. She pretty much forgot about her old Louie and only wanted the new one from then on. He is like the Velveteen Rabbit now- old and worn out and forgotten. She calls the new one "Big Louie" because he is much fluffier than her old one.



The weather was a little cool on Sunday and Monday, so we just stayed by the pool where it was tad warmer. The water was like ice though, so we didn't even attempt to get in. Caroline had so much fun flying a kite on the beach with Ben and Poppy.


The rest of our days were filled with time on the beach and the weather warmed up as the week went on. Caroline never quite got used to the idea of going near the water. In fact, when Ben asked her to help him get some water for the sand castle they were making, her response was, "I watch!". At one point, I was able to get her to come to the shore line to dig in the sand. But then the tide came in and scared her away! She also didn't want to get her hands too dirty and wanted us to wipe off her feet. Caroline really enjoyed all the seagulls and kept waving and saying "Hello!" to them.

Caroline pointing to the seagulls

Building her first sand castle with Daddy

Digging with Mommy- before the tide scared her away!

Chad and Jackie joined us on Wednesday night, and we celebrated Chad's and Caroline's birthdays with a joint party on Thursday night. We had a beach theme of course! Caroline loves to open (op, as she calls it) presents and got some fun toys and cute clothes. We will be celebrating again on her actual birthday in Charlotte.


Chad and Jackie are really good photographers, so they took some pictures of us all on the beach in the classic white and khakis. Good job with the pics, Chad and Jackie! Caroline was very sleepy, so it was difficult to get her to cooperate. We managed to get a few with her though. You can click on the pictures to make them bigger (of course, you experienced bloggers knew that already!).






On our last night there, we went to a great restaurant called Lu Lu's. We were interested to find out that the owner of that restaurant is Jimmy Buffet's sister. We took one last photo op with Caroline on the beach after we got back from dinner.




We did all the stuff that a good vacation is made of: ate lots of good food, spent time together, and relaxed. Caroline didn't seem to realize that we were on vacation though, as she woke up at 5 or 6 am every morning! (ouch!) She also didn't want to eat much which is very unusual for her. Too much excitement for her, I guess! When we got back to Charlotte on Sunday afternoon, it was cold and rainy. Kind of hard to leave a warm and sunny place and come back to colder weather! This week I have been preparing for Caroline's birthday party that we are having on Saturday. Ben's family is coming to help us celebrate with a casual cookout at home. It should be fun! I can't believe my baby is turning two!