Off to buy school supplies!

I am so excited to be starting Kindergarten in just a few weeks!  Tonight Mommy and I went out to get some school supplies.  It was fun getting all the pencils, paper, and crayons, but the best part was picking out a backpack!  I went for the Tinker Bell and fairies one, which was acctually a pretty big surprise to Mommy or Daddy.  Usually I go for the Princess things, but not this time! 

I can't wait for Kindergarten, but I'm also thinking long-term already.  I told Mommy earlier, "Mommy, I'm so sad.  I don't want to leave you when I go to college!"

Leaving Owasso

Mommy and Daddy came back to Owasso yesterday to come get me so we could go home tomorrow!  I hadn't seen Mommy in almost two weeks, so I was super excited to give her a big hug, and couldn't even wait for her to get out of the car.  I missed her a lot!

Mommy and Daddy discovered that I'd been having lots of fun playing games with Grandma and Papa.  One of those was this "Run Yourself Ragged" obstacle course game.  I was getting pretty good at it!  You can also see "Uncle Wiggly" on the floor.

I wanted to show Mommy how to play "Run Yourself Ragged" too, since I knew all about it now.

This morning we had to leave pretty early because we planned on driving all the way back to Ohio in one long day.  But I had time for some last-minute tickles from Papa!  What is it about Daddy and Papa that they like to give me so many tickles? 

We hit the road and made it all the way back, arriving just after midnight.  Of course, I fell asleep about 15 minutes from home.  Daddy was able to wake me enough to get me out of the car, and he told me to go on in and go upstairs while he unloaded the car.  When he got done, he came inside and asked Mommy where I was.  She didn't know either, and then they found me asleep on the couch.  I had headed for the closest comfortable thing I could find and fell right back asleep.  I was tired!  But I was so glad I got to see Grandma and Papa again!

Fun in Owasso

I have had a great week spending time with Grandma and Papa.  I went to Vacation Bible School in the morning, and had a lot of fun with the other kids there.  All afternoon I got to play with Grandma and Papa, read books, and do lots of other fun stuff.  I even got a second (or third) birthday party!  Grandma made a birthday cake because she wanted to get to celebrate with me too, which means that this birthday has stretched over more than a month!  (Mommy and Daddy assure me that it won't be like this every year...)

I liked wearing my pretty Grandma-made dress!

And I really liked this special cup.  Grandma calls it the "Magical Swirly Princess Glass" and I got to use it all week!

Grandma was being silly while reading me a book!

Mommy wonders why Daddy and I like to do things that scare her so much.  We think it's genetic!  But Grandma and I sure had fun swinging!

Driving to see Grandma and Papa Roslewski!

Daddy had a training course to go to out in Oklahoma City, and I went with him as far as Owasso, OK!  He dropped me off with Grandma and Papa Roslewski and I'm going to get to spend the whole week with them all by myself!  It'll be the first time I've done that in almost 2 years when we still lived in Oklahoma, so I'm very excited and so are they!

Mommy is still in Phoenix but is going to join up with Daddy in Ok City on Monday and then I'll see her when they drive back up to Owasso on Friday!

We had planned to fly out there, but the weather didn't look too good so unfortunately we had to drive.  Which meant a long drive, and we got started Saturday afternoon.  We got rained on a lot between Ohio and Illinois!  But we did see a pretty rainbow in Indiana.

We stayed overnight at a hotel, and that meant I got a super big bed all to myself!  And Teddy, of course, and Trumpet and Flo.  It had been a super long day, but I still told Daddy I was going to stay up later than him, because I wasn't tired at all!  He quietly laughed to himself when I fell asleep within a few minutes of laying down.  Guess I was tired after all!

We got up in the morning on Sunday and had breakfast, then got back on the road.  I couldn't wait to get to Grandma and Papa's house!  I was a great girl in the car and mostly either watched movies (some more than once), or talked with Daddy.  It was a long drive, but we tried to have a fun time anyway.

When we finally arrived, I was so excited to see Grandma and Papa that I almost couldn't wait to get out of the car!

After giving Grandma and Papa lots of big hugs, almost right away I told Papa that I had brought a special book for him to read to me - Fox in Sox!  Daddy told me that Papa "loved" reading Dr. Suess books to him, so he was sure Papa would love reading to me too.  It's a tough book, and Papa's tongue sure got crazy!

I was happy to see Shadow too.  She's getting pretty old, but is still a super friendly dog. 

Last night, Grandma and I found a wounded bird on their back porch.  We were able to pick it up, and made a little shoebox bed for it with some birdseed and water.  This morning, he had become stronger and had flown away!

Daddy left to drive down to Ok City for his class this morning, so now it's just Grandma, Papa and me all week.  Fun!

Columbus Zoo with Daddy

After dropping Mommy off at the airport, Daddy and I headed right for the Columbus Zoo, which was having a free day for military families.  Sounded like a great afternoon to us!  So while Mommy was sitting on planes all day, we had a great time.

