Special Date with Grandma & Mrs. Ginny

My mom and her friend, Ginny, had a special post preschool date with Madeline.  They picked her up from preschool, took her to Arby's for lunch, went to the zoo, and to eat ice cream to end the day.  What a blast Madeline had with her Grandma and Grandma's friend. 

It was a partly cloudy day, so all the animals were out.  The monkeys were "very wild and loud with big necks" according to Madeline.  However, the highlight of the zoo was riding the horses.

Madeline looks scared to death in this picture, but unfortunately that's her "cheese face" at the moment.  Mrs. Ginny loves Madeline as if she were her own.



 Horse time!

 She really loved it!  Madeline rode the male horse, Willy, and she requested to ride the "girl horse" too. 



 Grandma and Mrs. Ginny finally got some natural looking smiles out of Madeline!

Madeline is such a lucky little girl to have a grandparent nearby for special one-on-one time.  A good time was had by all!

Preschool Trike-a-Thon

Madeline's preschool holds a trike-a-thon each spring in order to raise money for St. Jude Children's Hospital.  It's a cute event.  Prior to the actual riding, bicycle safety and a little bit about St. Jude are taught in the classroom.  All of the students must wear their helmets as they make laps around the entire church campus.

Of course, Madeline and her little friend, Aubrey, are side by side in almost matching princess bikes.



 Amelia wandered the courtyard while the kids were riding.  She got extremely excited when she saw Madeline riding by and toddled her way as fast as her little legs could carry her.

 Frick and Frack still side by side.

 Easily distracted by her little sister, Madeline slowed down, and Aubrey was off like Lance Armstrong!

 Coming to the finish line - slow and steady...

 Rounding the corner to park her bike...

 Madeline and some of her best friends

 Amelia definitely got squirrely as she couldn't just wander around anywhere she pleased, so thank goodness for my friend Misty who took over Amelia patrol for awhile.  Amelia was perfectly happy on her hip!

What a fun morning watching all the kids ride their bikes while helping to raise money for other children who are unable to do so!







Amelia - 16 Months

Our Amelia is 16 months old, and while we didn't get our "formal" photo shoot, I snapped these few pictures of her one day after turning 16 months old in her brand new chair to match Madeline's.  This little girl LOVES furniture her size....up, down, up, down, repeat over and over.

Amelia is a full fledged biped, and it's wonderful!  She wants to walk everywhere!  She can mostly keep up with Madeline, and her frustration level is down now that she can get to where she wants to go rather quickly.  She's pretty good on the steps, and she's becoming more proficient coming down the steps.  She wants to use the handrail just like Big Sister, so she gets super agitated that her arms don't go up that high.  Amelia finally got her OWN pair of Stride Rite kicks this month, and to say that she LOVES her new sandals is probably the biggest understatement of the year.  She loves to put them on, and then stand with her arms up in the air while shouting, "Ta-da!"

 Amelia continues to be a HOT MESS.  I dress her up in all of Madeline's little prissy outfits with a bow and all, but within 20 minutes, she's a sticky, snotty, bow-throwin' disaster.  She's a feisty thing.  Whew.  She wants what she wants STAT, and if she could speak in sentences, she would no doubt say something along the lines of, "like this needed to be taken care of yesterday, Mom!"   The terrible two's have risen...Madeline went through a similar terrible two preview, and this one has given me a not so exciting preview.  Hardheaded, loud, and stubborn would describe our little Amelia Bedelia to a tee.

 Amelia is so silly and funny!  She loves to rough house, laugh, dance, and be wild.  She squeals at the top of her lungs, dances to any music, and adores being outdoors.  She loves her bike rides, swinging on the swing set, playing in the sandbox, and roaming through the yard.  If we're not outside outside, the screened in porch is the next favorite spot for this little one.  Daddy just may have his little hunter/outdoorsy girl after all. 

Amelia's language development has come a very long way in a month.  She now says:  Madeline, Mama, Dada, down, up, night-night, uh-oh, thank you, no thank you, off, no, bless you, ta-da, and shoe.  Most of her words have to do with making sure we know her needs.  She's not super interested in pointing to things and knowing what they are.  She's more interested in knowing how to get out of her chair after a meal, removing her bib, & communicating basic needs to us.  We have a lot of frustration in our house right now due to Amelia not being able to say what it is she's trying to say.  We're working very hard using words right now.  Amelia has pretty much figured out how to use her fork and spoon at mealtime...messy but she can do it.  She wants to be big like Big Sister, so she's trying like crazy to do all the big girl things.  Amelia is rough and tumble, but my girl loves her accessories.  Just like Madeline, she'll turn anything into a bracelet, and she loves wearing sunglasses and necklaces.  It's funny to watch her accessorize herself with random stuff around the house.

Amelia keeps us on our toes, and we love her to pieces.  Our family definitely has some character with this little turkey in it!  Here's to another great month, sweet Amelia!

Easter, 2012

What a spectacular Easter in the Stewart household!  The Easter Bunny left goodies (unfortunately NO candy) for the girls:

Madeline's basket:

 Amelia's goodies:

 Madeline was of course super pumped about her Easter bunny items!

 Amelia was all smiles as well.  Love her toothy smile!  Her Easter Bunny bum cream was a favorite item as you'll notice she won't put it down!

 Our Easter family photo - I laughed so hard at Madeline's face.  Flash forward ten years ~ she'll have that stank look on her face all the time!  :)

 Debut of the formerly broken foot in high heels & Handsome Daddy sporting the seersucker suit! 

 Cute, sweet kiddos at our church...this picture cracks me up.  Kids are just funny...

 My first ham dinner for Easter.  We had my parents and one of their friends over to celebrate.  It was such a fun day! 

 Low key Easter dinner on the porch!

Happy Easter 2012!

Three Dozen Eggs

Yes, that is how many eggs we colored this year!  It's a win-win:  Madeline loves coloring eggs, and I love the hard boiled egg whites!  So after two hours, yes, you read that correctly, TWO hours, our 36 eggs were dyed to perfect beautifulness!  It was a wonderful day for it...warm, sunny, and low key family time.



 Miss Amelia was snoozing while we enjoyed our egg coloring experience.  We have a feeling that once she joins the egg coloring process, it will become a much less dainty affair.  Madeline was extremely gentle and deliberate with her eggs.

 It takes so little to awe her.  She was absolutely stoked that we had bright colors and pastel colors.  Everytime we pulled an egg from the dye, she made the "ahhh, it's beautiful" face!  So sweet and naive.  Love it.

 Mommy's favorite egg even though it's a wanky paw & Tennessee orange:

 And, then, our dear, sweet Madeline discovered the stickers from the Paas kit.  Coloring eggs mission aborted.  Sticker mania took over.  However, Eric and I finished the eggs.

 The final product and proud Madeline:

What a fun afternoon with our sweet girl!