Who Needs TV?

Not this girl!

We Went to Phoenix - Part 2

Here are the last of the pictures from our Phoenix trip. In true Mommy fashion, I didn't get any photos of my time alone with Mark. Thanks to my awesome parents, we got two dates and almost every evening we went to the hot tub after putting the girls down. It was awesome.

Meanwhile the actual photos I got were:

Norah on the playground at the outlet mall.

Norah running to play at her "Far Far Away Blue Park".
She's been talking about going back to this park since last year. 

Norah going down the slide at the Far Far Away Blue Park

Penny's first time on the swings. **LOVED IT**

Norah picking out some shoes.
She's "gonna wear these to a wedding"

Penny's first time at Five Guys. **ALSO LOVED IT**

Penny standing on the front seat at a rest stop, halfway home.

We Went to the Zoo

The zoo is its own post. As it should be.
Stay tuned... I'm almost caught up to mid-January!

There was posing with a Komodo Dragon (statue).
While eating fruit snacks.

There was posing with a goat.

There was posing with the back end of a goat...

There was "driving" stationary tractors.

There was a cactus slide!

And there was my favorite gift shop item, possibly ever.
Seriously.
What American child doesn't need a stuffed mom and baby stingray?

We Went to Phoenix

Every year my parents book a trip to Phoenix to escape the cold. This year has been so mild that we really didn't need to escape, but hey, why turn down a vacation?

There will be a couple of posts to break things up a bit. Here are a few highlights from the beginning of the trip:

There was short sleeve and sandal wearing!

Big sister turned out to be quite the daredevil.



Little sister still tolerated the front pack.

But was MUCH more excited about standing on her own!

Thanks to Grammy and Grampy's generosity,
Norah learned that those rides at the mall really DO move.

The Plight of the Second Child

We're rewinding all the way to the day after Christmas.

...Because that's when we had Penny's birthday party.

...And I haven't blogged about Penny's birthday yet.

...Because she's the second child.

...AND she was born right after Christmas.


Ok, I think that's enough poor grammar and fragment sentences. On to the photos!

We had close friends and family over. It was a jungle animal themed party with giraffes, elephants and hippos.
No, I did NOT take down Christmas. Penny is just gonna have to get used to it.

The other guests were noticeably neater eaters. 

They also "helped" Penny open her presents. This is what happens when your friends are older.

In any case, Penny had tons of fun at her first birthday! 

I have to admit, it's tough to do a birthday party right after Christmas. It was a challenge to even find a day when most of our friends and family could come! On the other hand, it was really nice to have a simple party with family and just a few really close friends. The truth is that Penny had a blast and we had a blast celebrating her.

Even if we did get the photos up a little late. :-)

A Letter & A Confession

Whenever Norah sees a notepad she insists on "writing a letter". She wrote this one on resort stationary while we were on vacation in Phoenix. Here is what this letter says, according her strict dictation to me as she was writing:

Ahhhhem (she actually made the throught clearing sound as she was writing)...
Dear Claire,
You left your toy doggy at my house when you came to visit us. My parents will know how to send it to you as soon as they remember. Until then, don't worry, I'm taking really good care of him.
Love,
Norah

Also, Claire, do you remember me?



So there you have it. For those of you who worry that writing letters is a dying art, not only does my three-year-old know how to "write a letter" she also knows that the purpose of written communication is just as much about guilting a third party into doing their job as it is about sending a message to the intended reciepient.

So here's my confession... There are lots of things I have forgotten or haven't made time for since we rolled on over to 2012. I'm sad to admit that I haven't even posted about Penny's first birthday! For shame!!

So, I'll be playing catch up over the next few weeks with some rewind posts and stuff. I figure since it's almost the end of January, it's about time I got back to communicating with my tens of readers.

See ya soon!!

Kisses

I have some stuff to share from our recent vacation, but first, a thank you to Grandma (and her good friend Ann) for Penny's new hat.