Summer's End...

It is with a bit of a heavy heart that I make this post, as the title indicates that our glorious summer vacation is coming to an end. But, not before we had the chance to do some pretty fun things! We spent a long weekend at our parents' beach house on Lake Michigan, (which included some quality time with Violet in the sand) took Violet on her first trip to the zoo, had Violet stay at Grandma's house overnight without Mom and Dad, ate lots of corn on the cob, went on our first camping trip (on which we forgot the camera :( ), and frantically got ready for the upcoming school year. So, I thought I'd leave you with some pictures of the end of Violet's 2nd summer. Enjoy!

Summer, 2008

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Happy Anniversary!

Ben & Charissa
August 2, 2003

Today marks 5 years that Ben and I exchanged vows in an outdoor setting at The Big Red Barn in Iowa. How time flies!

The Wedding

Blowing bubbles at the reception

I'm finally getting around to posting about Violet's first flower-girl role. I say first because shortly after my brother's wedding, my sister and her boyfriend announced their engagement. So, it appears that Violet will be reprising the role of flower girl next fall.

It was quite the experience for Violet, well at least for her mom! The week of wedding festivities began with shopping for her dress. We found out very quickly that Violet LOVES pretty dresses, but does not like the salespeople. We were shopping in one of those stores that the salespeople bring the dresses to the dressing rooms for you, and after we had gathered about 10 possibilities, this really nice salesman came up and took the dresses to the dressing room. Unfortunately, Violet was convinced that he was taking her dresses away, so that got the whole process off to a rather tearful start.

I was already dreading having to fit her into multiple dresses, and starting off on this foot did not help matters any. We managed to get her calmed down and there was another little girl trying on dresses as well, so they got to twirl for each other. We got Violet into the first dress, and it was gorgeous (and secretly I knew it was the one we would end up with, but grandma wanted to see the others). We took her out to the big mirror outside of the dressing rooms, and she was such a princess--twirling and smiling at herself. But...then she found the big bow right in front, and decided she didn't like it. It was safety-pinned on, so it was removable, but of course, this is one of those stores that if you damage the dress, you buy it. So, I'm trying to just take it off so she doesn't rip it off, and then the lovely salesman starts saying, "No, no, don't mess..I will fix...don't worry..." and that freaks Violet out again! So the rest of the trying on process was completed with a crying Violet. Not much fun. But, we got the dress, and got Violet out of the store and appeased with some chicken nuggets. Phew!

Practicing at the rehearsal--she didn't actually throw the flowers at the wedding.

Fast forward a week to the wedding...Violet did fantastically. Ben and I were so proud of her--she isn't even two and cooperated very nicely at the rehearsal, practicing her walk down the aisle and giving silly smiles to the bridal party. We did have some bribes--Violet had gotten attached to some little 2 in. care bears from my childhood, so we had two with me at the front of the church, and one she carried down in her basket.

Dress is on...we're ready to go

The wedding also went well; the only hitch was that she and the photographer did not hit it off very well, so she wasn't in many professional pictures, and because Ben and I were trying to keep her happy, there aren't a lot of pictures period. I've made a note to make sure I take someone along to next year's wedding just to snap candids! She successfully made it down the aisle with little fuss (I don't think my brother and sister-in-law chose to video tape the ceremony) only asking for Mom the last 10 ft or so, and only giving the photographer a life-threatening look when he popped out to take her picture) and danced with Mom with the bridal party at the reception. It was a great evening, lots of fun, and I've decided that there is just not a good time for weddings if you have two-year-old. No matter what, you're going to run into nap time!

Grumpy face--this is what she did if she decided she didn't want to do something!


But really, she's such a princess!

That's the story of the wedding. I hope you enjoy the pictures. It amazes me just how big she is getting, and the fact that she's doing all of this before she's two!

Happy Belated Fourth of July!

A family picture on my Grandpa's restored 1955 combine

Hello from the great state of Iowa! We made it down safely on Thursday evening, leaving after Violet's swimming lessons that morning. Violet is having a blast with her grandparents here, and Ben and I are enjoying a little bit of 'vacation' from the parenting thing, as Violet has plenty of aunts and uncles to entertain her. She still wants to snuggle with her Mom and Dad at night though, which is, I believe, one of the greatest feelings in the world.

We haven't been too busy since the last post; Violet is still a little fish, although a fall off the side of the pool at swimming lessons instilled a little bit of fear in her about the water. I really shouldn't say fall; she was jumping off the side (which she loves) and didn't get close enough to the edge before she jumped. She didn't make it to me, and ended up doing her first head-first dive into the water, and we believe she probably caught her feet on the edge. She'd jumped in and put her head in the water before, and still will swim with her face in the water, but she doesn't enjoy jumping quite as much. That's why we think she must have clipped her feet. That, and the fact that we found a blister/scrape on her toe a couple of days ago which led to this:

Violet's first Band-Aid.

