The Mendham Circus

The circus came to town!  It wasn't a three ring circus and there weren't elephants or tigers jumping through rings of fire BUT there were some things that really entertained the kids :) (and some things that made Kevin and I look at each other and laugh!).  It took Arden a little while to warm up to the whole show and she never made friends with the clown (but really, clowns are strange) but she had a great time and eventually they told her to back-up from the main stage!

{The Big Top}

{Arden: "I think I like this so you get a half clap."... notice her pretzel mouth!}

{Don't leave me Dad!}

{The jugglers...it was a Father Son duo!}

{One of the main attractions!  This horse was so tame...he even let people - Moms - from the audience ride him and stand on his back!  Then at intermission you could ride him for one spin around the ring for $5.  He made his money that day!}

{See this isn't so bad!}

{And this is where she decided she had no more fears.  She sat on the ring with her sippy cup and snack cup.  She thought she owned the place!}

{Maybe Arden's favorite act - the Dogs!  There was a trio of women who had Poodles that followed them around in matching costumes.  I lost count of all of the costume changes for the women and the dogs but there were Hula dogs, Patriotic dogs, Can-Can dogs, Mardi-gras dogs and Batman dogs.  Really, there were all of those and then some!}

On Saturday we went to "Chester Days"... Chester is a small, super cute town about 10 minutes from Mendham.  We weren't sure what to expect, and to be honest I think we missed most of the activities, but it was sort of like a scene from a movie!  You know, the movies that are about small towns and every year on the same weekend they have a festival and the whole town goes and almost lives for it...it was that type of scene (something that we would for sure in the South!  But of course the South would have crafts and LOTS of things to buy that were carved out of wood).  We did see an "old tyme" baseball game (well the uniforms were throw backs...way back!) and a band.  We tried to wait in line for food but after standing in a LONG line for about 10 minutes it started to sprinkle so we decided we didn't really have to eat the Chester Days food.  Plus, everyone else had brought lawn chairs and blankets for picnics and we didn't have any of that so we decided to stroll through Chester, eat at the local Deli and look at antique stores.

{The "old tyme" baseball game!  The uniforms seemed like originals!}

{The Band}

{Kevin really wanted Arden's picture with the bear...notice she didn't care AT.ALL.}

All-in-all it was a great weekend.  I know that I may sound as if I am picking on the Mendham Circus (and we received fair warning that it wasn't Barnum & Bailey's) but I want to say that Mendham is a fabulous place to live.  It is small and quaint and sort of a suburb of a suburb but Kevin and I were just talking this past weekend about how lucky we feel to have found this house and this town.  It has really made our transition so much easier and has already given us so many great memories...like the circus ;)!

Lots of thoughts and prayers going out to everyone in Joplin.  I don't personally know anyone that lives there but have passed through there several times and knowing it is so close to NWA my heart goes out to all of those that lost so much in the terrible storm.

Hugs,
Hillary

A Little of This, A Little of That

This is a major catch-up post!  It is suddenly the middle of May (May 15th to be exact, which is my Mom's birthday, Happy Birthday MiMi!) - April seemed to drag by and May has been super fast.  The weather here is getting much better.  Lots of really pretty days and weekends with some rain but not like the month of April!  The temps have been in the 60's so when Arden gets home from school we play on the driveway for a while.  Her choice of activities lately has been sidewalk chalk.  She will make some scribbles and then hands me the chalk so I can make my own scribbles.  We feed her dinner and put her to bed.  Sometimes she has been in bed before 8:00 and I sort of feel bad because I can still hear birds chirping outside!  But she is so, so tired from school that she is happy to have a bath and be in her biscuit.  Kevin and I have really enjoyed sitting on the back deck and cooking out at night - it is still cool enough though I am wearing a fleece and usually have to go inside after too long because I am cold...such a good problem to have though!

Our weekends have been quiet but packed full of little adventures which is nice.  We are having so much fun living as a family of 3 again :).  Monday's are always hard because we have gotten spoiled by our weekend family time.  Soon (I promise) I will post about the "circus" we went to on Friday night.  It was entertaining to Arden, which is all that matters, but a few times Kevin and I laughed out loud at the performances...let's just say it wasn't The Ringling Brother's or Barnum & Bailey's!

Easter weekend wasn't what we had planned.  Kevin caught a major bug and was laid up for a few days so we celebrated the next weekend.  Luckily, the Easter Bunny was able to come back and give Arden her present and hide a few eggs for her ;).

{This is the play kitchen the Easter Bunny brought Arden - she loves it!}

{This was her excitement when she saw Daddy after she woke up from her nap...what a face!}

{She's has been Daddy's girl lately, it is really sweet}

{Checking out the kitchen}

{Doing some laundry}

{Checking the oven}

{Her face when she saw Easter eggs "hidden" on the deck.  She let out a gasp of excitement!}

{Picking up her eggs, with Izzy's help of course.  She later found out the eggs had Goldfish, puffs and pretzels in them - all of her favorites!  Such a good Easter Bunny!}

{Attempted a photo opp in her dress}

{Izzy joined her on the bench.  Notice she is feeding Izzy a pretzel while holding one pretzel in her mouth and one in each of her hands!}

{Finally a smile...with pretzels of course!}

{Happy girl :)}

Mother's Day was a weekend long celebration.  Kevin really made it special for me and made sure we did whatever I wanted to do.  Of course, the things I wanted to do were sleep-in and hang out with he and Arden.  Friday night we cooked out and relaxed at home.  Saturday we went to lunch at Five Guys (yum burgers!) then did a little shopping and went to the park.  We went to Morristown to eat dinner and walked around downtown some and enjoyed Cold Stone too (always a fan of that!).  Sunday morning Kevin made cinnamon rolls and gave me a gift that Arden made :).  He took her to a local place that paints pottery (just like Different Strokes in Fayetteville) and they made a platter for me that has her hand print on the bottom.  Something so sweet and something I will love using!

