Saturday of Family Fun!

Today was a fantastic day! What I loved most is that we really didn't have any plans. We just went with it! (Keep in mind that we did not have our good camera, since we did not plan ahead. The pictures are taken with our phones, so not great...but WAY BETTER than nothing!) Okay, okay...I had a nail appointment scheduled this morning. Ro and Laela dropped me off and away they went. Laela did not seem to mind me leaving, but Allie Mae was in the car and Ro said she went nuts! Poor girl. They went to get Allie's nails trimmed while I had my nails done too. They can back a little early and Laela was loving the fact that I was getting my nails done. Oh yea! Today was the day my baby girl got her nails painted with me! She picked out a color. Seriously! Ro picked her up to see all the colors and she scanned through an entire row with her finger and came across her purplish-pinkish color. Great choice for Laela!She looked so big and patient in the chair getting her nails painted. She was really involved and wanting to know exactly what the nail lady was doing. She dried them just incase they weren't dry enough. When it was all done, she was so proud! (and so was mommy!) YEA for many mommy/daughter days to come. :)After naps and stuff, we went out on the rainy day to grab a bite to eat. After having a fun, musical dinner (Laela sang to us the entire time) we decided we would take Laela to go paint. We ended up at Color Me Mine where you can paint ceramic pottery. To our surprise (HA! HA!) Laela picked out a dog to paint. She did fantastic and I can see artist in her future! Again, so much concentration when painting!She picked brown, purple, white and red as her dog colors. I can't wait to get it back after they fire and glaze the piece. I know! You are thinking that we have already had a MAGNIFICENT day...and we have...but why end it now. We have not built a bear, so off we go to the mall! We did a little shopping for daddy, rode the carousel, and went to Build-A-Bear! Again... Laela picked out a dog. This one is so soft, fluffy and cute! She was very hesitant to help stuff the bear because the machine was loud, but once stuffed she jumped right in. Laela picked out a heart for the dog and the worker told her how to kiss it, rub it on her cheek, hold it close to her heart, and close her eyes to make a wish. Laela Grace did them all and then stuffed the heart in her doggie. Now she is all stuffed, her new heart was personalized and added...now time for a bath! Laela enjoyed bathing her (using the brush and blow dryer) so much that she had to bathe her twice! All done!
Our 8 year old, I mean 2 year old daughter was so proud of her dog and she carried her all the way through the mall and to the car.Thank goodness for Saturday!

Night-Night...

Tonight, per Laela's request, she is sporting mommy's shirt for night-night time. :)

Pumpkin Patch!

This afternoon Laela, Ro, and I headed out to the Celina Pumpkin Patch! I love this time of year. All of the fun fall decorations, pumpkins, leaves, cool weather...oh wait! Where is the cool weather??? Anyway, we picked up Jana and Brandt and headed north.First, we all went on a hayride together...We fed the goats...(okay, okay...Laela did most of the feeding. Jana, Ro and I fed a little and Brandt gave Laela the food to feed to the goats. What great teamwork!)The pumpkin patch was a little sparce but we still had fun taking a few pictures and picking out a few pumpkins.Then on to a little snack, which energized everyone for more pumpkins, a train ride, and a pretend ride on a tractor! Hangin' out on the pumpkin... and then hangin' off the pumpkin! Pickin' out a lil pumpkin for Laela... The kids wanted to ride the train immediately, but we held off until the end. It was really funny because Ro went to pay and Laela had already found the spot she liked. Well, when Ro goes to get in, the driver starts going, so he just jumped in and sat down...in FRONT of Laela! He looked like such a dork...but the kids had fun!We picked out these three awesome pumpkins at the patch. I love how they are all three so different, yet they are similar as well. What a wonderful Saturday!

Do you have everything?

YES!

State Fair 2010

State Fair here we come! On Sunday, we headed out to the State Fair. Our plan was to be there right when they opened at 10:00, but this crazy girl slept until 8:30! (Someone obviously knew that we were all EXHAUSTED from the previous week.) The traffic was a little crazy, taking us an hour to get to the fair and almost 25 minutes to park. Oh well, we made it in and had a wonderful time!Ro and I got the awesome Fletcher's corn dog and funnel cake that we went for, Laela got to see the dog show, and we all had fun walking around enjoying the people-watching! (If I don't watch that girl, she will run right into a wall because she is watching what others are doing. I DON'T KNOW WHERE SHE GETS THAT FROM.) HA! Anyway, Laela did enjoy a few rides. We started out easy with the little whales spinning around in the circle of water. Then we bumped it up to the "Ladybug" ride. We happen to walk past and stop to watch. Then Laela said she wanted to go on it, so Ro took her. It was fast! She did not look so hot during the actual ride, but she said she liked it!

