Weekend Visit to Purdue

Last weekend we made a quick trip back to West Lafayette to visit friends and family. Ally had a lot of fun playing with grandma and grandpa! We went to the park behind their house a few times and Ally showed us how she can hang like a monkey and slide. She helped grandpa water the plants and had breakfast with Aunt Susie. Grandma came with us to get her hair cut by our favorite stylist. She sat in the chair by herself and did pretty well, we only had to bribe her with fruit snacks. Hilory is amazing and Ally was done in record time. She really hated the cape/giant bib more than actually getting her hair cut. I wish I would have taken some pictures of that because her hair was absolutely huge when Hilory was done pulling it and combing it out to cut the ends. So funny!

On Saturday we met up with some friends to take a tour of the basketball arena and see all of the changes that have been going on there. Heather showed us all around the upstairs and all the new offices and meeting spaces and a little bit of the construction going on the actual court. Its going to be amazing when its all finished in November. Ally had a great time sitting in all the chairs, seeing the volleyball staff and running down the halls. It was a little hard to see because I definitely miss all my friends from work and we miss going to all of the events. Karl got to put on the old-new Pete head which was sort of scary but he was pretty excited about it. We then stopped for a treat at Snowbear to give Ally her first and last experience because it is closing in August. Very sad about that- thats where Karl and I met and had a lot of good times with our best friends. The specific store that we worked at was closed a few years ago but there will officially be no Snowbear at all when we come back in the fall. Ally loved the fresh chocolate custard and made a mess with her cone.

Sunday we stopped in Indy to visit the Conners. We had not get been able to meet baby Caleb so we got there for lunch and some playtime. Ally and Lexi are 5 weeks apart and Paige is a great help to them. Ally liked to talk about baby Caleb but she was way more interested in toys and playing with the girls. Paige loves Karl now so she played games on the iPhone with us and the little girls ran around destroying things. Ally got to play with the princess barbies which she has never really seen before but has been in love with since she knows the characters from her pull ups. The girls are so cute together! I got to hold Caleb and hang out with Katie and Nick. I don't know how they do it with three little ones but I really wish we got to spend more time together. I didn't take many pictures but here are a few from the weekend. Enjoy!

Side note- Ally can recognize anything Purdue (on her own) so all week she has been saying things like 'Ally visit Purdue' and 'Ella with grandma at Purdue'. Again, she is too smart- she calls anything with the P or Pete or a train Purdue.

Princess Pull Ups

Ally has been very serious about this potty training business for quite a while now. I had sort of assumed that our vacation would have slowed her progress but she has gone full steam ahead pretty much all on her own. She tells us when she needs to go potty at home, uses the potty regularly at day care and just last week started using the potty when we are in public places. She has two different styles of seats at home- her own singing potty chair in the downstairs bathroom and the potty seat that fits over the regular toilet upstairs. She has shown preference for the seat but I'm not sure if that's because it has Elmo on it or it is just more comfortable for her. Her progress at this age has just amazed us but we are taking advantage of it! On our trip to target last week, we invested in some princess pull ups for her. They are much easier for her to take on and off herself and gets her used to the concept of how underwear will work. Genius idea if you ask me. She absolutely loves them! Right now she is using the pull ups during the day and regular diapers at night until we get to the point where we aren't taking off wet diapers/pull ups. We also picked up some big girl underwear (Disney princess variety) so we are going to start testing out those in the evenings at home and see how she does. She is by far ahead of most of her classmates at school but I think the exposure to kids going to the bathroom at school is really what got her going so early. At this rate we may be diaper free by age 2.

Ally gets very excited about putting on a new pull up so I had to take this picture right when she woke up the other day. Her hair is so wild!

4th of July Weekend

The weather was beautiful all weekend and we had big plans for our holiday at home. On Saturday Karl went golfing so Ally and I went to check out the play area at one of the near by mega-gyms in town. It was really hot even at 10am but Ally had a great time playing with all of the toys made of recycled materials. She especially loves the swings and I am pretty sure she could spend all day on them. The slides were way too hot to even touch but she had fun chasing me and climbing on everything. This place also has a small outdoor water park area so my plan was to use the playground and check our the water stuff in the morning and then come back to swim after nap but we went around back to where it is and noticed there was no water. Sad! We visited a new cafe for lunch and Ally ate great even without a highchair. After nap, Karl was back and we did some shopping to get ready for the rest of the weekend. Sunday we planned to go to a local water park that we had heard good things about. Its part of the sports complex in East Peoria and was much bigger than we expected. They had a large kiddie area with sprayers and a slide, a deeper pool, lazy river, tube slides, and a giant climbing structure that sprayed and dumped water from everywhere. Ally didn't like the lazy river as much as we had hoped but she loved running all over the kiddie area. The water was up to her waist at the deepest part and was full of kids. She loved going down the slide and playing int he fountain style sprayers. Definitely not afraid to get her face wet! She is a little fishy and things that she can crawl on her hands and knees (swim) even when its a little too deep for that. She was not happy when it was time to leave but lunch and nap time were needed.

Monday we planned to have friends over at our house in the afternoon. I had to participate in the 4th of July Parade for work since I organized it. Ally and Karl stayed home but the parade was really fun so hopefully we can all do it next year. Karl and I got things ready for the party while Ally napped and when she woke up, there was a small crowd in the house. Uncle Corey and some other friends from Bloomington came as well as quite a few friends from work. Karl was the grill master and served up steak, chicken and shrimp with a variety of marinades and everyone brought side dishes and drinks to share. The deck was the perfect shady spot to hang out and Ally loved running around and playing with everyone. We played football, ladder golf and wiffle ball and she showed everyone her climbing and sliding techniques. The fireworks are a big deal here but we didn't realize that you had to secure your spot at noon so we didn't make it down to the river. Ally was already up way past her bedtime and we knew there was no way we would be able to get down there and find a spot in time.

This was our first 4th at home in quite a while and our first in Peoria but it turned out to be a really great weekend. Perfect weather and lots of fun with friends!

My 2 Favorites

Playing With Family

Ally got to spend a few days in Oshkosh while I went to my marketing conference in Orlando a few weeks ago. She got to hang out with family, including one of her favorites Uncle Mark. Grandma took her to the parks and they did some shopping and spent lots of time playing. I got back to town on fathers day and we spend a few hours over at Great Grandma and Grandpa's before leaving town. Ally liked riding around the yard on the mower and even got a new hat. We were disappointed that we couldn't see Grandpa Joel or Great Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Paul, but we will be be back to visit and spend more time with everyone soon.