celebrating nine years

While in Panama City, Paul and I celebrated our nine year anniversary. We stayed at a beautiful condo on the beach for four nights, two of which we spent without Emma Jane who stayed with her grandparents. This was my first time spending a night away from Emma Jane, but as much as we missed her, we thoroughly enjoyed our alone time together. On the night of our anniversary, Paul took me to the Red Bar in Grayton Beach. This was the site of our very first "real" date over 12 years ago!

surprise!

Our first night in Panama City turned out to be full of surprises! Paul and I planned to hang out with some good friends, but didn't realize they had planned a surprise baby shower for us. We were VERY surprised! How lucky we are to have such a wonderful group of friends! Thanks everyone!

it's much more fun at the park

Emma Jane is still attending a ballet class on Wednesday mornings, but it doesn't seem to be her favorite thing to do. She likes her teacher and seeing her friends there, but after 10 minutes of back-to-back instructions, she's DONE (and this is a 45 minute class)! This week she was the only student in class, so I thought having the teacher's undivided attention might help her focus better. Wrong! She actually did participate very well for the first part of class, but after 10-15 minutes, I think her head was literally spinning! Today she sat down in the middle of the floor, started taking off her ballet slippers, and said very matter-of-factly, "I all done with ballet class!" So, after a few more tries, we ended the ballet class a little early and I took her to the park! Being outside where she is free to do what she wants is definitely Emma Jane's idea of a good time. You can see from the pictures that she had a ball climbing and running and jumping at the park...still in her ballet attire! Her pink tights were soon covered in mud and filled with holes, but it was worth seeing my girl smile!

Before ballet class...



Climbing everything at the park...







Yes, she is HANGING from a doorknob!

mommy's five!

I couldn't have asked for a better birthday! Paul cooked a yummy dinner for us and made homemade cupcakes, too. Emma Jane helped me blow out the candle on my cupcake and thoroughly enjoyed eating hers. When we'd ask Emma Jane whose birthday it was she would say, "Mommy's birthday coming soon!" When asked how old her mama is she replied, "Five!" Uh...add 31 years to that for this year's grand total!

afternoon stroll

We took a late afternoon walk around the capitol grounds this afternoon. Paul had planned to have a picnic there earlier today, but I wasn't feeling well so we had to postpone. Emma Jane loves going to the capitol. We haven't been since May, but she remembers the "gi-rant steps" and chasing the "squwurels". On the way there she kept saying, "We're almost to the captain's building!" We enjoyed the sunset while there and Emma Jane said, "Uh oh...it's getting kinda, very dark!" For some reason everything is "kinda, very" or "maybe, probably" which we think is sort of, really cute!

pumpkins galore...and much more!

We met some friends at the Pumpkin Patch today. Emma Jane didn't know where to start with so many cool things to touch and climb up on! As usual, she was on the go and so were we!

backyard fun

As most of you know, Emma Jane LOVES to climb, jump, and swing. We were lucky that the owners of this house decided to leave their wooden playset in the backyard. It's pretty intricate as far as playsets go with 3 regular swings, a 2-seater glider, trapeze rings, a good-sized slide, 2 rock climbing sections, monkey bars, a covered platform, and a little wood-slat bridge. Most of this is pretty challenging for a 2-year-old, but that hasn't stopped our little monkey! She loves to swing and shouts, "High-rer! High-rer! Look, Mommy, I can reach the sky!" She has even mastered the rock climbing and has no trouble boosting herself up (with either me or Paul spotting her the whole way!). Unfortunately, our crazy climber is fearless, but not quite capable of doing all of things she thinks she can do, so today Paul worked on making this playset a little safer for Emma Jane. He replaced the rock climbing section so that it is easier for her to climb independently. He also replaced the bridge boards to ensure that they would stay in place. Emma Jane enjoyed watching her daddy fix the playset and was thrilled to use some of the things that have been "off limits" for the past few weeks. In the last picture you can see her hugging Paul as she says, "Kank you fo fissing my playset, Dad!"