Are you ready for some FOOTBALL?

Well, it's football season.  We went to the Border Bowl with Hope.  I thought we needed a sitter, but Woody thought she'd enjoy it.  Turns out, he was right.  Hope sat/stood with us for then entire 3 hour game.  I'd packed a PB&J sandwich, banana, water and a sucker.  We bought some popcorn and more waters and won a little miniature football at the game but that was it for entertainment except the game.  I can't believe how well she did!  Mom and Dad are very spoiled.

We got little Hope all dressed up and ready to go to the football game!  Red shirt and football hair bow- next time, we'll paint her belly and let her go topless....kidding! Just kidding!

We also gave her this pom pom so she could cheer with the cheerleaders.  "Red and Black- red and black!" Do they know any other cheers?  This one gets old quickly.   We cheer for the Owensboro High School team.  Their mascot is the red devils.  My husband once dressed up with a mask, pitchfork and tail (recently) but I didn't think a thing of it.  Somehow I don't like my munchkin in devil ears, though.  Sweet little Hope called them her bunny ears.  Please stay that innocent always, Hope.  The bunny ears stayed  home.

We really thought our little princess would come home and want to pretend to be a cheerleader, instead she woke up the next morning and asked to wear her helmet and knee pads so she could play football.  This is the same little girl who refuses to wear PJ's that don't have a bow on them.

I WANA go to Puggles!

So, we've started AWANA clubs at church!  This year, they included the Puggles.  Hope is a Puggle and I'm a Puggle leader.  I love the word Puggle.  But, when it comes out of a 2 year old's mouth, the word is absolutely delicious!  They have a lesson, snacks, songs, and crafts that reiterate the lesson. And...they have a uniform.  All the kids wear this little t-shirt every week.  I'll bring my camera to class sometime so you can see more.  I know you can't wait :)

Hope is bringing her Bible to church!

She's so proud of her Puggle T-shirt.  We have Puggle things all over the house and she spots them all!

Now she's pretending to be the teacher and reading to her "class."

How fitting- This is the page that says "Let the children come to me."

The Puggles have a song- to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle:
Puggles giggle and they sing
Puggles like to run and play
Puggles sit so very still
Puggles fold their hands and play
(softer now!)
Puggles sit so very still
Puggles fold their hands and pray!

Party Girl

Hope's good buddy Hadley turned 2.  (tear!)  This is the first of her little friends to turn 2.  Thankfully Hope is the youngest in our bunch of munchkins at church so I can always feel like I've got the baby.  We had a great time.  It's so fun to play with other people's toys! Especially other people's new toys!

The tricycle dilemma.  We've "tried them on" in stores before but our little shorty wasn't long enough to reach the peddles yet.  Most people have told me that 3 is the perfect tricycle age.  But! This RadioFlyer brand one has an adjustable seat.  Hope climbed on and immediately grasped the concept.  She was even able to pedal a little on the grass (which would be much harder than smooth concrete) Hmm....maybe we need one?  Maybe we should wait?   If she would always wear that birthday hat while she rode she'd definitely have one!

It's fun to go to birthday parties when you have no concept for the fact that the party isn't being thrown for you or that the gifts are someone else's.  Oh boy! We like fancy these days.  Hope is turning out to be the girliest of girls.  She spotted these dress up shoes and immediately had to wear them.  She wore them for quite a while.  Thankfully the birthday girl didn't seem to mind.  Don't worry Mommy and Grammy have begun the hunt for the perfect dress up attire for our princess!

Literary Review

I love reading.  Thankfully, Hope does too!  We probably read 10 books a day.  Now that she's sitting on the potty more, that number is climbing even higher.  If you don't know babies, I'll tell ya:  Babies start out with what's called a board book (maybe some cloth books, too).  Pretty much any board book I got would be okay.  She loved the ones that had something to feel or a tab to lift.  Then we moved on to paper pages with a few more words. 

This series was one of her very favorites.  There's mouse, a moose, a cat, a pig....we've read them all.  They were the Kohl's cares books for a while so we also have a stuffed character from the books.  They are sweet and great for first paper pages, I think.  But, then it was time to move on a little.  Oh boy, I remember going to the bookstore with my friends at UK who were studying elementary education.  I wish so badly that I had audited their literature classes.  I have no idea what to get!  We go to the library each week and each week we get about 7 or 8 books.  Maybe 3 of them are decent.  When you go with a toddler, there isn't much time to look so we get mostly the ones that are "staff picks."  That ought to be safe, huh?  One time I ended up with a book explaining why some children have 2 dads.  Not good.

Here's Pinkalicious.  Hope is nuts about her.  Everything she sees that is wearing pink reminds her of Pinkalicious.  Her little voice saying that name is irresistible!  This book is okay.  The librarians tell me she is all the rage.  I'll warn you, it teaches that green vegetables are yuk.  I wouldn't read that part to Hope because she likes green vegetables right now. Overall, this book is okay.  There's also Purpleicious.  We tried it but it was  not my favorite.  It was Hope's introduction to the "mean girls" of life.  It actually has a good lesson in it but I was afraid she wouldn't get it but would get the mean girls so it went back to the library before it was due.

