Pre-Birthday going-ons

Once the fireworks ended, July became one big lead into Lea's big 3rd birthday. Well... even before, because invitations went out right before the 4th. Lea was instrumental in producing the invitations. She has the very important job of gluing the elephant puppets on popsicle sticks. And not in the usual, "look what Lea can do and that I half did." No, no, no. This time it was all Lea with a paint brush and a plate of glue who did all the elephants. I have proof...




making elephants


The weekend before Lea's birthday we headed out to Grandma's for a fun weekend. Lea got a few early presents. Grandma got Lea a marble race game like we played with in California at Grandma JoAnn's. We played with that all weekend. Again I don't know who enjoyed it more Mommy or Lea. You can tell mommy loved it because there are no pictures and occasionally the amount of photos taken is inversely proportional to the amount of fun mommy is having because she forgets about the camera. I just can't get to the camera.

But that was not Lea's only present. Mommy also gave Lea roller skates. Because really, now that she's got that whole walking down she needed a challenge. Lea enjoyed the pre-school skates and Grandma's was a good place to try them out because of the long driveway. Like all kids (and adults) learning to skate she mostly just walked barely rolling the wheels. There was one pretty good fall and her bottom took the worst of it, but after a few tears (mostly of the crocodile variety, I believe) she got right back up and gave it another go... then asked if she could skate in the grass. Well for grass skating, Grandma's is the best place. Lea trudged across the back 40 (feet) and fed Mary the Donkey an apple. Mary was more frightented than usual by a toddler in elbow pads and a helmet... Like this kid is coming at me and means bussiness, just leave the carrot alien girl and walk away.
Lea on skates

skating with Mommy

skating with Grandma



The week before Lea's birthday we gave Lea a present I've been holding on to for more than a month. Hand made finger puppets from Grandma JoAnn. Lea loved them and we acted out a circus book and went through everything the animals eat. I need to make little popsicle stick puppets with peanuts and bananas for the circus animals to eat!
Lea's new menagerie

Giraffe puppet