Chuck E Cheese adventures

Today I took Bella to Chuck E Cheese for the very first time and I think she really enjoyed it. (She was all smiles, except for the one episode with the horse ride at the end). We met up with our toddler friends for playtime and then we enjoyed a pizza lunch.

The Toddler Group (8 moms, 9 kids) photo

Her first ride was a little mushroom bike that went in a small circle and she rode it THREE times. I think it was her favorite one of them all.

Waving as she goes by me.

Sliding in the toddler area...

Playing with Aiden in the toddler area

Okay....here comes the horse ride. She kept walking by it saying "aha, aha", which is her sound for a horse. I asked her if she wanted a ride and she said yes. I put her up, drop in a token and she FLIPS out when it starts to slowly move.

I'm holding on to her and trying to reassure her, but she's scared.

Once everyone starts cheering for her and giving her praise, she calmed down. Not sure she ever really liked the ride, but she tolerated it once everyone was cheering for her.

I think she's going to call CPS on me if I ever make her ride the damn horse again. Haha.

Other than the horse ride saga, we all really did have a good time. I'm sure we'll return to good ol' Chuck E Cheese, but we'll definitely make sure to have Daddy in tow.

New Vroom, Vroom

Last week we went to storytime at the library and they have a craft at the end for the kids. Bella made a crown and decorated it with stickers (aka tickees). She was proud of her crown and wore it most of the afternoon.



Monday we picked up our new family car...2010 Honda Odyssey EXL. I love driving it, although Bella still prefers riding in the Xterra. We can fit up to 8 people, moon roof, 6 disc CD changer, and power doors/hatchback. The color is polished metal metallic, which is charcoal gray, and has a medium gray leather interior.






Bella likes to honk the horn

Daddy got a new job!

To celebrate Brian's new position, Bella and I went to Kroger to pick up a balloon. I thought she'd pick a somewhat manly balloon that made her think of Daddy. I showed her the yellow smiley face, a green one with shades, a baseball balloon, but nope. She picked a HUGE purple flower balloon for him and kept saying "Daddy's boon, Daddy's boon".

We got home from Kroger and safely put it in the closet until Daddy got home. As soon as she heard his car in the garage, she started SCREAMING "boon, boon, BOOOON". We got the balloon out and she ran to the door to greet him with her flower balloon. It was precious. She was thrilled to give it to him at first, but now we're not too sure if it's actually his balloon or more for her. :)

We took Brian out to dinner at BJ's Brewery and enjoyed salad, pizza, and a pizookie dessert. YUM!

On a silly note, I took these pictures this morning while Bella was mesmerized by Sesame Street. She was wearing her patriotic July 4th sunglasses, my shoes, and eating her breakfast while watching Elmo.

Palm Beach @ Moody Gardens

Bella and I headed to Palm Beach at Moody Gardens in Galveston for some water fun with our friends. What a cool place! Bella loved the lagoon-style pool and the sprinkler/ splash area for the smaller kids. I took her with me down the slides for the bigger kids, and she LOVED it! She kept signing "more, more!"...so who was I to deny her???

We went down the big slides at least 5 times and she yelled "Weeeee" the whole way down. Once we landed and was getting off the slide, she was immediately heading back to the stairs again. She had such a fun time and I have to admit, so did I. :)

I didn't take many pictures because I was afraid the water or sand would ruin my camera, so just snapped one during a snack break.

Surprise delivery

Today Bella got a surprise package in the mail from her Nanny (Aunt Michelle) in Florida. At first, she didn't quite understand what the big envelope was and must have thought I was just making her open our bills or something. :)

....then, she saw Elmo! She loves, loves, LOVES that red furrball and she was very happy to have her very first Elmo shirt.

Thank you, Michelle. She loves her new outfit!

On to other surprise deliveries, our newest nephew decided to make his appearance a week early. Matt, Jennifer & Elisabeth welcomed Joshua Stephen into the family Sunday night at 10:58pm. He weighed in at 8lbs 6oz and is 20-1/2" long. Congratulations!!!

The new tally for grandkids: 5 boys and 5 girls.

Miss Chatterbox

I know I've been slacking a bit on keeping the blog updated this past month. Bella has really started talking alot more and is really funny. How does she come up with this stuff???

She spilled a little milk the other morning and said "Ohhh, great!". (That's definitely Brian's response to a mess happening).

Bella has recently started talking in more sentences, and her newest question is "Where did ____ go?". She's usually asking about Daddy, her doll (Mimi), Elmo, or the dog. When I tell her that Daddy is working, she replies "No, Daddy home." She does not like for Brian to leave for work and tells him "no byebye" or "no, home".

Today she started saying "There ya go". I handed her a yogurt and she said "there ya go". Haha, that's MY line. :) She's also gotten much better about saying thank you as opposed to just doing the sign for it.

She has started playing pretend shopping with her grocery cart and tells me "bye, Momma". She'll sling her purse on a shoulder, slip a bracelet on, load up Mimi, and click away in her plastic heels pushing her buggy. Brian pretends to be her cash register and makes her pay for the items in her cart. It's so cute when she unloads her stuff, pretend to scan it (complete with a "beep" per item), looks in her pocket and pretends to pull out money to pay him.

Splash time

On Friday, we went to Pearland for my eye exam and decided to stop by the park in our old neighborhood. We moved before Bella could ever enjoy the $3 million park our Home Association built before being annexed by Pearland city.



She loved running through the splash area and under all the buckets dumping water. Our friends Lauren & Aiden were also there, so Bella enjoyed the playground even more with I-dee. He would run off and call for La-La to chase him, then she'd run off and call for I-dee. It was her first game of chase and it was so cute.

(Excuse the big brown, rusty spot, it's rust from the main water spray).