Princess Tess

Tessa is currently fascinated with the Disney princesses. We have quite the collection of royal attire and playing dress up is one of our favorite games. I dress up Tessa and she dresses up her stuffed animals. If Anabelle is in the mood, we dress her up too. She is the best dog.

Tessa's little friend O.K. loves to dress up too. You can see she found the accessories box and is sporting a crown and high heels. The girls were so cute playing together I had to take pictures. Tessa is wearing Ariel's wedding dress and O.K. is wearing Ariel's mommy dress.

Aren't they just too sweet giving each other hugs?

Potty Training

We have begun the dreaded potty training. I freely admit that I have been procrastinating, not because Tessa wasn't ready but because I wasn't ready. Some of my sweet friends have told me encouraging stories of how their child trained practically overnight and it was no big deal. Others have quietly suffered and I had no idea of their trauma. I laughed hysterically when a phone call was cut short because of a streak of poop down the backyard slide. Not so funny now that I have cow patties on my very own floor. My parents made an emergency panty run and I still have to do laundry every night. So here we are, five days in to potty training and having a tiny bit of success.

I believe in positive reinforcement and bribery. Excited praise, hugs, high fives, M&Ms, and ice cream have all been offered as rewards. Little Miss Sweet Tooth is unimpressed so perhaps I will give up on small bribes and go for one big one. Maybe this is the perfect time for us to learn the art of delayed gratification. I see a sticker chart in my future.

I can't honestly say that this week has been all bad. There is something to be said for the bonding time that results from being housebound with my child. We have spent hours in the bathroom together reading books and singing songs. We have played together constantly and I know Tessa loves my undivided attention. I vow to remember that, even when she doesn't need me to take her potty every thirty minutes.

Nanny & Pa

Ryan's parents came to visit last week. It was unbearably hot so we stayed inside most of the time. We played Tessa's favorite game of pile the animals on someone. Pa is being a good sport but Anabelle looks like she's headed off to find a more peaceful spot.


Each morning the animals migrated south. Tessa brought them downstairs one by one. She piled them on Nanny and then snuggled with her, for about a minute.

And we had even more birthday presents!

One afternoon we planned special movie time. Daddy and Tessa settled in with popcorn and a drink ready to enjoy the show. Unfortunately, Cars does not have a princess or sweet music so Tessa quickly lost interest. Daddy and Pa were entertained.

We also went to the Children's Museum downtown. It is pretty cool with a pretend grocery store, doctor's office, recording studio, farm and much more. Tessa had a good time putting the candles on the cake in the bakery and planting carrots at the farm.

Her favorite attraction was this climbing thing. Centered under a sunroof, this two story plexiglass playground was quite the challenge. Tessa made it all the way to the top by herself and then reconsidered climbing down alone.

Tessa Turns Three

Happy Birthday Tessa! Three years ago our sweet baby was born. It's magical to watch her grow and develop and we cherish every moment with her. She's delightfully easy going, loving and kind. We are truly blessed to have her as our daughter.

We are so active and busy these days whether it's traveling, heading to some social activity, swimming or just hanging out as a family. Having a three year old is really FUN.

Ice Cream Celebration

Happy Birthday to our sweet baby. She is turning THREE!!! Her party this year was all about ice cream, her favorite treat.

We had an ice cream sundae bar, ice cream cupcakes and a cake decorated with an ice cream cone. There were ice cream games, ice cream balloons and ice cream aprons so they could get messy with their sundaes.

Ryan scooped out lots of fun. It's hard to tell who liked the ice cream bar better, the kids or the dads. We played put the sprinkles on the ice cream cone. The finished product is so cute I plan to display it in the playroom.

Our ice cream pinata was hysterical. It refused to break, even when we brought in the big kid as the ringer. The kids loved hitting the pinata and everyone got to take extra turns. Ryan and I both took a swing at it too before resorting to a utility knife.

Group picture. Might have had better luck getting them to sit still if I had tried this before I pumped them all full of sugar.

Time for cake! We had the cutest little ice cream cone candles but Tessa does not like fire so the candles were quickly removed. I think we scared her with the mini bonfire on Daddy's cake a few months ago.

And then we opened presents. I love that our friends bought princess stuff, Tessa was so excited to see all her favorites.

OK, I will admit that I really like the princess stuff too.

She took a break part way through present opening to sit down and read some of her new books. It's wonderful that she is such a reader.

What a party! Thank you to everyone for making it such a special day.

Vacation Bible School

As a child I LOVED Vacation Bible School. That's why I was thrilled to be volunteer at our church Summer Spectacular. We had almost 400 preschoolers attending and it was crazy, fun and just a little bit chaotic. Tessa played hard with the other toddlers while I worked with the K3 kids. Isn't she just adorable?On the last day, Tessa spotted me in my class while her class was playing at the playground. She usually does very well with separation but once she saw me, she refused to return to her class. So she stayed with me in the storytime room. Here she is sitting like a big girl with my kids. Precious!

Black Jack for Charity

Our friend threw a fabulous surprise birthday party for his wife last week-end. Food, drink and a blackjack tournament. All proceeds went to a local children's charity. And guess which competitive guy won the tournament? That's right - RYAN!!!
(Side note, I was the only girl at the winner's table!)
A toast to the birthday girl!

4th of July

Happy Independence Day! The holiday was pretty low key for us. We kept our usual Sunday routine of church, late lunch with my family and a computer call with Ryan's parents.
Tessa was very excited to receive this new stuffed animal. Yes, she gets presents for 4th of July and pretty much every other holiday too.

Meet Pongo, the daddy dog from 101 Dalmations. He and Tessa are reading a book together. I just love watching her pretend with her animals.
We are very much a Momma's girl these days. She is always wanting me to carry her, hold her, play with her, dance with her, read to her... I wouldn't want it any other way.

Have I mentioned how much she likes ice cream?
And what's more American than baseball? On Friday night, we went to the Greenville Drive game. Tessa had a good time, as long as the Chick-Fil-A cow stayed away from us. She has developed an intense dislike of this particular mascot. She spent half the game shaking her little head and saying "No Cow!" Funny, since she loves Chick-Fil-A nuggets. Despite the cow, Tessa was happy to stay for the duration of the game. We even hung around for the post game fireworks which were pretty impressive. Happy 4th of July!

Father's Day

We are so lucky to have these wonderful fathers in our lives. Being a Daddy is a big job and they both do it very well. Sunday afternoon we had presents and a yummy dinner for the daddies, complete with our traditional chocolate pie.

Of course, the presents are really all for Tessa.

Even though Tessa hadn't been feeling her best she didn't miss a chance to snuggle with her Daddy and tell him Happy Daddy Day.

Shipwreck Cove

Saturday we visited a local water park. The childen's area had slides just the right size for Tessa and she had a great time playing in the water. The misting palm trees kept us cool and the zero entry pool is a nice touch. The pirate theme is cute and Tessa crawled over, under and around the pirate ship. I liked floating on the lazy river where we would get hosed down by the water cannons. Tessa liked watching Daddy ride the big slides and make big splashy landings.

We took a break from the water and had a picnic in the park. Then it was back for more splashing fun.