Happy Birthday to Me - A Party in My Honor

It is not every day that I turn 1 year old - in fact Mom says this is the only time I will turn 1 year old. I'm not certain what that means, because I'll be 1 for the whole next year. Regardless who is right (probably me), this past weekend Nana, Papa, Grandma, and Grandpa came in town to celebrate me. On Saturday, I had some of my friends over and we all had a party!

For those of you wondering, no, I do not actually play with my friends when they come over. I do my thing and they do their thing next to me. Mom and Dad call that ‘a play-date.’ I call it hanging. Either way, I did plenty of hanging with a bunch of my pals on Saturday. In addition to ‘play-dating’ at my party, we had some yummy food. Oh, and best of all, Mom and Dad planned a theme for the party (they’re so crazy) – a farm theme. There were ride on cows, tractors, a barn (Dad built it out of a box), barn-yard foods, and way too many people trying out their best pig calls.

After the party, I was able to spend the rest of the weekend with my grandparents (always fun). And even though I was overwhelmed by the quantity of people at my house, it was a fun weekend.

You can check out my photos from the weekend here.

On my tractor with cow in front of my barn

Blowing out the candles - Phin helped since I was tired

On a see-saw all by myself - just one of the perks of being 1 year old

Lots of Love,
Amelia

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today, I turn one year old.  Who can believe it - it's crazy to think how much we have all grown in a year.  As a look back of where I started, I have put together this slideshow montage of my favorite photos from when I was born through my 11 month photo shoot.    The slideshow features my two favorite photos from each shoot - now that I am 1 I can have favorites.



(email users, follow this link to the album)

I should have my 1 year photo shoot pictures sorted and uploaded sometime after the party!

Lots of Love,
Amelia Rose

On Vacation, Reminiscing About a Prior Camping Trip to Assateague Island

Back in May (for Mother's Day), we were getting restless from being cooped up all winter long.  The family decided it was time to take Amelia on her second camping trip (I'm a pro camper).  The real dilemma was, where should we go...  Mom and Dad were talking about boring camping destintations that were nearby in case we needed to make a quick get-away.  I was thinking more adventurous - I wanted somewhere with a big sandbox (I like sand), somewhere with wildlife (seeing squirrels just isn't too exciting), somewhere more remote (I don't like camping on top of strangers), and somewhere that I could swim (since it was starting to warm up). 

After much discussion, I finally swayed Mom and Dad to take to me Assateague National Seashore.  Unfortunately, Hurricane Sandy wiped out all of the campgrounds at the National Park, so we went to the adjoining State Park (which has the advantage of flushable toilets - yeah!).  I knew about this place, because it is Mom and Dad's favorite place to go camping (and it meets all of my suggestions/demands for a camping site).

After a long car ride and lots of traffic (it took 3 hours to get there, but since we were going to camp for two nights, it was worth the drive).  On the way to the beach, we stopped for tacos for dinner and I saw a Mazda that had the numbers 929 and an S on the back.  I told Dad that this was just like the car in the bedtime stories he tells me about (that car sure did get into a lot of crazy antics).  

By the time we got to the camp site and set up the tent, the sun was starting to go down, so we went to the beach.  It was cool to be at the beach that late (past my 7pm bedtime).  It was neat to see Amelia's excitment and confusion about the ocean.  I told her there was just a giant sound machine making the white noise (the ocean sounds) she was hearing.  While mom and I were playing in the waves, Amelia finally got to touch the ocean for the first time.  She then promptly ate a bunch of sand.  Oh Amelia, we don't eat sand. 

After a lot of fun that night, we woke up and I got to play in a giant sandbox right outside the tent!  Camping on the beach is so much fun, because there is so much sand (and I brought my dig trucks along).  It was fairly chilly out that day (I wore my raincoat and 3 layers most of the time we were there) and very windy (the tent kept blowing over with me inside of it - crazy) and rainy.

Finally, it warmed up a little bit in the afternoon and we got to go play and walk by the water.  I brought my dig trucks and made giant holes in the sand.  Amelia and Mom watched the water roll in.  Amelia also ate more sand - she loves that sand.  I kept telling her, "Amelia, don't eat the sand."  But she did not listen.  Oh, silly girl.

Mom and Dad took a bunch of pictures, you can check them all out here.  I write another blog when I return from vacation at the beach.

Peace out,

Phin

11 Month Photo Shoot - Whew, It's Hot Out

Happy 4th of July everyone.  While I am too little to understand this holiday, I do like that Dad stayed home and we hung out with our friends as a family.  I even got to attend my first slumber party at my friend Hannah's house (I only got to sleep for a few hours before I was awoken and strollered home).

A few weeks back we celebrated my 11-month birthday with a lovely photo shoot on the hottest day of the year.  It was so hot that I could not even contract my muscles enough to smile.  Since I smile all the time, you know it was hot out.

For this photo shoot we went down to the Alexandria waterfront (we were down there for one of Phin's friend's birthday party).  There were all sorts of cool boats driving around the river and a lot of people to watch.  I was so tired from the heat and all the activity that I almost screamed the whole way home (just so everyone would know how hot and tired I was).  But, luckily for mom and dad, it was too hot to scream.  So, I just sweated the whole way home. 

Here are a couple of preview pictures (notice, no smiles); you can view the rest of the album via this link.

Lots of Love,
Amelia