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.

All Dressed Up

Isabelle has finally grown enough to wear this beautiful dress she got from Great Grandma Bernice and Great Great Aunt Gayle. 

 
The purse I found at Target for $1 matched nicely too. I also found some sparkly bracelets that she puts on and off her arms or carries in her purse along with her cell phone and keys.

Protecting Those Baby Blues

Living in Florida, Isabelle needed a pair of sunglasses. Found some cute ones for $1 at Target. She has one with purple polka dots and one with frogs, of course.

May be a while until she wears them longer then just for taking a picture.

Zoo Again

The zoo never seems to get old especially when there are new baby animals. During this visit Isabelle saw the baby zebra. Reminding her of the jump and spin zebra back home, she really wanted to get closer to ride.

We also had the chance to see the elephant statues closer as they weren't crowded at the time. She was intrigued by their height and the shadows they cast.

Another new exhibit for us since I had just realized it was back there by the cats was the otters.

 I love having a membership at the zoo so we can spend more time at exhibits when we go and not feel like we have to see everything all at once.

Story Time

Isabelle loves to read!

Occasionally she even reads to me.

She's also really good about reading to herself.

Goldie Locks Big Chair

Who needs a chair that is just right

when you can sit in the big chair?

The Latest Hat Fashion

Isabelle insisted that is were her shorts belonged.

Green Bean

Eating a fresh green bean raw.
The hungry hippo couldn't wait for them to be cooked.

Makes a good teether.

Playdate

Isabelle made a new friend in our neighborhood. Keegan is 5 months younger. These are actually pictures his mom took of them playing together.

Isabelle had a great time playing with the "new" toys and new friend. Hope to have many more play dates.

Mommy's Cake Eater

Aunt Alysha made Triple Chocolate Cake for mommy's birthday and we got to take some home.

Isabelle definitely approved Aunt Alysha's delicious baking ability!

St Patrick's Day

Four leaf clover hunting.

Even with leprechaun socks, no luck this year.

Bananas Over Bananas

Time to get this blog jump started again. Life got busy for a while. I hope up coming blogs will prove that. These next blogs I had outlined what I wanted to post with the titles, pictures and videos already in place. Just needed a chance for writing descriptions, which will now be shortened, and actually post them. Hope you will enjoy them again even though they are so old.

Though we haven't had any in a while, at this time Isabelle was bananas over bananas.

Of course she was saying "nana" before I started filming.

Once she got the banana she ran around the house attempting to open it.

I finally caught her and got her in the highchair.

See how badly she wanted that banana with her huffing and puffing? That was the first time she had a banana that wasn't cut up.

And I finally got her to say "nana" again.

Mommy's Actual Birthday

On my actual birthday we just hung out at home. In the morning, Jon brought Isabelle in the bedroom with cards from each of them. Later that day I got a basket of pretty flowers from Jon that I never took a moment to photograph. That evening while Jon ran some errands, Isabelle and I spent some time outside. With her beach chair and toys, she was spotting planes. Notice that she is wearing Oscar the Grouch socks especially picked out by me that day as she was being pretty grouchy.

We attempted bubbles for the first time. I blew some for her but with the light breeze she wasn't able to play with them. Isabelle was very interested in the wand so I let her at it.

With her spoon skills intact she knew to dip the wand in the bottle. I wisely decided to hang on to the large bottle to keep her from knocking it over.

The wand kept falling back inside the bottle and was not easy to fish back out especially one handed. I have since bought a smaller bottle that we can use the longer wand with and refill the liquid when needed.

I thought perhaps if Isabelle waved the wand she would make her own bubbles and showed her how to do that. Instead she had bubble liquid flying everywhere. Though not on this video, she did make one small bubble this way. Lots more bubble practice to come.

Once the bubble liquid was rinsed off our hands, bucket play resumed. She kept walking off through the bushes, waving goodbye, and going around the corner of the house.

Getting through the last over grown bushes slowed her down as she didn't want the branches to touch her.

Isabelle the explorer also decided to check out the palm tree trunk.

Although my actually birthday had no extravagant events, I had a great day. I especially enjoyed those precious moments with Isabelle.

Birthday Beach Walk

The day before my birthday we all went to Fernandina Beach for the afternoon. It was such beautiful weather that we were able to enjoy lunch outside at a cute cafe downtown and do a little walking around too. Being from Nebraska I have had quite a few snowy birthdays so now that we are in Florida I wanted to go to the beach for my birthday. It was our first beach outing of the year and a different experience with a walking Isabelle. Unfortunately, this beach walk was pretty short as it was breezy and cooler by the water.



Definitely looking forward to many more beach walks.