General Silliness

We haven't had a whole lot going on this past week, other than a garage sale and gearing up for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life fundraiser (which by the way it is not too late to donate). So I thought I would post some pictures that reflect our day to day lives, and the way Lilly makes them eventful.
Silliness with a purse. Lilly has discovered the joy of purses and bags. It really was only a matter of time and I'm proud to say that her favorite purse to play with at home is one of my smaller Coach bags. Since my collection of bags is going to be handed down to Lilly sooner than I thought, I think I am entitled to go out and get new ones for my collection.
Silliness with a shopping cart. Here she is doing her other favorite hobby...shopping. Look how she already knows to hang her bag on the cart so that her hands are free to browse and to place the bigger items (like barns for example) on the bottom to save room up top for smaller, breakable purchases. What a pro!

Silliness in the morning. Lilly has a fun new play area...her dirty cloths hamper. Yesterday she approached me with this shirt on her head. I snapped this picture and then turned to put my camera down. In the time that I had my back turned she had taken off running, causing the shirt to fall over her eyes. That's when I turned around...just in time to see her plow, full steam, into the corner of the bookcase. I couldn't help but laugh. Don't worry she wasn't hurt.

No silliness at all. Poor Hank, with Kentucky's losing basketball season still haunting him he just hasn't felt up for any silliness lately. I think he's worried about the new coach.

Silliness with a friend. Morgan and her dad stopped by last night to drop something off for Relay for Life (again, its not too late to donate) and Lilly was able to engage her in a little silliness as well.

More clothes hamper silliness. She was in there, I mean totally in the hamper, playing this morning, but by the time I got back with the camera she was climbing out.
Silliness in a rocking chair. I know, I know, this doesn't seem like the safest place for silliness. But, not to worry, after being reminded several times to 'sit on your bottom' she gave up on the complicated mechanics of sitting in a chair at all and moved onto other silliness.

The Zoo

Bryan's parents joined us this weekend for our maiden voyage to the zoo. Bryan, Lilly and I have been looking forward to a zoo trip for quite some time. We are huge fans of the zoo anyway, and now we actually have a kid to take with us, which makes it even better.

It turned out to be a really fun day and Lilly got to see a lot of new things; a lion habitat, a bear enclosure, a place where tigers could swim and bath and a vast assortment of fenced areas that were probably housing animals.

We were a little disappointed about how hard it was to spot the animals at first, but undaunted we moved along into the "animal encounters" area. We were more successful at spotting animals here. Probably because they were domestic animals that were housed in small pens with no trees, rocks or bushes to hide behind. But, it didn't matter to Lilly that she could see many of these animals at any random farm around Indiana. She still wanted to pet the donkey, stare at the West Highland Cow (just like a yak, only with a kilt) and try to say "pony". After the farm animal exhibit things started to get better. In the plains area all of the animals were out and we able to capture them on film. However, there is one picture that is quite rare indeed. It is of me. Yes, that's right, I was finally able to escape from behind the camera and get in front of it. This rare photo is featured below.

We had a great day at the zoo. And Lilly was able to see a lot of different animals. Although, she did point at each and said "gie", which is her way of saying "doggie". She was probably thinking, 'wow, I didn't know there were this many different types of doggies!'

The ever elusive photo of Lilly and her mom.

Yeah monkeys!!

Lilly watched the penguins and said "whoa whoa". She did the same with the walrus, he was probably her favorite.

This wasn't at the zoo. I took it at Mulberry Flowage the next day, but I thought it was so cute that I had to include it.

Wet N' Wild Weekend

We had a great 'no plans' weekend. In the summer weekends fill up so fast that it is sometimes nice just to be home with nothing to do. That's not to say that we didn't enjoy race weekend and that we weren't looking very forward to Courtney and Aiden staying with us at the the beginning of the week, but as far as the weekend went...no plans.

We took advantage of the unscheduled time to make some plans.

On Friday night planned a big night. Big BIG night. All three of us went to dinner, Cosco and Target. I know what it sounds like, but really its a good time. We were looking forward to it all week and Bryan even came home from work a little early. We were home before 10pm and absolutely exhausted. My how life changes. Sorry, no pictures from our Big Night Out.

On Saturday we all slept in... with Lilly waking us up at 7:24am, did a few things around the house, debated going to the zoo and then headed to the pool. Lilly was not a huge fan of swimming in the actual pool, however she did enjoy playing in the water in the baby pool that my mom got for her. Smart thinking Mom. She didn't want to be held in the pool, she didn't want to ride in her raft in the pool, she didn't even want to play on the steps. But, the baby pool was a big hit. Now, mind you, she didn't get in the baby pool and evidently she didn't want any water in it either. Because she spent most of her time bailing water from the baby pool onto the pool deck. Oh well, she had fun and looked super cute in her swimsuits. Yes, that's right she wore two swimsuits in one day.

Lilly took over Kristy's lounge chair and sunglasses to bask in the sun by the pool. Everyone pretty much lets her do whatever she wants.

(Deep Breath) Now on to Sunday. Again, we all slept in...until about 7:13am. I think Lilly may have been switched at birth because there is no way that a child of mine would ever want to get up that early on a Saturday or Sunday. Anyway...Sunday. We spent the morning permanently installing our fire pit in the back yard. Bryan buried half of it in the yard and we filled the inside with concrete to make it easier to clean. We got two 60lb bags of sack crete at the hardware store, came home and mixed it and then proudly poured it into the base of the fire pit...only to discover that two 60lb bags of sack crete don't even begin to cover the bottom of a three foot ring. So back to the hardware store I went for four more bags. That did it. I carved our names and the date in the concrete and move onto our impromptu cookout. (Only the next day did we learn that concrete, when heated to a certain temperature will crack, pop and fracture, sending shards of flaming hot concrete into the air, possibly impaling bystanders. But, don't worry we have a solution to this problem. Please don't be afraid to come and sit around our fire.)

Lilly is a big help when you are working in the yard. She loves walking through the mud.

O.k. back to the cookout. My friend Courtney and her son Aiden came in town and stayed with us for a couple of days. So Nathan, Tania and Avery joined us for some hot dogs before heading to Mulberry Park to play in the water.

Someone must have sprayed Lilly with water...don't know who it was. Maybe we should ask her father who did it.

Aiden playing in Mulberry Flowage.

I had to post this picture...its the longest Avery has ever been still. Granted she is strapped into a swing, but she didn't try to escape or anything.

Lilly and Avery in the race car at the park. There was a little argument over who would drive, but seeing as how Avery will get her actual drivers license five months earlier she let Lilly drive...this time.

Busted, no license so we locked her up.

I swear he isn't going nearly as fast as it looks...the slide isn't that steep either.

We had a great time at the park, but had to leave when your typical playground bullies showed up.