We had a great week in Arkansas visiting my grandparents. Before we left this morning, my Grandma brought out an old jacket of my Dad's for Clara to try on. Since she has been rockin' it on her horse lately, I thought it was most appropriate for my little cowgirl.


We went back to the park yesterday and Clara discovered she could climb up a pretty steep ladder and go down a big slide by herself.

Comfortable

Chelsea and Clara have made themselves at home here...I came upon them relaxing this morning...together. How sweet :)

Bull Shoals State Park

Each time we come to visit my grandparents, I say to my them 'We have to get down to the state park and let Clara play around!'. Yet we have come and gone from here three times Clara has not set foot in the park. This is mostly because our visits are so full of other fun things like boating and other water activities, trips into town, and naps!

Not this visit though! G&G, Clara, Chelsea, and I loaded up in the Explorer and took a drive down to Bull Shoals State Park. We got some cute snapshots of Clara playing around.

Then we went down to the river for another walk and playtime at their park.

Does it get any better for a 16 month old?!?

A good place for a busy toddler

I found this great place to take Clara during the cold, long, winter months. There is an open gym a few days a week which supplies lots of balls, scooters, climbing mats, hoola hoops, and a ton of other stuff to keep Clara busy! She has a blast, meets other kids, and is worn out when it's over. Everyone's happy!


Not the most exciting video, but it will satisfy the grandparents :)

Usually there are a lot more people when we go, but this video was taken at an afternoon session and most of the other kids are napping at this point.

Wizard of Oz

A few weeks ago I was in the drive through lane at McDonalds and noticed the Happy Meal toys. They were the Wizard of Oz collection of dolls and not only were they pretty cute, they were made by the Madame Alexander company.

Every Christmas for about 10 years of my childhood, I would get a different Madame Alexander doll for my collection. I think I have just about all the Gone With the Wind characters, 'Laura Ingalls Wilder' from Little House on the Prairie, and a few others I can't recall. The dolls are still at my parents' house because my mom really loves dolls the most.

Back to Mickey D's...I knew I had to get these dolls for myself for Clara since they were so cute and little and geez...their eyes even opened and closed! (I know...you are probably thinking I have lost it at this point!) The funny thing is I haven't even seen the Wizard of Oz movie. Ever. (You're probably thinking I'm even weirder at this point) I never was too interested in those weird munchkins and Oz and the yellow brick road.

Anyways, I immediately call my mom to tell her about my discovery. She is equally excited and is more than happy to help me collect all 12 characters. This is one thing I love about her...when she is enthusiastic about something - watch out! She's on a mission! She found all 12 characters for me within two days! Thanks Mom!

(From L to R: Winkie Guard, Flower Munchkin, Dorothy, Wizard of Oz, Lollipop Munchkin, Glinda the Good Witch, Wicked Witch of the West, Tin Man, Scarecrow, Cowardly Lion, Lullaby Munchkin, Winged Monkey)

Baking and Crafting

I'm not sure if it's the leaves changing and cooler weather, but Tom and I both have been doing some baking and I have been working on a new cross-stitch project.

After we went to the apple orchard, I made a double crust apple pie and Tom baked bread, a talent some of you probably didn't know about! The apple pie was pretty much your standard pie, nothing special and it turned out alright. My crusts are still not nearly as good as I would like, but each time I make one they seem to improve. Tom's bread was a garlic-herb white bread and it was awesome!! I am hoping he will make this again, possibly for Thanksgiving.

Wish we would have taken pictures of our baked goods, but we didn't!

Here is my finished cross-stitch project. It has lots of tiny little beads all over...not sure how much detail you can see from this picture.

No blog post would be complete without some pictures of Clara. :-)

More Fall Fun

We have had some fun this weekend and a near catastrophe...

Last night we had our friends Paul, Kathy and Joe over for dinner and a bonfire. It's gotten pretty cool here this week and our fire pit was ready to be lit up! The guys did a great job of getting a roaring fire going and we had a lot of fun hanging out by the fire and keeping warm.

Eventually the guys felt a yearning to relive their childhood years and Clara's tricycle felt the brunt of their fun.

It was pretty late when the fire went out so we left everything to pick up this morning. Tom left to run some errands, Clara was down for a nap and I started cleaning up outside. I swept the ashes from the fire pit into the trash can and went back inside to tackle the kitchen. About 20 minutes later I hear an urgent knock on the backdoor. It's my neighbors from across the street and they tell me the trashcan is on fire!! I run outside and there are flames on the back side of the trashcan!! They were big enough to be seen from inside our neighbors house...probably 150 feet away. We are so thankful they noticed what was going on, and I am so thankful I didn't put the trashcan back in the garage. We dodged a bullet! Thanks Patrick and Margot!!

This afternoon we headed to Tanner's Farm. Tanner's has an apple orchard, corn maze, petting zoo, tractor rides, pumpkin patch, a country store and a lot of other activities for kids to enjoy. It's a lot of fun and a yearly tradition for many families around here.


