Nature Center

After the first week back to work and daycare, we decided to sleep in and just relax this weekend. That only lasted until 9:00 this morning so we headed out to the nature center. The two of us just took our time walking, jumping, twirling and exploring throughout the park. We saw some fish, birds, leaves and turtles. It could not have been a better day! We are trying to soak up the end of these beautiful summer days....it is still AUGUST for a few more days!

Walking along the path with a stick she found in the woods. Notice how she is holding up her skirt!

We can never miss an opportunity to jump off something!

Just taking a nice summer stroll though the park paths. Some of the paths are through the woods and others are brick and stone out in the open.

The Day Before Work...

Back to work I go tomorrow and back to our usual routine...work for me and daycare for Dawson. We spent the afternoon together enjoying the weather with some delicious ice cream from our local farm market! Nothing tastes better on a hot day!

MMMMMM, MMMMMM, GOOD!

Polar Bears and Carousels

We can never seem to get enough of zoos or carousels these hot summer days. Off to Columbus we went to check out the new polar bear exhibit. We LOVED it! The bear just stood on the rocks and watched the fish swim for about 10 minutes while all the watchers, including us, waited for him to jump in and catch one. As I turned away, he jumped feet first and plopped right on his belly. I didn't know that's what bears did to catch fish!!! As the people started to stir I lifted my camera and hoped for a good shot......so here is what I got! I really like the shadow!

And of course, we could not leave without a ride on the carousel with our cousin Breea. Notice the rain coat...it poured part of the day but, we just kept on going.....

Cutting, Building, Cutting, Building

We have been spending lots of time these past few weeks just enjoying some of the simple things in life such as cutting and building. We have a new love for scissors and we like to cut paper all day long! It's been a lot of fun and she's really getting good at it! Watch out preschool, here comes craft girl! When we go to storytime, I always ask her what she likes best about our day and she replies, "the CRAFT!"

Cutting...

More cutting..

We were out shopping this afternoon and stopped in our local toy store to just LOOK around. They had these Magformers out on display for kids and was showing us how they work. They are triangles and squares that have magnets inside each side of the shapes. they do not have a positive or negative side so they attract easily and make building so simple for kids. Dawson sat there for 30 minutes just building away. She was creating all kinds of things so guess what? They went home with us. I can already tell we are going to spend endless hours with them!

You can create 2D and 3D shapes either in the air or you can lay them in a pattern on the table and then pull them up and they become 3D......

Another cool thing you can do with these is create 3D shapes on the refrigerator.

These are just laid out on the table in the shape of two houses...that's what Dawson said she created!

Carousel at the Zoo

The weather seemed a little rainy this morning so we changed our pool plans to head over to the zoo to ride the new carousel. What a nice addition to our zoo! We did have to wait in some lines since it's new but, it was well worth the visit. The new carousel has 33 hand-carved wooden animals and a peacock chariot for those who choose to sit down. It had some of the animals form the zoo like a penguin, Komodo dragon and a tiger. There were many other cool animals like a giraffe, polar bear, elephant, ladybug, dolphin, and flamingo. As you look up at the top of the carousel, you can see the name of the animal you are riding and where the animal lives.

A whole view of the carousel....it's not huge but just perfect!

The zoo put in animal footprints into the cement to show the animals walking towards the carousel. We followed them all the way to the carousel.

Riding the dolphin...

(our first ride)

Riding the elephant (our second ride). We are looking forward to visiting again soon.

Farmer's Markets

It's that time of year when all the homegrown vegetable markets are open and filled with beautiful produce that tastes delicious! I love tomatoes in the summertime when they taste soooo good! So we headed out to a big market, not too far away from us, to gather up some delicious produce, pasta and a cupcake or two!

This market has fresh produce outside and many permanent meat, cheese, pasta, bread, etc, vendors inside this building.

Dawson loves peaches and nectarines. I cut one almost every day for her...mmmmm they are good this time of year!

My favorite place to go is to the homemade pasta vendor. I buy a bunch and put them in the freezer for future use. They have so many varieties to choose from...yum!

And of course...the bakery. My girl could not resist a chocolate cupcake!

Puppets

I have a girl that has a huge imagination and loves to do art projects. We must spend part of every single day painting, cutting, gluing, drawing, coloring, etc. You name it and we do it! (Except for glitter...I just can't go there yet!) A few weeks ago we went to story time and made a puppet. With that in mind, she asked to make two puppets tonight for her friends Douglas and Mayna. She cut out all the pieces by herself, but the mouths. Then she glued them on the puppets entirely on her own. Notice the purple gluestick everywhere!

Getting ready to cut...

The finished project! I can't guarantee that Mayna and Douglas will ever see these puppets because she just mentioned she wants to keep them! Well, I guess it's the thought that counts!