Sunflowers!

The sunflowers that Leah (my sister) and Sunshine planted are growing fast! Here she is by some of them that are in our vegetable garden. It has been fun for her to have some plants of her own and she loves to go and look at them when she is outside. I'll post a picture of them again once they start blooming!

Sunshine turns Two!

Playing in the sand at Matagorda on her birthday. We had a picnic, collected seashells, and played in the water and sand. We had a blast!

Wading in the water...she loved it!

Opening gifts from family in Kansas.

More gift opening.

We had a family party the day after her birthday. She loved it when everyone sang to her.

Her expression cracks me up in this picture!

Enjoying some birthday cake and ice cream.

Mmmm!

Happy Birthday to you....

Sunshine loves to sing "Happy Birthday"- it is her song of endearment. If she loves someone or something she will probably sing "Happy Birthday" to them/it at some point. We sing "Happy Birthday" to her stuffed animals regularly, actually almost every morning when she wakes up. I am guessing that she will be real excited when people sing to her in a few weeks to celebrate her 2nd birthday!
So you may be wondering what this picture has to do with the song. Well, we stayed in downtown San Antonio a couple weeks ago. We arrived at night, so the Tower of the Americas was lit up, and she was very intrigued by it. We were lucky enough to have a view of it from our room. Sunshine sat in the window with her baby doll and sang "Happy Birthday" to it. We loved it- maybe more than she did :)!

Alex & Leah Visit

Two weekends ago my youngest sister Leah and her husband Alex came for a visit. They had spent some time in the San Antonio area and at Matagorda Bay and then stayed with us for the weekend before heading back to Kansas. We had such a great time with them! I wish we could see them both more often. We had fun touring the Blue Bell factory (bottom pic) and just hanging out at home. They made a great impression on Sunshine as she is still talking about them and that they had to go home. They gave her some seashells that they found at the beach and she loves to carry them around the house and talk about Uncle Alex and Aunt Leah. Thanks for the great weekend! Come back soon :).

Baking Buddy

Sunshine has been very intrigued by my activities lately. I have been able to do some sewing and she loves to sit or stand behind me (on the same chair) while I sew. Granted, it doesn't leave me a lot of room to sit, but she is entertained and I am getting my sewing done. I panicked a little when I realized a few days ago that Easter really isn't that far off. I am making her dress and I have a long way to go. But that isn't really what I writing about, so on with the post.

This morning I decided to make some zucchini bread. With Spring on the way (hopefully), I thought I should use up some frozen zucchini from last year's garden before it was time to start planting this year's garden. I have not involved Sunshine in any baking, but thought I would give it a try today. I have an apron that I wear sometimes and she likes to have an apron too so that she can look like momma. So, I let her wear this very cute apron that my Grandma Ferdinand gave me. It is truly a vintage apron....I love it! It looks like a skirt on her...she is very proud to wear it. We had fun measuring together. I believe I did include all of the ingredients and was able to keep the goldfish crackers she was snacking on out of the mixing bowl!

I am looking forward to many more fun times in the kitchen with my little girl.

Mmmm......

I think she fully enjoyed her chocolate chip cookie!

Day to Day Life

This morning we went to the park to play. As we were unloading the car I heard/saw a helicopter landing on the other side of the play equipment. My first thought was- "someone must be really injured." (A total mom reaction, I know). After talking to a few people I realized that they were having a benefit for a local police officer who was recently injured and that the helicopter was for the kids look at and sit in. Sunshine loved it, but was a little shy about sitting in it.

She seems to have fallen in love with the slide. I remember the first time I took her to the park and how much I had to help her, now she just does it all by herself! She has a new pair of shoes on in the picture below. She loves these shoes and actually cried last night when T them off so he could get her ready for bed. He told her that the shoes had to go "night, night", which seemed to help.


After the park, I had a lunch date with my sister-in-law so T and Sunshine had a Daddy/Daughter lunch. I really enjoyed having lunch with Meg and T had a fun time taking Sunshine for an Aggie bus ride after they ate. She loves the book "The Wheels on the Bus", so riding a bus was very exciting.

A couple posts ago, I mentioned that we were feeding the horse. Man, I am so thankful for Humphrey. Even on days when it is too cold to play outside we bundle up and get out to take Humphrey some carrots. Just being outside for 15 minutes is great and a break from being inside all day. I am hoping we have had our last cold spell...I am ready to wear shorts!