A Visit with Max

Finley has been looking forward to her day with Max all weekend.  The two of them are such peas in a pod, it really is adorable.  I decided to brave the grocery store with two toddlers this morning and it was not as bad as it could have been.  That being said, there were balloons, white chocolate covered pretzels and fruit galore to entertain the two of them in the ridiculous Mickey Mouse car cart.  The two of them made a bit of a white chocolate mess and we lost a balloon in the milk aisle, but other than that, they were perfect.  i meant to snap pictures of them, but I my attention was focused on getting them in and out of the grocery store without incident.  Finley has loved having a playmate over.  In exactly one week, she will be starting school and will be in Max's class.  These two are going to rule the school!

Busy Baker

We had a very busy day yesterday!  We met Riley, Sydney, Kendall and Courtney at the pool (and their mommies Georgia and Lori.)  Finley had so much fun playing in the splash pad area, she especially loved the slide.  She even wanted to go on the big slide for older kids.  She was really insistent, luckily, it was closed for cleaning.  She had such a good time pushing baby Sydney around in her float, even though sometimes she would wander a little too far off with her.  After the pool, we headed over to Lori's for a "Chickafila" lunch.  Shockingly, Finley only at the fruit, all but the apples.  Struck me as very strange, but I figured she was tired from all the pool fun.  We headed home for a nap, I thought she would get a good one in.  She slept for less than an hour and woke up grumpy, so I figured we needed some hands on activity to occupy her.  I decided we would make some chocolate banana bread.  I had never made it before and it doesn't need a mixer, so Finley could do everything herself.  She was so good!  She only had one little spill, that I made a million times worse trying to clean up.  She was much gentler with the stirring and didn't try to eat the plain flour once. I cannot wait to decorate Christmas cookies with her this year.

Time to Make the Doughnuts...

I ordered a doughnut pan from Amazon. Finley loves the doughnuts we have made so far, especially the chocolate frosted ones. The good thing is they are tons healthier than the doughnuts from a doughnut shop. The bad thing is she is getting used to chocolate for breakfast.

Fort!

Finley has decided she doesn't want to nap again today...fun times.  Especially since she is so tired from swim lessons this morning.  Too bad it is 104 degrees outside.  So we are trapped indoors.  Which means, Finley needed some entertainment from something other than her countless toys.  She asked if we could build a house out of cards since we had been playing flashcards.  I said we could build a fort instead.  She loved it!  It became even more exciting when I shut the fort door and gave her a flashlight to play with inside.  Too bad the fort fun only lasted 20 minutes, but in toddler land, that is an eternity.

Three funny Finley moments from today:

Finley: I have a stomache
Me: Does your tummy hurt?
Finley: No, I have an egg in my tummy.
Ahhh..a stomachegg

We were getting my car inspected this morning and the guy at the desk asked if she would be starting kindergarten next week.  I told him no, she is only two years old.  His reply "she sure does talk a lot."   yes, yes she does.

I was upstairs getting Finley's swim bag.  I was gone for 30 seconds.  She managed to smear markers all over her face while I was gone.  Thank goodness they are washable markers!

Last Day of Gymnastics

Well, it was technically Finley's last gymnastics class today.  She will be starting her fall semester next Tuesday, so there really won't be any break at all.  Still, I got to go in the gym with her to see all her accomplishments and snap lots of photographs.  The best part was that she was the only student in class, her very own private gymnastics lesson.  Finley has come a long way since the first class, she will even do somersaults on her own at home...even on the hardwoods.

Happy Birthday, Izzy!

Izzy had a super fun splash birthday party to celebrate her turning three.  Finley feasted on watermelon and strawberries, which coordinated perfectly with her fruity swim suit.  The kids had so much fun dumping water on each other from the buckets.  Izzy's mom had put a baby pool at the base of the slide, which everyone had so much fun sliding into.  The kids took a break from the backyard fun to sing (or sing/scream if you are Finley) Happy Birthday to Izzy.  Finley only had eyes for the candy coated marshmallows.  She didn't even take a bite of the cupcake, she totally turned her nose up, all she wanted was the marshmallow!  I cannot blame her at all, the marshmallow lollipops were adorable and were exactly the sweet treat that Finley wanted after all the water play fun.  Look at how much these kids have grown in one year...Izzy's 2nd birthday party.

