Jack Turns the Big 03!

Elizabeth's cousin Jack turned 3 on May 4th, and we made the trip to Charleston to share in the super fun festivities. The highlight of the party was the cardboard play house that the kids got to paint! Happy Birthday, Jack!!

She's always looking for an excuse to take her clothes off, so when she saw a much younger little girl get her shirt taken off for the cake eating, Elizabeth was sure to follow suit :)

Uncle Bobby's Visit

Elizabeth finally got to meet her Uncle Bobby! Bob was in town for a few days at the beginning of May, and miraculously our schedules matched, and we were able to have breakfast together. Although Uncle Bobby is not our "real" uncle, he has always been a very special part of my life. Hopefully he'll talk to me again some day soon now that Project Blog Update is underway...

Mad Hatter's Tea Party

The non-profit that Ed works for, Young Audiences, had its annual Mad Hatter's Tea Party event on May 8th. Unfortunately, Ed had class and couldn't be there, but Elizabeth and I weren't going to miss it. She had just seen Disney's "Alice in Wonderland" a couple weeks earlier when Grandma had come down for the weekend, so to say that Elizabeth was excited to meet all the characters would be a bit of an understatement! We took the train into Midtown (another huge plus in her book), and spent the morning with the characters making crafts, watching some performances, dancing, and even making a tea cup completely out of candy. It really was a great event, and Elizabeth was a very happy girl!

(Video translation: At the beginning, she's jabbering on about Thomas the Tank Engine since we're waiting for the train; Mr. Eric is a musician who performed at the event--Elizabeth has one of his CDs and is a big fan; she also says we'll see the Mad Hatter, Alice, and the Cheshire Cat; at the end she says she's also excited to see "the blue worm" who will turn into a beautiful blue butterfly.)

Dress-up

Elizabeth LOVES to dress-up and pretend to be every character in every story she has ever heard or read. She started this trend back in February, but she is still going strong and then some. She is constantly "changing" between characters. Keeping up with who she is at various moments throughout the day can be quite a challenge. She is always sure to assign roles to everybody else as well. For a long time, I was always "The Evil Queen," which was totally unfair because Ed was always the prince, but she has since branched out in her character assignments, and things are much more evenly balanced!

Here are some photos and footage of some of my favorite ensembles from the past few months...

Easter eggs!

We spent Easter weekend in Morganton this year. Elizabeth was SO excited to dye eggs at Grandma's house. In fact, one morning the week before Easter, she came into our room at 5:00am to ask if it was time to go to Grandma's house and dye eggs! It was not the time or even the day, and I have since learned not to give her quite so much warning about trips to Grandma's house and such.

There was a lot of splashing and several cracked eggs, but she eventually got the hang of "gently" and was quite pleased with her finished products.

Spring Is In The Air

The snow left as quickly as it came, and with it went the cold weather. Spring in Atlanta is great--warmer weather but no bugs yet! We spent many evenings in March packing picnics, riding our bikes to parks, and letting Elizabeth burn off her seemingly endless toddler energy.

We faced the challenge this year of helping her overcome her fear of the bike helmet. Unfortunately, last year we pinched her chin in the helmet buckle on what would be our last ride of the season, and she had been understandably terrified ever since. With much coaxing and patience, we finally got her comfortable with the helmet again--the deal that worked was that she got to snap the buckles on our helmets...talk about terrifying!

February Snow in Atlanta

We actually had snow in Atlanta this year!! I was way more excited about it than Elizabeth, but I did talk her into making a snow man with me. Take a look at "Ian the Snowman"!

We all took a walk around our neighborhood. The park on our street really looked beautiful. Of course, most of the snow had melted by that afternoon, but we took full advantage while it lasted!

Elizabeth's snow angel skills had improved significantly since her attempts in Washington!