Playgrounds!



The weather has been beautful lately.  Sunday and Monday were actually warm! (Monday was almost 70!)  What better way to enjoy the lovely weather than by doing MiniM.E.'s new favorite thing: going to playgrounds?

 

Before walking to the playground closest to us (seriously? my house just got major points in the "put your kid in a wagon and walk them to the park category), we had to examine all the leaves.

And play on our "playground"

notice the lack of jacket.  yeah, that warm.

 Not in chronilogical order, we walked to the playground, which happens to be the Burgess-Kimball Memorial Park -just looked that up- in the wagon.  Twice.  (Had to explain the presence of two different outfits because I am totally not the mom that brings a costume change to the park (actually, I am.  I totally have an extra outfit in my bag at all times.  But not because I think she needs a different outfit in case she doesn't coordinate with the other kids playing or the playground equipment, but in case of an explosion (yeah, all you vetran moms know what I'm talking about))) (and yes, I definitely just closed THREE parentheses.  Awesome.)

playing in the dirt far surpasses playing on the equipment

static=bringing back the fauxhawk

kiddie slide: MASTERED.



more playing in the dirt

Saturday we found a new park, the Kelley Park in Ballston Spa, which we have since been to twice.  But before venturing there the first time, we needed a coffee pick me up.  See, here's MiniM.E. napping on the chair while waiting for her coffee us to get our coffees.

We went to Coffee Planet, which, for the record, has fantastic coffee and is a really cool place to hang out with your kid since they have books and games in the back and don't seem to mind if your toddler is running around, pulling all the books out of the shelf and stomping puffs and bunnies into their floor.

Stomping snacks and pulling books out of the shelf was no match for the playground.  Here is MiniM.E.  Totally psyched.  It was pretty awesome... even Bob and I had fun.

They had slides and a play house in the "Toddler Area".

MiniM.E. needed a little help with some of the big kid stuff (she's signing it here):

But, she did go down this huge purple slide ALL BY HERSELF.  Did she maybe flip over and end up on her stomach?  Yes.  Did she sign "more" when she was done?  Definitely.  I call it a success.

They even had a tunnel.  Which, aside from playgrounds, is MiniM.E.'s favorite thing.

...Maybe.  Tunnels might be tied with riding on the skateboard. 

In between all our playing, we had a baby shower to go to, and MiniM.E. got all dressed up for the occasion.  She's too cute in a dress not to share:

The dress was a gift from her grandparents in NC.  Thanks MeaMaw and Grandpa!

it's hard to tell, but that weird blurry hand is "thank you"





What A Daredevil!

MiniM.E. is learning so much so fast.  Like how to use a slide.  Which is super cute.  We bought her a little slide for the yard and after just a few days, she figured out how to climb up and slide down all by herself!

So of course, using baby logic, it would probably make sense that if you could climb one slide and slide down, you could probably climb any slide and slide down, right?

MiniM.E. the Daredevil totally climbed this

NOT the red web thing, the stairs under the blue umbrella

all by herself and was ready to slide down without help.

Don't worry, I want her to be independent, but not that independent.  I was right behind her the whole time and we slid down together.

I guess this means no more unsupervised playground time.  (just kidding, I know you have to watch your child on a playground...)

Happy First Birthday MiniM.E.!

Sunday we had a party for MiniM.E.  

This is why I haven't written a blog post in forever.

the cake

MiniM.E. got to open a few presents early... 

the bow was the best part

 MiniM.E. seemed to have a good time, though she really didn't have a clue what was going on.  The whole cake thing?  She didn't have a clue.

"seriously? what is going on?"

"you really wanted me to wear this?"

"am I done?"

blowing out the candle

 I was hoping for a baby smashing her face into a cake.  Instead I got this:

daintily "smashing" the cake

feeding Mommy

feeding Daddy

 Typical MiniM.E.  She didn't even TASTE the cake.

at least WE liked opening presents

"that's right I'm one.  and don't you forget it!"

MiniM.E.'s favorite part of the party was the balloons.  A huge thank you to my parents, who, despite the helium shortage and the extreme difficulty of finding a place to buy helium without remortgaging their house, managed to find us enough helium to inflate more balloons than any one-year-old needs at a party (I needed them though-all of them).  THANK YOU!!

 

...Okay, it might have been a tie between helium balloons and Daddy juggling

Oh, did I forget to mention it was also Bob's birthday?  Lucky him: from now on his birthday is all about MiniM.E.  But  birthdays aren't important when you're old anyway, right?  Still, he got a present. No, not MiniM.E., though she does look cute in a bow... A wheelbarrow.  Which, actually... is more of a present for MiniM.E. since it's purpose is obviously giving her rides...

Monday was actually MiniM.E.'s birthday and my mom and I took her to...

BOWMAN ORCHARDS!  Again!  Because she really loves it.  She rocked the teeter totter.

and the tractor

and the slides

Until it started raining and we had to move our mini-party to the Tiny Tots Tea Room... which, if you live near Clifton Park and have a child under the age of 6 is a fantastic place to go.

I was a little worried about MiniM.E. turning one.  I've only been dreading it for months.  BUT... as it turns out, she's even awesomer today than she was yesterday.  And today she was one.  All day.  So... I guess it will be alright.  I just have to get used to the fact that she's not a baby anymore.  Officially.  She'll always be my baby...

Heritage Farms

The weather for our NH Saturday didn't look great... but we still wanted to try to enjoy the fall as much as possible.

With some savvy web-searching, we found a cute farm with a petting zoo about a half-hour from my parents house.  It was the perfect Saturday activity.  Especially because they also had a restaurant specializing in pancake breakfasts.  Animals and pancakes?  What more could MiniM.E. (or me) possibly want?

MiniM.E. riding the calf.  (before we saw the sign that said not to)

The calf.  I want one.

on the crazy exer-swing

chickens

were fascinating

goat 

and more goats

collecting leaves

practicing swinging

sliding

bouncing

playing in the sand

not sure about that truck...

visiting the ponies

I loved Heritage Farms and can't wait to go back next year.  The animals were awesome- they just roamed around the farm and even played on the playground.  MiniM.E. loved it.  AND the pancakes were fantastic.  Get the pumpkin ones.