Sisters

All smiles!

Beach!

After nearly 12 hours of traveling Saturday, we arrived on the Isle of Palms, SC for a week!

Football on the beach

Digging...

Family time!

Loving the waves

And bonding with Uncle Evan :-)

Family Day to Chestertown

We had really been wanting to go to Chestertown with Emma and just have a relaxing time for a while now, and Saturday we were able to do just that! The weather was beautiful and we had a great time.

One of the things we really wanted to see at Washington College was the new dining hall/student center that was finished last year. It was amazing! We were both really impressed, and felt like (for the most part) that it fit in with the old town feel of campus.

Emma wasn't so sure about the George Washington head...

She loved running down the Cater Walk with Daddy

It was SUCH a nice day! The hill dorms looking grand

Emma was such a cutie. She loved being out and running around the campus. In this picture she is running toward me to give me a hug!

Then she turned around and ran to give Daddy a hug!

So sweet!

Relaxing in the shade...

We wanted to get a nice family picture to remember our visit, and I guess this one works. I was hoping to get more of the building in the background, but the lady we asked to take it seemed to be in a bit of a hurry.

After seeing the campus, we went downtown to walk around the Farmer's Market that happens every Saturday morning in Chestertown. There were tons of people, and we had a nice time looking at everything. Sadly, we found out that my favorite sandwich shop, the Feast of Reason, is closed. We had heard rumors that it was closing, but I really didn't want to believe them.

Finally, we headed just outside of Chestertown to Lockbriar Farms to go berry picking! We picked lots of blackberries and blueberries. Emma loved getting to help with the blueberries (the blackberries were a little harder for her), but she had a very hard time remembering to put the berries in our basket! You can see more pictures of all that we picked on Thrifty Living!

Congrats Evan and Jeanine!

The future Mr. & Mrs. Watford!

We are so excited for you guys and can't wait to get you hitched!

Delaware State Fair!

On Wednesday (yes, it was about 90 degrees!) we headed south to go to the Delaware State Fair with our friends the Thompsons and the Goodsells. The only way I made it was because of the generous cloud cover most of the day (and the air conditioned stop we made in one of the buildings mid-afternoon).


Emma had a blast getting to see the colors and vendors and run around!

We saw a ton of animals too. The pigs were ALL taking naps! At the petting zoo Emma really liked the giraffe (she did not touch him) and she did pet some of the small animals like the sheep, goats, and pony, but as soon as one of the real and live animals looked at her, she would back up from the pen, whine, and start stomping her feet! It was really funny!

Emma also loves large, mechanical equipment these days (tractors, trucks, planes, trains, etc), so getting to sit on the tractor was awesome for her.

And a cute one with Daddy!

Emma enjoyed getting to see Jake and Madison, but I think she is still rather partial to "her" baby, Kellen...

He is SO sweet! (Check out Lindsay's blog for a cute post about this picture too!)

We finished up the day at the fair with the circus. We ended up leaving just before it finished because it was so hot under the tent (with no circulation!!). Emma was a trooper the whole day, especially since she didn't get a nap until 6 when we left! She was out basically by the time we pulled out of the parking lot, and slept the whole way home. We stopped for a supersize cherry limeaid on the way north - a great way to end a great family day!

Morning Coffee

Every morning while I drink my coffee, this little beggar eyes up my cup o' joe:

She waits (sometimes more patiently than other times) for my cup to have about this much left:

At which point I give the mug to her:

And that's the end of that!

Tot School: Week of July 19-23

Tot School

Emma is 18.5 months old

Emma has always loved books, so one of the ways I've been working to increase her attention span and ability to sit still is by having her read a book next to me while I'm reading my own book. She is doing great at this! But having a longer attention span has also meant that she would sit for an hour straight and have me read TO her! WHEW! I have to cut her off most days. She's also moved on to picture books that have many more words. We recently enjoyed The Big Honey Hunt (my favorite growing up), One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish, and Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb. I had to take Railroad Toad back to the library because Martin and I were quoting it to each other while falling asleep the other night!

This is a great Melissa and Doug piggy bank that Emma never seemed to care about much. I spent some time with her this week showing her how the coins come out and stuff back in, and she had a great time!

This week I also pulled out some Mr. Potato Heads that Emma had never gotten to use. She is fascinated by the little pieces and does a great job getting them in the holes on the Potato Head. She's done a great job playing with this on her own.

Since her fine motor skills seem to be growing by leaps and bounds lately, I pulled out her beads (that we normally just scoop) and gave her pipe cleaner. At first I held the pipe cleaner and her hand to get the bead on, but after she saw what we were doing, she took off with it - no help needed!

Originally I had been turning the bead so that the hole was easier for her to find, but she ended up getting her own beads out of the bag and doing the whole thing by herself. I was really impressed!

After a solid 30 minutes of threading beads, she ended up enjoying the texture more than anything else, and proceeded to bury her hands in the bag of beads and wiggly them around.

We also had fun with textures outside using shaving cream. I'd done this before with Emma and she always cried and tried to just get that stuff off! But this time she really enjoyed playing with it (even though she looks a bit apprehensive).

Well, its looking like Emma prefers the girly side of being a girl! One of her favorite things to do now is to carry her purses around full of stuff! She walks around the room putting little objects in her bag, and then carries the bag off somewhere to examine her treasures. She doesn't have a strong preference for her purse....a bucket will do!

Emma also took a trip to Mommy's nail salon! Such great life skills she's learning!



Big sister training continues with Emma's friend, Kellen. This particular day she wanted to hold him, so they sat on the couch with me and snuggled mostly with each other. Emma loves to give him kisses and hugs and Kellen is enjoying pulling at her hair and sometimes giving kisses back! They are really beginning to play well together!



Mom's Favorite:

Emma is my little tomato loving kid! She would just eat tomatoes if we let her! She has really enjoyed taking a look at our garden every day, helping to water it, and especially checking to see if the tomatoes are ready to be picked. Every time we look at the tomatoes she says "Done!" meaning, they're ready to be picked and I want to eat them!