Kaitlyn's TWO!

Even though her actual birthday is on the 31st, on Sunday this past weekend we celebrated my niece Kaitlyn's second birthday. She is so stinkin' cute (and ornery, too). I volunteered to get the cake and we ended up with a Dora cupcake-cake. She loved it! She also enjoyed eating it (along with Connor and Lexi, too). I think they all wore more frosting than they actually ate. Nola and Gary had the whole clan (both sides of the family) at their house for lunch. It was chaos, but really great to see everyone. They had the pool filled in the backyard, but only a few brave soles were willing to take the plunge in the frigid water. Kaity got some great gifts including Dora sheets for her "big girl bed" that she isn't yet sleeping in. Jill also made it into several people's arms that she hadn't yet been in. Jace, Don, and Papa Bud all held her for the first time this weekend! Don even had the honor of giving her a bottle. For those of you who made the trek to Haviland for this party, thank you so much. I know it means a lot to Brittany to have so many family members present to help celebrate Kaity's birthday! For more pictures, check out facebook or the kodak site.

Fort Wayne Children's Zoo!

While visiting Gra-Nola and Papa Gary for an extended weekend, we decided to visit the ever-changing Ft. Wayne Children's Zoo. Let me tell you, it is so much bigger than I remember from when I was little. It is also now ranked as one of the top 10 zoos in the country! We started out by picking up my cousin Cody (he is in New Haven from Winchester, Kentucky visiting Granny for a few weeks this summer). We thought he would enjoy the zoo, too! Lexi got to ride a carousel for the 1st time, rode on a real pony named "Sadie", and had a goat try to eat her shirt! We all got a laugh over the hungry goats 'attacking' Papa Gary... so funny! Lexi also saw a penguin 'up close' and pretended she was a joey! Jill enjoyed her long ride in the stroller and was a very good baby. After a tiring few hours at the zoo, we returned Cody to Granny's and visited for awhile. It was so cute to see how Cody quickly became Lexi's good buddy. I would highly recommend visiting the zoo to anyone who has a few hours to kill in Ft. Wayne. Enjoy the pictures!

Whew!

We had a busy and wonderful weekend visiting with family. Kaitlyn's birthday party was a great success and all the kids took naps (yay!). I will update you more after I put all the pictures online. For now, things to do. I must return to work tomorrow after being off for 12 weeks:-(

"Beach House"

I managed to get a few free moments to comment on our weekend at the "Beach House". To explain... the "Beach House" is actually a condo located in Port Clinton, Ohio - right on Lake Erie. Matt's parents - Chris and Chuck - bought it about a year ago and we get to enjoy it with them! We really appreciate them inviting us up there to spend time with them (and I think they kinda like having Lexi there too). We left home bright and early Friday morning and dropped Banky at the Fairlawn Pet Resort and Spa for his "home away from home" mini vacation. It is just easier not to have him under foot in the small condo. It is exactly 1½ hours to the condo and $2.25 in turnpike tolls. Grandma and PaPa had a full docked planned for Lexi once we arrived. First off was of course swimming in the pool. I packed about 10 swim diapers and we used EVERY SINGLE ONE!!! Yes, she went swimming 2-3 times a day! It is great when you have relatives that will take her swimming so you don't have to watch her every second. We also found out the Jill loves the pool! She spent a whole hour in the water just bobbing along in her purple turtle floatie. Around 4:30, Matt, Lexi, Papa and Bethany packed up and went to the African Wildlife Safari Park. I will let you read all about our adventures there on our last blog entry. Needless to say, both girls were wiped Friday night and both slept a full 8 hours!
Saturday was kinda cool and breezy and it rained in the morning. Rain was gone by noon and the breeze stuck around and made the temperature pleasant. After another full day of swimming and lazing around the beach, Matt's brother Andrew and Matt's best friend Marc joined us. The 3 guys and Bethany decided to go "out" for the evening and found a live band playing at Mr. Ed's. They were pretty good and took me back to the good ol' days in Toledo when we would frequent The Distillery!
Sunday was bittersweet. Packing up to come home took a while, for we had clothes and baby things all over the condo. We did manage to visit the "Art in the Park" craft show - where I picked up a few Christmas gifts - before heading home. What a great weekend! Can't wait to go back. Enjoy the pictures.

Close to Nature!

While at Chris and Chuck's "Beach House" in Port Clinton this past weekend, we decided to check out the African Wildlife Safari Park. It is a drive-thru wildlife park where you are given a cupful of food and the animals come right up to the car and eat the food right out of the cup! You can also buy carrots (which I recommend... easier for the animals to take). Lexi was a tad overwhelmed at first because the very first animal that came up to the van was a HUGE elk and she stuck her whole head in Lexi's window to eat from Chuck's cup (who was sitting next to Lexi). She did like the deer and was fascinated by the giraffes and zebras. At one point, a bison had his head in Chuck's window eating a carrot and what looked like a long-horn steer attempted to get his head in our window, too! Matt quickly rolled up the window because his "horns" were gigantic. Towards the end of the park, I even got to feed a zebra!! After driving through the park, they have a small "zoo" with about 20 or so animals in cages. They also gave Lexi a free pass to ride the pony - which she LOVED! Enjoy the pictures and check back later for detail on the rest of our great weekend at the "Beach House".
1. Chuck feeding an elk
2. Matt feeding a deer
3. Chuck trying to kiss the elk
4. Chuck feeding a bison
5. the steer heading for our car
6. Bethany feeding a zebra (with an albino zebra on the right)
7. Chuck feeding a zebra
8. Lexi and the zebra
9. Lexi on the pony

Wow!

I did it again... I cut Lexi's hair. Matt has been asking me when I was going to get it cut again and I finally got tired of him asking. I really didn't mean for it to be this short, but oh well. It will grow. At least I cut off all the tangles on the ends! Here are a few pics (before and after her bath).

Before Bath

After Bath