Mom and Me at the Zoo

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. Each Mother's Day, the zoo hosts an event called Mom and Me at the Zoo, which offers special crafts, food and events as a way to celebrate Mother's Day. A purchase of a 10 dollar t-shirt serves as your ticket to the zoo for the day. Leila hadn't been to the zoo since August, so she was very excited to see all the animals. There are a few animals that are talked about ALL the time in our household: birdies, ninies (ponies) and monkeys...so a trip to the zoo meant the possibility of seeing some of these. 

Leila's cheesy grin!

Our matching ticket/t-shirts looked like this:
Daddy and Leila waiting and HOPING that a Budgie bird will land on the stick and eat from their hands. 
Still waiting....and calling "birdies, eat!" every few seconds. 
The man next to them got lucky and then helped transfer the bird to Leila's stick. Oh, what excitement to get to feed the bird! She is still talking about it!

Off to find some more animals...

This is what Chris and I call "the Jello defense." We ask her to do something, in this case smile, she doesn't want to, so she turns to Jello. Fun.
A little better this time around. Still pretty cheesy!
Looking for the whale...
We found him!
Every time he swam by us, he would snort with his blow hole. Leila would turn around and giggle at us. 
I LOVE this picture! 
And this one too! What a precious girl we have!!! She has such a sense of humor!


We didn't see any ninies (ponies) so Daddy gave her a pony ride instead...just as good. 
Nap time is quickly approaching (for Leila, not Chris).
The zoo had coloring tables, so of course, we had to stop. 

Running on the central lawn with Daddy. 
Leila took a 30 minute nap on the ride home and then was wide awake until bedtime. Sunday morning however, she slept until 9:15. Chris and I decided we would make this an annual event if it meant we got to sleep in the following morning! I feel very blessed to be married to such a wonderful man and to be the mother of an amazing, sweet daughter! I couldn't ask for anything else in my life! Happy Mother's Day to all!

Garden Girl

The weather this Mother's Day weekend was gorgeous! We took advantage of it and spent some time getting the flower beds and lawn taken care of. Leila jumped right into the weeding and thoroughly enjoyed playing in the dirt! Both Grammy and Gramma recently bought her some garden tools....which kept her plenty occupied! 

Her job: put the dirt in the 'bucket'...aka old tupperware lid.

Mommy was wearing gloves, so of course Leila needed to have one too. 

We got quite a lot accomplished. We spent the whole afternoon outside! 

Pre-bath Excitement!

I know this is the beginning of a long road, but it is exciting none the less! Leila went potty in the toilet tonight before her bath!! Chris and I made a big deal out of it and the smile on her face was huge. She then said, "I did it!". Wow, our little baby is quickly becoming a big girl! 

Wish us luck as we begin what appears to be a big task...

PS - Luckily for Leila's sake, there are no pictures to accompany this post!

Easter 2009

Despite the nasty weather, we had a wonderful Easter this year! Needless to say, our egg hunt was indoors. Gramma and Papa Tavern hosted the festivities at their house. Grammy and Granddad Prather, Great Gramma and Papa Riedel and the Davisons came too. Leila didn't need any help figuring out what to do....she came into the front room, spotted a purple egg and took off in search of other eggs without needing any prompting! What a fun afternoon to watch her delight as she found the eggs. We had a great dinner with both sides of the family!   

The Happy Hippie

Last weekend, at the Daffodil Parade, I bought Leila a princess tiara with ribbons. She wore it for a bit that afternoon, but tonight she discovered a new way to wear her tiara that just tickles her.
Enjoy a few pictures of our Lil' Flower Child...
Peace man!





Oh, say can you see my eyes? If you can, then my hair's too short!

2009 Daffodil Parade

This morning we packed up the kiddo and headed to Puyallup's Daffodil Parade. Chris and I hadn't been since we were in high school. We meet a few of my girlfriends and their kids and spent the afternoon enjoying the SUNSHINE! Finally, some spring weather! A little strange this year not having any Puyallup schools marching, since the district is on spring vacation. We heard every other high school and junior high band around the area though...it was a long parade!

The girls caught sight of the princesses and had to say hello. 

Leila, Kaitlin and Mackenzie with Princess Belle and Princess Aurora. 

This flag was Leila's approval rating system. Each time something that she liked would march by, she would wave her flag. 

This year's Daffodil Queen is from one of the high school's in our school district. 
Franklin Pierce High School's marching band. Took this picture for two reasons:

1. This is Papa Mike's alma mater.

2. We live really close to the high school, so we felt like we should support it! 

Go FP!

Leila was a trooper! The parade was 2 hours. She enjoyed it, but it was right during her usual nap time. By the time we made it on the freeway, she was OUT. I could hear her snoring over the freeway noise!
I know she is tired when she sleeps without a binkie. 

Some Recent Pictures

Our spring break is coming to a close this weekend. We had the worst weather ever! It felt like winter vacation the entire week. The cold and rain didn't stop us from playing outside a bit though. Leila got a new car and she had to try it out! 

Before we headed outside...

Leila insisted on wearing her Mariner's hat (because Daddy's hat had a bill on it) and carrying her purse outside. A purse is always needed to shoot baskets and ride cars, right?