And now, of course, she is fascinated by Band-Aids, so she has begun asking for Band-Aids for every little ouchie she has!

She also loves, as I mentioned, to imitate her Mom and Dad. Here is a picture of Violet putting in some good hours 'working':

We had a good time watching the fireworks; Violet loved the sparkles, but not the booms so much--she asked very politely to have her ears covered the whole time. She also did her first sparklers, which she loved. These pictures are from the fireworks display in Grinnell; I love the 2nd one because you can see by Violet's face that this is the exact moment that the first fire work went up.

The weekend was also highlighted by attending my great-grandmother's and therefore Violet's Great-great-grandmother's 97th birthday party. It's been a very tough year for her; she broke her hip (she didn't fall--the doctor said that she's just lived such a long life that bones get brittle and just break) which caused her to have to move out of the home she was in to a full-fledged nursing home, which she did not like at all. But, the hip has repaired nicely and just a week ago, she was able to move back into the assisted living facility where a lot of her friends are, and is much happier. It was just cool that Violet got to see some of her extended relatives, and have another opportunity to meet this wonderful, strong woman.

Violet and Great-Great Grandma Cobie


The family picture

The rest of the week will be spent relaxing and getting ready for my brother Eric's wedding. Violet will be the flower girl, so look for pictures of her in her little purple princess/fairy dress. I must say, it is the cutest thing, and I can't wait to see her all dolled up in it. I'll tell the story of the buying of the dress when I get those pictures.

To close, here are a couple of pictures of Violet 'modeling' her Winnie-the Pooh shades! Isn't she just the grown up little lady? :(

Cover Model

It will have no effect on whether or not Violet 'wins' but she does have a gallery at Parents.com and has been entered in their 'cover model' search contest. If you would like to give her your recommendation, visit www.parents.com and click on "Cover Contest" and then search photos for Violet. Today she was the first picture on the second page of Violets--who know there were that many Violet's in the world?!?

Anyway, we're not betting the house or our retirement on Violet's chances, but it's kind of fun, and gives us a chance to show off our little girl to people outside of our friends and family circle.

Thanks!

Yankee Doodle

If this works, here is a video of Violet 'singing' Yankee Doodle'. And no, we did not teach her this through rote memorization...it's just what she has picked up through listening to the story.

And yes, she is convinced that Yankee called it macaroni...and cheese. Hope you enjoyed this video!

Slacking into Summer

"hi. order two sausage pizzas peas"

My apologies for slacking the last few weeks; it seemed like the end of the school year would never come, and then it was here and there was so much stuff to do! Add that to a little bit of stress concerning job status due to the budget issues Michigan as a whole is experiencing, and I think you can understand why blogging ended up on the bottom of the list of things to do.

That's not to say that things haven't been happening at Possibility Manor--quite the opposite in fact. Violet seriously becomes smarter (and consequently, a little scarier) EVERY day, wowing us with her ability to speak in sentences, her polite manners (not sure where that one came from...), and her ability to be uncannily quiet when she's drawing on her carseat with the markers I let her take with her to to the store. oops. She's also become quite the helper; this week she helped me plant flowers by putting them in the holes I dug, and carrying them to me from the patio. Not sure if the flowers actually lived through that ordeal yet, but it's definitely a time of great memories.

Now that summer is finally here, it is going to be incredibly fun. Violet is a little daredevil, but a little princess as well, and it's fun to see both Ben and I coming through her little personality. I really need to figure out how to put movies on this thing, so there's a project for the upcoming weeks.

To end this post, some of the 'accomplishments' we've had in the last month or so:

1. Reciting alphabet through G
2. Speaking sentences with a subject, verb, and direct object...example: there was sock that got left behind in the last day of school clean up process and Violet says: "Sock fall on the ground". or "Violet ride in Andy's stroller."
3. Semi-mastered jumping.
4. 'reads' "The Hungry Caterpillar"
5. 'sang' parts of Yankee Doodle this morning...I REALLY wish I had the camera for that...it was so cute.
6. Identifies the letters X, V, T, O, and F in print. (don't ask me why those letters...),
7. Loves to COLOR and WRITE. (YAY!)
8. An amazing ability to imitate and copy things that Ben and I do...and unfortunately, they're not always so cute!

I'm sure there's more, but those are the ones I could think of right now. To end, here are some recent pictures:

Smelling the tulips--a true Dutch girl


our lovely "Ogurt face"


Our author and illustrator in the making


The world's two biggest Cubs fans


Mommy's shoes


Cubs and Iowa...two of Violet's favorite things!