Parkway Sundays

Parkway Sundays are here. "Agadaga" Lake parkway is closed off from traffic for 3 hours each Sunday morning and people gather to walk, ride bikes, rollerblade and jog right in the 4-lane road. Helaina thought it was cool to ride in the "big road" without any traffic to be careful of. It also meant a stop at her favorite park, and fortunately the mister was going today. "I get wet?" she asked when she saw it. Sure, why not, it was a hot morning and she squealed with delight. "I soaked!" she said when she was finished.

Of all the kids playing at the mister, Helaina got the wettest.

Helaina liked exploring the Butterfly Garden of Hope right on the parkway. "We go back to that bazebo?" she asked. "Bazebo" is 4-year old talk for gazebo.

Sniffing the pretty roses.

Throwing stones in the lake. What form she has.

Checking out the pigeons nesting in the bridge.

Yet another scorching hot day. I think we've been in our pool at least once every day since it's been filled with water. Jumping into Josh's arms.

Big brother is lots of fun in the pool.

Saturday night dinner at Tulley's - the cousins.

Back to work tomorrow for Jim. I think he needs the rest.

Once a year at Darien Lake is enough

Darien Lake is a great amusement and water park but once a year is enough for me. The park is huge and spread out all over the place which means lots of walking to get from one end to the other - several times. We spent almost 9 hours at the park. 89 degrees and not a cloud in the sky - sounds perfect, right? Not for me - way too hot! We spent more time than usual in the waterpark to try and stay cool.

Helaina and Josh in the spinning balloons.

A flying Dumbo, what luck, and the kiddie ferris wheel.

Tin lizzy cars. Helaina was annoyed that she couldn't drive - her foot didn't reach the gas pedal.

Cooling off with a ride down a water slide.

Helaina liked this red curvy water slide. Josh helped her climb up the netting and passed her off to Jim. Josh swooped her up when she would come flying out the bottom.

Running through the water mushroom.

Josh rode this motorcycly roller coaster 3 times in a row.

Helaina's all-time favorite ride is the kids roller coaster. I don't know how many times she rode this, but it was a lot. She rode in the front, the middle & the back and she liked the front seat best - our little daredevil.

Arms up for an extra thrill.

Bumber cars and motorcycles.

8:30pm, alseep pretty quickly on the way home.

No time to recover from Darien Lake. Jim took a 4-day weekend so we were off to a bounce house, the next day at Helaina's request.

Earlier in the week I took Helaina to Snip-its for a trim to try and even out the scraggly ends of her hair. She's holding in her hands the prize card and 2 lollipops while she balances the entire bucket of lollipops on her lap. Good thing they are sugar free.

Well, baby birds finally flew the coop. They were getting too big to fit in the nest. All in one day, one by one, they stood on the end of the nest then decided to take flight. They didn't go far from our yard that first day and Mommie Robin continued to follow them around with bugs in her mouth. See, it's even hard for robins to let their babies go off on their own!

"Are you ready?"

"Are you ready? Catch me!" That's all the warning we get and then we better be ready to catch the 44 pound jumper. Helaina waits for nothing. There have been a few close calls. I predict that the first full head-under-water experience will be when she jumps off the edge too soon before someone is there to catch her. Oh well, maybe she'll like it!

Penguin Palooza at the Zoo

When you combine a trip to the zoo with all the ice cream you can eat, how bad can it be? The Penguin Palooza is basically a huge ice cream social, with ice cream stations situated all over the zoo - help yourself to whatever you want and as much as you want. And yes, there is such a thing as too much ice cream. At the end of our evening on the way out we rounded a corner and there were 2 more ice cream stations, one serving rootbeer or orange floats and the other serving ice cream sundaes complete with chocolate sauce and whipped cream. Josh and I passed because of ice cream overload, but Helaina and Jim found room in their bellys for the floats. Let's just say that Helaina was experiencing sugar overload (as we all were), and it's a good thing the Palooza is only once a year.

Helaina got to meet Romani tonight for the first time and as usual, she could hardly contain herself while waiting to touch this amazing animal.

A few tricks from Romani's performance.

There were lots of games for the kids to play, complete with prizes whether you won or lost.

A few funny animal pictures.

Momma and baby swan.

Obsessed with finding the face painting station from the moment we arrived at the zoo, Helaina finally got a penguin painted on her cheek.

Squinting into the sun, she wanted me to take a picture of her cheek so she could see it.

Brother and sister penguins.

Josh was excited to find out that former SU basketball player "G-mac" was at the zoo. We waited in line for a few autographed pictures and this photo. Helaina was impressed when I told her that Gerry knew Otto the Orange!

"Oh, there's Siri and Romani again!"

The fire department always has some trucks in the zoo parking lot for the kids to check out and get behind the wheel. Helaina waited for her turn and was hoisted up into the driver's seat by a firefighter.

Earlier in the day we had a much-too-short visit with Helaina's Aunt Terry and Uncle Mike. After they left Helaina said to me "I forgot to play Candyland with Aunt Terry. She loves games." Maybe next time, if Candyland lasts that long. It is Helaina's absolute favorite game to play lately and we all play it with her at least ten times a day. Jim, Josh and myself included are sick to death of it but for some reason Helaina can't get enough of it.

A few days ago I parted the leaves on the robin's nest tree and this is what I saw. The babies have gotten so big so quickly - must be because Momma robin keeps bringing them back lots of bugs to eat. They are getting so big now that I can't believe all 3 of them still fit in the nest.

Helaina had a full day today and hopefully she'll sleep well tonight. I know I will.

Waterlogged

Oh my gosh, Helaina loves the pool. It's insane how long she would stay in the water if we let her. She absolutely cannot get enough. It's also been incredibly hot over the last few days so cooling off right in the backyard has been great. Yesterday she went swimming in the morning with Jim, after her nap with me and then after dinner with Josh. It added up close to 4 hours in the water and she was actually whining when we told her she had to get out for the day.

Swim To Me Puppy took a dip yesterday too. The second its legs hit the water the feet start moving and the dog "swims", well sort of. It was funny to see Helaina and the dog swimming side by side in the pool. She thinks it's a hoot.

On Daddy's float.

Josh doing a canonball.

The new deck is finally done and we love it. Time to go shopping for a few more plants, some chairs and an umbrella. Helaina loves jumping into your arms from the deck. She'll stand on the edge dripping wet with her swimmies on and ask "You ready Mommy? You catch me?", and she'll do it about 10 times in a row.

Did a little bike riding this weekend.

Look at how big our baby robins have gotten. I can't believe how quickly they grow. When you spread the tree branches apart to take a peek at them they think it's their Momma and they poke their wobbly heads in the air and open their mouths, so cute.

"Do you want to take her to the p - a - r - k ?"

Helaina napped for over 2 hours this afternoon and woke up in rare form. After dinner she was still well-rested, had a full belly, she couldn't go in the pool because the deck dudes were still here working and she needed to run off some energy. From the kitchen I called in to Jim "Do you want to take her to the p - a - r - k?", spelling out the word park just in case he wasn't up to taking her. Helaina stopped dead in her tracks and said "What? Go to the park? Yippee!" then started clapping her hands and running to get her sneakers. I looked at Jim dumb-founded and said "Does she know how to spell park?" He was shaking his head in disbelief. Then I said "Helaina, what letter does the word park start with?" Her response: "P!!!" We work daily on letter recognition and the sounds that letters make - guess it's paying off.

Look at that face. Little smarty-pants.