Then a little more relaxing with the swings.

Finishing out our rides with the worst of all. We were walking back out and we walked past this house with a cool roller coaster. She said she wanted to go and the people coming out were laughing and happy. OH MY! Not Laela's case...she was literally trembling when she came out. Ro looked a little spooked too! I was seriously worried that Laela would have nightmares, but she didn't. Here they are coming out of one of the doors and then getting ready to head back in. Poor baby. She is holding on to her daddy! Oh! I almost forgot! Oh course we had to play a game, so Laela chose duck picking. She ended up winning this cool bouncy, purple ball. Laela is still playing with it tonight. One of the favorite parts of Laela's day (besides skipping naptime which we have not done but maybe twice in her life) was riding the "train". Okay, okay. It was really a tram, but Laela called it a train and we went with it! Whatever makes the girl happy! Ahhhhh...our day was successful! Much needed fun for the Murthy family!

Pumpkins at the Arboretum....or Not!

This morning we decided to head out to the Dallas Arboretum for a fun morning of pumpkin exploration. Laela has been talking about pumpkins this week and it was a great way for us to spend some time together. Well, we did not start out on the right foot. We pulled in, got our stuff, and started walking away from the car when a man and woman in a golf cart pull up and tell us that we can not park there because the are trying to clear space for handicap parking. We said that we did not see any signs for handicap parking and there was someone that just pulled out that was not handicapped. The continued to hound us, even yelling at us. In MOST cases, we would have complied, but this time we decided not too. I know. You are thinking we are horrible people; however, the workers had put me over the top by this point. To make it even better, when we started walking to the entrance, the man and woman followed us and sarcastically said "thanks for helping us out. what you are doing is illegal." Oh man! I was on fire! We got to the entrance and the woman at the desk was incrediblly rude too, so I decided to ask to speak to a manager. She called someone and then quickly said, "sorry, the manager is too busy to come down. fill out this paper and i will send it over with the proper person's name." long story short we argued for a minute, i took the paper with us, and the lady let us in for free. She said that she was doing us a favor and letting us in at no charge and hoping our experience would be better. Hmmm. Interesting start and I am hoping for a good experience because I am not sure we are ever going back.Finally, we get in and it is beautiful. There are pumpkins everywhere! The day is already starting to get warm, but the scenary is beautiful. Thre are literally thousands of pumpkins lining walkways, constructed into houses and piled on hay bails. AWESOME! Then, Laela Grace decided that she did not want to have anything to do with the pumpkins. WHAT? Are you kidding me? At this point I honestly thought there was a candid camera following me just waiting for me to BURST! Then I thought, oh well. She does not have to love the pumpkins, but I will. Then...out of the corner of her eye, Laela spotted a water fountain! Oh yes! Life was good again! We actually found a few different water sources. There was even a few picture opportunities between fountain locations, but overall...not a pumpkin picture kind of day.

Monday Madness and Little Miss...

Happy Monday to all! (Yes...that is a Halloween shirt. We only have one month to wear them, so I started now. I love this purple, batty shirt that I found at the resale shop. WOOHOO for bargains.)
Oh man...our house is in full swing these days. Ro and I are busier than ever with work, football season has officially started, and Laela is growing like a weed. I just wanted to take a minute to say how thankful I am for my Little Miss Laela Grace. I have been working so much lately, and honestly I have not spent enough time with that crazy girl. Last year, we would talk on the way to school and back but we can't do that this year because her daycare is close to the house and Ro takes her and picks her up A LOT. I didn't think it would be a big deal, but I miss the drive time with her in the car.
Tonight was mommy and Laela night. Ro had to work late and we got to do our own thing. She helped out with dinner, we ate together and then outside for play time. Seriously...that girl just makes me laugh. Some of the things that she says and does are so wonderful. She loves to tell herself "Good job, Laela" and so do I! One minute she has me sitting in the middle of the street (literally) watching her perform and the next minute she is "baking" cookies for me in her kitchen. I love that girl! We had a super-duper night and I was so thankful to spend the time with her. YES...I am exhausted right now, but that is okay because I got to play with my sweet baby girl.