Giraffe Pool

Cheese!

Look, I can swim on my belly!

Hmm.. this water is yummy!

Mommy was just browsing through the Sunday ad's, when the picture of this super fun giraffe pool popped out of Target's ad. We thought our little water baby would love having a slightly bigger pool with a slide. Well worth the $23 bucks it cost, she had so much fun!!

With the hose hooked up to it, water comes sprinkling out of the giraffes mouth, which doubled as a drinking fountain for Cara. She loved going down the slide, had to do it over and over about a hundred times! Hours and hours of summertime fun ahead!!

Fun at Grandma & Grandpa's House

Cara helping Grandpa open his birthday gifts

And helping Grandma too

Enjoying yummy birthday cake, homemade by Mommy and Daddy to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa's birthdays

Trying out the rocking horse, a great "new to her" find by Grandma

Another great "new-to-her" find is the cute little car, which she loved!

All ready in her life jacket for a trip out on the boat

On the paddle boat with Mommy and Grandpa, enjoying an afternoon ride on the pond

Grandma and Grandpa's neighbors have llamas, Cara kept calling them "mamas" which was so cute. They were very curious about her calling them.

A summer trip to G & G's house would not be complete without a swim in the pool, the water was pretty chilly because of all the rain, but it did not bother Cara one bit

We headed up to Grandma and Grandpa A's house to celebrate Grandpa's birthday on Wednesday. We hope Grandpa had a great birthday celebration. Cara enjoyed helping open the presents afterwards. We also were celebrating Grandma's birthday which is in a couple of weeks, since she will be out of the country then.

We got to play with all kinds of new toys at their house. Grandma has found some great deals at garage sales! Cara loved her new little playhouse, but I guess we didn't get pictures of it. She also loved her little car! And as always, it is great to have tea parties at their house with the little table and her tea set! We had a couple of really busy days! It is the last time G & G will visit with her before they go visit Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Danilo, so we had to get in lots and lots of play time and cuddle time. I know Cara will really miss them while they are gone, but we look forward to lots of pictures and skype time!

Catch Up for the Week

Enjoying a very tasty ear of corn at dinner , it is so funny watching her eat corn off the cob!

Being silly, I love the smile in this one, I can hear her giggle just by looking at this picture

After dinner, while we were busy loading the dishwasher and putting everything away, Cara decided to hop in the pool-fully clothed- for an an after dinner swim

So we stripped her down, added some hot water to the pool to make it warmer, turned on her bubbles and let her play away!

Playing peek a boo in the slide at the park

At the family reunion on Sunday, holding my cousin's new puppy. His name is Stuart but Cara kept calling him Buddy because of our neighborhood dog she likes to visit.



We had quite a busy and entertaining week last week. Grandma and Grandpa A came for a visit and to help with babysitting while Daddy attended a class at IUPUI in music technology. Cara was so excited by their visit because she had not seen them since before our vacation. They had lots of playtime together! They set up her baby pool on the porch for her to enjoy a quick swim without having to go down to the big neighborhood pool. It is great except for when she wants to jump in with her clothes on. They had to go back home on Friday but we will go up to visit them this week for a birthday celebration.

Saturday was Grandma and Grandpa F's 39th anniversary! Happy Anniversary!!

On Sunday was our family reunion at a nearby park. The weather held out for an afternoon of fun and sun. The little ones love the playground at the park! Cara also enjoyed seeing so many relatives and spending time with her cousins. But the biggest joy to her day was playing with the puppy! She thought it was so neat to wrap him in a blanket and hold him just like she does to her baby dolls.

More Father's Day

Daddy and Cara reading and listening (it plays a song) to the card we got him

Helping Daddy unwrap his presents, we got him a couple of new movies and a new bottle of cologne

Then we headed down to Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy's house for a swimming party/cookout. Unfortunately Daddy went back to the Jazz Fest because he already had a ticket for today, but we did get to spend the morning and early afternoon with him.

Here is most everyone enjoying the lovely afternoon in the pool, it was so much fun

Here is Cara in her little bikini, prior to putting on her swimsuit with built in floaties

Here is Dillon going down the slide, once he did Oscar wanted to go down too . Oscar has no fear in the water, he can dive down to get dive sticks and he would just jump in whether there was anyone to catch him or not (don't worry there always was)

And the less fear that Oscar had the more brave Cara got, here SHE is on the slide, WOW!

Getting ready to go down, ready set go!! I can't believe she went down all by herself, and ended up totally going under despite the floatie bathing suit she had on. Uncle Mike and Mommy were right there to quickly catch her!

Thanks Uncle Joe and Aunt Amy for a wonderful afternoon and swimming party! It was so fun to see the kiddos swim and play together! I hope my brothers and my dad had a wonderful father's day celebration! Too bad Scott missed out on the fun, we really missed him! He enjoyed himself at the jazz fest but said he really wished we had gone with him.