Playdate at Chick-fil-a

Or "Chickafila" as Finley calls it. We were supposed to have Max over for lunch while his Mommy was at a doctor's appointment, but she ended up getting out early, so we all met up at Chick-fil-a for lunch.  Little did we know it was orientation for Bellaire High School, which is within walking distance of Chick-fil-a.  The place was a total madhouse!  We ended up having to share a table since the high schoolers had camped out at nearly every table.  After we ate, Finley wanted to go down the slide.  Of course, she went down the slide all of once and ended up dancing, jumping and running around with Max for the majority of the time.

I had both Finley and Max in my car and the two of them were so cute talking to each other. They pointed out nearly every car and truck we drove by, it was so adorable. The cutest of the cute is when Finley said, "I love you, Max." And Max responded, "I love you, Finley." Cue me tearing up in the front seat. Those two crazy kids...

Center Court Pizza

Finley loves Center Court Pizza (evidence #1 and evidence #2), we are lucky to have swim lessons in Pearland where there are not one, but two locations nearby.  Today, we met Sarah, Ryan and Lillian for lunch after Finley's swim lessons.  Finley wanted to do everything that Ryan did, whether she understood what he was doing or not.  At one point he asked for money, so she did too.  I doubt Finley knows what money is, but she had to have it.  Ryan was sweet and brought Finley a strawberry lollipop.  How did he know it was her favorite?  Finley devoured three slices, which was one more than I had.  This girl loves her pizza.  And she was super excited we had some in a box on our drive home.  She kept saying "we can have pizza for later!"

Aren't Ryan and Lillian so adorable?

Me and My Llama

Happy Birthday, Daniel!

Daniel hosted his 3rd birthday party at Discover Gymnastics yesterday.  Finley was so excited t show off her gymnastics class skills.  She was jumping down the trampoline, in perfect form.  She even showed off her balance beam skills, which impressed me very much.  Her favorite activity was dancing with Max.  The two of them were cracking me up with their dances moves.  And by dance moves, I mean running around in circles over and over and over again.  There was pizza, fruit and cupcakes, which make the perfect party in Finley's eyes.  Happy birthday to Daniel!

Maryland Tomatoes, Corn and Crabs

We visited the McClurgs while we were in Maryland. Their daughter, Jenny, was getting married on Saturday. We were lucky to get to see everyone and Finley got to play around by their big pond in the backyard. Finley also helped Chuck pick tomatoes from their garden. After all that fun, we headed to the Eastern Shore to get crabs. It was all you can eat and the crabs were amazing. I wish I had some right now! Finley was happy with the ice cream sundae that came after the crabs. She also loved feeding the ducks, but it went about the same as it does here in Texas. Cracker for Finley, cracker for a duck...and so on.

Endless Energy

Finley has so much energy these days.  She is still sleeping a ton, I think she is still making up for lost naps from our trip to Maryland. We are so busy with swim lessons and gymnastics. Things are going to get even busier once school starts. She is also starting dance in the fall, as well as continuing with gymnastics and swim lessons. We are dropping to one day a week swim lessons. Finley's backpack for school arrived in the mail today and she was so excited to try it on.

Happy Birthday, Samantha!

Samantha had a super fun Dora pool party for her birthday.  Finley had so much fun playing in the pools, making bracelets and eating cupcakes.  There was a book exchange for all the kids at the end of the party, which was really neat.  It was nice to get a new book for our ever growing library.  Birthday season is in full swing, Clifton took Finley to Jahan's car themed party, but he didn't snap any pictures.

Smoke Detector!