We wanted Clara to pose in front of the sign with us, but she had other plans!

I have never seen a billy goat in a tree house or a pulley contraption to bring up food. Random, but funny!

Children's Discovery Museum

Clara and I, along with a friend and her son, took a trip to Normal, Illinois today to visit the Children's Discovery Museum. We had such a great time and I was thoroughly impressed with this place. It had so many creative and interactive displays that Clara could get into. We were there for almost three hours and didn't get to experience the whole place. We will definitely be going back!


Clara's favorite part was the water table. It was hard to pull her away, but she was getting soaked and there were two more floors to explore.



There was a elaborate agriculture section with dairy cows, a combine, a grain silo and a tractor.

There were kid-size white coats to wear in the 'Inside Me' exhibit. Here's Clara in her white coat, playing with a defibrillator. Her Dad will have to give her some instruction next time.

There was a 'Clara sized' chess set to play with and checkers table.


They had this section on recycling and composting. Clara crawled through the compost pile, as an earthworm would.

Clara is a little small for this climbing contraption, but I thought it looked really inovative and fun for kids.


Before we left, Clara wanted to play on the computers. She always wants to do this at home, but she's busted the keyboard a couple times and now it's off limits. I figured the museum's stuff must be kid proof and she got a lot of enjoyment out of banging on the keyboard.

Autumn Days

On Friday afternoon we helped our neighbors rake up a ton of leaves. They have a 4 year old daughter who is great with Clara. The little girls had a lot of fun jumping in the leaves and tossing them into the air.




We have been enjoying the unusually warm weather and spending a lot of time outside. Our neighborhood had a block party this past weekend and we all had a really good time. They set up a 'bounce house' type thingy, had face painting, pumpkin painting and a ton of food and drinks.





Clara went in her Halloween costume. She is an Arkansas State Park Ranger :) We got the outfit over the summer while touring the Bull Shoals State Park visitor center. We tried to keep the hair bow in all afternoon, otherwise we knew we would hear comments about our handsome little boy!

It was hard to keep Clara away from the drink coolers. She didn't care about the drinks - she wanted the ice! Tom and I attribute this to the fact that our ice maker has been broke for about 6 months and Clara has missed out!


Before we left, Clara snagged two sugar cookies and ate them both. I don't think she really needed these...check out the chubby thighs :)


I can't end this blog post without a shout out to my Cowboys!! Go Pokes! What a game this weekend! It's a rare day, when OSU football fans have this much to cheer for. Tom and I are enjoying the success while it lasts!

Clara and Chelsea's Walk

It has been so much fun, and very special, to see Clara and Chelsea's friendship develop over the past 15 months.

Let me explain...Chelsea was our first 'baby'. We first met her when she was a 4 week old puppy and brought her home several weeks later. We got her potty trained, taught her tricks, dressed her up, and took tons of pictures of her. Many of our friends and my co-workers probably thought we were a little obsessed! Which we were :)

Fast forward three years later and we bring Clara home from the hospital. Chelsea knew something special was happening on that first day home. We were anxious about Chelsea's reaction and were relieved and happy when Chelsea gave Clara a few sniffs and went back to sleep on the couch.

Chelsea was close by when Clara napped
As Clara has grown and developed, so has the relationship between Chelsea and Clara. When Clara was a few months old, the only thing that would produce a true fit of giggles was Chelsea. Clara loved to pet her soft fur and to watch her play around with us. It was heart warming to see our two girls have such fondness for each other.

Chelsea has put up with a lot of fur, ear, and tail pulling. She has been woke up at night (a lot!) to Clara's cries for food and comfort. She knows she doesn't get as much attention, or pictures taken, as when she was the only baby in the house.

However, she loves Clara. She is gentle and playful with her and knows that she has to treat Clara extra carefully. Recently, Clara expressed interest in holding the leash and being the one to actually 'walk' Chelsea. What happened really surprised us!

When Clara walks Chelsea she acts like a totally different dog. She stays close to Clara, doesn't pull at all on the leash and ignores the rabbits and squirrels. She looks back to check on Clara and make sure she's ok. It's the sweetest thing. After a few of these walks, I finally had the thought to take a video.

Q & A with Clara

Repaired Laptop = Happy Blogger

I am so happy to say that my laptop is fixed!! I no longer have to very gently and ever-so-carefully hold the power cord in order to keep the screen lit up and the battery charging. What a pain!! However, just because the laptop was down, doesn't mean I was sitting on my laurels and not thinking about this blog :) I have been taking pictures and videos and forumlating posts in my mind. So on with it!

Clara loves her new rocking horse! It was one of my recent garage sale purchases and we have already got our $5 out of it. We tell her to 'Rock it!' and she really gets going. Tom will play bucking bronco with Clara and really toss her around on it. Clara is all grins and giggles and loves the rough housing.