Lexie Visits NYC

In early May we decided to take Lexie on a mini-vacation to NYC.  The occasion was for my sister's, bridal shower.  This was Lexie and Trey's first visit to the big apple and more importantly this trip marked Lexie's first time on an airplane.  

Her excitement for this vacation began several weeks before the actual trip.  She has always been fascinated with airplanes especially since Aunt Krystal and Uncle Bryan always seem to be on them.  I think before the trip she actually thought that they lived on one.  In fact, one day she asked me would they be flying down on the airplane to pick her up.  We tried to explain that a pilot would pick us up in Charlotte and drop us off in NYC but I'm not sure it clicked until the first leg of our trip.  

We scheduled our flight during nap time, in hopes of her sleeping on the plane.  I gave her some benadryl about 45 minutes before take-off to help her sleep.  My little plan back fired though because it seems benadryl has an opposite effect on her and she was so excited she never stopped talking the entire flight.    

Other than seeing Krystal and Bryan there were three very specific things Lexie was looking forward to doing while in the city.  Meeting Mickey and Minnie Mouse, meeting Hello Kitty and riding a ferris wheel.  From the moment we got in the cab at the airport that is all we heard.  The first morning there we set off to accomplish the things on Lexie's check-list.  

Our first stop was the American Girl's doll store.  She loves the magazines that come in the mail from this store and has a bitty baby.  I think she was surprised to see there was an actual store with nothing but baby dolls and accessories.  She had the best time playing with the dolls and their accessories.  And yes, we did come home with a set of bitty twins, a blonde and a brunette named Shelly and Molly!

Our next mission was to find the characters!  Of course once we found them we stopped to pose for a picture.  Mickey and Minnie made the biggest impression because they picked her up.  She wasn't quite sure why there were two Hello Kitty's and was therefore a little nervous when meeting them.  We told her they were twins!

Next on the list was riding the ferris wheel at the Toys R Us in Times Square.  This is a pretty cool ferris wheel because the seats are cars with different toy themes.  She really wanted to ride in either the My Little Pony or Cabbage Patch Kids, however, they don't let you pick.  We got in a the ET car, which was a little disappointing for her since she has no idea who he is, but once the ride started she didn't care because she was having so much fun enjoying the view of all the toys!

After leaving Toys R Us we went next door to the Disney Store.  Upstairs they had all the princess dress up clothes and shoes.  She had so much fun trying on the outfits and waving their wands in front of the magical mirror at the store!  Let me tell you even I thought the magic mirror was pretty cool.  Depending one whose wand you were waving a picture of that princess magically appeared and told you a little bit about their story.

By mid afternoon we were getting a little tired and wanted to find a place we could take her to run around and play.  A couple of blocks from Times Square you can find Bryant Park. This was the perfect place to find a shady spot and relax.  While we enjoyed a bottle water and a homemade strawberry peanut butter ice cream sandwich Lexie played in the fountain with some of the other kids.  

We hung out in the park until Bryan got off work and came to meet us.  By this time was were all exhausted from the heat and looking for a place we could kill some time, while Krystal, Mimi, and Gigi finished shopping.  So we headed back to Times Square and checked out the Ripley's Museum.  Oddly enough Lexie was most fascinated with the torture mechanism's section!  Regardless she and Bryan had fun playing and we were able to catch a break from the 100 degree temperatures.

On Saturday we headed out of the city and into Farmington, Connecticut for Krystal's bridal shower.  Fortunately Lexie was so exhausted from the day before she slept the 2 hour trip it took to get there.  Bryan's mom and sister Stephanie threw the shower and it was so nice!

We had lunch on an enclosed patio followed by gifts.  They even had a special kid friendly meal and goodie bag for Lexie. When it came time for Krystal to open gifts Lexie was told she could help, which ended up meaning Lexie opened all the gifts for her.  Lexie had a great time tearing open packages but I think was a little confused that she didn't get any toys.  At the end she wanted to sing Happy Birthday to Krystal.  I mean why else was she getting presents!  Haha!  She was so confused, just the day before she was asking why were were all going to take a shower with Krystal and why she had to wear a dress in the shower!  The innocence of children is just so precious.

We returned to Hendersonville Sunday afternoon, again during nap time.  This time there was no benadryl given and once in the air she gave into to her exhaustion from the excitement of the weekend coupled with getting to spend the night at Krystal and Bryan's the night before, where she got to stay up until midnight and then get up at 3:30am and watch TV!

It was a fun trip, she did an amazing job flying and is already asking to go back!

Our First Dance Recital

Memorial Day weekend marked our family's first dance recital experience.  This past year Lexie was able to take a combo preschool tap/ballet class as well as tumble bugs, which is an introduction to basic tumbling.

She loved both classes and looked forward to them each Monday.  If I had to pick a favorite, just from observation I would go with tumble bugs.  Anytime we would ask her to show us what she had learned she would immediately get down in the floor and show us a front roll or attempt a cartwheel.

I wasn't sure what I expected from the actual recital, would she freeze with stage fright, would she remember any of her moves, would she actually even go out on stage, would there be tears, would she love it????  It could have gone any way, but fortunately she LOVED it!  She still asks me when does she get to dance on the big stage again.  Here are a few pictures from the big day.

