First Lake Day of the Year

We are very lucky (in my opinion) that Wes's family has a lake house.  They don't live there, but it is just a small old cottage on a nice large lot in a cove at the lake....perfection!  I love spending so many days there in the spring and summer and yesterday was our kick off to the lake season!! YAY!  We cleaned the boat last week, so all we had to do is load it up, fill it up with gas..yikes! and head to the lake house!  We were meeting Tommie there, but she was finishing up stuff at her house, so we went on a boat ride first thing.  Last year, Paige loved the boat but HATED the life jacket.  It was one of those infant life jackets that have the large part behind your head...it was awful!  Now, she is big enough for a normal life jacket and life is good again!  She sat in my lap and pointed out all the bubbles the boat was making..fun times!  She finally got comfortable enough, she had to move around and even help her Daddy drive!
  

We road around looking at houses Wes was finishing up. (He is a contractor for a company that builds lots of huge houses on the lake)  Paige loved hitting all the "bump bumps" in the water, but there weren't many since not many people were out on the lake...so not many waves from other boats.  I personally love when it is so calm like that...but not my wild child.  She started clapping after each bump!  She is too much like her Daddy.  After about an hour, we headed back to the house to see if Tommie was there.  She was cleaning up the inside of the house and came down to meet us. 
There were a ton of limbs and sticks that have washed up, one bad thing about a cove..but worth it not to be on the main part of the lake.  So we all started picking up sticks...Paige thinks it is a game!

 

The yard was finally cleaned up and Paige was saying "eat, eat" and we realized it was lunchtime...we just thought it was snack time for Paige.  Oops...sorry P!  We decided to go to Skippers on the lake, so we loaded up and went for another boat ride to the restaurant.  Wes just got some food off the buffet, but Tommie and I both ordered fish and chips and Paige got a grilled cheese.  She must have been hungry because she ate almost all of it and some fries..she usually ignores the fries.  The fish and chips had to be the best I have ever had...we were both so impressed!  

After lunch, we rode around a little while longer and then headed back to the house to play around there.  Paige found some mud puddles and had a ball splashing around in the lake.  Ok..side note here.  She actually remembered something from last summer.  Who knew an 19 month old can remember doing something when she was 10-11 months old?? We were shocked.  Mimi has this tunnel thing she found at a yard sale and she brought it out to put in the grass.  Well, last year, we put it in the shallow part of the lake, but since the water is still cold, we put in the grass this year.  Well, Paige knew that was wrong.  If she does something one way the first time, she thinks you need to do it that way every time. (We blew bubbles for the first time on our front porch on the swing and for weeks afterwards, she only blew bubbles there....) Anyways, she kept pointing to the water and the same exact place it was set up last year and needed it there! Isn't that crazy?  We finally convinced her it was better in the grass and she was fine and played. 

We had a great time at the lake, but it was getting close to nap time and Wes had some errands to run and our house needed a good cleaning.  So we told Mimi bye bye and went home.  Of course Paige feel asleep about a mile from the house (we are only about 10 minutes away from the lake).  She took a nice long nap and we were able to get a lot done around the house.  We had the best weekend!  It was sad to go back to school and work..that's for sure!  

 


 

Children's Museum

Our next big thing this past weekend was our monthly play date with Miss Audrey and of course Mama time with Heather!  We met in Greenville at The Children's Museum and of course I took my big girl camera and took lots of pictures of the girls playing...it wouldn't be a play date without it, right?
Anyways, we were walking in and I convinced Heather to take out the squeakies in Audrey's shoes...I know I am mean!  But, I knew I would have gone insane a whole day with those shoes squeaking.  I guess I am a mean Mama for always taking them out of Paige's shoes!!  Oh well! 
So we decided to take some pictures before we even made it in the museum..

   

 

  

I mean..are these not the prettiest little girls ever.  I may be biased though! 

It was time for some grocery shopping...I think both girls loved doing this part!  I loved watching them push their little buggies and figuring out which food they needed!

   

 

 

 I loved this picture so much.  They have to check out what each other has in their buggy..don't want to miss out on anything you know!

