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.

Running with Lance

We had a special surprise when we got to the Perry's house.  Lance and his fiance Barie were in town from New York City for the weekend.  Lance was so good with Finley, they had a blast running around the backyard.  Sadly, we didn't get to see them for very long, but I am so glad they got to meet Finley.  Finley loved having a big backyard to play in, no matter how hot it was outside.  No matter where we went, Finley wanted to play outside.  Even though it was 100+ degrees nearly every day we were in Maryland.  I though we might get a nice break from the Houston heat, turns out, it was worse in Maryland than it was back home in Texas.  Too bad the Perry's old rope swing wasn't still in the backyard, I am sure Finley would have had a blast with it.

Stampin' it Up!

After a crazy week of travelling, Finley has had a very easygoing day today.  She woke up super early this morning (7 am!) and she had two breakfasts, oatmeal in the early morning and then sausage, eggs and toast with Daddy a bit later.  She and I headed to the gym, lucky for Finley, Miss CiCi was there.  Finley adores her and I think the feeling is mutual.  Miss CiCi had brought in a Dora band-aid especially for Finley.  Finley has become borderline obsessed with wearing band-aids.  It was so sweet and Finley wore her band-aid on whatever "bug bite" was bothering her at the moment.  We headed home for lunch and then Finley took her first official nap in well over a week.  In Maryland, Finley took catnaps in the car, but never one in her crib.  Luckily, she didn't protest too much and went down without a struggle as long as I promised that she could play with her stamps when she woke up.  It was a deal!  I have really enjoyed our relaxed day today, especially since the craziness resumes tomorrow with gymnastics class.

Visiting with Grandad's Family

On Thursday, we headed to Olney to visit Aunt Audrey, Uncle Eddie, Nana and Uncle Tommy.  Aunt Audrey and Nana have been loyal followers of Finley's blog since the first post.  Aunt Audrey crocheted the pink blanket that Finley sleeps with every night, I know Finley was happy to meet her.  Nana's late husband made the cradle that Finley slept in for her first few months of life.  What a lovely family connection!  After a nice lunch where Finley ate fruit, chips and cupcakes (a toddler's dream!), we all sat around and shared pictures.  Finley loved playing with the Mah Jong tiles with Nana, she had so much fun setting them all up on the racks.  She also had a good time putting all of Aunt Audrey's beanie babies to sleep on their big pillow.  Thanks for the fantastic visit, we hope to be able to see all the family again soon.

The National Aquarium

On Monday, Grandad, Finley and I headed up to Baltimore to spend the day at the National Aquarium.  I hadn't been to the aquarium in years, possibly since elementary school.  The aquarium has tripled in size since I was last there.  They have added a dolphin presentation area and an Austrailian animal area.  Finley was very interested in the all the fish, especially looking for "Nemo", aka the clown fish.  She also loved running up and down the ramps in the reef area.  The dolphin show isn't running this summer, but we were lucky enough to happen to be there when they were doing a dress rehearsal of the show that is going to launch in the fall.  The dolphins did so many neat tricks and Finley really enjoyed watching them.  As you can tell, Finley was bright eyed when we headed out in the morning and was fast asleep on our drive home.  Strollers aren't allowed in the aquarium due to all the moving sidewalks and escalators, so Finley had done a ton of walking.

Visiting Aunt Sharon and Uncle "Owl"

We have been in Maryland for the last few days and I have a lot of posts to make.  Today, we headed up to Reisterstown to visit my Aunt Sharon and Uncle Al, or Uncle "Owl" as Finley calls him.  Aunt Sharon is waiting on hip replacement surgery, so we brought up a crabcake lunch from G&M.  Finley had a lot of fun exploring the backyard and playing with all the pebbles that Aunt Sharon's grandson, Mikey, had collected.  Finley has really been enjoying our trip, but I think she is getting super tired from all the skipped naps.  Hopefully, we can get her to bed early tonight because there is all you can eat crabs scheduled for tomorrow!

Lunch with Baby Caroline

Finley's swim lessons are in Pearland, which is a suburb of Houston that is only a 15 minute drive from our house.  Besides having fantastic swim instructors at the Houston Swim Club, Pearland is also home to my favorite pizza place, Center Court Pizza.  We were lucky to meet Miss Leslie and baby Caroline for lunch after swim lessons.  The late morning swim class schedule is perfect for having lunch afterwards.  Finley loves the pizza as much as I do, she eats three slices!  Finley has so much fun entertaining baby Caroline, they are so cute together.

Ice Cream Treat

Finley has been doing amazingly well with potty training, they really are right, when they are ready, they are ready.  We went to daddy's office to drop off a dessert and Finley had to use the potty.  I was caught without any lollipops or M&Ms to reward her with and since we had just dropped off some ice cream,  I decided to take her to get some ice cream as a treat. And what a treat it was, Finley loves her ice cream.  I think she got more chocolate ice cream all over her hands, arms and face...but not a single drop on her dress.  It is so nice to be able to share ice cream with Finley on a summer afternoon.  After her ice cream treat, we headed over to see Miss Maria to get Finley's hair cut.  She just trimmed the ends, her hair has really suffered from the chlorine in the pool.  Miss Maria said her bangs are almost all grown out, yay!

Swimming in Taylor Lake

Finley likes the boat, but she loves to swim.  Aunt Rose and cousin Faith joined us this weekend for an afternoon on the boat.  Faith even rode the tube, she is so brave.  Maybe next time she will wakeboard like Clifton does.  I still want to invest in a nice tube you can sit up in.  I saw several younger kids using similar set ups and I think maybe next year Finley could ride along with me in a two person tube.  Finley had so much fun swimming with Aunt Rose and Faith.  I know Aunt Rose and Faith took more pictures than I did, so once I get them from them, I will post more pictures. It is amazing how much Finley and Faith look alike, they could be sisters! Beautiful sisters =)

Gymnastics

Finley is enrolled in gymnastics class for the summer.  Her first class was a little over a month ago and it was pretty rough.  Finley wasn't excited about doing much of anything during class, she was especially frightened to the balance beam.  Now, she will do a somersault and cross the parallel bars by herself.  We originally had her in an afternoon class so that she could do the two week straight swimming session.  Her class was at maximum capacity and there was a little girl who enjoyed pulling Finley's hair, even though Finley asked her to stop numerous times.  It seemed like a good idea to switch her to a morning class and it was an even better idea when I learned there were only two other students in the class.  Finley has really blossomed and the gym is not nearly as chaotic.  Sorry for the fuzzy pictures, but like swimming, the parents are behind a two-way mirror.

Oh, I wish I were...

an Oscar Mayer weiner...