Sorry the picture is small, but this is a classic.  I remember reading it as a child.  We love the George books!  We've read all the library has.  We own this one.  It's cute but I don't think it would fly today.  It's where Hope learned the difference between fat and skinny. 

I never want to see this book again.  I renewed it as many times as the library would let me and had it on hold to get back.  Finally, we've moved past it.  "Go Dog Go" was something Hope said I know before she even said "Mama."

This is the latest fad at our house.  Kohl's has Winnie the Pooh books right now (for those that don't know, all the books are just $5 for hardback and you can get the characters for $5 as well.)  This is a challenge for us.  There are lots of words per page (a major plus for potty time reading) and the stories are a little more complex but the vocabulary is really challenging.  Owl is the character whose job it is to introduce big words, I think.  For instance: "configuration" is a big word for little Hope but this is how she learns, right?

Tune in next time for more photos of Hope.  Sorry this post was void of pictures! 

Tent City

So, the heat is unbearable.  We can't get outside when it's this hot.  The only thing that makes it better than winter time when we're also stuck inside is the occasional afternoon storm that cools us off or an evening trip to the pool.  I'm having to find more things to do inside.  After what seemed like weeks of late nights at the softball field for our tournaments we needed a day to just rest at home and the heat made us stay inside. I decided to get out her tent.  It took me a while to figure out how to assemble it but it was so worth the effort.  The tent was a huge hit!  I'm going to try to save it for special occasions or times we are really bored since it takes up half of our living room, but it is so fun!

Our tent is a shark, but Hope calls it the big fish.  We had a fish theme...working fish puzzles, etc inside of it.  I decided it was a little early to teach the Jonah in the big fish Bible story, but next time....

We spent ALL DAY in here.  She cried when we had to leave it to go do things like potty and take naps.  Picnics in our tent were cozy.  We also got a flash light and read stories.  Camping seems like it would be great fun with Hope, but that whole sleeping thing....it might be a challenge.  I'm sure Woody would love to try it with her.

Cereal-ously

I have a problem.  I can't stop.  I buy too much cereal.  Way too much.  It started so innocently- when I stopped working part time, I started couponing and shopping sales.  My brother coined the term "defensive income."  I like that.  I make money by saving it.  At the bottom of your receipt, the stores tell you your total savings.  I divide that by approximately how much time it took me to make the deal (clip coupon, read ad, shop) and get my "salary."  It's very addictive. I also have too much toilet paper, paper towels, deodorant and tooth paste.  But the cereal is most out of hand.  There are 22 boxes here.  What you must know is that Kroger has just put their Quaker and Fiber One Bars on sale 50% off.  See those oatmeal boxes with the "$4 worth of Coupons inside" on top?  If I cut those open I can pair it with the deal at Kroger and save big!  I need help. Seriously.

Hope's Surprise for Dad

Hope has been so excited about this.  I told her the day before that tomorrow is Dad's birthday and we'll be making him a cake for a surprise.  The minute he walked in the door she said "Daddy-o! Happy Birthday CAKE!" and talked about it almost all day until finally we made the cake.  Oh well, not a surprise but still sweet.

Let's get started!  Here's the cake.  We're using Funfetti today.  It's what we have.  I'd like to have found the Betty Crocker Rainbow Chip, but this will do.  Mrs. Maglinger always made this cake for the boys' birthdays so I like to make it for Woody- to remind him of his mom but also to make him feel like a kid.  People who are in their mid-thirties really need that every once in a while.

You can buy whatever cake mix you want, but you must buy Rainbow Chip Frosting.  No Funfetti.  They are not the same.  Really- Funfetti is sprinkles, Rainbow Chip is little soft discs of...well who knows what it is but it's good.

My mom taught me to always read all of your directions before starting a recipe.  I'm teaching Hope the same.

I came to parchment paper late in life.  I'm going to start Hope out early with parchment paper.  No greasing, no flouring- just draw some circles and cut 'em out!  Who knew life could be so easy?

Hope has gotten very good at pouring!

Yes, the egg is real.  See that yellow bowl?  That bowl is key to toddler baking.  Never rush, never cheat- always break every egg individually in the bowl before adding to the mix. 

Icing the cake...for you Wilton cake graduates, I can't promise there weren't crumbs in this icing, but who cares!

Dad loved it, of course!

We ALL took turns blowing out the candles...several times

Dog Olympics

And from the USA Daisy Maglinger performs the catch on one hop dog bone retriever!

On to our wrestling match: Owner vs. Dog- Owner wins!!

Next, she'll jump to catch her Frisbee in the air!

Last! The Shake Hands and Lick Trick!

And the gold medal goes to Daisy Maglinger! Yea Daisy!!!