Beauty and the Beast!

I was so excited about taking Taylor to Beauty and the Beast at the Muny. I thought this year she was finally old enough to go and I thought I'd start a fun new tradition for us girls.  I remember going to the Muny when I was a kid to see Disney musicals and I loved it, so I thought she would too. I went to get tickets and came home and told her...."Taylor, me and you are going to go see Beauty and the Beast outside!" She said, "Mom, I'm not going to see that! I hate Beauty and the Beast!" Oh great, I thought! I spent alot of money on these tickets and she doesn't even want to go!  So, we watched Beauty and the Beast movie. She was scared a few times by the Beast, but I told her he turns nice and he's not mean. By the end she really liked it and she was excited to go. 
Of course it just had to be the hottest day ever that day and it was opening night.  Poor thing was sweaty and waited so patiently for it to start. I was sooooo soooo proud of her though. She was so good and she watched the whole thing!! It was so hard for her to see too. She sat on my lap the whole time and even wanted to stand to see, but I told her she couldn't becasue people behind her couldn't see then. I felt sorry for her that she wanted to really see more clearly...it was cute! Intermission was at 10pm and she was still up and going.  We got in the car at 11pm and I couldn't believe she made it through the dripping sweat and the late night. I told her I was so proud of my big girl! She went home to her sleeping daddy and told him that mommy was so proud of her and she watched the whole thing and wasn't even scared!
It was a great show, but it was for sure a little long....even for me!

Happy Father's Day Daddy!

We had a great Father's Day weekend.  Friday night we took Daddy to dinner at Schafly Bottleworks. We've passed the place for years and never eaten dinner there! Its looks like a lot of fun and I heard it was good. Well....mommy has a new favorite place! I love brewing companies because besides that they always have good beer :), they always have a fun atmosphere! It was big and there was a band playing and the menu was awesome! They do all local meat and produce!!!  You know I'm all about that. And that means its mostly organic. I asked them if they had fries and she said.."no, sorry we don't have anything fried." Awesome for me, but that didn't make daddy to happy of course.  Taylor had homemade applesauce. Daddy had a pulled pork sandwich with cold slaw. I had a great local bison burger with blue cheese and a greens and grain salad...yum! And Parker had mashed sweet potatoes.  And the beer.....rasberry wheat! Yummy! So if you are looking for a good place to eat with the kids....go there!
Saturday we went swimming at Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house...fun as always and we went back on Sunday for Father's Day. First we opened presents in bed. Daddy got a cardinal's t-shirt, a polo and a hose from the girls and mommy got him a watch. I hope he wears it! We also made him eggs and biscuits. Taylor likes to help put the biscuits on the pan and hand me the eggs. She also puts the cheese on them....after she eats some! 
We went to visit Pawpaw Rowberry (old pawpaw) as Taylor calls him. He had a bad week last week, falling a couple times, so we went to visit. Poor guy has a cut on his head and bruises on his arms. He was doing okay though. We didn't stay long cuz the kids can be a little much for him.
Then it was off to Washington to Pawpaw's. We did some swimming and BBQing. It was a nice weekend for the daddies!!!

Daddy Wins!

Well that's it....daddy wins for Parker's first word!  We are all always in her face trying to get her to say our name first.....Taylor says "Sissy", I say, "mama", Daddy says, "dada!" We repeat over and over till the poor girl is so confused...its funny. It's been a competion...who will she say first?
Daddy said, "All I want for Father's Day is for Parker to say "dada", so.....I guess I can take back all the gifts! haha! It is cute though.
She is also almost saying "uh oh" too! (Those were Taylor's first words).  Although right now its just the "uh" part....hilarious to hear. We say "uhhhh ohhh" and she says "uhh, uhh, uhh" she's tryin real hard, but she just can't make the "oh" sound.  Cutie!

