Charlie

Charlie is my buddy.  I think he thinks we are the same, but actually I am older than him.  

He is a total goofball but also a real sweetie pie.  

 We shared some cuddles on the bathroom floor.

 Charlie is so sweet.

I love him.

He can be a crazy wild-man, but he is a real love-bug.

A Parade!

Our neighborhood has a parade for the 4th of July!  Usually we are out of town and miss it, but this year we stayed home and celebrated here!  It was great!  Momma and I decorated my bicycle so I could ride in the parade.  

 Ready for the parade!

Here I go!

Check out my super decorated bicycle!

Daddy was surprised at the huge crowd that turned out for the parade!

Even Abe Lincoln was there!  Do you see him?

I'll give you a hint - he is towards the right, near the stop-sign.

He was riding a bicycle!  Who'd of thought we'd see him?

I had a great time at the parade!

After a good nap, we went to a swim/barbecue at a friend's house.

I hope you had a fun day, too!

String art

I love making crafts.  Recently Momma had this crazy idea to paint with string!

Check it out!  

We dipped the string in paint and dragged it across the paper!  

It was cool!

Swim Lessons

This summer I took swim lessons from Miss Nora.  She is amazing.  She teaches at this beautiful pool in her backyard and she makes it so much fun.  By the last day, I was swimming!  I even dove into the pool!  I love to swim! 

This is Miss Nora in the pool with me.  

She is helping me swim all the way down the pool to the deep end!

This was the last day of class, and we had a scavenger hunt!

Miss Nora put a bunch of coins in the pool for us to dive down and get!

I got a treasure!

It is sometimes hard for me to get to the bottom of the pool, because I just don't weigh very much!

So Miss Nora helped me.  

Off to the right you can see a blue ring with my bounty inside!

I jumped into the pool into this hula-hoop!

Then swim back to the side and use my muscles to get out of the pool!

 

Miss Nora taught me how to do a seated dive!

After class was over, she helped me do a standing dive, too!

I dove right in!

Momma was so proud of me!

I can't wait to do more swim lessons with Miss Nora next summer!

Big girl on my bike

The other day Momma and I went for a bike ride around the block!!  Usually I ride my bike on our driveway but Momma decided we were ready for the streets!  So I put on my helmet and away we went!

Yahoo!

 

Believe it or not, this bike is already too small for me!  We need a bigger bike. 

I am getting so big!

A birthday party!!!

Yes, we celebrated my birthday yet again!  This time it was a party with my friends.  We had a party with a friend of mine whose birthday is really close to mine.  We have joint parties every year.  Our moms create a great party together!  This year we did a Mermaids and Pirates party!  Oh boy, was it fun!

First, we went swimming in their pool.  I love to swim.

Having goggles makes swimming so great!

 I got to show Daddy how I can jump in the pool...

 and swim underwater!

I AM a mermaid!

 My friends had fun in the pool, too!

Is there a better way to spend a hot summer day than in the pool? 

I don't know of one....

After we ate, we went on a SCAVENGER HUNT!!

Momma made clues and put them in bottles and we had to go find all the clues!

Here's another clue!  The scavenger hunt was a BLAST!

Everyone loved it!

By the way, do you see my birthday girl tiara?

It is super fancy and I LOVE it!

At the end of the hunt, we found a treasure chest filled with beads and chocolate coins!

Yahoo!

 Then we ate the delicious cake Momma made!  Can you believe this cake?

Do you see the mermaid on the rock?

The candles were cannons!  We blew out the candles and then Momma sliced the cake.

It was DELICIOUS!

I had a great time at my birthday party, and so did my friends!

What a special day!

My birthday!

Momma and Daddy and I had a quiet celebration on my birthday.  Since we had already celebrated with G and Poppy and Auntie in Kansas City, and there was a party with my friends planned for another weekend, on my actual birthday it was just our family.  It was really nice!  Momma made a yummy dinner and we had French Strawberry Cake for dessert!

YUM!

 Would you like a slice?

 

Momma and Daddy made me this cool puppet theatre and some hand puppets!  It is so fun.  Daddy really likes to play puppets with me.  And Charlie likes to watch the show!

I had a great birthday!

Our last fun times in KC

We had a blast in KC but eventually we had to come home.  Before we left though, we squeezed in more fun!

We went out to dinner to a famous chicken place...

And we danced to the CD I got at Jiggle Jam from the Okee Dokee Brothers.  I LOVE this CD.

 

What is better than dancing to fun music with people you love? 

Nothing, I would say.

Here we are dancing!

The song is called, "My Camping Tent".

More dancing.

Such fun!

Do you like my wrinkled hair?  I slept in braids!!  

I love wrinkled hair!

On the way to the airport, we stopped for a concrete.  If you don't know what a concrete is, it is frozen custard with yummy goodies mixed inside.  Way better than regular ice cream.  Momma grew up with concretes so maybe it is a mid-west thing but it needs to become a Houston thing!  I mean, we have hot weather practically all year!  Why doesn't someone bring this yummy goodness to Houston??

I had such a fantastic time in Kansas City.

What a great way to celebrate my and Poppy's birthdays!

Jiggle Jam

As you know, one of the most important reasons to go to Kansas City during Memorial Weekend is to go to Jiggle Jam.  It is the most incredible kids/family music festival.
I LOVE it.

 

Momma made me this special dress for Jiggle Jam this year.  I was totally stylin'!

When we first got to Jiggle Jam we went to a stage where a band was playing but NO ONE was dancing.  That is just crazy!  So I went up to the stage and danced on that dance-floor all by myself.  My family was so proud (and surprised)!  After a while, other kids realized that dancing is great, and then they joined in.  What took them so long??  How can you listen to music and NOT shake your body??

Dancing is one of my most favorite things to do.  

I sure love when Auntie dances with me!

I also flew Daddy in a big airplane!

Here we are dancing again!  On the stage you see Jim Cosgrove, aka Mr. Stinky Feet.  

He is great!

We had to take many rests to get something to drink and relax a bit.  

Jiggle Jam is a day "jam"-packed with fun!

Oh, boy!  More dancing!

And they had an area with lots of these bouncy houses!

Up until this very moment I did NOT like bouncy houses, but this was Jiggle Jam so I gave it a go and loved it!  I jumped and jumped!

A PRINCESS was there!  Wow.

I took Auntie for a drive.  She was scared of my driving!

Daddy was too!

That is crazy talk because I am a very safe driver!

Jiggle Jam is so great.  "Fun" isn't even a good enough word to describe it.  It needs to be a word that means "fun" and "wonderful" and "super" and "cool" and "amazing" all at the same time! 

I just love it.  Before we left, we bought a CD of one of the bands, "The Okee Dokee Brothers".  (They even autographed it!!!)  They are so great!  I know all of the songs by heart now.  The CD is on a LOT at our house, which is okay because the music is so good Momma and Daddy love it too!!

As soon as we left I asked when we can go back again. 

I think this will be a tradition for my family.  It should be for yours too.  

Jiggle Jam is THE BEST!