This Place Is a Circus

At the St. Patrick's Day parade they were handing out free children's tickets to the circus so Mary and I jumped on board and decided to take the kiddos.

We stopped for a quick lunch at McAllister's Deli and then headed to the circus.  Truth be told the show was actually a tad boring, every attraction dragged on a bit too long.  All the performers seemed about 15 years past their circus prime. #giveitup  It also reminded me that I don't really like the circus and I hated seeing the animals forced to perform.  Actually made me really sad.

On a lighter note, Elle and Henry are so stinking cute together!! The decided to hold hands during the show.  Melts my heart. 

Elle was so bored she actually fell asleep so Henry and Mary flew solo during the intermission madness fun.  Somewhere in the middle of this crazyness Henry is riding a miniature pony.  Oh, and there was a large snake in the middle of this crowd available for pictures. No thank you.  As soon as Mary and Henry returned from the pony ride with a large light-up sword we asked Hen if he wanted to leave, he said he wanted to stay but about 10 minutes later changed his mind.

Not our most exciting Seester/Cousin date, but you win some, you lose some.  Although we did win in the aspect that Mary's new Tahoe wasn't trampled by runaway elephants.  The scene of Mary and I running through the parking lot with Henry and Elle with elephants on the loose would have been a much more entertaining show. :)

St. Patrick's Day

I hope the luck of the Irish was with you yesterday!  We celebrated St. Patrick's Day all weekend but oddly enough on the actual day I don't think it was even mentioned.  We must have been partied out or too full of corned beef and cabbage...either one.

We started Saturday with Elle's weekly gymnastics class.  Grammy & PawPaw attend just about every week but this week we had 2 surprise visitors, Aunt MiMi & Henry!  As soon as Elle saw Henry on the balcony watching her attention span went out the window.  She kept pointing to him and saying "Henny".  She was so excited to see him!

After gymnastics we headed over to mom and dads for some breakfast and then headed to the Cottleville St. Patrick's Day parade with Mary, Nick and Henry.

Elle loved the parade; she waved and said "hi" to every float as it passed.  We were so lucky, the weather was amazing!!

After the parade Nick and Eric left to make their tee time and Mary and I headed to grab a quick bite with the kiddos.  This day wiped Elle out!  That night I was telling her she gets to take a bath after dinner, she kept saying "no, night night".  I think it was still light out when she fell asleep, waving at floats all day is hard work y'all!

On Sunday Elle & Eric helped watched me bake St. Patrick's Day cupcakes.  Eric was able to convince me that licking the batter is no longer bad for you.  He said more tests were conducted and it was found to be harmless.  I have no idea if I should believe him but I gave in and handed a mixer to Elle which she happily accepted.

I topped our cupcakes with Lucky Charms, Elle really enjoyed helping me dig through the cereal for all the marshmallows.

She had an insane amount of Lucky Charms on Sunday which turned her into a feisty little lady.  Sugar rush + teeny tiny nap = hot mess.  A rather cute hot mess though. :)

Payback

This past Wednesday we headed over to the Voss house to hang with our 2 favorite boys, munch on some dinner & cookies (silly Kay Kay brought vanilla cookies and Henry informed me he only likes chocolate), smooch on Charlie and chat.  As soon as our little dinner date was planned Henry asked if Elle could stay and take a "bathtub" with him.  Sure, why not!

Bubbles, toys and splashes galore were enjoyed.  Towards the end of the bath Henry told us he had to go to the bathroom, we told him to hold it hold it hold it until Mary could wash the shampoo out of his hair...he couldn't or maybe just didn't want to hold it.  So we drained the tub (shampoo still in Elle's hair) and she stood up shivering while I rinsed her hair.  She played it totally cool, you would never know she was devising a plan for payback.

We took the babes to Henry's room where he ever so cutely got out a red pair of his pj's and gave them to Elle to wear for the night (!!!) I think he thought they were having a slumber party.  Once I showed him I brought Minnie Mouse pj's for Elle he settled on wearing his Mickey pj's to match.  I stood Elle up to get ready to put a diaper on her and turned around for literally 1 second, when I turned back around she had peed on the floor of Henry's room.  Payback!

Playing at the Park

We had some great weather this weekend so we took full advantage and took Elle to the park.

On Friday Elle had a fun day with daddy while I was at work.

And Sunday I took her while Eric was on puppy bath duty.

It is so cute to see her roam around; she looks like such a big girl.

