My Boyfriend, Cole

Cole turns 4 this week! He had his party at a local rec center with so much to do! We got there just in time for pizza and ice cream cake. And we were fortunate enough to miss Cole's big accident. He apparently fell and caused quite the commotion which ended with him in the emergency room getting four stitches.

Lilly actually ate cheese pizza and loved the ice cream cake so much, it required two forks to eat it!

We tried the lazy river, but Lilly wasn't really excited about that. Ernie had to take her out and I enjoyed the last 2 minutes of the river.

She played a lot though and really enjoyed herself.

She even sat down for a little rest.

Lazy Summer Days

Oh where did those lazy summer days go? Seriously - where are they? I really miss them. The weather has been beautiful and we have been trying to take advantage.

Lilly is very interested in how those car doors work and I am sure it is just a matter of time before she is mastering this skill. Surprisingly, Ernie is actually letting her touch his car.

Lilly was wearing a very cute outfit with cute sandals, but for some reason, she insisted on wearing this bib. I know the bib is cute, but we were not going to be eating outside. I explained this to her, but she insisted on wearing it. It could have been worse I'm sure.

We mosied down to the Maddens' house where Lilly invited herself to play on Brooke's jungle gym. Brooke finally came out to join her and they really had a good time together.

All in a Day's work

So another post about Little Gym... I'm sorry, but she really loves it! Here is her learning a new skill - the bear crawl. The idea is that she will "walk" across the parallel bars with her hands. She did pretty good at first, but the bars are pretty long so she pooped out about 3/4 way through.

Action shot:

Lilly and I showed Daddy the previous essential skill she learned. And she still loves it!

And actually held on to the bars this time!

She's so dainty on the balance beam! (her favorite)

Catching bubbles is always a big hit!

Lilly Dialed

Every now and then people call us and say something along the lines, "you called?" to which we respond with a "when?" or a "we did?". You get the picture. We've coined these mysterious calls as "oh, you must have been Lilly-dialed. Congratulations!" Now Lilly really enjoys playing with the house phone and any cell phone she can get her hands on and sometimes I'll call a family member for her to play with. My sister never takes our calls. So one night Lilly left her a message in which she said "Kelly" and it was adorable. Tonight, we called Mimi & Papa.

Lilly waved to them. She said what we believe was "love you" and "hello". She was very clear with her "bye-bye", but not sure who should hang up first. I'm sure Mimi & Papa were so giddy with excitement that they probably had trouble sleeping!

And just so you all know - Lilly's new favorite word is "sit" because she is so bad at it herself. So if you get Lilly-dialed and hear it, the word is "S-I-T." Trust me, it is sit.

On a side note - I am somewhat concerned for my cousin, Jennifer. She gets excited when she gets Lilly-dialed. No concerns about the mistake at all.

Little Gym - The Ernie Experience

So last Saturday was Lilly's first week as an official gymnast. Because I was out of town, Ernie took her. I asked him if he would like to comment and he had nothing. Other that the fact that he thought I was at the lake with girlfriends relaxing, drinking and eating. While I did do all of those things, I also went shopping. Enjoy the photos...

Self Portrait

Lilly was unusually quiet the other night. And apparently she had my camera....

I recognize that smile!

from this angle - she looks older and like a brunette!

Chubby cheeks...

Quietly mischievous.

Cool front

We finally had a break in the blazin' hot weather. Highs were in the 80's and who knew that would ever be considered cool? Lilly and I took advantage and played in the water table.

I'm not really sure drinking this water is a good idea.

but she didn't spill it!

and it is definitely better than slurping it up off of the extremely dirty table!

Her climbing skills are really great now! She enjoys sitting on the patio chairs. Or she could possibly just enjoy climbing up and down on it. I enjoy that she is doing it without all the falling.

Kid Tested

Lilly seems to like the floor cushion! She doesn't sit on it though. She races towards it and lands into it instead.

Turning 30 Something...

At some point, birthdays just become a day. That was mine this year. Ernie had to work. I had errands to run. And for the love of pete (or someone else) it is blazin' hot here! Too hot to even light a birthday candle. So I spent the weekend finishing up some sewing projects. I know what you are thinking - "she sews?" The answer is no. I wish I knew how though! But I did make this ruffled halter top. I love it! It actually looks like a ruffled halter top. It took me awhile to do it because I would come to a step and then have to google "what is a gathering stitch?" to actually learn how to sew this shirt. See previous blog to see it on a certain adorable model....

While my sister in law, Karen, was up visiting last month, she showed me how to make her pillowcase dresses. When she was here, it took us 15 minutes (if that) to make one. Without her, it took me an hour! And I messed up in cutting them and made 2 of them too short. Fortunately, Lilly is short! And I left one at church for Selah. She is a few months younger than Lilly and also tiny.

And this one!! I love it! It isn't finished yet because I want to get more stuffing for it and then I have to hand sew the last few inches closed. I found it on a blog (oh those blogs!). She got the idea from Land of Nod, but who wants to pay that price for it!? Not Ernie... So I got enough material to make 2 floor pillows for Lilly! I even made the piping so that it has a little extra cuteness factor.

Now what I should have been doing this weekend is laundry. Thankfully, I am only working 3.5 days this week...

Sew Easy!

So I've found a blog that gave me the apron project that gave me another blog to follow that led me to another blog and basically I am now blogging with strangers about their mad crafting skills! And convincing myself that I can do that! I've done that many times in the past and am always (and I mean always) disappointed. So one of those blogs led me to a website with a free pattern download for a ruffled halter top. And it actually looks like a ruffled halter top. I'm so proud.

And here is Lilly wearing it! This one is my first one and there are some mistakes and some tweaks I want to make to the next one.

And I now realize just how small Lilly is! The smallest size for the pattern is 2T and Lilly is swimming in it! But she's smiling :-)

Big Girl Cup

OK - here is the clip. I know some of you are disappointed. And given all the answers submitted by GAP and Jim, I have to declare them the winner of Lilly's contest. You are now the proud owners of an 8 hour period (while the sun is out) with Lilly! Please let us know when you would like to cash in!