Great $20 find!

I went to Kid-to-Kid in Apex today to sell back Emily's pack-n-play and also some of the clothes she outgrew last winter. Selling the pack-n-play is definitely an indication that she is not a baby anymore! Anyway, while I was there, a lady was selling back this little car. Emily loves these little cars. They have some attached to shopping carts here at Harris Teeter and BJ's and Emily always wants to ride in them. So, for a whopping $20, I got her one. She loves it. She has been riding all over the house and taking her stuffed friends for rides too...especially brown bear. It has a little walkie talkie in it and when you push the button, you get to hear a siren. Needless to say, that is also a big hit. What a bargain for $20.

Mommy's Birthday

We celebrated Mommy's birthday with cupcakes and presents. Emily helped with all the unwrapping. She was particularly excited about my new navy patent leather peep toe pumps. Of course I can understand why. She wore them all over the house...and actually walked quite well in them. See for yourself in the video below.

Pretty Princess Day!

This week at preschool the kids learned about kings, queens, princesses and knights. They even made castles and crowns! On Wednesday they got to dress up like a king or princess and come to school. Emily has just recently started talking about princesses and she was very excited about wearing her pretty dress and crown. She twirled around all over our family room before we left for school. She also played the fairy godmother in Cinderella as she ran around hitting things with her wand and saying "bippity, boppity boo." Needless to say the wand had to stay in the car when we got to school.

2nd Visit to Myrtle Beach

We look for any excuse to go to the beach. So, the weekend of July 9-11, Daddy was off so we decided to go to the beach again. We always have such a good time. We did our usual - beach in the morning followed by pool, then lunch at the pool and then nap (for everyone). Then in the afternoon we go back to the pool or beach and then clean up to go out for dinner. Our favorite is Key West Grill at Broadway at the Beach. We can always get a table outside near the water and service is usually quick and the food is pretty good. It is a little pricey, but since we don't go but a couple of times a year, it is not too bad. We're planning one more beach trip over Labor Day so stay tuned for more fun beach pics coming soon!

Cannonball!

This is, by far, my favorite video of the summer, hands down. While we were at our neighborhood pool a few weekends ago, this little boy taught Emily how to do a cannonball into the pool. If you listen closely at the beginning of the video you will hear him call her "Mrs. Cannonball." Unfortunately, if you watch closely, you will also see that he taught her how to spit, too. Oh well. She has not done it since the day this video was shot. She must have done about a dozen or more cannonballs with this little boy. She had a blast...and so did Mommy!

Durham Life & Science Museum

Since we had Emily out of preschool for a long weekend over the 4th of July, we decided to use the time to take her to do some educational things. We started at Marbles (as you saw below) and then headed to the Durham Life & Science Museum on the Monday holiday. We have been taking Emily to the Life and Science Museum since she was about 18 months old and she loves it. Her favorite part of every visit is the train ride (as you can plainly see from these pics). Grandma and Grandpa Heintz like the train too.

It is a great deal to just become a member of the museum and then go as much as you want for free! The train ride is only $2.50 a person and is a way better bargain than some of those Thomas the Train rides that can cost a fortune. Emily also liked seeing the farm animals and going inside the real train caboose. I think she went in there at least 6 times. She also got to go to the butterfly house, experiment with neat drums, play in the Catch the Wind area with the little boats and dig in the sand box with lots of scoopers (bulldozers). The only problem with the museum is that she is so tired at the end of her visit that it can be a struggle to get her home without falling asleep in the car!

Back to Marbles Kids Museum

Grandma and Grandpa Heintz came to visit for the 4th of July. On Saturday morning, we took Emily back to Marbles Kids Museum so we could show Grandma and Grandpa how much fun it was. Marbles had a special music exhibit that weekend where the kids could try out all kinds of instruments. Emily knew the instruments from Little Einsteins so she was very excited to try them out. Her favorites included the cello and the trumpet. She also liked riding the bus and playing in the ambulance. In fact, we may have another doctor in the family soon. We had to take her back to the ambulance to play at least 4 times. She loved all the doctor equipment (especially the IV which she kept calling "the shot.") She also liked the post office exhibit where she got to mail packages and the "Splash" section where she got to play in the water.

4th of July

Emily's preschool had a 4th of July Bike and Trike Parade on the Friday before the 4th. I took the afternoon off and Grandma and Grandpa Heintz and I took Emily to ride in the parade. Many of her friends were not able to ride their bikes in the parade (she is one of the few who can actually pedal) so they just watched and cheered her on. She had a great time! The other little girl in the pictures is Marissa, Emily's best friend. They moved to Primrose from their other daycare together. They have been friends since before they were even 1 year old. They hug each other every morning. It is very cute.

Father's Day!

Emily and Daddy celebrated Father's Day this year with yummy cinnamon rolls for breakfast followed by lots of presents. Emily got Daddy a new tempurpedic pillow and a gift certificate for a day of scuba diving at Fantasy Lake outside Raleigh...one of Daddy's favorite places! Mommy got Daddy some new shorts and shirts. Emily opened all of the presents for Daddy. What a good helper she is! We practiced saying "Happy Father's Day" about 10 times before I let her go in and wake Daddy up. Unfortunately she went running into the bedroom yelling (with all the conviction in the world) "Happy Mother's Day Daddy." Oh well. Maybe next year.

Marbles Kids Museum

On June 12, 2010 we met some of Emily's friends from her old pre-school at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh. We had heard a lot of great things about this museum, but had not been downtown to try it out. It was terrific! The kids loved running around and playing together and they tried out almost every exhibit. Emily cried when it was time to go, but I promised her we would go back. And we did...see more in later posts!

Scooper!

They are working on extending Interstate 540 near our house and there is a TON of large construction equipment that we see every morning on the way to preschool. As a result, Emily has a great fascination with the large "scoopers." As luck would have it, some of the equipment was recently sitting at a local park where we play sometime and Daniel was able to let her sit on it. Fun!