Movin' on Up

This post has nothing to do with physically moving again, thank goodness.  But, it has to do with Jason moving up the corporate ladder.  Last week he received a promotion at Monsanto!  Interestingly enough, there will be no physical move at his job either.  His current job is a 3 year post-doctoral position working on mini chromosomes.  He will keep the same job, same boss, and same desk.  His current supervisor has offered to make his position permanent, so no fears about what will happen after three years. The position comes with a much better salary and better benefits to boot. Way to go Jason!

Evan's Visit

Amelia enjoyed a
 visit from her second cousin, Evan last week. Evan's mom, Laura, is my cousin and Evan is almost one month Amelia's senior.  Evan is a sweet little man with a great personality (we even took GG and all of her antics in stride).  The two kids hung out at GG and Papa's house on Thursday evening enjoying some pizza and playtime while Jason and I went to play a double header in our softball league.  On Friday, the two toddlers met up forsome swim time at Evan's hotel.  

Despite what the pictures show, they did actually go in the water!  Just for the fun of it, I thought I'd add a picture of Laura and I taken when we were very pregnant with Evan and Amelia.  Amelia is looking forward to seeing Evan again at the family reunion in August! 

Amelia's Barnyard Bash!

Although we celebrated Amelia's 2nd birthday one week early, we still celebrated in style! Her party invitation read:

OINK, OINK, MOO, MOO

Amelia Jane is turning two!

So dress up in yer barnyard best

n' trot on over to her farm out west.

Sunday, May 25th is the date.

Ya'll come 'round, don't be late.

The shindig starts at 5 on the dot, 

fer BBQ and cake this is the spot!

We had great weather and a great turnout too! I, of course, was pretty concerned about the weather all morning as it stormed and hailed at our house.  But, the weather opened up just long enough for Jason to cut the grass (he was thrilled) and to put up the cardboard farm animals that Amelia and I have been working on for weeks now!  Amelia actually helped paint the animals and applied many of the cotton balls on the sheep.  We had mostly family and a few friends, like Natalie, Conner, Carter, Cooper, and

 Claire.  Amelia got lots of great gifts including a sand and water table that was quite the hit at the party.  Amelia also scored a new table and chairs where she can enjoy her meals.  She received a wonderful selection of new books, clothes, and toys, some of which were even farm-themed!

Everyone dined on BBQ fare, including brats, hot dogs and pulled pork sandwiches.  We had cole slaw, baked beans, and potato salad as well.  I made a dirt cake with a picket fence and some pigs buried in the "mud" for dessert as well as some pig and sheep cupcakes.  Amelia loved when everyone sang "Happy Birthday" to her and blew out all of her candles on the first try!

As the evening went on, the storms returned.  The party moved inside and Amelia stayed up until 10 PM entertaining the last of the party goers.  Thanks everyone to who helped make it such a special day for Amelia!

Temporary (or not) blog

Well, if you've made it to this site, you've gotten word that we are having some issues with iWeb, the program we've been using the manage our blog site.  We believe that this may have to do with the amount of memory available on our computer.  Jason is interested in installing more memory himself, but since we will both be out of town off and on during the next two weeks, I don't know how quickly we can get it fixed.  So, we've decided to try blogger as a temporary means to update our friends and family about what is going on.  Who knows, if we like this method, we may just stick with it!

The Magic Word

Jason took the day off to help prepare for Amelia's birthday party on Sunday, but instead of working we all decided playing would be much more fun!  So, we headed down to the Magic House in Kirkwood.  A friend of mine from work is employed part-time at the house, so we got to see her and she got to play with Amelia a little bit.  Amelia really enjoyed the "little bit of magic" area where she got to play with a gigantic dollhouse and go through a mirror maze.  Most of her time, though, was spent playing in the huge sandbox and the gigantic water table. At one point, she thought it would be fun to fill up an enormous bucket of water and pour it on the poor boy next to her.  Following some apologies, we quickly moved on to the "Children's Village" section where she got to try her hand at fishing and do some grocery shopping.  Upstairs, Amelia helped some other kids run the pretend pizza parlor, mostly content with being bossed around by the 6 year old female "manager".  Although Amelia was pretty worn down at this point, I insisted on dragging her through the part of the Magic House that I remember as a child. You know, the Electrostatic Generator (Yes, that's its official name) and the giant wall that you stand against and after a bright flash, your shadow remains (sorry, couldn't find the exact name for this exhibit).  We left around noon and made a stop off at Nacho Mama's in Webster for lunch.  Before heading home, we even had a chance to visit Papa John at his work in Kirkwood.  We ended up having to wake Amelia from her nap to feed her dinner, but it wasn't long before she was back in bed for the night!

