Birthday Party Sunday

At Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy's house for the birthday party

Playing it cool in the pool

Loving being tossed up and down by Mommy in the pool

Getting dried off by Daddy

Oscar getting pushed by Charlotte on the swing

Cara playing with Charlotte's princess toys after dinner

On Sunday we went to Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy's house for a swimming party and birthday party for Aunt Amy. The weather was just perfect for an outside party in the pool. Cara loved swimming as usual. It was great having all 5 cousins swimming together with everyone. After swimming we had dinner, then cake and homemade ice cream. We hope Aunt Amy had a great birthday! We enjoyed celebrating with her!

Parade Day

Yeah, waiting for the parade to start

Posing with Daddy in our matching band t-shirts, Go Band!

Daddy marching in the parade with his high school band

Watching the parade go by

On Saturday we headed up to Daddy's school for the annual Summer's End Festival Parade. It is on the one and only parade for his band (and they are all thankful for that). So on Friday night, we made Cara an official band t-shirt with the logo just like all the big kids would be wearing. It came out so cute! All the band students were impressed by their youngest members attire for the day. Too bad she was too little to march with them, she is still trying to get walking down, and marching holding onto an instrument is another story! In between heavier rain showers, in a light misting rain, we sat under an umbrella and watched the parade. After the parade we hit the vendors for some yummy festival food, stuffed our bellies, and headed home right before another downpour hit.

This past week Cara started taking steps on her own, without holding onto us or anything else. We (I) captured some very poor video of her walking across the kitchen floor all by herself with Daddy by her side for moral support. Unfortunately my video taping skills are far inferior to Daddy's and the video is not of post quality, but hopefully soon Daddy can capture her steps!

Miss Independent

Cara loves to feed herself by taking her own bites and not letting Mommy and Daddy cut things into pieces, here she is enjoying a grilled cheese sandwich

Her newest trick in her rocking chair, standing up making it rock (so safe, haha)

Hi!

Cara just loves Panther and it is so cute to see her with him, she constantly wants to lay on him as a pillow and she says "cat" all day long!

Cara is just becoming such a little girl everyday, where did our baby go? She is almost walking by herself, she just needs the smallest amount of help, but hopefully any day now and she will be taking off. She is so much fun and very difficult to keep up with her activity level during the day, she gets into everything and always has to be busy!

Beautiful Saturday

Swinging high in my swing!

After weeks of temps in the 90's and very high humidity, we enjoyed a beautiful Saturday! It was great to play outside, which we did multiple times during the day. We went for a nice walk in her wagon, went for a swing on the back porch, played with her bubble machine, and looked at Mommy's flowers out front. It is supposed to warm right back up, so we are glad we got to enjoy an outside day!

Weekend Fun

Clearing out the cabinet to "help" Mommy and Daddy

Hmm... what else is in here?

Fun at the State Fair on Saturday

Walking through Main Street to see what other great yummy fair food we need to try

With Mommy and Daddy at the fair

Posing in my new I Love Dad t-shirt that Grandma and Grandpa A got on their travels in DC


We had a busy fun weekend. On Friday, while Mommy was in the kitchen, I was given free access to the cabinet full of plastic bowls and containers to occupy my time. Boy was it fun to help them by taking out each item one by one. It gave Mommy time to make and decorate the cake for her friends bridal shower that day. Then later in the day I went with Mommy to the bridal shower! I loved to see friends from Mommy's work and try to get into everything!

On Saturday morning Grandma F came over and we went to the Indiana State Fair. It was fun to see so many people, and lots of little kids. I got to try lots of yummy food, I am so glad I eat table food now because I sure would have missed out. It was a fun day. We also went shopping Saturday afternoon, and then went swimming Saturday evening before bedtime. What a fun day!

On Sunday I got to wear my new "I love Dad" shirt which was perfect for taking Daddy shopping to get "back to school" clothes and supplies. I really enjoyed having my Daddy home all summer and it was sad to think of him returning back to school already. Mommy had to work Sunday night so Daddy and I enjoyed some special time together on Monday! Today (Tuesday) is Daddy's first official day back at school!

Saying goodbye to Aunt Cyndi

Last Thursday we had to say goodbye to Aunt Cyndi at the airport. It was a sad day, but we didn't take pictures of the teary pictures, only the ones sitting in the food court enjoying our last little bit of time together. The month that Cyndi was here went by much too quickly. We hope that she will return soon, and hopefully she and Dan can return together soon. Cyndi said it was hardest saying goodbye to Cara because she is changing so much all the time and Cyndi is missing all of it. But it will be really hard to say goodbye once Cara understands and cries too!!

Aunt Cyndi's homemade spaghetti sauce

We recently were treated to Aunt Cyndi's homemade ragu sauce made as Italian as possible with American ingredients. Cara just loves spaghetti and really enjoyed feeding herself. We were all fans of the yummy sauce! Thanks Aunt Cyndi!

What a Busy Week

Hard at play, but stopped to give Mommy and the camera a big smile

Swimming on my birthday, Mommy really wanted to take me to the zoo but everyone said it was too hot and we better not go, so we did the next best thing and went swimming

We love to swim

Swam so hard, I fell asleep in the car on the way to my birthday dinner

Another birthday celebration on my actual birthday, the 31st

Yeah, more presents! This cute shirt says "I Love My Dad"

Mommy and I went to the airport to say goodbye to Uncle D!

We have had a busy week. We celebrated Cara's actual birthday on the 31st with dinner at the Claddagh Irish Pub (not Cara's choice of course, we have a few years before she always picks Chuck E Cheese as her restaurant of choice for her birthday dinner). Both sets of grandparents and Uncle Dan and Aunt Cyndi joined us. Then back at the house we had cake and ice cream. Then Cara got more presents! Had to save some to open on her birthday! For her party she got a lot of clothes, so Mommy and Daddy got her all toys.

We had a sad day on Wednesday saying goodbye to Uncle Dan! He headed back to Italy. It will be another sad day on Thursday when Aunt Cyndi leaves. We have really enjoyed their visit and will miss them!

Daddy started summer band this past week so Grandpa F got to babysit Cara again for the first time in a while. She really enjoyed her playtime with him. Daddy has summer band next week and then school starts the next week :( Where did the summer go?