Now onto the doctor section...this area was a little hard to get Paige to leave without taking a stuffed animal...which are her favorite!

 

  

Then we went to the five years and under play area.  We thought we would let them participate in the activity they were having, but it involved food coloring and vinegar..so we passed on that one and just let them play on the slide and in the little house for a while....and of course ate some goldfish!

  

 

  

 

Next stop, was the construction site.  

   

 

  

We had to learn about brushing teeth, right? 

 

 
 

And finally, it was time to play in the water! Poor Audrey was over it by this time...her waking up at 5:30 had finally caught up with her.  

  

 

  

 

We walked around to the other side of the water section and found some blocks to play with and I think Audrey got her second wind and was having a ball!

   

 

  

We had a great time at The Children's Museum.  I know Paige will love going back there again.  We loaded the girls up and went to see Heather and Audrey's new house.  They just moved in about 2 weeks prior and I couldn't wait to see it.  We loved it and are so happy for them!  Heather made us spaghetti and since their house is larger than their previous one..they don't have a breakfast table yet, so we ate on the floor.  Yes, we could have sat in her pretty dining room, but she only had one highchair (obviously) and there was white carpet and we were eating spaghetti...can you say mess!  So I asked if we could sit on the floor..I didn't want to be the reason her carpets were destroyed!  It was a yummy lunch and it was nap time for Audrey.  We played with Paige in the living room and outside until it was time for Paige to nap (sorry again for waking up Audrey..I feel awful about that!).  We said our goodbyes and made plans for the lake for our next play date and headed home.  We had a great day and cant wait for next month's play date!

The rest of the day, we just played at the house with Daddy and went to eat BBQ for supper and then of course played outside some more that evening.  I love being outside all the time with Paige...she does so much better outside than being cooped up inside!  

Next post will be about our last part of the long weekend...a day at the lake!

Pickin' Strawberries

I took Friday off last week, so Paige and I had a nice long weekend together.  It was very eventful, so I will have three posts on just this weekend! Mimi went to the beach all last week so we knew we would spend Friday together...so we decided to load up and head to Due West for some strawberry pickin'....

 

We weren't sure how Paige would do, if she would grasps the concept or not...but she loved it!  We each had our own bucket and we went to our starting point and starting picking away.  We showed Paige how to pick the red ones out and put in the bucket, but she didn't want any in her bucket...she wanted them in her belly!  Luckily, we put on play clothes for this event because there was strawberry juice all over her!  I swear she ate 15 strawberries back to back!  She was in heaven.  Then once her belly was fully, she loved picking them to put in her bucket....I think she thought she was Easter Egg hunting haha!

She was having the best time.  We picked and picked and then knew we had to stop!  At the end of the strawberry field, there were a few horses, so we took Paige over there to pet them.  I love them oh so much!  Finally we were able to pay for our strawberries and get a wipe bath in the parking lot before we headed down the road to one of the best restaurants ever....
Grits and Groceries!  Man it is so good.  I got shrimp po'boy, Tommie got crab cake and Paige got french toast with a strawberry and cream cheese mixture on the side...man, was it good.  If you have never heard of this place...google it! They have been in Southern Living and other magazines...SO GOOD!  The owner lives next door and invited us to take Paige over to see their baby pig Daisy.  Paige loved her so much!

We were also able to take her to see some goats too...I think these were her favorite because they were so curious about her! 

 It was getting close to nap time, so we headed back home.  The rest of the day, we just stayed home and played outside.  We also found out that one of her sippy cups has a clip...so she loved wearing it of course 

 Next post about our weekend coming up...a play date with Audrey at The Children's Museum!

 

Easter Pictures

Paige had Easter pictures taken a few weeks ago and I wanted to share some of my favorites with you guys!  She was so in love with those bunnies...I really felt bad for the bunnies because Paige was kinda rough with them but the photographer (and owner of the bunnies) seemed fine with it.  They did comment on how Paige was handling them better, well maybe not better but with more confidence?? than some 5 year old boys were.  I think I have a brave and wild little girl!  Ok, enough rambling, here are some of her pictures, taken by Casey at Blissful Photography.