Ah, the smoke detectors. I had taken a peach and blueberry crisp to Clifton's office, complete with ice cream. Of course, Finley was with me. When we returned to the house, all the smoke detectors were going off. And not just a little beep, it was a full on blare. I left Finley in the car, then checked to make sure there was no smoke, there wasn't any. The kitchen was safe, just insanely loud. Finley was terrified and kept asking me to make it stop. I dragged the ladder in from the garage and took every smoke detector down in the house. Once the detectors in the bottom floors had stopped, Finley seemed a little better, but I was still crazed trying to get the other smoke detectors down. I was dragging the ladder around and climbing higher than I ever wanted to climb, but I got all the detectors down. Except one. Our fourth floor has a barrel ceiling and it is really high. High enough, that I had to stand on the top of the ladder, two steps above where you are never supposed to stand. After all that fuss, I finally got it down. I vacuumed out all the detectors and got all of them back up on the ceiling. All except the one on the top floor. I wasnt braving that ladder again, I was going to let Clifton tackle that one since he is 6" taller than I am. Everywhere we go, Finley tells people about the smoke detectors. The ladies who work at the gym, cashiers at the grocer, her coach at gymnastics (who asked me what was going on with the "beef smoke tractors")... And Finley's favorite thing to tell was that daddy had one more smoke detector to fix after mommy fixed all the smoke detectors. Yesterday, Daddy and Finley finally fixed the last smoke detector together. And Finley was so pleased! Hopefully, this stops her from telling the whole world about the smoke detectors, but I doubt it.

Finley's First Trip to Friendly's

One of the places I have to go to whenever we visit Maryland is Friendly's. A Fishamajig sandwich and a sundae with chocolate ice cream with peanut butter sauce takes me right back to childhood. I was excited for Finley to have her first ever conehead sundae, but she chose a Monster sundae with mint chocolate chip ice cream instead. We went straight to Friendly's after dad picked us up from the airport. Finley had been constantly snacking the entire plane ride, so she barely touched her monster sundae. Later in the week, we returned to Friendly's and she polished off her cone head sundae with ease.  And they serve her ideal kid's meal, a hot dog and mac n' cheese. The smirk in this picture cracks me up, it looks so much like Clifton!

Cousins

Aunt Rose sent me these two pictures last week.  One is of cousin Faith and the other is obviously Finley.  I see so much of Faith in Finley.  I first met Faith when she was Finley's age now.  The two of them will even make the same faces.  Such beautiful cousins!

Orioles Game Honoring Uncle Larry

The reason behind our trip to Maryland was to have a day to honor my Uncle Larry. The best way to honor him had to be an Orioles game followed by steamed crabs. We met up with Aunt Joan, cousin Chris, cousin Mike, his fiancee Katie and her kids, Lily and Brandon. Uncle Larry's friends Barb and Les also joined us. We all met at Camden Yards. Everyone went up to our seats, but I took Finley around the ballpark so that she could she the best stadium in all of baseball. I also wanted to make sure we went up the ramps to our seats, the same way I went up to my seats whenever I went with Uncle Larry.  Aunt Joan brought Finley the most adorable baseball clips, as luck would have it, they went perfectly with her crab outfit.  The crab outfit was purchased by Uncle Larry and Aunt Joan for Finley awhile back, it just now fits!

We were very lucky that the game was not at all crowded, we basically overtook a whole section and we had the club level right behind us to take breaks from the heat. Finley devoured three hot dogs, it was crazy. She must taste the difference quality makes.  The Orioles started out poorly, back to back homeruns by the Indians in the first inning.  The Orioles came through and scored eight runs, which gave them the win. 

After the victory, we headed over to Obryckis to feast on crabs.  They were so delicious!  Finley did fantastic all day and I was so thrilled that we were able to honor my Uncle Larry in such a special and fitting way.  I know it would have been a perfect day in his eyes.  We all love you Uncle Larry!

Circus Time

I was hosting a baby shower for my friend Jen, so it provided the perfect time for Finley to see the Greatest Show on Earth with her daddy. This year she came home with a motorcycle toy instead of two elephants or a clown.  She wore the adorable circus dress that Miss Courtney made for her second birthday party, it still fits her prefectly.