Ella's 3rd Birthday party at Pump It Up!

Larkin had sooooo much fun at her best friend Ella's 3rd birthday party, and I hope that these pictures and videos give you a flavor of what it was like. The first picture is of the kids getting ready for some cake. It was a bunch of her Monkey Room friends from the Goddard School. Ella is the blonde girl that's the furthest to the left in the picture, and Larkin is on the near side of the table in the middle.

The party was at a blow-up gym place called Pump It Up! and we were so proud of how brave Larkin was. At first she needed help with the big climbing and the even bigger slides, but by the end, she was doing the entire thing all by herself. Larkin and Ella played together for a good bit of the party, and quite a pair they were. I cannot even begin to say how much fun Larkin had on this thing!

The kids also had fun in a couple of bounce houses and for some reason, they found screaming fun too.

Last but not least, a fun group pic. Larkin is furthest to the left. What a fun party!

Deanna Rose Farm with Grandpa Bud

Bunny in the Backyard

We had a family of bunny rabbits that live in our greater backyard area. We sometimes even see two bunnies playing chase. Larkin loves stuffed animal rabbits and now she's excited to have the real, hopping ones right outside the window. She even likes to introduce the two...

Hello Kitty Pillow

Grandpa Bud bought Larkin this Hello Kitty pillow and blanket set as a present during his visit. As you can see, it was a huge hit with her. Thanks, Grandpa Bud!

Firetruck Museum

A trip to the mall isn't complete unless we stop to sit in the big firetruck in a random Firetruck Museum. Larkin loves to drive the truck, spinning the steering wheel around and around. The truck is even complete with stuffed animal Dalmatians!

Monkey Bizness

Larkin is now a huge fan of the local indoor play gym called Monkey Bizness. It was a little intimidating for her at first, but she conquered it in no time. Here she is enjoying the bounce house - a favorite of hers - as well as climbing up the bungee gym and then sliding down the fun slide with Mommy. It's a sweet reward after the long climb!

Here are two videos that I hope make you feel like you were there with us, just like Grandpa Bud was!

Grandpa Bud Loves His Tea

For those of us who know and love Grandpa Bud, know that Grandpa Bud loves to drink tea. Larkin has apparently picked up on this herself and decided to compose a song about it! There's no picture to this video because she was in her bed and it was still dark out, but I had to capture the audio, it's just so darned cute. Larkin often wakes up singing and this is what we were woken up by this morning... I think the title of the song might just be, "Grandpa Bud Loves His Tea"... to hear it make sure you have the sound on your computer turned up loud!

Goddard Monkey Room

Sorry that I haven't updated recently, but I'm working on getting a whole bunch of posts up, so keep checking back regularly from now on! Here are a few pictures that Larkin's teachers, Ms. Halley and Ms. Carrie, etc. took with a disposable camera I gave them so they could take pics during the day at school. The pictures are grainy, but still worth it to get a glimpse of her during the day. She's in the Monkey room with her best friends and loving it, in case you can't tell. In this first picture, she's the one jumping up and down in the middle with the red shirt. In the third picture, she's hugging Carter.

Potty training is a big part of this class. The kids can't move up until they are potty trained. Larkin has just recently (in March) become potty-trained and we've really had very few accidents. Yay, Larkin, we're so proud of you (and for washing your hands afterwards)!

Is it me or do these kiddos look like they just were up to something sneaky?!

Singing the Hokey Pokey

First Week of Tricycle Riding

We were shopping and found the perfect accessory for Larkin... a Hello Kitty bike helmet! It came attached to a piece of cardboard that also held a free bike bell. But that didn't deter Larkin from wearing the helmet + cardboard + bell on her head throughout the entire store. More than a few other customers chuckled pleasantly as they went by us. :) If only I had taken a picture, it would be priceless.

When we got home, we decided that that day was as good as any other day to try out the helmet and so we brought out the tricycle that she was too small for last year when we bought it for her. It's a pink Radio Flyer tricycle that allows for parental steering and pushing (lifesaver on our long walks!). Well, the trike and the helmet were huge hits! Larkin didn't even want to leave the tricycle in the garage when we were done that first day (yesterday). She sat on it in the garage for a few minutes before she decided she'd leave it there and come inside. This morning, Larkin said hello to her trike when she went to the garage to get in the car to go to school. Awww, so sweet. The helmet is nearly as popular, however, and it has been able to make its rounds... around the house, to school, in the car, etc.

Needless to say, the tricycle + helmet are currently two of her favorite things. Hope you like the pictures and video of Larkin riding her tricycle for only the second day... she's really gotten the hang of it!

Little Monkey Business

It was a little to cold to go outside to play, so we took Larkin to an inside jungle gym play place called Little Monkey Business. They have all sorts of climbing areas, big slides, a bounce house, etc. Larkin was fairly timid in the beginning since this was her first time there and some of the other kids had clearly been there before and had no fears. But, Larkin is brave and she faced her fears, getting more confident each time she tried something. In the last picture with me and Larkin, you can see the tunnel behind us (suspended about 10 feet off the ground)... at first she would only go through on my lap. But, then she started crawling through on her own and eventually was walking through it like the older kids. We were so proud of her and she had fun!

Minnie Mouse with Pigtails

A Budding Architect

A favorite activity for Larkin and Brian to do together is build impressive towers out of MegaBlocks. Here are a couple of towers that they built together this last week.

This first one is the most impressive in that it is 99% Larkin's design! She even got up on her step stool to put the upper pieces on. We love the asymmetrical nature of the structure in the middle and the top. It looks like she's becoming a budding architect! You can tell how proud Larkin is of it too... she posed for the picture with her stuffed animal pig (and check out her hilarious winter hat and diapers look)!

Here's another tower they built... what we call "the tallest tower". Brian helped with this one a bit more, since they were really going for height. You can clearly see the "strong base" that Brian has taught Larkin to do to build good tall towers. Larkin is posing next to this one in another self-picked outfit too...

And below is a close-up photo of our adorable munchkin in her self-picked outfit for that day... black leggings, pink fringe boots, and a Bambi sweatshirt. She's lucky that she looks precious in anything she wears! Not many people can pull this off!

Dinner at the Dinosaur Restaurant

Measuring for Art

Happy New Year! To help us ring in the new year, we ordered some new art for our newly finished basement. Here's an adorable shot of Larkin helping us measure the wall in her area that we call "Tinker's Nook" (after Tinker Bell)!