2016 Ostrich Festival

Every year the City of Chandler throws Whit a wonderful birthday party, otherwise known as the Ostrich Festival. This year we had the added bonus of taking Grandpa along to experience the fun!

We made it in time for the camel, zebra and ostrich races!!!

Off to ride the rides!

 

Lunch in the shade of the beer garden, before and after...

Riding her first ride solo.

They asked nicely and Grandpa gave them money for an icy cone and to try to win a stuffed animal.

Grandpa snuggles

Grandpa Huxter thought for sure that he could be the one who could finally get Eloise to walk.

But Eloise thought otherwise. Why crawl or walk when you can snuggle with Grandpa instead?

Whit turns 34 and misses the boat

This year we were lucky and had Grandpa Huxter in town to help celebrate Whit's 34th Birthday. She arranged for all of us to take a tour on one of the steamboats tours of the lake. However, there was a slight mix-up in the tickets/plans and the boat tour ended up not happening. So we got a pitcher of beer, some fries/onion rings and made the most of a beautiful day at Canyon Lake.

 

 

We made a pit stop at Tortilla Flats just because.

Then we went home and enjoyed pizza and cake, made from scratch and decorated by Katie.

 

 

A busy day in the life of Eloise

Eloise loves to read books. In her bed, in the car, in the stroller, on the floor... it doesn't matter. This little bookworm will sit down and try to read anywhere.

After all the books were read, Eloise decided it was time to try to crawl...

 
And when you're done reading for the day, why not have a little fun with the 900 fresh lemons we got from Gramma Judy's tree?

Eloise goes to school

We wanted to test the waters with Eloise at school before we actually send her. So Whit took her for an hour or so to the 1-year old classroom at Natalie's school. She happened to be there for snack time and she joined right in with all the other kids. She appeared to have a lot of fun!

Leap Day Building and Babbling

Eloise is busy busy busy busy busy these days. But then there's times when she is remarkably patient and almost methodical. And then right back to being busy busy busy.

Park overalls

"Mommy has started running, usually on Wednesdays and Fridays, and she always takes me along in the stroller. Sometimes she is brave enough to take Gus and other times she just picks him up after her run and then we all go to the park to swing while she stretches. He loves to lay in the cold sand underneath the swing and bark at anyone who comes near me. I think it means he loves me."

"Today we did a little 'walk-walk' together and then I got to try the slide all by myself. It was mommy's idea and I really wasn't sure about it - but I tried it and it was not so bad. I think I like going down slides while sitting on one of my sister's laps better though."

Eloise on the moooooooo-ve

We've been a trying to do all sorts of different things to encourage Eloise to stand up more often to help strengthen her legs. Who knew that the rocking cow would help do it for us?

Standing up and clapping for herself. Very proud of herself and rightly so.

Family Hike: Lost Ranch

We set off on a beautiful Sunday morning to hike with the girls. Eloise was nestled happily in her "back pack" and Natalie was ready to go in her tutu and armed with her Fisher-Price binoculars. Due to the amount of chaos these two can produce vs. the amount mommy and daddy can tolerate, Gus had to stay home and guard the house.

 

We made it to the Lost Ranch.  Natalie was not impressed with the ranch, or remnants of, but she was excited that this was our halfway point and thrilled to sit down and have a little snack.

Minutes away from a meltdown and about 500 yards away from the car, Natalie tripped over a rock and fell on her hand/knee. She managed to give herself a pretty legit cut in the meat of her hand, but wow, she was super tough about it. So daddy carried her to the car, cleaned her off, wrapped her all up and we went out for lunch.

Nearly two years ago (to the day), she wiped out in a very similar manner on the very same trail.  http://suburbanhayes.blogspot.com/2014/02/sunday-morning-family-hike.html

Bad toy marketing

Our neighbors across the street have 2 yellow labs, Aley and Riley. We affectionately refer to them as Gus' Girlfriends. They recently received a slightly annoying dog toy as a gift for the girls but it turns out that both dogs were terrified of it.

We went over to their house to watch a football game recently and Eloise found the toy. She LOVED it immediately so they happily sent it home with us. Gus was also terrified of the toy.

Perhaps the makers should consider re-branding it as a kid toy...

Yes SIR!

Natalie continues to LOVE karate. She is always excited to go to class. She even made a Valentine for her favorite motorcycle riding teacher (seen in this video).

Kimbersucklewood Movie Theater

First showing: Despicable Me

Super Neighborhood Bowl

In lieu of shutting down the street to party and watch the game outside (we didn't think of it in time), we decided to get creative and watch the game in the park potluck style.  The turnout was awesome.

 

Mirror Mirror on the Wall...

Eloise made a new friend in Mommy and Daddy's room today (please excuse the super messy room in the background)...

Karate, Day 3

Day 3 of karate was actually day 2 of participation for Natalie.  At the end of class on Day 2 she earned her uniform, called a Gi (a lightweight, two-piece, usually white garment worn by barefooted martial-arts participants, consisting of loose-fitting pants and a wraparound jacket with cloth belt) and was thrilled. Here she is in her Gi doing awesome things with her favorite teacher on Day 3... 

Nat starts karate

The first day of karate was similar to days 1-5 of ballet, so I assumed that this would be a bust.  But on day 2, she jumped right in...

Not walking but curious and happy

January 2016: Eloise continues to baffle us with her complete disregard for walking. However, she does seem to enjoy standing more than she used to so we're doing lots of play time while standing. Despite this little setback (which we don't actually consider much of a setback rather just the result of her being the 3rd child who spends a lot of time in her carseat or stroller), she's a very smart, curious and happy little kid who is growing up entirely too fast for both mommy and daddy.

 Pulling up on her bin so she can chew on it...

Sitting still for a few minutes and staring out the back door at the leaves blowing in the breeze.

Assume the crawling position... but no crawling.

She LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVES to play under the table (this is underneath our temporary kitchen table which is actually 2 folding tables pushed together).

Sitting on her doggie and scooting in place to cause it to rock it back and forth and squeak.

Mommy strategically positions toys to try to encourage her to move her feet to get from one to the other. So far it hasn't worked but one of these days it will.

Standing at the couch and reading a book to mommy.