Visiting James Family and MN

Lots of fun was had by all. But for the Reader's Digest version of the week! 

We went to the Children's Museum one day. Lydia had a great time (and we only were on one floor of the museum!). 

Face Painting - pretty much sums up Lydia's personality in one picture!

One of the rooms had a stage, guitar, and tv screens to make a movie. Our little Hippie Rock Star spent a LOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGGG time dancing on the stage and playing the guitar.

She made a head band in one of the rooms and had also done face painting. She looked like something else! 

After the museum and lunch, Lydia fell asleep in the car on the way back to Uncle Jon's house. And then refused a nap. So after a not so quiet rest time, she played with cousins AND then went to a rehearsal for being a flower girl. Needless to say, Lydia fell asleep. And was sleeping very very soundly! 

To prove to us, that she was not adjusting at all to the Central Time Zone she fell asleep at 5:30 CST which would have been 6:30 at home and exactly when she goes to bed without a nap at home. We thought that was funny that the little girl is in that much of a routine! 

We found many many many really cool parks. Lydia thoroughly enjoyed the more challenging park features (that are probably not accessible for children with disabilities and/or "safe"). James and I have come to the conclusion that parks in Raleigh are just toooo safe! 

Wedding Day! 

Waiting for a Flower Girl Dress with Cousin Indiana

The Stojan Cousins and Uncle Robert

Waiting to be a Flower Girl! 

We spotted James! 

What happens when a little girl is taken out of her routine, becomes a bit sleep deprived, and whose little body never adjusted to CST (i.e. food and sleep were "late")? We had many fits of frusteration :( And yes, we are the weird parents who take pictures of our child having a temper tantrum (there were many and I just took one picture so not that mean right?).

Playing games with Cousins! 

Exhausted and finally slept! 

Lydia was exceptional on all the flights! As we were getting ready to board the very last plane to come home, she was starting to get antsy (and had been awake since 4:30 AM!). We all got a chocolate treat at 8:15 in the morning - haha! Lydia thought it was pretty cool to eat chocolate in the morning in her PJs ;) She has a sheltered life I think.

The best .25cents we spent. A box of band-aids. Lydia worked very very hard on our last flight putting all the band-aids in her coloring book. 1 hour and 45 minutes of fun!

We got back in James car and she fell asleep in minutes!

Lydia's first flight. She was SO excited! And despite having things to do she pretty much sat right like that for the first 3 of the 4 flights ;) 

Dogwood Tree

We had a beautiful Dogwood tree in our front yard. We noticed this spring that only a portion of the tree bloomed and we chalked it up to our cool spring. But then we started noticing that the tree was really drooping and really quite dead.

Removing the tree has been on our list for a couple months and in the middle of a nap time this week James decided that would be the perfect time to cut down the tree! (Guesses on how successful nap time was that day???)

Took 2 afternoons but the dead dogwood tree is cut down :(

Hmmm....

Wouldn't it be great if there was an edger that children could use that could edge the weeds???? 

Lydia's Projects

Lydia and her projects are something else. Last week she couldn't decide on just one set of printables so we had lots of different things going on (Creation, Caterpillars, Ducks, Icecream, and whatever else might have jumped out at the 3 year old!).

Duck Puppets (and we ran out of glue - hence the sad face!)

Lydia's Creation Poster

Icecream Cone Creation (we were making our own brown paper because we ended up with a pad of paper with no brown!). 

Various Creation Coloring Sheets

The VERY favorite project of the week - a BIG caterpillar. Amazingly, a week later the caterpillar is still being played with daily and still in one piece. Why do we buy toys again???

Arguing

We have been working with Lydia on not arguing/whining when told to do some thing. Today she was given a sticker for her chart for not arguing, the future lawyer then had the brilliant idea to argue for 2 stickers. Don't think she understood the lesson...

Building a Stool

For reasons we will never know our hall bathroom (i.e. "Lydia's Bathroom") the counter is really tall. With a small stool she can reach every other sink in the house BUT her bathroom sink. This is really problematic and was equaling allot of frusteration for a 3 year old wanting to be independant and battles with mom.

I was OVER it but could not find a stool to buy that was sturdy enough for Lydia to be independant with but also tall enough that she could reach the sink.

SO James and Lydia just built their own stool.

Working Hard. Lydia got to use the drill even. 

And the pure delight when she got to brush her teeth all by herself!

For a wanna be independent three year old, this picture is priceless! 

For inquiring minds, Lydia forgets to brush her top teeth so she still needs help but the battles over all are over!!!!!! 

ABC's

Lydia loves singing her ABC song and for months and months she has been singing it this way:

"ABCDXYZ Now I know my ABCs next time won't you sing with me". And then she claps and cheers for herself.

I asked her this week, Lydia why do you skip so many letters (because she refuses to put the other letters in "her song" and is utterly annoyed anytime anybody sings the entire song).

Lydia's response: "I am too busy to sing the whole song. I like to clap at the end".

Not sure what Lydia is soooooo busy with but singing all those letters is apparently a very time consuming activity for a busy three year old!

C is for Candy Week

Lydia chose the "candy week" for her projects. We did do projects and I totally forgot to take pictures! Oh, well! 

Last week was also unseasonably cool (70's/low 80's - no humidity!). We played outside for our hours and hours every day. Ate lunch outside several days. Had the windows open (I didn't even know that was possible in NC in August!!!!). Basically I will be broken hearted when the weather returns to normal summer temperatures. 

I did get one picture - Lydia painted her letter C with water colors...

Sewing Projects

Lydia finished her blanket for her baby brother this week. Amazing since she literally would sew for 5ish minutes at a time! A little at a time ;) She was soooooo excited when it was all done. 

Showing off her handiwork for her Dad.

"This is what babies do". Pretty accurate right?

Posing with Mom and the Blanket! 

Front of the Curtains for a Baby Boys room... 

And no photo event can be complete without a few pictures of the big sister!