Thursday, June 03, 2010

Elizabeth turns two!

Elizabeth had her second birthday on Tuesday. She truly is a toddler now. She amazes me every day with all the things she can express and do!



But first, our trip to Massanutten, Virginia! Jamie and Sandra were so nice to invite us to vacation with them. We played on the playground and took a brief hike in the morning, followed by the waterpark in the afternoon. Maybe we were already a bit tired by the time we got to the waterpark, because it was something of a comedy of errors -- I forgot my swimsuit and had to go back to the cabin to get it, and James slipped on the side of the pool and fell in with a great big splash (I was busy retrieving my suit at the time or else I'm sure I would be able to further embelish that event).



But we enjoyed ourselves immensely nevertheless. Elizabeth fell in love with these yellow bouncy seats. She spent a good portion of her water park time in them. Vanessa meanwhile put her life jacket on and took it off twenty or so times. It's like dress-up, but with a safety twist!



I was able to convince Elizabeth to take a break from the bouncy seat to explore the fountain area of the kiddie pool. She liked that part too!


Sandra, Vanessa, and I took a ride down the lazy river ride. Even though Vanessa got fairly drenched, she kept a pretty cheery attitude for the ride.


Saying hi to Daddy!




Sandra said she had fun trying out the boogie board ride at the water park. So I gave it a try too. I didn't wipe out, but I still couldn't quite figure out how to stay at the bottom of the wave. Maybe next time. All the grownups also got to try out some of the big water slides, which was SO much fun!




The next day, we took the girls Frisbee golfing. They liked throwing the Frisbees, and when they were a little worn out, a deer provided further entertainment. (Although, we don't have to go to Massanutten to see deer -- James saw one in our garden the other evening, and deer have definitely been sampling our fine vegetables.)



This picture we took back at home. Elizabeth and Vanessa have both reached new stages of drawing. Vanessa has started taking an interest in coloring (notice the Cinderella). Elizabeth has taken an interest in drawing representations of objects (balloons, birthday cakes, letters of the alphabet), rather than her previous random squiggles.



Wow, don't they look grown-up in this picture? As soon as Elizabeth and Vanessa woke up on Elizabeth's birthday, they donned birthday hats and started singing "happy birthday!"



A little later in the morning, and still just excited about her birthday!



Nana and Grampa celebrated Elizabeth's birthday with us.



Elizabeth may never really know how she was able to blow out that candle all by herself.




Elizabeth tried to eat the whole cake with her fork at first.




Well, she was still SUPER excited to eat her piece of cake with red frosting.



Vanessa was almost as excited about the birthday cake as if it were her own birthday. She's pretty much ready for her birthday to be here too!




One last picture of the birthday girl! She was 33 and a half inches at her 2-year appointment and 27 pounds. She's getting to be quite independent -- she insists on climbing into her car seat by herself, she can put on some pants and other clothes by herself, and she is fully potty-trained now. She talks and sings when she is by herself too, sometimes putting on a little finger puppet show to entertain herself. But even though she is very independent, she loves to be with her sister, her parents, her extended family, and her friends!

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