Happy Birthday, Merritt!

Merritt had a big week this week.  He started Pre-K, met his new baby sister, spent the night with us, and turned 4.

Kinley eating way too big a piece of cake.  She made sure to claim a seat next to Merrbear since she was missing out on all the fun earlier in the day.

A year did not a braver child make.  Last year she stood off to the side watching all the action.  This year she was convinced with a lot of help from Austin and Winston to get on...once.  The rest of the time she spent watching from the pool or the sidelines.
A side note to anyone hosting a late season summer birthday.  Julie bought this slide last year on clearance at walmart.com for less than she could have rented a jumpy place.  It served for hours of entertainment last year and again this year.  Great investment.

When the cat's away, the mice will play.

The dogs are not allowed on the bed.  Drew and I are counting down the days until Kin has a bed big enough to hold at least one of these monsters.

Happy Birthday!

Camryn Lee finally decided to join us today at 2:20 p.m.  

She weighed 8 lbs 3 oz and was 20 1/4 inches.  You can't see it here, but she has even more hair than Merritt when he was born.  Which equals more hair than Kinley has now.  Just kidding.  Slightly...

Dauset Trails

Visiting Dauset Trails was on my list of things to do this summer while Kinley was out of school.  I had this grand plan to do something fun each week.  More weeks than not our something fun was at Aunt Gin's or Aunt Julie's pools.  It was just way too hot this summer to do much outside unless you were in the water.  When I woke up and it was under 80 degrees and misty outside we called our friends Maggie and Drew and headed out.  I figured this would be the coolest day we'd have between now and October, so we took advantage of it.

Kinley wasn't so sure at first, but she warmed up quickly.  Drew's an old pro at Dauset Trails.  His mom is braver than me and has been taking him despite the heat.

There were signs posted all over the place that the animals bite.  Apparently Kinley can't read yet...

Kinley really loved the pigs.  A little too much.  Her finger ended up one of their noses.  YUCK!!!

I was only able to take photos of the barn animals, but they have an entire nature preserve with wild animals too.  There's also a reptile house, but we didn't make it there either.  We got stuck in the woods chasing each other around trees instead.

This one is ridiculously blurry but way too cute to pass up:

It really is an awesome place that could be an entire day of entertainment.  It is entirely free.  No fee for entry or parking.  They do appreciate donations, and you may want to bring a pocket full of quarters because they have machines with feed in them that you can give the animals.  They also have miles and miles of bike riding trails if you're into that kind of thing.

When did this happen?

Gone is Kinley baby (although you'll have an extra hard time convincing her of it...especially when talking about the potty).  Doesn't she look too freakin grown up?  And I have no idea where the gangsta pose is coming from.  Ask Erin, she's the one taking the photo.

The Break Up

We broke up, this blog and I.  You see it's like Kin has internet access in her room or something.  I put something on here about her and she proves me wrong immediately.  Like in my last post, I said once she's asleep she stays asleep.  What do I hear that very night just hours after posting?  The pitter patter of her feet down the hall at midnight.  ARGHH!!!  So I'm not going to say anything about Miss Kin.  I'll let the photos speak for themselves over on Picasa while I try to mend this broken relationship with my blog.

Summer Nights

Okay, so we might be resorting to bribery a lot lately in the Bell household.  Finish your dinner and you just might get a special treat:

Think we can find a way to bribe her to be lady like?

And Kinley's personal favorite:

Popsicles.  If she's standing in front of your fridge screeching for something, it's probably a Popsicle.  I will warn you to save it until just before bedtime, so that the sugar high hits after she's tucked snug into bed.  I made the mistake of giving her one after her excellent behavior in the grocery store one day this week.  Let's just say Kinley does not need the help of sugar to keep you busy.
Kinley's doing a lot of growing up lately.  We've moved on to a big girl bed and big girl cups.  Now if only we could get the potty training down we'd be good. We were way past time to switch her bed.  I believe she's been over the height limit for months...and months.  What can I say, we like our sleep over here. I won't be posting photos of her bed since I'm sure I'm breaking all kinds of safety rules using a bed rail that's meant for full size mattresses not toddler beds.
Staying in her bed is hit or miss depending on the day.  Enter the bribery.  Or threats of taking her "baby" away.  This one's proven to be most effective.   At least she stays asleep once she gets to sleep.  Unless you are Nana.  Poor Nana kindly volunteered to baby sit last weekend and wound up with less than 6 hours of sleep.  Did I mention it was her birthday too?  We promise to work more on sleeping before sending her off to spend the night with anyone again.  Thanks again, Nana!  I really am sorry she wouldn't sleep for you, and happy belated birthday!