Donuts With Daddy!

Stephen and Olive have started a new tradition on Saturday mornings, they ride in the truck to go get donuts. When she comes home, this is what she looks like...

Covered in donuts and SO HAPPY!

The Children's Museum

On Saturday we went on a little field trip to Seminole to the Jasmine Moran Children's Museum. Little did I know that it was because there were people building an incredible playhouse in our backyard! We had taken Olive to this museum last year on her birthday and it was so fun to see her back in the same place on a whole new developmental level! Here are the girls headed for some fun! Our first stop was the mirror room. Check out the difference from last year to this year! Where did my baby girl go and who is this big girl?!

The girls could not have been more excited about the grocery store! They each grabbed a basket and started "shopping".
Molly was a very diligent shopper looking for a variety of items...

Olive went for the "sandwiches", she is her Mommy's girl!

Time to check out!

We headed to the bubble room which we expected to be a big hit, but the equipment is a little hard to use.

This is my favorite pic of the day! Deanna making the "monster bubble"!

Next we headed over to the art room to make some beautiful creations! Olive refused to wear the apron, so she didn't get to watercolor. But she was perfectly content using markers and doing dot art.

Our 3 little artists

They have the COOLEST thing ever! A giant lite bright! I think Deanna and I liked this as much as the kids!

After lunch, we went on a ride on the train.

Molly had been dying to work on the car all day, but it was always busy. On our way out, we finally got our chance! These girls are pretty self sufficient and may be great mechanics one day.

The last stop of the day was in the "baby room" where they have pillows and soft equipment for climbing...this was Grady's favorite part!

We said goodbye to the fishies on the way out.

and then paused for a group picture.

We had so much fun! Thanks Beverages for the field trip! We can't wait for the next one!

Olive's New "Treehouse"

I know that I have mentioned before how blessed we are to have incredible friends. But they have now taken their "awesomeness" to a whole new level! When Dad started getting really sick, one day he was really upset and told me that he wasn't supposed to be in the hospital, he was supposed to be taking Olive to Home Depot and building her a playhouse. This was something he had talked about since she was born and I am pretty sure if we looked around in his garage, he probably has a drawing of that "playhouse" somewhere. Well, I had told my friend Deanna that he had said that. Little did I know, she and her husband Adrian took that to heart and decided that if Dad couldn't build Olive a playhouse, they were going to rally the troops and make it happen. Project "Do It For Dano" was born. They worked with all of our other amazing friends for over 2 months to purchase and build (all on Saturday, 4.5 hours plus 6 men) and SURPRISE both Olive and Mommy with the playhouse! We came home Saturday to a driveway full of friends and I had no clue what was going on! Then we went into the backyard to see what was happening and we couldn't have been more surprised to see this... How cool is that?!! She even has her own special street sign!!

It took me awhile to figure out why everyone would be gathered at our house for Olive to get a playhouse and then Deanna explained how special this playhouse is!

Olive is absolutely in heaven! She calls it her "treehouse" and woke up this morning asking to see it. Her favorite part is the doorbell that rings and she rings it EVERY time she goes in or out of the house!

It has everything a modern day kitchen has, a really nice cordless phone...

and a service window...

and a sink and range...

and a really awesome clock! What more could you need?!

This evening she went into play and wouldn't come out! We were worried about her getting too hot, so Stephen got her Sonic water to drink (brilliant thinking!)

But she had different plans for the water and it quickly got poured into bowls and served as "soup, so yummy"

I wonder if we will ever get a picture of her in the playhouse without a spoon in her mouth!
Seriously, this must be some good soup!

She even serves "soup to go!"

Most blessed little girl in the whole wide world!

It was so hot on Saturday when the "big reveal" took place that I don't think I understood the magnitude of this incredible gift! I am so overwhelmed by the love of everyone who had a part in building this playhouse for Olive. There is no greater tribute anyone could have made to my Dad than to make sure his little Olive had the playhouse of her dreams. Thank you to everyone who contributed and who kept this incredible secret for so long! Olive couldn't be happier and her Mommy couldn't feel any more blessed to have such amazing people in our lives. We love you! Come over for some soup, I can tell you, it is YUMMY!!

