My mom had a pirate themed party for my nephew's birthday, and at the last minute we decided to dress up Makena in a makeshift Izzy (from Jake & The Neverland Pirates) costume. We grabbed all the stuff, dressed her in it, and were out the door in 10 minutes. I think it came out so cute for being so spontaneous! (Those earrings are actually those plastic link ring toys that you hang baby toys with, lol. Genius idea!!) I had some red fabric and there was a piece that was partly sewn, and I turned it into a doubloon pouch by adding a string and stapling one side. I also stapled red cuffs around her ankles since she didn't have any boots.
The kids followed clues and dug for treasures.
Makena was sitting on this balloon trying to pop it, and my dad thought he'd help by poking it with a fork. But then she bumped her bottom as she fell and cried hysterically. I don't think she realized what popping it meant.
We've been spending lots of fun days with Makena's best buddies. Here they were doing their "excited" faces for me.
We finally went to Rinconada Pool, something we vowed we'd do more of after we went for the first time last summer. She had such a blast, and was tall enough to mostly walk in the whole pool. It's huge and shaped like a big flower, with each petal housing a different fun water attraction. The slide was her favorite. She also liked the big mushroom waterfall thing but mostly just wanted to watch it, not go under it. But I did get her to try it with me! I can't believe summer is over and we only went that one time. We spent a few hours there, when Pam got off work she walked over and joined us! So that was really fun. Next summer we really really have to go more than once!!
I have such great photo slideshow material if these two end up getting married like we always joke. They have been totally enjoying each others company lately and it's so sweet to watch them interact. Though it borders on more of a brother/sister relationship at times, with the squabbling and such since they spend so much time together!
Makena really loved her gym classes. I'm bummed we can't afford to sign her up for the school year session. It's so convenient since it's in walking distance, but it's so darn expensive!! I'm hoping we can get a discount at the community center where Pam works, since they will be offering some fun classes and maybe then Pam could even pop in to see her sometimes.
On our second to last class Makena walked across the low balance beam all by herself, and continued doing it over and over. She was even the example kid for doing an assisted forward roll on it! She was nervous, I could see she was a bit terrified as the teacher turned her upside down. She wasn't his biggest fan to begin with, so I was shocked when she agreed to be his helper. But she found my face smiling at her and she held it together, beaming when everyone clapped. :)
I wasn't in the room and she called me over to see her name. She did this all by herself, with these magnet letters!! I'm so amazed by her. We had kindergarten students who didn't know all the letters of the alphabet, much less how to spell their names verbally.
A cute family photo! We needed to send one in to Makena's "preschool" for the family board. That's in quotes because it's not exactly a preschool, but I'll write a post about that next!
I mean look at these kids, seriously?!?! How much freakin cuter can they possibly get? I love them!! I don't even have to tell them to pose, they just naturally are adorable together!
Makena was so excited to take this sunflower from my parent's garden home to mama.
Carrots and beans from Makena's garden!
She loved when they had these climbing bars set up at the gym. She spent the whole time climbing on them and didn't want anything to do with anything else.
Another freecycle score! I saw a posting for a "small" train table and went to pick it up but it's a lot bigger than I anticipated. We don't have the room for it so it stays tucked in Makena's little play area then we pull it out for her to play which takes up a lot of the living room floor area. On the night I brought it home she was so excited by it that she didn't want to stop playing to go pee... so she brought the potty out. Funny.
Normally she doesn't like syrup or anything on her pancakes or waffles. She eats them dry, but she saw this mini maple syrup container at Target and wanted it. Sure enough she dipped her pancakes in syrup and loved it! But she hasn't tried it again since. What happened to my eager little 1 year old who would eat anything we gave her? Now she insists she doesn't like things that she does indeed like. Or she refuses to even try something. So frustrating. I'm thankful she still loves veggies and beans. Now her big thing is wanting soy sauce on her rice. She loves it, and tonight I made risotto and called it "cheesy rice" and she cried and said she wanted soy sauce rice. I shouldn't have even said the word rice at all!
On my 30th birthday I spent the morning with my favorite little girl! We dropped off Pam at work then planned to eat breakfast at Marie Calendar's since they sent me a birthday coupon. I specifically looked up the location that served breakfast and even though it was farther than the one near us, we went. Got there and they were closed, under new management and not open until lunch. I was so bummed out!! Makena was crying that we had to get back in the car. She was hungry and asking for the "food place!" so I made the decision to go to Panera. And then I let Makena eat a flower cookie for breakfast.
Later we went to lunch and Pam surprised us there. She had the rest of the day off, and after a delicious birthday meal at The Counter, (where they serve the very best veggie burgers I've ever had, not to mention the best sweet potato fries and parmesean rosemary fries!) we dropped off Makena at the park to play with her buddies (and their mom) while we went and got mani/pedi's!! It was a great day! Then we went home and got ready to go to dinner at A Slice of New York. They have yummy garlic knots.
On the Saturday after my birthday I was (mostly) surprised at my surprise birthday party! I don't have any photos from then, but it was fun to see so many friends and eat yummy food!
Speaking of food, Makena was so excited to use the veggies from her garden to make Stone Soup. She got this little vegetable seed kit along with a Stone Soup book from my aunt Kathie, and when we moved in here we got her garden started first thing! After making the soup Makena tried a couple bites of the veggies and wouldn't eat any more. I'm not a soup person either. But it was fun to make!
This is how smart my kid is. She didn't have another A in this set, so she told me she spelled her name with an O and was pretending it was an A.
She said, "Mommy, me carry me self!" The funny things she says all day really make me laugh!
This is from an indoor play place for kids, it's called Play! and it's cute and would be awesome for a rainy day. I loved our different sized hand prints here.
It gave me the idea to do my hand print with hers inside mine. Awww!
Balancing is one of her favorite things now, she set these up in a circle and went around and around.
This photo makes me laugh. I was on the computer and she was playing, and then she asked me to take a picture. So I aimed my camera at the sculpture she built but she said, "Wait!!" and put puzzles and her duck around it. Then she sat down with the recorder and told me to take the picture. Lol.
We've been really enjoying some subscription boxes. She gets a monthly box of clothes from Wittlebee, which is awesome. I basically won a years free membership with them since I was one of the first members to sign up and earned 12 referral boxes, and wow what a blessing it's been to have so many brand new great clothes arriving each month! And I did some trial sample boxes with very cheap deals at Bluum, Green Kid Crafts, and Babbaco. Then I actually won a 12 month subscription to GKC, so each month she gets clothes AND a box of 3 crafts to do! Lucky us! I was so so SO excited! The projects are great so far, but some are a little too old for her so they're being saved in the closet.
I absolutely ADORE the Babbaco box we got. It was amazing. Totally worth every penny but we just can't afford to stay on as month members. They send a book and a few art/science projects to tie in the theme. Makena was thrilled to get a pair of kid safety scissors. She immediately started cutting paper and showed me this little shape, declaring it was a tooth. :)
And that's pretty much been our August!
Makena is looking so big! Like a grown up. :) She's so beautiful. I hope to see her soon maybe this time she won't cry in my presence.
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