Elle loves the swings, she squeals and laughs. Eric apparently started with a pretty vigorous swing, according to him she seemed scared but enjoyed it. Elle and I start easy and gradually work our way up. Parenting difference.

This weather combined with the time change gets me so excited for spring. Am I the only one who enjoys springing forward? It's so nice picking Elle up when it's still light out, although getting up this morning and it being so dark outside was a smidge tough. Eric may have threatened me twice about snoozing my alarm repeatedly. #suchawhiner :) We have 2 parks really close to our house so I'm hoping to take Elle regularly. Of course this was just a small tease in Spring weather, we should have some snow on Wednesday *hopefully our last of the season*. Hopeful that the temps climb back up by the weekend so we can enjoy more pretty weather. Nothing I love more than opening our house up and letting the breeze in. Time to air that sucker out after a long winter!

February

It's officially March, hallelujah....one step closer to Spring.

This month flew by!  You've already read about our Valentine's Day, and welcoming Charlie to the family (by far the highlight of the month year!) so here is how we spent the rest of the month...warning we were a tad boring.

 

I had a huge Cracker Barrel craving when I was pregnant with Elle, as in I wanted it every single day.  The amount of times my mom and sister went to Cracker Barrel is proof of how amazing they are!  One weekend this month when Eric was out of town (Vegas for a Bachelor party, no fair!) Elle and I went with Mary, Henry and my mom.  Elle LOVED it.  She ate until she couldn't possibly eat another bite.  And when her food was gone she just moved right along to Mary's plate and grabbed as much as she could (all of it).  Mac & Cheese, cornbread, mashed potatoes...nothing in her sight was safe.  Now we know she was the root of the CB craving, mystery solved.  Oddly enough Eric hates CB so I love how much Elle loves it!

Elle has started wearing her hair in pigtails more.  For about 2 days Henry wanted "ponies" like Elle had.  These 2 are a crazy bunch!  Notice how Elle puts her lovey around her neck so Henry used a kitchen towl to imitate the look.  My mom has her hands full with these two.

I know I'm biased but Elle is such a smart girl!  I ask her to show me where her eyes, fingers, toes, belly, ears, nose, etc. are and some days out of nowhere she knows a new body part.  Like her back, who taught you that little girl?!  The other day Eric and I were talking at lunch, he was saying something about going back somewhere.  Elle heard him and kept saying "back" and pointing to her back.  Elle now also knows where her teeth and tongue are.  She's pretty much a genius. ;)

 

Dancing at Grammy's house

Elle has started calling Vito & Hermann "pup pup" more instead of "abba".  Is it weird that is makes me a little sad that "abba" is being used less and less.  She says "Mermann" a lot but we are still working on Vito.  I've heard it, but only once.  She still tells them "no" all. the. time.

Speaking of "pup pups" our Hermann the Mermann celebrated a birthday in February.  Hard to believe our Merms is 8 years old, he doesn't look (or act) a day over 2. :)

For the Super Bowl this year we went to my parents house and vegged out.  We ate, the kiddos played and Elle and Unc did some dancing during Bruno Mars halftime show.

Elle has started brushing her teeth (all 7 of them!).  She loves loves loves brushing her teeth and asks to do it about 10 times a day.  It helps that I bought Elmo toothpaste. :)  I let her brush on her own and then try to wrangle the toothbrush out of her hands so I can brush her little teeth and then she gets the toothbrush back for some more chewing. :)

 

Her Elmo obsession hit an all time high this month.  One day I randomly started playing Elmo videos for her on the iPad and she instantly became addicted.  We tried to only allow Elmo videos before a nap or bedtime because it's all she wanted to do!  Elmo songs filled my head the entire month of February.  A few of her favorites are Elmo's Ducks, A Song About Elmo and What I Am.  I think I know all the words to each of these songs plus about 10 more that are in our normal rotation.  Although she is now getting to the point of watching them so many times that she wants new ones so we are always searching for new Elmo videos.

Elle was able to convince my mom to let her try using the potty one day.  It had nothing to do with the fact that she wanted to be a big girl and use the potty and everything to do with the fact that it's an Elmo potty.

Since Charlie was born Elle has taken a huge interest in babies.  She loves to swaddle her Cabbage Patch Doll in a blanket and hold her and gently tap her on the back with her little fingers.  She will lay her down in her circus tent or sometimes we put her doll in her crib to nap.  My mom asked Elle the other day what her baby's name is and Elle replied, "Paw Paw". :)  I just can't get enough of this sweet girl.