Olive-isms

Olive has quite the vocabulary these days and some of the things she says are so funny! I wanted to make a little list so that we can look back on it one day and giggle!

"I hochoo" translation: "I hold you."

"A Strawp" translation: "Sonic"

"O'er deeeeer" translation: "Over there"

"Happy Dueday Mica!" translation "Happy Birthday Mica"

"Iscrean" translation "icecream" typically said when passing Orange Leaf..

"Ca Park!!" translation "the park!"

"blankalet or blanquet" translation "blanket"

"Dragon" translation "Travis"

"I doe like dat" (followed by shaking her head no) translation "I do not like ___ (that , what you are trying to make me do, etc)"

"Jesus Jesus" translation "Sing Jesus Loves the Little Children"

"Wrigleylou!" translation "Wrigley Lou"

"Oyedoit" translation "Ollie do it"

"I haelp you" translation "I help you"

"Da water?" translation "Let's go swimming!"

"Hi Mommy, Howyoutoday?" translation "Hi Mommy, How are you today?"

"Woo woo, emergency!" translation "I see a fire truck"

"Yum! Balls!" translation "Yummy donut holes"

"Blue and yellow? Blue and yellow?" translation "Can I play with play doh?"

She is also really good at remembering names and will start the Where? game at least 4 times a day. This involves her asking where anyone she has ever met is. It usually starts with her friends and then as soon as she gets to someone who I respond "they are in Texas" then she starts on her list of Texas people!

I absolutely LOVE hearing her sweet little voice talking, but it has made us realize that there will NEVER be another quiet moment in our house! Sweet girl talks all the time...oh what we have to look forward to! :)

Jesus Loves Me!

Olive has been quite the little singer lately, she walks around the house singing "Jesus Loves Me", "Jesus Loves The Little Children", "Twinkle Twinkle" and the "Itsy Bitsy Spider". She loves to sing! A few mornings ago, she had been singing "Jesus Loves Me" perfectly, so I sat her in the chair to sing for the camera, well of course, it didn't go quite as well.

So, we tried again!

Still so sweet! Love my little songbird!

Happy Birthday America!

On the Fourth, we met up with the Beverages, Villanis and Jules to watch the Brookhaven Parade. I have to admit, I love 4th of July parades, they are so nostalgic. It reminds me of watching the Bethany parade every year. Stephen thought I was a little crazy when I was disappointed that Norman didn't have a parade, but never fear, there are several neighborhood ones and we were all able to enjoy it!

Molly and Olive waiting for the parade to begin

(fake smiles #1 of the day)

Stephen and Adrian were pretty excited too!

Jules, our beautiful yard hostess, and the girls

Here it comes! Olive was so excited about the "emergency"

"hi emergency!"

At the end, the Daddys jumped in to let the girls think they were in the parade.

Grady sportin' the shades. So cool.

Olive and Molly with fake smiles #2 of the day! Cici "invited" us all over to swim for the afternoon and pool progress was made! Olive actually calmly got into a float and Molly jumped off the side into the water with no one catching her! Thank you Cici for the fun afternoon of swimming!

After nap time, I wanted to try to recreate the picture we took in front of our big flag last year. Let's just say, that didn't happen, but I got a few cute ones.

We couldn't wait to see the fireworks! Last year Olive never saw them because of the rain and the ridiculous reschedule for November, so we were excited to see her reaction.

Waiting...

Waiting...

Still waiting...

Here they go! She was in awe! She kept saying "so pretty!"

"Wow!"

Then she started calling out the colors.

"Yeah fireworks!"

She was very disappointed they were over and the whole way home kept saying "fireworks all gone?" We are so thankful to live in a free country and so grateful for those who fought to make it this way! Thank you! God Bless America!