{This girl LOVES going down slides!}

{Driving the train}

{Gotta love her crooked smile!!}

{Back to the slide - this time with Dad!}

{Mom got to ride the train with Arden this time!}

Hope you are all enjoying your May - summer is right around the corner...woooo hoooo!

Hugs,
Hillary

Yogurt Bath

Arden has really wanted to be independent lately.  It makes me so happy in so many ways and really tests my patience in others.  One thing she is into right now is feeding herself - and I am not talking about feeding herself Goldfish or grapes, I am talking about yogurt and applesauce!  So, we try and embrace it and encourage her and take her straight to the bath when she is finished ;).

{Not a yogurt pic - even though she is holding her yogurt on her way to her highchair - but one day last week I was out of town so Kevin got her ready for school.  She refused to take off her pajama top so he put her dress over it and off she went...here you can see her orange sleeves sticking out!}

{And it begins...we pretty much undress her for this whole thing!}

{The spoon gets boring so her hands go right in the cup!}

{Pouring the yogurt out is much easier!}

{Using both hands to get every little bit she can...or what hasn't dropped on her belly yet!}

{Back to the spoon but what you can't see is she is now using the wrong end of the spoon - and there is no correcting her!}

{Pointing to the Backyardigans on TV}

{All finished!}

{She isn't a fan of the mess in the end but like I said, and you can now see, we go straight to the bath!}

{Not sure you can tell very well but this is what happens to Izzy when she stands under the highchair waiting for food to drop...she has Cheerios stuck all over her back!!}

Things are good here!  The weather is still yucky most days but we are learning to manage.  I met some more neighbors and they are great!  Two of them have daughters around Arden's age so I am hoping we can have lots of play dates!

We ended up having a very uneventful Easter.  Kevin caught a major bug and was sick all weekend so we hung at home.  We talked to the Easter Bunny and he said he would come back when we could get Arden up and outside to hunt eggs so he will be back and we will definitely have pics ;)!

Hugs,
Hillary

Week 2.5

Week 2.5...feels like month 8!  I don't mean that in a bad way but we have been busy, a good busy.  Work has taken over for me so Kevin is being Mr. Mom (thanks Kev!).  We still have some boxes to unpack - I keep telling everyone they are the boxes we never should have brought but I think I am finally motivated to get them unpacked.  Unpacking/organizing took over our life for the first weekend we were here so I got burned out and had to stop for a while!  Kevin, bless his heart for putting up with me, would have had a home for every single thing by now if it wasn't for me saying "oh, let's do it later!"  I follow that with, "we will get it done" and I know we will...in time ;).  (But to my credit anyone who knows me well is not surprised by those last two sentences!)

What we have been doing...

Getting Arden's ears "rechecked."  As I said earlier, I was not looking forward to finding a new pediatrician (heart Dr. Averitt!), and while we found a good, solid doctor we didn't find "our" doctor.  Arden's ear infection/sinus infection/conjunctivitis (sp?) was gone when we went for the recheck but she did still have fluid on her ear so we are still on meds and have to go back and recheck the recheck at 3 weeks, so we will throw in her 18-month check up at that time with another doctor (same clinic) and then shop around if we need too.  The doctor we saw last week wasn't bad, he was very qualified and warmed-up the more we stood around and talked but he isn't from the South ;).  As my Dad says though, if they are a good doctor we can deal with personality!

Arden has done pretty well.  We are all adjusting and I don't give her enough credit for knowing what is going on.  Bless her heart - a new house, a new school and a mommy traveling for work within 2.5 weeks is a lot on little one.  But she is a trooper and her smile gets us thru! She and I have been fighting about her hair (I am sure the first fight of many!)...it is time for a bow or some sort of barrette to keep the front held back but every time I put something in she pulls it out.  And not only does she pull it out she fusses until it comes out and as soon as she realizes it is out of her hair she smiles and goes on her merry little way ;).  What HAS happened is she has teachers at school fixing her hair and, of course, she LOVES it.  One day she came home with a pony tail and one day hair sticking straight up on her head like Pebbles.  How they get her to sit still so they can fix her hair I have no idea but it is my new goal to be able to get her to wear something in her hair...I mean she wore bows and flowers larger than her head until a few months ago, it will be a piece of cake...right?!

And she learned to climb the stairs and go down on her bottom (video below).  That same night the second baby gate went up so we now have one at the top of the stairs and the bottom of the stairs...no one seems to be more annoyed than Izzy ;).

{Dr.'s appointment...see what I mean about her hair?!  It was rainy that day though ;)!}

{Arden: "Daddy, I am going to do it...I can go up and down all by myself, just watch." }

 

{Has anyone seen Bam Bam?!}

{So I got her to wear this bow for at least half a day...then we are going shopping and I hear "uh oh" and I turn around to find her handing me the bow, very innocently, but it hasn't been in her hair since!)

{Izzy has made herself at home!}

{Arden's first art project!!!  Easter eggs, bunnies and chicks...a masterpiece!}

The weather here has been yucky.  Only about a handful of sunny days.  Someone told me that if I didn't like the weather in Connecticut (this was while I was working) then wait a minute, it would change...I didn't have the heart to tell him that was the joke in Arkansas too!  When it warms up we will be out and about and have lots to talk about!

On another note, technology is a wonderful thing!  Since I was prego with Arden we have had a "gender party" where we do old wives tell type of tests to try and predict if we are having a boy or a girl.  Tonight was Shelly's night and I was there via Skype...between tears and smiles (from me of course!) we found out Shelly is having a....

Hugs,

Hillary