"Dag"

Quality reading material

The plane ride home ended up being pretty easy... Thanks to SkyMall!  Peyton has a thing for dogs.  Any dog citing elicited pure excitement and surprise from Peyton.  Just so happens SkyMall features various dog focused products: the dog crate end table, the tennis ball with a 3D mustache to make a silly doggy.  She identified all the dogs, one page had 11!  

Given this, her favorite books of the moment are quite fitting:

• "Ga Da Ga" 'Go Dog Go'
• 'The Pokey Little Puppy'
• 'Harry the Dirty Dog'
• 'I'll Teach My Dog A lot of Words'
• Last but not least '101 Dog Tricks' "This dog is jumping through the hoop, this dog is getting a beer from the fridge"

Fun in the sun

Princesses

We took a long weekend and went down to the Food and Wine festival at Disney.  Peyton's favorites trip moments included:

1. Trying all sorts of new international cuisine like sushi, vegetable haggis, lobster fisherman's pie, marinated calimari, and warm chocolate pudding with Bailey's custard (her fave)
2. Seeing the Ducks. Not Donald, the real deal by the lagoon at the Yacht Club Resort. She looooved watching them swim and kept saying Duckkkkkk, the K is long.  
3. Fish, favorite thing at Epcot was the aquarium. She really became enthralled with the colorful fish and sharks. She pronounces in fissssssshhhhhh, the Sh is long. Hi fisshhh!
4. Swimming. The biggest hit was getting her Nemo water floaties. She surprisingly like floating and treading water on her own. Our little fissssshhh : )

Fisssssshhhhh

Diggin

Sweet talker

Apples again!

Sweetie

Aunt Katelyn was pretty bummed she missed out on Apples in Indy so we went to an orchard again! Peyton got to work on her animal sounds at the petting zoo and even got an apple on the house from a nice old man at the orchard store. I, however, had no such luck.

Peyton funnies:

1. At daycare Peyton may be the smallest toddler in her class that she's got the biggest appetite. She often gets fourths with lunch in fact, her teacher told me that when they are running low on food she knows to put a scoop aside for Peyton and Big Ben. As the name implies, Ben apparently can throw down too.
2. After she tries on the potty, she always put a toilet paper square or two in the potty.
3. "Where's Peyton's Belly?" She pulls her shirt way up and points to her belly button. 

Purple Car *honk honk

Silly Aunt

Fashion queen

Girl with the yellow hat

Each morning we let Peyton help pick out her outfit for the day. And each morning without fail she selects her yellow flower sweater with yellow hat. My mom's friend made this for her when she was born. Peyton is absolutely fascinated by all of the butterfly buttons and knitted flowers. What can I say, the kid like statement pieces.

Peyton has serious shoe issues. She will spend a good hour pulling all of her shoes out of her closet, placing them on her chair, then trying them all on, taking them off, on again. She is very intense about the whole thing. But she doesn't limit herself to just her shoes. She'll put Daddy's work shoes on him while he's still sleeping in the morning. And when I get home from work she'll take off my shoes and put a different pair on.

Thud Thud Thud

Mommy's little helper

Peyton loves being given tasks and helping out around the house!

1. Sweeping: move over dad, Peyton wants the broom even if it's twice her height. Peyton loves to push the broom back and forth with a huge smile on her face, and occasionally likes to sweep the carpet too. Bonus!
2. Dishes: helps to put her plates away and closes the dishwasher door with her own muscles.
3. Laundry: enjoys when we ask her to put her dirty clothes down the laundry shoot. Sometimes we don't even need to ask!: hairbrushes, mommy's shoes, toilet paper, keys, baby doll, cellphone, in a few weeks a child size broom ; ) We sort carefully. 
4. Throwing trash away, picking weeds, helping dad water the lawn, getting the mail, feeding Kinnie... free labor. 

Peekaboo

Apples in Indy

Yeehaw

Peyton and crew flew out to see Aunt Kristin and Uncle Adam's new home in Indianapolis.  Perfect opportunity to visit an orchard.  Peyton loved to gnaw on these whole apples but probably liked Kristin's apple crisp even better!

Then off to the best Children's Museum IN THE WOOOORLD. We saw dinosaur skeletons and went to a rockin Big Bird planetarium show.  Fruit snacks kept her in her seat during the show where she really enjoyed Elmo's rendition of Twinkle Twinkle.  So did Jon.

But best part of all was seeing good ol' Hudson, the sensitive golden retriever with the most slobbery tennis balls on the block.

Apple of my eye

Daddy is stuck

Arts n' Crafts

Squeeze me

Homemade Scented Sidewalk Chalk

Fill ketchup bottles two-thirds full with warm water

Mix in Kool-Aid

Mix in cornstarch slowly to thicken... waaaay more than you'd think

Screw on lids tight

Change kiddo into old hand-me-downs... not washable like described : )

Way more fun than crayons, Peyton was a fan!

That's Red

State Fair Princess

See Pig

We set off to check out the much talked about LARGER than life Minnesota State Fair!  I had fond memories of the Iowa State Fair: the butter cow, seeing teen sensations the Moffats, the jam building.  

Maybe it's because we're older but this event was a rude awakening.  Crowded, sweaty, drunkin, large n' tight bejeweled jeans with butt cracks in full glory, huge alien stuffed animals.  We beelined it to the farm animals... Peyton practiced some animal sounds and had fun talking and waving to the pigs.  Then swiftly onto the famed Pronto Pups corndog stand where Jon regurgitated corn dog for Peyton, just like a momma bird!    

Eat Pig : (