Final Pose from her Tumble Bugs Routine
Her class was the very first performance of the recital!

I have to say I'm pretty proud of myself for getting her hair into a bun, I wasn't sure I could do it....Thanks Melissa for the sock bun tip, I YouTubed a video tutorial 30 minutes before showtime!

I love her eyes in this picture, I think sometimes she would get bored in ballet, it wasn't fast moving enough for her personality



She really enjoyed the finale, it was more of a hip hop routine and she is begging to get to take hip hop next year.

Posing with her flowers afterwards, she felt so special, a big thank you to her great grandparents, grandparents and aunts for coming to support her.

Easter

Easter Sunday we were blessed with a beautiful sunny and surprisingly warm day.  We started the day with church and ended with another egg hunt and dinner at our house with both sets of grandparents.  Lexie really got into the thrill of hunting eggs this year, and Addie even found some, although what she enjoyed the most was taking them apart and snapping them back together again.

My favorite story from the Easter Season was Lexie's response to to my answer of what would happen if she didn't wear her seat belt in the car...

As always I answered its because if we were in an accident she could get hurt much more worse without those things and if the injuries were bad enough she may die.  That particular morning her response was as follows:  "well, that's ok mom because Jesus died on the cross and he came back so I can come back also." 

I have to say that response totally caught me off guard!  I explained to her it wouldn't be the same and the reasons why, but it was still so precious she thought it was a simple solution and if Jesus came back, then so would she and there would be no reason for me to worry.  Clearly she has been paying attention to the stories and lessons at school and church!  

More Easter Fun...

A tradition with my family growing up was of course egg dying.  In fact, last year we dyed them early when Krystal and Uncle Bryan were in town visiting just so we could do it together.   Last year I discovered Lexie got a little bored waiting for the eggs to sit in the dye so this year we decided to take a more hands on approach and paint them.  She loved it!

 

Addie was to young to help out with the eggs, but she was perfectly happy to sit with a snack and watch her big sister!

   

Aunt Allison's Easter Peep's present...this year it ended up being a homemade frame which will soon be filled with a picture of the girls eating Peep's.  I have to say I'm pretty excited with this one, hopefully she will love it (we haven't officially exchanged Peep's gifts yet, this will happen the last weekend of April)!

Some pictures from egg hunting

Addie Turns 1

Saturday, March 3rd we celebrated Addie's first birthday.  Even as I am writing this I cannot believe a whole year has already passed!  While our first year with her went by fast it was filled with many wonderful memories...first smiles, first words, learning to crawl, learning to walk (which happened 1 week before her birthday), learning to give love to Mommy and Daddy and the list goes on.

It is always amazing to me that when children are born they come into this world with their own individual personality and that as parents we get to witness those personalities grow and develop.  In no time at all you figure out what gets them excited, what frightens them, what foods they like and which ones they want nothing to do with.  It was around Christmas when I discovered Addie's love for balloons.  "Uncle" Matt and Abbie gave Lexie and Trey this shark, which with a controller you can "swim" through the house.  In addition to the shark they provided us with one of those helium tanks you can buy to blow up balloons yourself at home.  The tank came with a package of balloons, so once the shark was inflated we blew up some balloons for the girls to play with.  The look on Addie's face the next morning, when the balloons had floated back down, was of pure delight!  Then, on Valentine's Day, Mimi and Papaw, gave each of the girls a mylar balloon attached to a weight.  Addie crawled around with hers for days and days.

When it came time to pick a theme and plan her party I wanted to do something that she would truly love and have fun being at.  Let's be honest a first birthday party is as much about celebrating the child's birth as it is about celebrating the fact that as parents you survived the first year.  Another very important thing I wanted to take into consideration is that Addie doesn't love being the center of attention (this is the polar opposite of Lexie).  Therefore, I wanted something that when Addie woke up from her afternoon nap she would get really excited to see.  The answer was easy, it simply had to be all about balloons.

The morning of the party Trey and I blew up balloons, sewed them together in groups of four with dental floss (his idea, but to my surprise worked really well) then strung the groupings together to create a balloon banner.  Next we hung the banner so that it would stretch above our fireplace and we sat out pictures of Addie from her first year along the mantel.

Continuing with the theme we proceeded to decorate the rest of the living room and breakfast area with even more balloons!

 

Our goal was accomplished because Addie absolutely loved having so many balloons to look at and even though she was not feeling 100% (yes the week before her birthday she had an ear infection and both she and Lexie had tested positive for RSV...not a fun week) she seemed to cheer up for the party.  No tears were shed, even with a house full of people, which could have been overwhelming for such a little person!

 

Her birthday menu consisted of Caesar Salad, Spaghetti with Homemade Meatballs, Stuffed Shells, Garlic Bread, Birthday Cake, Rice Krispies Treats and Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Her favorite part of the meal...the cake!

 

 

Addie also enjoyed getting to open presents, although I think Lexie had more fun being the big sister who got to "help."

 

It was a fun party and a great way to celebrate the first year of her life with us.  As she gets older she won't remember how we celebrated her first birthday but she will have this picture frame with the signatures of everyone who attended as well as a quilt made from the fabric we used to decorate with and we can tell her all about it!

We are so excited to see what the next year of her life bring us!

Having a pre-party snack with Aunt Allison



First taste of sweet tea