Road Trip

Kinley and I headed out to visit friends in NC on Saturday. Here are the highlights from our drive.

Settling in with a good book
Kinley and I both agree, South Carolina sucks!

Finally caving and going to sleep 45 mins from the Peacocks' house.

A New Favorite

Food and word...ziti


Don't ya just love the lip smacking?

A week in the life of the Bells

Been way behind on getting pictures off the camera. Sorry! So here goes the catch up:
Sewing with Erin and Heather: The sewing was supposed to happen while Miss Kin slept, but as you can see she had other plans. Can you see the attitude in that face? This was about 5 minutes of peace playing with buttons between screaming fits to be sitting at the sewing machine. Thankfully Heather was here to help Erin with her bag while I wrangled Kinley.

Some random cuteness while she was sleeping hard the next day making up for that missed nap the day before.This is at the rodeo watching the pony ride from afar. She wanted to pet every animal she saw but was not interested in riding the ponies. I made her skirt out of some Heather Ross ponies fabric. It didn't turn out exactly how I wanted it to, but I'm going to work on it some more because this is my all time favorite fabric. It is the softest I've ever touched.
The squatting is an example of the little copy cat we have on our hands now. Grown ups bend down to talk to her all the time, so she does it too. Not sure I realized just how early this stage started. Be very careful of what you say and do in front of this one. She's a quick learner!

Here she is with Grandpa in the stands later. Kinley is horse obsessed, so we thought she'd enjoy the rodeo. She did have a good time and behaved for the 3 hours we were there. It's a record I'm sure. ;) However if anyone else intends to go to the rodeo with small children or my husband, I'd plan on getting there at least an hour late. This thing was LOOOONG! We left at 9:30 because Drew had had enough and they were only half way through.
Saturday we went to Raccoon Creek Bluegrass Festival. Kinley went sans nap. We survived it only because there were friendly dogs she could stalk and a playground area that included a big old washing tub filled with sudsy water and kitchen items. It is seriously amazing what a difference two weeks of Mom's morning out made. She ran straight up to the other kids and started playing. She normally sits back and takes it all in for a long time before joining other kids in playing. No pictures of that because I couldn't leave her to run back and get the camera from where our chairs were.
Kinley had a blast and soaked her mama made dress through and through. After last weeks loss, Kinley is no longer allowed to wear her other UGA top on game days. So far this dress is a winner. Looks like she'll be wearing it every weekend. ;)
And here's our lazy Sunday:She was reading her book to her baby. Complete with baby kissing the pages.
Now you're all caught up. I probably won't post anymore until next week. I've got some mad sewing to finish before heading to Raleigh at the end of the week...and cleaning...and laundry...and packing...I can't wait to see everyone there. It's been too long.

3 kids, 4 adults and a whole lotta animals...

It's a Zoo!!!
My sisters and I decided to try to get the kids together this weekend since it was a long holiday weekend and nobody has to work tomorrow. Lee Anne had the fabulous idea to try the zoo and it was a hit. The weather was great, it was super crowded, but the kids all behaved very well. We even got to see most of the animals being active. I took a good bit of photos and videos, so I'll post them over on picasa for you to check out. I'll hit the highlights here.
Here's Miss Kin at the front entrance eager to get going and checking out the Flamingos. She swindled her Aunt Lee Anne into freeing her from the stroller while I was in the restroom. I thought it was going to be a long day at this rate...
Enthralled by the gorillas. One came down pretty close to us. We told Nate it was because he waned some of his Cheez its. She stayed peacefully in her stroller for most of the day which made it kind of harder for her to spot the animals but much easier to keep up with her. You could tell when she did discover an animal though because she giggled every time. Every time. She is a silly goose.
Kinley liked most of the animals. She shouted horse repeatedly at nearly all four legged creatures despite there being not a single horse in the zoo. ;) She was not so sure about snakes however. She just kept saying "uh, oh" when Aunt Julie held her up to the glass in the reptile house.
Taking a much needed snack break. This is what you get when you ask 2 3 year olds and a 1.5 year old to say cheese for the camera:I believe her favorites were definitely in the Kid zone section. They have a birthday pavillion with music, balls and hula hoops for the kids to run and play. It was big fun! Be sure to check out those videos for Merrit's mad hula hoop skillz and Kinley's dancing!
It was difficult to pry her away, but we headed on to the petting zoo next. Kinley became an attraction herself in here. She giggled so hystarically at every animal that the bystanders were checking her out instead of the animals. Also in the videos. It took her awhile to decide to pet them but then she quickly moved on to attempting to kiss and feed them. Good times, good times!
Here we are 2 minutes in to the car ride home:

Sad start to the season...

At least when our team lets us down we have a cutie patootie and good friends to keep us distracted!

She caught on to the "What the heck are they doing?" facial expression quickly don't ya think?

I was worried about trying to watch the game with such die hard UGA fans and our rambunctious Kinley, but I think we all had a good time. Kinley giggled the whole afternoon. She just loves those Miers and Tabors!

The rest of Kinley's first day of school:

I snapped these after lunch and nap times. I don't think she missed me at all, but Bailey???

It was like she wanted to tell him all about her day. She leaned her head up against his and was babbling away at him. Too stinking cute!!!

And this was after her 4 hour nap. She still looked exhausted.

1st day of "school"

As is customary in the Bell family, we made a big decision quickly. We've been talking about finding somewhere for Kinley to go for some social interaction with other kids. Originally I was looking for something to start in January, but I found a mom's morning out program that looked interesting on Monday, toured it on Tuesday, and today Kinley started. She'll be going to a Mom's morning out program on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-12.
This was the best picture I could get of her before rushing into the car to get there on time. We aren't accustomed to being up and moving quite so early in the morning.

And this is the after shot:

Doesn't she look exhausted? The teachers said she had a great first day and that she is very sweet. They even sounded like they meant it. ;) She was busy "cleaning up" when we got there. I don't mean the toys they were playing with but the pieces of tape that were holding the cabinet shut. She was quite determined that those pieces of tape did not belong on those doors. I suppose I should have warned them just how obsessive she can be with her organizing. The ladies seemed to think it was funny. We'll see how long that lasts.