Happy Father's Day 2008

Jazz fest 2008, Daddy and Cara snuggling between acts
This picture was taken yesterday at Jazz Fest! Cara loved the jazz music, especially Dave Koz, she was dancing and clapping, it was so cute!

Happy Father's day to the best Daddy and husband! Thank you for everything you do for us, you are such a terrific father and husband! I love watching you play with Cara, she just adores you and the smile on your lips and twinkle in your eyes makes my heart melt!

To our fathers: Thank you for all that you do for us! You are so generous with your lives to help make our lives better! We don't say it often enough, but THANK YOU and WE LOVE YOU!!

May all father's have a wonderful and special Father's Day today!!

Another Fun Disney Pic

I wanted to share this picture of us on the Buzz Lightyear ride! Some rides take your picture for the gullible to spend $20 on remembering a moment, but in this case it was well worth it. I love how you can see all 3 of us intently enjoying this ride. THis is one of my favorite memories of the trip.

We are slowly getting back into the routine of our normal boring day life, one without characters entertaining us at meals, without fast passes to quickly do what we want next, and with better sleep in our own beds. Mommy had to head right back to work on Tuesday, so Daddy and Cara got in lots of play time.

Home Sweet Home

One worn out little girl on the airplane ride home!


We are back home safe and sound! Just wanted to make a quick post to let everyone know our vacation fun is over, but will live forever in our pictures and videos. Cara was such a trooper the whole trip! Her schedule was all messed up, her appetite was up and down, but her spirits were always great! She was too young to complain about the heat, not being able to ride a certain ride, or having to do what Mom and Dad wanted to do, she just went with the flow. Although there are critics out there who think she was too young to go, she still had a great time. She was in awe of the whole experience and it was such a joy for us to watch the excitement in her eyes!

More Magic Kingdom Fun

Posing outside of ToonTown
Meeting princess Aurora all by herself, she sure got brave now that we have been here for a week
Meeting Tigger and Darby today
Having fun on the carousel with Mommy and Grandma
On the jungle cruise
We had dinner tonight with Pooh, Tigger, Eeyore, and here she is meeting Piglet
Hugging Eeyore, she was so excited to meet him, it was so cute
And of course our night could not be complete with a swimming session before bedtime


Another wonderful and memorable day at Disney world. The weather was fabulous, well a bit hot but could have been so much worse. Cara warmed up to the characters, finally :) We had a really fun day, a perfect way to end our trip!

More Hollywood Studios

On Friday after nap time we returned to Hollywood studios just in time for our dinner reservations at Mama Melrose's Ristorante Italiano. "authentic' Italian food to you and me, probably American Italian to Cara's Aunt and Uncle :)


We then rode the brand new Toy story ride which just opened in time for our visit. It is a 4D ride with an arcade theme in which you have a "shooter" and join in the arcade games. It was really fun!
Here are the 3 of us in our car for the ride, Cara was not quite sure what was going on but asked for more after it was over



On Saturday we went back to Hollywood Studios because we didn't get to everything on Friday and Cara seemed to be able to do more there than at Epcot or Animal Kingdom.
Here we are enjoying lunch, she is smiling here, but was not so "smiley" this morning when i was trying to do her hair, but doesn't she look adorable!!
We are lunch at the the Pizza Planet, courtesy of the Toy Story movie
Here we are playing in the arcade after eating, she had so much fun in here
After lunch we had to go meet Darth Vader (without Cara who went with Grandma and Grandpa to see the Muppet show). After that we went back to Playhouse Disney for another show, then saw the afternoon parade, and then back to ride the Toy story ride again. Cara was so excited to ride this time and wanted to pull the cord to play the game while riding the ride. She was so sad when it was done. After all this we headed back to the hotel for an evening swim! Cara is being quite the water baby these days! On the ride back to the hotel on the bus she kept asking for the water, she could not wait to go swimming!

Another busy fun filled hot sunny day in Florida. Apparently Indiana is getting all the rain and keeping it quite dry here for us. It barely rained the first two days we were here and nothing since. We are headed back to the Magic Kingdom tomorrow!

Hollywood Studios

We arrived at Hollywood Studios this morning to find that the park was safely protected by storm troopers as this is a Star wars weekend. Real stars from the movies are here for the weekend for autographs, parades, etc.
We had a morning breakfast scheduled to eat with the characters from Playhouse Disney, Cara could see them inside while we waited to be called and was so excited
We met JoJo
We were a little afraid of Leo from Little Einsteins
Goliath from JoJo's circus was a little scary too
After breakfast we saw a great stage performance from our favorite shows on Playhouse disney like Little Einsteins, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Handy Manny, and My Friends Tigger and Pooh. This was a huge hit with Cara.
Sitting on Daddy's lap during the performance for a better vantage point


We are back at the hotel for nap time, so Mommy took the time to download the pics and make a blog post. We are looking forward to a fun evening back at Hollywood Studios. Hope you enjoy!