Lake of the Ozarks

This weekend we went to the lake with Mawmaw and Pawpaw. The girls both had a great time. Taylor got to do alot of fun new things!  It was her first time on a boat. That didn't last too long because it was so choppy out there on the main channel....she wasn't so sure about it.  She rode go-carts...another thing she wasn't too sure about at first!  I wish I had a picture of her face! I don't think she knew how fast they went. She was sqeezing my arm so tight and her eyes were so big!  We did win though...we beat daddy and mawmaw.  She also did some fishing. She's done that before, but she's getting good at it. I think she caught the most fish....and the biggest (according to pawpaw). Mommy was excited that daddy bought her a new pink fishing pole, so we all did some fishing.

Parker had a great time just crawling around the condo and watching all the boats out the big full length windows. Wish we had those at home.  She of course did some swimming and splashing too. She was a happy girl with everyone around and paying attention to her.  I think everyone had a good weekend. Daddy got to rent a boat, Taylor and Parker got to swim, Mommy got to go to the outlet mall (by herself!), and I think Mawmaw and Pawpaw were happy with just relaxing and hanging out with the girls...which made us happy too! Thanks Mawmaw and Pawpaw!

This was the storm that rolled in Sat afternoon! Lots of boats got soaked out there!  Daddy and I also decided that we will have to own a boat soon! There's nothing better. I could be on a boat every weekend!

Yet another great weekend....

Yes, its definitely summer! Graduation parties, weddings, birthday parties, vacation....every weekend of our summer is already jam packed with events. We just went all the way through Labor Day with what we have planned!

Saturday we had a graduation party and a birthday party, but sunday we managed to get to Grant's Farm! We hadn't been for 2 years and Taylor was small, so I was excited.  It was a beautiful Sunday and we got there early before it got busy and hot.  It was Mawmaw and Pawpaw's idea, so we met them there. I had to share some of the cute pics we got! 

Goat feeding is so going well...

Still going well...

and now she's done!

Parker get's a goat nose!

Parker had such a great time! She was so good!

She Did It!

Yesterday Parker pulled up and stood for the first time!  And not only once, but about 4 times!  I knew she was ready, but she was always just doing it with me holding her hands. She didn't really have anything the right height for her to pull up on. I put the legs on her little activity table and right away she went to her knees and then pulled up!  I think she surprised herself even. She let go for a second and almost fell and I think it scared her, but she is pretty daring trying to walk around it.  She then tried to pull up on the table leg while we were eating dinner and busted her face on the leg! ouch!  Poor thing...you try something new and look what you get.  Just this weekend she has sprouted it seems! She is all over the place crawling and now with standing we will really have to watch it. I think she's gonna get lots of bumps and bruises!
It was a nice fun, long weekend. Friday night Taylor and Jason camped out in the back yard.  I can't believe she actually did it without coming in in the middle of the night! We sat out on the patio until about 9:30pm and she waited patiently with her pillow on her lap. She finally said, "daddy, can we go to bed in the tent now?"  I went and tucked them in and she was out within minutes! She came in and woke me at 6:30am and said, "Mommy, the sun is up and I slept in the tent! Now its time to make eggs!" 
We went out to Mawmaw and Pawpaw's house that day to swim for the first time this year and they had a blast. Parker splashed the whole time! It was all in her face and she didn't care one bit! She loved the water. She would have just let go and swam if we would have let her I think.  Taylor wasn't so quick to swim on her own. She clung to me for a while with her wings on, but she got used to it soon enough.
Sunday was time to go to Mawmaw Jan's house. Daddy went fishing. Parker still isn't too sure about Mawmaw Jan, but she did better than last time!  Taylor had fun with David in the baby pool and playing inside and Parker pretty much just let me hold her the whole day! We went to Pirronne's that evening at about 8:00 and had dinner.  I knew Taylor would want to go home with Julie, so I asked if David could spend the night at our house. Julie was worried he wouldn't do so good, but he wanted to come.  They were so excited for thier "sleepover!" David said, "this is gonna be the best sleepover ever!" I made them a big bed on the living room floor and they watched Free Willy. It was cute!
A long weekend was much needed!  I love those!