Waterskiing!

Here's Matt in waterskiing action.

Playing Around

I signed Sydney up at Gymboree for the summer. It's like a big padded play gym. She loves it. She especially loves to climb up the slide and then ride it on down! It's hard to keep her on task here because she just wants to climb around.

Sydney got this princess car for her birthday from her good friend Emily. She is really good at walking & pushing it around the house. I think I'm going to have to add some bumper pads in the front because the furniture is starting to take a beating!

The Beach

My new favorite picture of the 2 of us!

The Birthday Party

Thankfully the party went well. Here's the details. We had 25 people and 8 babies (including Syd)! Unfortunately, I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures with hosting AND keeping track of Syd - so you get what you pay for! : ) Anyway, we had lots of food. The spread included: sandwiches, shrimp cocktail (you know, what every child has at their 1st bday party!), veggies & dip, spinach dip in a bread bowl, strawberry topiary (my fav - picture below), and bacon-wrapped dates (yummy!), and old-fashioned fresh squeezed pink lemonade. For dessert I made a lemon cake and a cheesecake.

Sydney got SO many presents. All I have to say is "Holy smokes!"

We had some baby pools and a ring that shot water up like a sprinkler. I think the babies enjoyed it. Syd wasn't too happy in the beginning. I think so many people in the house scared her a bit. After we fed her, she perked up.

Anyway, here are the highlights and my favorite craft/cooking projects of the party. And without disappointing anyone, pictures of Sydney eating her cake!

The invite (edited).

I made these after seeing Martha Stewart's Living June issue. They hung above our counter between the kitchen & the living room.

Here's the strawberry topiary.

Here's the goody bags for the kids. The adults got snickerdoodles wrapped in pink ribbon. Jen knows I've got pink ribbon!!

The birthday cake along with Syd's personal cake with the 1 candle!

Here she is (still in her bathing suit) about to devour the cake.

"Look Mom, no hands!"

The aftermath! : )

And no, I didn't let her eat the whole cake! Talk about a sugar rush.

Happy Birthday Sydney!

"Yea! It's my 1st birthday!"

"Dad, forget the card and let's get to the good stuff."

"Hmmm, what's inside?"

"I like my ABC bug! Thanks Grandpa and Grandma Jean."

"Happy Birthday to me!"

Yep, she's 1 now. Her birthday bash is this weekend. She is getting better at the walking thing. She took 8 steps (in a row) yesterday. Matt was home at that point and was able to see her walk. I think that made his day.

Sydney the monkey

I bet your wondering why Sydney is so happy and proud of herself in this picture...

It's because she's climbed up the chair and is about to give her mom a heart attack!

She is definitely turned into a little climber like her cousin Karalyn. I had to get the two shots of her on the edge of the couch because I wasn't going to leave her alone and back up a few feet to get her in one full length shot. She's still working the whole balance thing. This morning she climbed onto the dishwasher door and held onto the top rack while I was putting the dishes away. She's turned into a fast little bugger. I know...she's only going to get faster. Chasing her will help me burn more calories, right!? : )

Dixie's new collar

I joined a new online sewing challenge - Sew Much Fun.

The first challenge was make something with patchwork. So, what did I come up with - a dog collar! Kinda weird I know. You can see more pictures of the collar on the Sew Much Fun blog. Here's Dixie with her new collar. I know she just loves it! : )

On a side note: I love the internet. There are some extraordinary crafters out there and now with blogs & websites you can see their creations all the time. They have tutorials on how to make all kinds of stuff. I have so many things I just can't wait to try. Fabulous I tell ya, fabulous!

Syd's first steps.

So here I've been talking all about Seaworld and forgetting to tell everyone that Syd has started taking some steps. She picked up on it so fast. I know she'll be walking soon. Lately, all she wants to do is walk. She'll take my hand and we will walk around the house all (and I mean all) afternoon. I'll get some pics soon.

A reprieve.