TGIF

Amelia stayed busy on Friday.  First, she enjoyed a trip to Zachary's Playground in Lake St. Louis with her friend Natalie. This playground is

 similar to the one we visited in

 Washington DC last year and is described as an "all-inclusive"

 playground for kids of all abilities.

There are special adaptations for those with disabilities.  Amelia seemed a bit overwhelmed with all of her choices and spent no more than 3 minutes at each activity before exclaiming, "all done" and quickly heading to the next bit of equipment. She and Natalie kept their moms busy all morning!

After a short nap, I woke Amelia up to head to Creve Coeur Days, a weekend carnival complete with games, rides, and loads of junk food. (All of which Amelia enjoyed, of course).  Because the carnival is held on

 the campus of Monsanto (Jason's employer) Friday afternoon was reserved for only Monsanto employees and their families.  Monsanto treated us to free admission, rides, and food.  There wasn't too much Amelia could do, but she loved the ride

 where she got to drive a little car.  In fact, she loved it so much she went on it three times!  We didn't mind letting her ride it over and over as it was one of the few safe looking rides at the fair. 

 Amelia also got to 

play a duck game where she picked three numbered ducks from a "pond" to win a prize.  

Honestly, she could have cared less about winning a prize and was much more interested in picking the ducks and putting them back down.  But, after adding up her numbered ducks, she won exactly what she needed--another baby!  But, instead of naming the baby "Parker" as all of her other babies are named, I suggested (pleaded) we come up with something different.  Not that I don't love the name Parker, but its getting confusing around here when Amelia claims that "Parker" is crying and we have to go all around the house until we find the right one.  So, this baby's name is "yellow girl".

Interestingly enough, Amelia talked about the cotton candy the most in the days leading up to the carnival, but when the time came, she had no interest in it whatsoever and chose instead to eat her trail mix. The popcorn, though, was a different story!

visitors!

It took awhile for the birds to find it, but the bird feeder that Amelia and Jason hung in the backyard has become quite the hot spot among the local bird population.  We have to fill it up every 2-3 days and often when we look out there are 3 or more birds hanging around the feeder and/or on the ground scooping up the dropped seeds.  Amelia has learned which birds are Cardinals and can usually spot those birds faster than Jason or I.  Unfortunately, that is where are bird knowledge ends.  So other than Amelia yelling, "Cardinal", she also says, "brown bird" or "yellow bird".  We're going to be working on that though as I have some leads on backyard bird books to check out at the library!

Mother's Day!

Amelia had a very busy Mother's Day weekend.  She and Jason surprised me by doing some landscaping around the mailbox.  This is something I have been talking about doing myself for some time, but had yet to get around to it.  Jason even made the trip to Home Depot to pick out all necessary flowers and supplies to get the job done.  Amelia, armed with her blue plastic shovel, was a big helper as usual.  She added the word "worm" to her vocabulary after coming across several during her exploration of the dirt.  She even got the courage to pick one up.  When she came across a little, tiny worm, she referred to it as "baby worm" and then named it "Parker".  If you were a regular reader on the other blog, you would know that Baby Parker is a 5 month old family friend of ours.  Amelia has helped me watch him on a couple of occasions and has taken a great interest in him.  She has also named all three of her babies, "Parker" and insists on feeding, changing their "poopy dipes", and rocking them to sleep on a daily basis. In addition to the mailbox landscaping, Amelia helped Jason plant some flowers in pots for the front porch, again using her trusty blue shovel.

Later that evening, Amelia hung out with the entire Ward family to celebrate her Uncle Dave's college graduation.  She was hamming it up as usual and enjoyed being the center of attention (sorry, Dave!). It didn't take long for the family to figure out the way to Amelia's heart--blueberries! Anyone who brought the queen, I mean Amelia, a blueberry was promptly rewarded with a kiss.  Hopefully it won't always be that easy...especially in the teenage years!

I had heard some rumblings about breakfast in bed on Mother's Day morning, but unfortunately, we woke up without electricity due to a nasty storm brewing outside.  So, when Amelia finally woke up around 9:30, we headed to McDonald's instead!

Swimsuit Season

Okay, so I have a little bit of ground to make up given the one month lapse since I was last able to post on the apple site. Please, bear with me as I catch up.  So, back to May......

With swimsuit season right around the corner, Amelia has decided that its time to start eating better.  (Nevermind the chocolate stain on her dress from a run in with a Hershey's Kiss at GG's house).  She has really taken to broccoli and corn (as long as its on the cob)! This decision has come just in time as Amelia will be hitting the pool again in a few short weeks.