Cadence likes blankets (Happy Father's Day)

Cadence and I wanted to give her Daddy some time to work on his music today, so we were looking for something new and fun to do. We got all the blankets out of her closet (and she has a lot of blankets) and I thought she would want to play on top of them, but instead she spread one out on the floor, then wanted me to put all the other on top of her. And kept asking for more, so I had to go downstairs twice to get more.
Then she wanted the monkey from her bed that she sleeps with each night.

Cadence mows the lawn...

Cadence and I are in GA at my parents' (Nana and Dadder's) house while Matt is in FL starting his doctoral program at the Institute of Worship Studies. One of the great and sometimes not-so-great things about Cadie's Nana is that she saves a lot of stuff. Especially stuff from me and my brother's childhood, since she was a preschool teacher professionally and is still voluntarily.

Anyway, so Mom found my brother's (Uncle Mattie's) old bubble lawn mower in the garage for Cadence to play with, since Cadence in recent months has gone from being very scared of lawnmowers to very interested in them. A week or two ago she had a fit in Home Depot because she wanted to go look at the lawnmowers and Mama and Daddy were taking too long looking at light fixtures.


In addition to mowing the lawn, Cadence is enjoying playing inside (it's hot here!) with Nana and some new old toys.

Garden Update and Cadie Pics

I harvested these carrots today and they became a part of a pasta salad. It was too early to pull them, I think, since they were so small. But they were sweet. The rest of the garden is not doing so great. My tomato plant died so we bought one that was already doing well, and it has a few green tomatoes on it. I had to buy a pepper plant too, since my seedlings aren't growing enough. And I had to buy cilantro too. I think the raised bed is not getting enough sun, so I'm not expecting big results. Sigh.

And here's some cute pictures of Cadence pretending with her Elmo camera today.

Big News: Cadence says "I love you"

Cadence loves this little peg set of toys that used to be Matt's. His mom brought them to our house last time she was here, and they really can keep Cadie busy. To contain all the little pieces, I recently got her to start putting them in her blue beach bucket from her GrandNana (you can see it in the background).

Also recently, she's gotten pretty good with simple sentences. I was hoping "I love you" would be one of the first, but instead it was "I wants it" and "Fix it" and "Cadie do it." Then, Saturday, she put all the bits of the peg set in the bucket and set off from the family room for the front door, calling out "Bye! I love you!" Just like Matt and I say when we leave her!
Her baby came along for the trip to the front door too.

Whirlwind trip to FL, Pics #5,6, & 7

On Friday we left Vero Beach and drove across the state to Tampa. We had lunch with my brother (Uncle Mattie) and his girlfriend (Tiffany).
Then we visited Matt's brother (Uncle John), sister-in-law (Aunt Kathy), and our nephew Kail (Cadie's only first cousin).

Whirlwind Trip to FL Pics #3&4

We got to spend some time with my Grandma while we were in Vero, which was one of the main goals of our trip. She is 90, very sharp and very sweet to us, and sometimes too independent for her own good.

Whirlwind Trip to FL, Pic #2

Well, we did more stuff on Monday, like Matt and I went out to a fancy dinner in Orlando for our anniversary while Cadence stayed at the condo with Dassa and Papa. Then on Tuesday we went to Disney Hollywood Studios with our friends Rick and Chrissy and Cadence had a blast playing in the pool with Dassa and Papa. But we don't have pics of that because we forgot the memory card.

Wednesday we went to Vero Beach and stayed at my Aunt Karen and Uncle John's condo. My Grandma lives in Vero too, and on Wednesday night my sweet friend Danielle drove up from West Palm after work to meet Cadie! We all went to church supper together so Grandma could show us off and we could meet some people. Thankfully, Danielle took a picture with her phone that I have copied here.

Whirlwind trip to FL Pic #1

We left last Sunday for a journey around the state of Florida. It was fun, but it can be very hard for a 20 month old to sit in the car for a long period of time. Also, it's hard to listen to a 20 month old sitting in the car for a long period of time.

We stopped Sunday night at Nana and Dadder's house in GA, then Monday afternoon we visited some of Matt's family in Citra, FL. Unfortunately, we don't have good pictures of any of this because we left the memory card for our camera in the Wii at home. So, in Citra we also saw Aunt Janis, and cousins Connie, Kaylee, and Rebecca, but we don't have any pictoral proof. (Cadence loved the big girls - she calls them "big gulls.")

This is our one picture, and it's not great. Cadie and her great-grandfather - Big Papa.

What happens when Cadie picks her own shoes

She wears snow boots. In May. Since we were not going anywhere yesterday morning, I let her wear them around the house for a bit before I convinced her to take them off. They're still a bit big...although they did match her outfit kind of perfectly.

Triple Coupon Day

Exciting day here - Cadence and I are off to Harris Teeter for the last day of triple coupons. Woo.

I really hope that this is the most exciting thing today (well, Cadie also said "nursery rhyme" this morning in reference to one of her books, which was a lot of syllables for a 19 month old - that was exciting). In the past few days, we traveled to Washington state, met a lot of cool people and drank a lot of coffee, Matt got a job offer, and another good job possibility, and Matt got into a car accident and totaled our little car. So, if triple coupons were it for today, that would be good.

[edited to add - I saved over $25 with my coupons and discounts at the store. Otherwise, the most excitement we had was picking up the rental car.]