A Weekend At Home

Spencer has a great rotation this month, in that he has every weekend off! Anytime he has two days off in a row, we usually hit the road to go to Kentucky or Tennessee to visit family, which we will be doing later this month. However, this weekend we just enjoyed some time together as a family at home for a change! The Virginia-Highlands, which is a very trendy/hippish/yuppy neighborhood that is close to where we live, was having their annual Summerfest this weekend so we had to go check it out. The neighborhood itself is really fun because there are neat boutiques and restaurants all around and it is a fun place to walk around and see all the beautiful homes. They had closed down one street and intersection and tents filled both sides of the street. Most of the tents had various artists' work, sculptures, jewelry, costume clothing for kids, photos, etc. and there were several restaurants there selling yummy food and treats. The restaurants within the Highlands had tons of tables outside for dining and enjoying some cocktails. They also had a huge area with a playground designated as a kids zone that was a filled with sand in a courtyard area and roped off for beach-type games, flowerpot painting, hand puppet and hat painting, etc. All of this was free!!!! That was the best part! Of course I wanted to make all kinds of crafts with Ella Ann, but I figured it would be a very messy project and she would probably just pull everything off a sock puppet and eat it anyway so we just played in the sand and on the playground, which was a dream morning for her! For those of you who don't know, Ella Ann likes to be clean and hates having any little thing on her hands or feet, so picture us putting her down on the sand and what then transpired! We took her shoes off so she could feel the sand on her toes but that made it worse! The girl wouldn't move from her spot and refused to walk! She loved tossing around these huge balls, but if we rolled one to her and it rolled away, she would just whine in her spot and point at it for us to retrieve it for her! It was so funny! She loved playing on the playground and had a fit when she had finally wore Spencer and I out and it was time to go home! We had so much fun that morning that we decided to go back that afternoon. This was a mistake because it was beyond packed by then and it was really hard to maneuver the stroller down the street without taking someone out, so we just moseyed down the street for a little while and explored some of the artwork and then went home.


Once home, we sat out on our porch and watched Ella Ann play. I got this brilliant idea from Jana, who does this with Mara Kate. I just stripped her down to her diaper and filled a bunch of my Tupperware with water and gave her kitchen utensils to play with and she loved it! I had done this with her earlier last week and I just sat outside and read a book while she played. Yes, I was actually able to read a book while Ella Ann was in the same room with me! hahahaa! It was awesome and she loves doing it! She also loves to try and blow bubbles while outside and will bring the big bucket of bubbles to Spencer and I to blow them for her so she can pop them on the balcony. This is the absolute best entertainment Ella Ann has had since our vacation! Who would of thought that Tupperware and water would bring me such peace!


Unfortunately, we forgot to bring the camera with us to Summerfest, so we have no funny pictures of Ella Ann braving the sand, but I did snap some of her on our balcony yesterday afternoon.

Ella Ann making her Daddy blow bubbles for her.

Waiting on more bubbles!

She loves splashing in the water and dumping the whole bowl on top of her and listening to the waterfall that hits our neighbors porch below us! I'm sure they LOVE us!

My wisk makes a great chew toy!