Balloon and Sky Fest

One weekend, Isabelle and I went to Aunt Alysha's for the annual Balloon and Sky Fest with great hopes of seeing hot air balloons and riding vertically in one. Unfortunately, all hot air balloon activities are very wind sensitive and are not inflated or fly if the winds are more then 8-10 mph. Fortunately, this slight breeze kept us from dying in the wide open sunny airport. The other factor that saved us was that we happened to have some umbrellas in our vehicles for some shade. That would have been a huge selling item for a vendor.

Surprisingly, Isabelle did pretty well with all the air show part except when there was a couple explosions on the ground in front of us during a show that startled everyone.

After a few hours there, we went back to Alysha's to cool off, relax, and play. Little Miss Muffet decided to sit on this tuffet drinking her water. However, no spider came along.

Aunt Alysha found a bandana to play with too. Isabelle dressed up as a pirate and a hippie.

Another fun toy was the fuzzy pink bunny ears Aunt Alysha gave her for Easter along with the bunny from the movie "Hop" which is appropriately named Hop Hop. Sometimes Isabelle wanted to wear the ears and other times she wanted other people to put them on. That weekend she learned to say "hop" and supposedly hop herself but I have never seen it.

Even without the hot air balloon show or ride, we had a great time. Maybe next year the winds will stay away.

Buddy's Birthday Bash

Isabelle went to a birthday party for her church buddy, Jordyn. She even carried the present around the house for a while without digging into it.

At the party, Isabelle had a lot of fun playing with a bunch of kids her age. While holding the balloon, she also paid close attention to how Jordyn ate her cupcake. Maybe Isabelle will learn by example and dig in at her next birthday.

No Fooling

No fooling, April Fools Day was a great day spent with friends. Isabelle played at the park with Nina and Adela while mommy visited with her high school friends, Katie and Melanie, and their husbands, Reid and Timothy.

 Isabelle loved bouncing on this toy.

  She likes the swing again!

The merry-go-round was fun at a slow speed.

Melanie, mommy, and Katie pose for a picture.

Melanie and Timothy Worstell were visiting Florida from California. So we picked up the Webers, met the Worstells for dinner at a Golden Coral followed by some time at a park and ending with ice cream.

Though it was a short visit, we had a lot of fun. I'm so glad we were able to make it work.

Practice Makes Perfect

Isabelle has been getting music practice on my keyboard playing in all octaves.

She plays both pianissimo and fortissimo. Sometimes Isabelle adds her own notes to a classic.

Though the chair is barely tall enough, she still manages to reach some buttons above the keys for a little variation as well as some elbow playing.

Her favorite button changes the keys to play animals and other silly sounds. In this video after the ribbit, she says "frog". Usually she gets a percussion beat going too and then dances but I didn't catch that on video.

Sure hope Isabelle continues to love music and eventually learns to play an instrument.

Daddy's Birthday

We celebrated daddy's birthday the weekend before. Isabelle was babysat by a church friend while mommy and daddy went out to eat at a Brazilian Steakhouse. The rest of the weekend was just quality family time. Now that Isabelle has motor control of her hands as well as some eye-hand coordination, she colored for the first time on daddy's birthday card.

The day before daddy's birthday, mommy left for Aunt Alysha's, and Isabelle spent the night without mommy for the first time. Daddy and Isabelle had a great time playing at home. Meanwhile mommy and Aunt Alysha had a great girls time out shopping, eating, and playing video games. Isabelle and daddy did just fine without mommy who would like to get away again.

Tea Time

Isabelle got this tea cart set from someone at our church who had babysat her and probably will again. She loves serving mommy and daddy drinks and snacks.

 
Of course with her imagination, Isabelle has also used the cart for her books, animals, pillows, and recently dumps everything off pushing the cart around the house upside down.

Nap Procrastinator

Some days Isabelle is a nap procrastinator. On this day she continuously threw out her stuffed animals and pacifier.

Then she cried for them, occasionally calling the animals by name, Scooter and Eeyore.

I know I was probably only encouraging her, but it was just too funny not to get pictures and videos. What had brought me in the room in the first place was hearing the music from her zebra. She figured out how to put her foot through the railings to spin the top for the music to play.

That was challenging to get on video but her attempt in this clip amused me.

Later that day on a second attempt for a nap, I forgot to turn the zebra out of reach and was fortunate to catch her doing it with her hands. For a short time after that incident I made sure the zebra was out of reach for naps and bedtime. It has not occurred again yet but since I don't always check the zebra's position, it is bound to happen on another nap procrastinating day.