Sunday Fun Day with Kaitlyn

Another Sunday, another Sunday Fun Day! Today's book was "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus." I had actually never heard of this book, but the activities created to go with it were fantastic! First, all the kids were given cardboard steering wheels to color. For some reason, Alexa was drawn to the color brown. She picked out ALL of the brown crayons! Next, we used hula hoops as "busses" and took the kids from room to room. In the first room, they got to "shop" for fake food. In the next, they dressed up with hats, beads and feather boas. Alexa had a blast! I think her friend Kaitlyn did too.

Strut Your Mutt Parade

Downtown Bethesda has festivals for just about everyone, and today it was the Strut Your Mutt Parade! Naturally, I figured this would be a good event to take Alexa to since she LOVES dogs. And, naturally, I was right. She loved it! We met Alexa's friend Brandon and strolled around looking at dogs and trying to find the booth giving out firemen hats. When we finally scored the coveted hats, Alexa only wore it for a second before moving on to something else. Oh well, look how cute she is!

Beach! Beach! Mama, beach!

Apparently, we aren't the only ones longing to be back in Hawaii. Tonight, Alexa was crying for the BEACH, so I gave her a picture of us at Lanikai. She looked at the picture and a huge smile spread over her face. She insisted on holding the picture during dinner and then took it to bed with her. I later saw her sitting up in bed looking at the picture, then holding it when she went back to sleep!

Alexa changes her baby's diaper

Another one of Alexa's favorite things to do of late is change her baby's diaper! She gets out the changing mat and my tub of wipes and goes to town. Thankfully, she puts all the wipes that she pulls out back. It's not exactly the way I'd like it, but whatever, she's having fun. And baby has a lot of clean diapers!

Relaxing in Bethesda

One of our favorite things to do is walk into town. Today started out chilly but warmed up nicely! So we walked to the park, then on to the Italian store for a treat. Yum!

A Puppet show and new park to explore

A park near our house has a weekly puppet show for kids. I had been meeting to check it out, so with rain expected, off we went! We ran into a friend at the show: Christine and baby Kaitlyn! Alexa enjoyed the puppet show but had a hard time staying still. She enjoyed the play ground much more!

Alexa is 20 Months!

My goodness how time flies. Here is my little baby at 20 months! She's now been on the outside twice as long as she was in my tummy. Thanks to Daddy for cracking Alexa up for her photo shoot. There were so many cute photos, it was hard to choose!

And now, check out how much Alexa has grown!

Choo Choo! It's Mother's Day!

We had a lovely Mother's Day. My only request was to sleep in and RELAX! Done and done! Alexa, however, kept asking me about the beach. "Mama, walk beach? Beach?" Apparently, she missed Hawaii. I tried to explain that we couldn't go to the beach, but maybe we could go to a Choo Choo Train? She was sold. Apparently a Choo Choo Train is an acceptible Plan B when the Beach is unavailable. Good to know. So instead of the beach, we spent the day visiting a new park in the area that has a ton of cool play areas and, most importantly, a working Choo-Choo Train. Alexa LOVED it!

After the park, we grilled out in our backyard! Also, I showed Alexa how to blow dandelions and she was fascinated! She picks them every time we take a walk and calls them "blow flowers."

Bubbles! Yay, bubbles!

Another favorite thing of Alexa's right now is BUBBLES! She loves bubbles! At first, she was happy to just let me blow them. Then she wanted to blow them herself! And she did! And then she wanted to hold the bubbles and proceeded to pour it all out. Ooops! Guess we'd better stock up on bubbles. COSTCO?

Alexa has big shoes to fill!

One of Alexa's favorite things to do of late is put on our shoes! It's hilarious. She loves wearing my running shoes and walking around like a clown. She's also put on Daddy's work shoes! It's pretty funny...

Last day in Hawaii!

On our last day in Hawaii, we headed to Lanikai Beach one more time... And Alexa made a friend! Actually I think she just wanted the other girl's toys. They were cute playing together. Unfortunately, the beach was REALLY windy. We headed home for naptime, followed by some pool play.

Alexa decided immediately that she loved her new Roxy hoodie! "Purple!" she said. Yes, it is. Check out how cute she is! She was serving up "shots" of water in a bottle cap and giggling up a storm.

More Kauai vs. More Winward Mall

After a nice breakfast and walk around the grounds, Daddy and I enjoyed our last day on Kauai at the pool, relaxing and doing nothing. It was fabulous!

Meanwhile, back on Oahu, Alexa spent another morning playing on the Winward Mall waterfalls and toy cars. Looks like she had a blast!

We got home in the afternoon and took Alexa on a walk to Kailua Beach to see ... DOGS! It was windy, but she enjoyed playing in the sand and yelling "Hi!" at all the dogs she saw. So cute!

We sat outside for dinner and Alexa had another ice cream bar. Uh-oh, what have we started here?!

Na Pali Coast vs. Winward mall

On Kauai, Daddy and I took a boat trip to the Na Pali coast, where we saw herds of dolphins, turtles and even two whales that came up right next to the boat! It was amazing. Unfortunately, Daddy got a little sick on the way back. He joked that it was thanks to him that the whales came so close to our boat!

Meanwhile, back on Oahu, Alexa had a ball playing at this indoor play space at the Winward Mall. Who needs real waterfalls when rubber ones are so much fun!

Back on Kauai, Daddy and I enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at the pool, followed by a beautiful dinner at sunset. What a great mini-vacation!

Off to Kauai!

We had a nice morning at church seeing old friends. Look how cute Alexa was in her little purple dress!

After church, Daddy and I flew to Kauai for a couple days on our own. Alexa stayed with Grandma and Grandpa! We stayed at the Grand Hyatt, which my friend Blythe recommended. It was AMAZING!

Meanwhile, while we were enjoying the amazing pools at the Grand Hyatt... Alexa was playing pool games in Grandma and Grandpa's back yard. She also tried an ice cream sandwich -- and liked it! (duh!)