The other day, Amelia and her friends Myla and Sarah went to a favorite place - the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. This visit was extra special, not only because Dad came along, but Sarah's cousins - Jonathan and Jake, joined us too. Amelia was thrilled! She loves older kids.
Between testing out the new climbing wall, riding the train, and exploring the wind exhibit, much fun was had by all.
Today our dear friends the Linke's invited us to share Easter brunch with them. As always, Leah prepared a delicious feast!
Amelia had a ball hunting for eggs with Ben and Max. The Linke boys are so wonderful and couldn't have been sweeter to Amelia and Noah. They were so patient with Amelia following them around every where they went. As far as she's concerned, Amelia has two new best friends!
We had a lovely time with the Linkes in their beautiful home. It was a perfect Easter celebration!
Amelia has a new friend - Zach. Zach's mom, Wendy, is helping our next door neighbor, Susan, with some landscaping.
Zach comes to help his mom... and play with Amelia. They have had so much fun together climbing Susan's massive dirt pile. I fear what's going to happen when all the dirt has been transferred to the beautiful new flower beds. Amelia's going to be very sad.
Today they were pretending to be seeds potted in the barrel... growing into the silliest trees you ever saw.
Many an evening I've had to drag her home, literally kicking and screaming, because she doesn't want to stop playing with Zach and Susan.
Today was the big Easter egg hunt at the historic Horace Williams house here in Chapel Hill. Amelia met up with her two good friends, Shelby and Sarah, to see how many eggs they could find. Thankfully, they each found a few. This was a major accomplishment given the number of kids they were competing against. I think the whole town came out for the hunt!
Somehow, Amelia found one of the special "golden eggs" which resulted in a prize for the finder. (A little help from dad never hurts!) I'm not sure she was all that impressed with the golden egg... all she cared about was the candy.
Tanya, in her infinite wisdom, planned a second - private - hunt for the girls at her house after the big event. Lots and lots of eggs were to be found by just three sweet little girls. Oh, what fun they had!
Watch out next year when Katherine & Casey (Shelby's twin little sisters - 1yr.), Taylor (Sarah's little brother - 7mth.) and Noah get to participate!
We officially have a 3-year-old! Today is Amelia's birthday and boy, have we made a day of it. Amelia, Noah, and I started out our day at Toys-R-Us... what better place to begin your celebration?! After adding a few Thomas the Train accessories to our collection, we made our way to Chick-fil-A to dine on nuggets and lemonade. When lunch was over, we headed to the mall. We enjoyed a session of penny throwing at the fountain and played at Pottery Barn Kids while we waited for Lee.
Then it was time for the big birthday event... Horton Hears a Who! Mom, Dad, Amelia, and Noah all went to see an early showing of the new Dr. Seuss movie and Amelia was so excited. We've been talking about it for weeks now. She and Lee have been reading the book at bedtime every night to get ready for our theater adventure. The movie was a big success! Amelia sat stone-still in her seat almost the entire 100+ minutes, snacking on her popcorn, and pointing out all the parts she remembers from the book. I'm a little afraid that her favorite part was Vlad, the mean Vulture... but, I won't try to read too much into that!
After the movie, Lee ran back to the office to wrap things up - it is the start of basketball tournament season, after all (Go Heels!).
We then met him at Amelia's favorite restaurant... Red Robin, without the Robin. Of course, she fell asleep in the car on the way there... and Noah, on the other hand, was making his presence very apparent. Dinner was complete when ten servers came to our table clapping and singing "Happy Birthday!"
The only way Amelia survived the experience was that they came bearing a wonderful ice-cream sundae for her to enjoy.
You may think our day ended here... so wrong! We hadn't even opened any presents yet. The fact that it was 7:00pm and bath time didn't matter. One highlight was a present from cousin Maddie... a new game for Amelia's Leapster - Animal Genius. Upon opening the game and hearing the name, Amelia announced "I want to be a genius!" Of course, she and Lee immediately had to play it. It's fast becoming a favorite as she declared, "I love this game!"
The day should have ended here. But, then the gift Lee and I have been so anxiously awaiting, finally arrived... Amelia's first pee-pee on the potty!
Hallelujah!
We are desperately trying to potty train our girl as we signed up - and paid for - a summer camp that REQUIRES all campers to be fully potty trained. No refunds! Treats have been dangled like you wouldn't believe and have gotten bigger and bigger with each passing day.
You can't believe the celebration that took place. We didn't know what to do first... hand out the candy egg reward, stick the sticker on the chart, or open the giant present that was supposed to come after three pee-pees, but was repositioned to first! Check out the video below for our rock star in the making.
All in all, I'd have to say it was a great day. Noah can't wait for his first birthday!
Today was open house at Amelia's preschool. For weeks now the kids have been preparing a "performance" for the parents... The Three Little Pigs. We were pretty sure Amelia was one of the little pigs, but she loved to tell us she was the "Big Bad Wolf... grrrrrr!"
Lee was a few minutes late and quietly snuck into to the classroom... until Amelia spotted him! In the middle of trying to blow down the brick-house Amelia excitedly yelled "Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" - adding a few jumps for emphasis. Check out the video below to see her glee.
After the performance, the kids sang a few songs and then invited the parents to enjoy some snacks they made for us. Chex party mix never tasted so good!
The other day, Amelia and her friends Myla and Sarah went to a favorite place - the Museum of Life & Science in Durham. This visit was extra special, not only because Dad came along, but Sarah's cousins - Jonathan and Jake, joined us too. Amelia was thrilled! She loves older kids.
Today our dear friends the Linke's invited us to share Easter brunch with them. As always, Leah prepared a delicious feast!
Amelia has a new friend - Zach. Zach's mom, Wendy, is helping our next door neighbor, Susan, with some landscaping.
Today was the big Easter egg hunt at the historic Horace Williams house here in Chapel Hill. Amelia met up with her two good friends, Shelby and Sarah, to see how many eggs they could find. Thankfully, they each found a few. This was a major accomplishment given the number of kids they were competing against. I think the whole town came out for the hunt!
We officially have a 3-year-old! Today is Amelia's birthday and boy, have we made a day of it. Amelia, Noah, and I started out our day at Toys-R-Us... what better place to begin your celebration?! After adding a few Thomas the Train accessories to our collection, we made our way to Chick-fil-A to dine on nuggets and lemonade. When lunch was over, we headed to the mall. We enjoyed a session of penny throwing at the fountain and played at Pottery Barn Kids while we waited for Lee.
After the movie, Lee ran back to the office to wrap things up - it is the start of basketball tournament season, after all (Go Heels!).
The only way Amelia survived the experience was that they came bearing a wonderful ice-cream sundae for her to enjoy.
The day should have ended here. But, then the gift Lee and I have been so anxiously awaiting, finally arrived... Amelia's first pee-pee on the potty! 
You can't believe the celebration that took place. We didn't know what to do first... hand out the candy egg reward, stick the sticker on the chart, or open the giant present that was supposed to come after three pee-pees, but was repositioned to first! Check out the video below for our rock star in the making.
Today was open house at Amelia's preschool. For weeks now the kids have been preparing a "performance" for the parents... The Three Little Pigs. We were pretty sure Amelia was one of the little pigs, but she loved to tell us she was the "Big Bad Wolf... grrrrrr!" 
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