Okay, so I was a little harsh on Shamu. I was thinking later last night that I do like Shamu shows. I like them because I actually was IN a Shamu show. Yep, that's right. I got to pet Shamu. Really, how many people can say they touched a killer whale?! I was in college at the San Antanio Seaworld sitting in the stands waiting for the show to begin and this employee came up to me and asked if I wanted to be in the show. "Heck yes, I'll be in the show." Anyway, I got to pet Shamu and gave him some command. The best part of the show...I was bending over to pet Shamu and there was my butt plastered on the Jumbotron! That'll do a lot for your self-confidence! : )

Here's my proof (and I'll spare everyone from the butt picture!):

Here's me on the jumbotron.

Memorial Day Weekend

So Matt had a 4 day long weekend. Needless to say, we did a lot! On Friday we went to Seaworld. We watched the pet show and the Shamu show. Syd really like the pet show with all the cats and dogs. What gets me is how they train the cats - I look at Martha (our cat) and just shake my head. For the friends & family who know Martha you know there is NO WAY on this earth I could ever get her to walk a tight rope or even walk from "here" to "there" on cue. She does catch lizards - I'll give her that. Anyway, back to Seaworld...

Shamu had a baby a couple months back. Here's a picture of the "tiny"orca. The baby really didn't do any trick it would just swim around the tank when the mom was doing tricks. Quite cute.

Here's the typical Shamu picture everyone must take!

On a side note, you know those Shamu shows are the cheesiest thing out there. They try to make it all emotional and inspiring. This show was named "Believe." Gag. Another thing which I find amusing is that they try to make a new show every year. It's all the same thing. Shamu jumps, Shamu jumps with the trainer, Shamu splashes the guest, etc.

I guess the show did work - I "believe" Shamu is making me bitter and cynical! : )

Here's the 2 of us waiting for the show to begin.

For the rest of the weekend - Matt went fishing and water-skiiing. I did a mega amount of crafts (all getting ready for Syd's b-day party that's coming up soon). We did some other random house projects too. Busy, busy. To celebrate the holiday, we did go to a friend's picnic. On a final note, here are some flowers Matt & Syd brought home for me. I think they're very pretty so I thought I'd share them with all of you.

Play time.

Syd's very busy these days. She is busy with playing. She works up a sweat just crawling over and around everything. Her favorite thing to climb over...me. As Matt pointed out yesterday, she is definitely our child because she's good at making a mess (Matt) and good at cleaning it up (me). The picture below is a slight illustration. Here she pulls her animals out of the barn and then immediately puts them back. She's also good at putting her toys back in her bin. It makes me very proud!

Sydney absolutely loves to crawl around with things in her hand - a pen (as shown below) and other small toys or objects. Unfortunately, it doesn't even slow her down for a second.

Matt gets pretty creative with the play time. Here, Matt's swinging her back and forth in -what else? - a laundry basket. She just laughs and laughs. She's so much fun.

Georgia Aquarium

Matt had a business trip this past week a few hours from Atlanta. Sydney and I went with him and then went to Altanta for the weekend. I've really wanted to see the Georgia Aquarium since it opened. They have that huge viewing window for their huge aquarium. Sydney absolutely LOVED the aquarium. She loves to watch the animals move at the zoo so the aquarium was even better because the fish continously swam against a blue backdrop - making it very easy to see.

Sydney having a good time with dad.

What a crazy child!

She loved the jelly fish.

Here's the big viewing window I was talking about. It was really cool. There were a lot of people but it was well worth it.

Here's one of the sharks they had in the mega tank.

And here's Matt and Sydney just watching all the fish in the mega aquarium. I love their shadows against the teal blue water.

Zoo Atlanta

We also went to Zoo Atlanta. Here's Sydney happy to be at the zoo.

Look at those bright blue eyes.

They have pandas at this zoo. Three total. One was a cub - so cute. Here's the mom.

Here's the cub.

And here is both of them together so you can get a size reference. I forgot the age of the cub. The dad is in the next area over. Sorry no pictures of him.

Here's our panda cub.

After you see the pandas you can get a stamp on your hand or arm - whatever works for you!

Our family picture in front of the elephants.

Okay this is a really bad picture but it was so neat so I had to add it. This bird was totally showing off. It's like a peacock but all white. Very beautiful.

We had a good time and Sydney was excellent considering she didn't have her afternoon nap. I'm very glad we went - check that zoo off. We've been to so many zoos now, I can't even keep track of them!