Monthly Moments with Little Sweetie: October 2018

Happy birthday to our amazing Little Sweetie! It's been a month full of adventures, including a trip to Ohio and the honor of being a flower girl! Let's dive in!

We ended September with a visit from Momma's friend, Ms. A! Little Sweetie had a lot of fun playing with her too, especially when we took her to the kids' science lab!

Scientists at work!

Science is awesome!

Scientist in training!

We've also been busy baking and cooking as usual. Ms. A even got to help out on one of the recipes while she was here!

Popovers brought to you by Chef Sister and Assistant Chef A!

Tasty banana bread time!

Lots of fun making homemade apple crisp!

We were also excited for preschool pictures this month. She actually let me curl her pigtails (that's pretty monumental for her) and promised to smile. And then a special treat after picture day was to get her birthday month Kendra Scott jewelry. She picked a necklace with a white stone to go with her flower girl dress.

Ready for picture day!

Looking pretty with her new bling!

And then it was Ohio time! Momma's cousin, A, was getting married and she asked Big Brother and Little Sweetie to be the ring bearer and the flower girl! We were very excited for the event and decided to turn it into a longer trip since it has been so long since all four of us have been back to see family.

We started off going to Mimi and Pop-Pop's house in Marietta, where she had lots of fun!

Lots of outside time playing on the castle, riding in Daddy's old go-cart, and riding Daddy's old bike. We even made it to a pumpkin patch with a corn maze, although Momma forgot to take any pictures. Then we'd go inside for some puzzling and coloring!

Our cooking adventures don't stop just because we are traveling!

Very lucky to see Great Grandma while we were back!

Of course, we had to start the celebration of her birthday early too!

Got a little whipped cream on her nose at Tampico's!

And the first of several birthday cakes to celebrate being 5!

Then it was off to Canton to see Mamaw and Papaw, meet some new friends, celebrate officially turning 5, and perform official flower girl duties!

Can't believe my baby is officially 5

First up was one of Momma's old stomping grounds...the McKinley Museum! It has a lot of fun nature, historic, and science exhibits. We also met up with my dear friends from high school, M and J, and their amazing girls, E and M. E and Little Sweetie are close in age and it was so wonderful to see them become fast friends!

Archeologists at work excavating!

Forecasting in front of the green screen at the weather station!

The Hoover vacuum chair was a big hit!

Group shot! I forget how much fun the historic street of shops section is to little ones.

Little Sweetie's favorite treat is ice cream, so we decided to head to Taggarts, a local landmark, to get some lunch and birthday ice cream. They even put a candle in it and sang Happy Birthday to her. Museum fun, new friends, ice cream...I'm counting that as birthday celebration success!

Little Sweetie and E. We have to get these two together more often!

After the birthday fun, it was time for the wedding rehearsal. Little Sweetie did a great job practicing her flower girl duties and then we headed to the dinner, where she was surprised with yet ANOTHER birthday celebration. And it turns out that she shared her birthday with the groom's grandfather who has the same name, so they got to share a cake, which happened to be both their favorite color-blue!

This moment was really beautiful!

The next day was wedding day! We were so excited for all the festivities!

Somehow the little girl who barely lets me brush her hair actually stayed still enough for this magical flower girl hair to occur!

Guess who did an amazing job as flower girl! She walked and smiled and threw petals like a champ. So proud of her!

Attempting to get a post wedding picture of Little Sweetie, Big Brother (who was ring bearer), and cousin J. This was the best we could get, lol!

Reception entrance!

Little Sweetie and J watching movies with Big Brother at the reception.

J and Little Sweetie coloring up a storm at the reception.

Little Sweetie and her new friend, K!

Everyone was super tired after the reception, but our hotel room was next to Aunt D, Uncle C, and J's room, so these two got to have a sleepover!

Cousin sleepover!

The next day we got to celebrate Little Sweetie's birthday AGAIN at Mamaw and Papaw's house, with more take and more ice cream. Then it was time to head to Columbus and get ready to fly home.

The weather was perfect for some park time before our flight!

But hold on...just because we were home and already had 4 birthday celebrations, we still had to fit in one more at school!

Celebration #5 for the 5 year old!

And now that she's officially five, I'm excited to share her birthday pictures! Our extremely talented photographer, Ms. J, did a wonderful job capturing our amazing girl's personality. Even though it was raining on the day of the pictures, these images came out perfectly. Love this girl and the person she's growing into!

Love these silly siblings!

Dancing in the rain!

My Spider Girl!

She is a character and in the best way possible!

Our amazing and strong five-year-old!

Our beautiful girl!

Momma and daughter.

In case there was any doubt who she took after!

Height and Weight

Her well check measured her as being 40 pounds and up to 42.5 inches!

Indoor picnic with my growing girl. I'm trying to savor and appreciate these moments now because kindergarten is coming too quickly to take our Momma/Daughter time away.

Personality

Happy and exuberant, but sometimes a little shy in new situations or with new people. We've also noticed her being more shy in some pictures too. She's also extremely creative and imaginative. I love hearing her decide upon "why" scenarios, meaning why things are the way they are. She's using her reasoning to figure things out and I love it.

Our little prairie girl!

Developmental Milestones

Rocking the fine motor skills yet again. Lots of building and drawing this month!

Her Duplo creation that used EVERY SINGLE ONE of our Duplos!

Lincoln Log construction with Daddy was a favorite pastime too!

Artistic endeavors during the drive home!

In terms of gross motor, someone is chasing her baseball dreams by practicing and perfecting being able to catch a ball.

Ready to try out for the Astros!

And, of course, Run Club continues to keep us strong and fast!

Fun Tidbits

I'm not exactly sure why, but I ended up documenting her in her car seat a lot this month. Probably because her mood can change so quickly as she either gives herself up to a nap or fights against it!