Come Ride With Me Dolly

Arabella got this dolly seat for Christmas and Dave just got around to actually putting it on her bike.  She was just using it as a car seat for her dolls.  Now it's completely attached to her bike and she took her baby for a long bike ride today.

Isn't this a cute little dolly seat?  It's called "Ride With Me Dolly" and we got it on Amazon for Christmas. 

Arabella with Baby Gracie

 

Rosie wanted to go for a bike ride too!

Arabella went to the trouble of moving the cubes (no small feat for this tiny little peanut) so she could make a car in the living room... Dave lost his foot rest and couldn't help but ask questions about why she was doing all this. I was perfectly content to sit on the couch and just watch her little imagination at work.

She is driving her kids to school of course. The little pink seat is actually going to be put on Arabella's bike tomorrow so she can take her baby for a ride... but in the meantime, it's a car seat. So she straps Baby Gracie in (tightly) and "vroooom" off they go. Soon she pulls up to the school and brings Baby Gracie over to me. "Gracie is in fifth grade this year. Please teach her how to do math. I'll see you at 3:00 Gracie!!!"

She leaves, gets in her car and forgets to buckle up... thankfully Dave reminded her. Then she drives off again... "vroooom!" Two minutes later she's back (time flies when you're having fun!) to pick up Gracie from fifth grade. I showed her how Gracie can now count and Arabella was a super proud mom. She strapped her in tightly and drove off.

Did you notice the bag next to the cube? That's Arabella's school bag... in it you will find a binder I gave her, a few papers she colored on, and every writing utensil she could find because "you need lots of pencils and pens in school Mommy!" Oh the enjoyment this child brings to our life is endless... just imagine what it'll be like when she has a brother or sister to play with!

Iowa State Fair

Where can you go if you want to find deep fried butter on a stick?  

Where do you go if you want to see a lot of crazy white trashy people jammed into one place walking around in the heat and humidity?

Where do you go to see a world-famous life-sized cow made entirely out of butter?

The Iowa State Fair of course!  

My favorite food at the fair is a monkey tail... frozen banana on a stick dipped in chocolate!  I had to share mine with Arabella, so I didn't get to enjoy the entire thing... and of course I forgot to take a picture of it.  

I did not however forget to take a picture of the 'egg on a stick' that we were given for free at the fair. 

It was delicious, as is mostly everything at the fair.  And as much as I wanted to try it just to say that I had tried it, I couldn't bring myself to get the deep fried butter on a stick.  

Arabella and I shared a giant roasted turkey leg and Dave had his favorite Italian grinder sandwich. We all shared fresh squeezed lemonade.  

We told Arabella she could choose any one ride to go on at the fair.  It was a tough choice.  She is now tall enough to go on most of the rides... thankfully she is still a little chicken and chose the safest choice she could... the Merry-Go-Round.  

Then as a super special treat (mostly because we found the cheapest place in the whole fair to get one) we got Arabella her very first slushy.  We let her pick whatever kind she wanted and she chose lime.  She didn't like it... she LOVED it.  (These were her words... "I don't like this slushy Mommy........ I LOOOOOVE this slushy!")  

Happy 100th birthday to the butter cow... see ya next year white trash Iowans! 

More Artwork by Arabella

 

My sweet Arabella is so proud of her artwork.  She cannot get enough time painting!

This is our family.  

Training in Progress

Dave decided he wanted to start running again. As we discussed this at breakfast one day, Arabella overheard and decided she too wanted to start running. So she asked her Daddy to "teach" her how to run. It's pretty hard to say no to such a cute little face, so of course he told her that he could teach her tomorrow.

Bright and early the next morning (and by early, I do mean 6:15 in the morning early) she woke us both up and said, "So can we go running now?" Talk about a wake up call. Well we didn't want to squash this interest of hers, so we both got up and dressed to go running. I was even able to get her dressed in shorts and a t-shirt without arguing about not wearing a dress (a daily occurrance).

She didn't make it very far before she needed a rest, but I was impressed with her interest to begin with. So now, they "Ralk" (Run-Walk) together every morning. I follow behind walking so that someone can walk with Arabella when she gets tired and Dave can keep running. As we walk, we talk about how Daddy ran track in high school and that's how he learned to run for so long without stopping... we also talk about how Arabella wants to run as fast as an antelope. She asks lots of questions during these "Ralks" and there are just too many funny things to remember. These conversations are quite possibly my favorite because they are just so honest and funny.

Budding Artist

My little budding artist has always loved paints. But until recently, her paintings usually took up the entire page and were indistinguishable to the untrained eye (of course she could always tell you what things were... but her version changed every time you asked her. ha ha). Now my sweet Arabella has come into her powers as a beautiful artist!

So today, I came downstairs to see her paintings and I said, (note to other parents: Don't try to guess, you'll probably be wrong.) "Oh look at those cool trees! I love the blue leaves!" To which I got the look... you know the one... it has this teenager attitude to it that tells you that you know NOTHING. Then she says, "Mommy, those are blueberries!" with the same sassy teenager attitude. God help me in ten years!

So, this beautiful painting is of blueberry trees. Of course! Anyway, she painted them for her Grandpa who is growing blueberries (bushes actually) but this year is a no grow year so that they'll get blueberries next year. He has explained this method to Bella, which she clearly understood because she told me that this painting will make Grandpa happy because now he'll have blueberries to look at until his grow in.

At any rate, her beautiful painting is in the mail to Grandpa and I need to invest in more water colors!

Now That You're 4 Years Old...

In an effort to be more electrically aware and do our part to be a little greener, we gave Arabella a new "chore" at home. She is not the official Electricity Chief for our house. Her job is to make sure we don't leave any lights or fans on when we're not in the room. She takes her job very seriously. So we decided to make her a chore chart to help her keep track of the other chores she doesn't take quite as seriously. So I made her this cute little chore chart and each night before bed, she gets to put one sticker for each chore she completed that day. She only has two chores: Electricity Chief and Pick Up Your Room... she's not a huge fan of picking up her room, but we wanted to start good habits early. Anyway, when I proposed the idea of this chart she was so excited because she decided that if she filled up all the boxes with stickers then she could color the fairy! Boy oh boy, I was willing to pay this kid like a dollar or something a week... but shoot if all she wants is to color the fairy then who am I to argue?! So here's a picture of her first completed chore chart... colored.