Daddy recently installed some upgraded noise-cancelling electronics in my flying headset, and I wanted to test them out on the drive up.  So he plugged them into my DVD player and I thought it was great!  They worked really well too, and the new ear seals were more comfortable also.  I wore it all the way up and all the way back, a great test for longer flights!

This elephant was taking a nice bath, and got really close!

Of course I had to ride the carousel.  We did it three times!

Daddy realized he was only going to have pictures of me, so made sure to take one of both of us.

They have an aquarium too, and a big sea turtle swam by right in front of me!

I got to touch a sea star, a horseshoe crab, and a super big hermit crab!  The hermit crab's shell must have been almost 6 inches across.  Auntie Charlie would have loved it!  Here I am with the sea star.  We were told to touch it in the "armpit"!

I even got to touch a snake!  I was very brave, and Daddy was proud of me - I didn't shy away at all.

This zoo has a lot of rides too, and after looking at the animals we headed over to that part.  There was hardly anybody there, so I was sometimes the only one on the rides, like this swing. 

The roller coaster had no line either.  Daddy and I went on it twice...

... and then I went on it five more times without him!  That's my first time on a roller coaster without Mommy or Daddy next to me, and I loved it!  Since there was no line, the ride operator even let us stay on and just kept the ride going for three of those times.  It was great, unlimited roller coaster rides, like a dream come true!

As we were walking toward the exit, we saw a strange sight - two zoo workers taking a desert tortoise for a walk!  His name was "Grouchy" and he is 9 years old and about 60 pounds.  They were training him to follow a fake apple so that as he gets bigger (up to 3 times his current weight), they won't have to try to lift him if they need to move him somewhere.  It was a pretty neat thing to see, and ended a really fun day!

Mommy headed to Phoenix today

We got bad news this week that Grandpa Mitch had a stroke and was in pretty bad shape.  Mommy told me that he was very sick and probably wasn't going to get better.  So today Mommy flew out to Phoenix to be with him and her family.  Mommy told me that just like I'll always be her little girl no matter how big I get, she's always her Daddy's little girl too, and wanted to be with him.

I made a card for Mommy to take with her.

Unfortunately, Grandpa Mitch passed away this afternoon, before Mommy could get to see him.

She is going to spend the rest of the week helping Grandma Bunny out with everything that needs to be done.

We will miss Mommy but know that she is exactly where she needs to be.

Kettering "Adventure Reef" Water Park

It has been so hot out recently, over 100 degrees and high humidity, that we haven't really wanted to do anything outside.  But Mommy and Daddy were told about a small water park only a few minutes away, and we thought that would be a perfect way to spend a hot day!

Unfortunately I wasn't quite tall enough to go on most of the slides they had, but I did get to play in the kids area a lot, and even went in the indoor pool. 

I had a lot of fun going down this little slide.  So did lots of other kids.  It was pretty crowded!

On one side of that slide they had some ropes you could pull that would turn on a faucet above you.  I like pulling on these ropes.  Well, up on top of the whole thing was a big bucket that gradually filled with water.  When it got full, it turned over and dumped out!  Every time I'd get wet, I'd run away squealing, but went right back in for me.  It was fun!  And it looked like me pulling the ropes made the bucket dump over!

It was a great way to cool off for the day.

Can't wait to see Grandma and Papa Roslewski

Next weekend we are going to Oklahoma and I am going to get to spend the week with Grandma and Papa while Mommy and Daddy are in Oklahoma City.  Daddy will be at a training course for work and Mommy will be looking around trying to figure out where to live when we move back there.

I'm so excited about the trip that today I let Mommy and Daddy know just how excited I was, with a big smile on my face: "Pool every day, park every day, spoiled every day!"

Papa won't even have to sneak treats to me, since Mommy and Daddy won't be there to see it.  It will be the first time I've been to see them, without Mommy and Daddy around, in almost two years, so I am really excited about it!

Fourth of July at Young's Dairy!

It has been a long time since we went to Young's Dairy, and today we went back because they were having another of their unlimited wristband specials.  Which means we got to do everything, and I sure tried!

We had a great time at mini golf, and played two 18-hole rounds during the day.  I was really doing well, and even managed a few actual "3"s!

My favorite part, though, was keeping score.  After the first few holes, I asked Daddy to show me where to write the scores down, and after that I kept score the rest of the round!

We also went to the driving range, where I got to refine my skills with a driver.

Of course my favorite slide was nearby, and I wanted to go on it again and again and again.  Daddy and Mommy went along for a few rides, but then it was all me!  I easily went down the slide over 20 times.

Of course, it wouldn't be a visit to Young's Dairy without getting some ice cream, which tasted extra good on a hot day like today.  Yum!

With all this fun today, I was pretty tired when we got home.  I fell asleep before the fireworks, and even slept right through them!