camping with charli

When my mom asked me how our weekend was, I said, "It could have been much worse!"  Camping with a kid is definitely much more difficult than camping without one, but all in all, it wasn't too bad!  Earlier in the week, Charli had two nights with episodes of night terrors, so I was concerned about taking her camping when we would be separated from our neighbors by a thin layer of canvas & 20 feet.  As it turns out, she did very well at night. She even slept in later than she does at home!  Must be all that fresh mountain air!  She loved our 10 mile bike ride on Saturday & enjoyed going down to see the water at Ohiopyle.  She had her first taste of ice cream, but wasn't too crazy about it.  She'll learn!  Late Saturday afternoon, we all got a much-needed nap & then walked down to the dam before dinner.  I don't know when we'll go camping just the three of us again, but it was a good experience. 

 Charli & Mommy's bed

my first attempt at hand embroidery

I have been planning/crafting things for Charli's 1st birthday for about 5 months, now.  I'm a little obsessed!  My most recent idea for her butterfly garden themed birthday party was to get a pretty white tablecloth for the dessert table.  Unfortunately, I was unable to find an inexpensive, and also pretty, white tablecloth.  I decided I would buy the cheapest white tablecloth (at Walmart for $11.92) and try my hand at embroidery!  Because it's a butterfly garden theme, I already had butterfly templates that I thought I could just trace onto the tablecloth.  I figured I was just going to use what's called a running stitch, but then I thought I'd actually do some hand embroidery research, & I found this very helpful website with excellent video tutorials.  I chose to use the very pretty stem stitch.  I used $0.35 embroidery floss from Michael's.  DMC colors 518, 602 & 704.  I started with the pink butterfly with a small stitch.  It took forever.  I also didn't pull it very tight, so it's not great-looking.  The next one I did was the blue butterfly.  I used a much larger stitch for this one.  It was done much more quickly, but I think it looks sloppy.  For the green butterfly, I compromised my stitch length, & I think it turned out very nicely.  Now I just need to decide if it's worth embroidering butterflies on each corner of my tablecloth, or just keep it the way it is.  Comments are appreciated! 

summertime!

One of my Mother's Day presents from Charli was this adorable inflatable whale baby pool!  Being a beautiful sunny day, Charli & I decided to try it out!  I used the hose to fill it, but also carried some buckets of hot water from the kitchen sink to warm it up a bit!  Charli was unsure of it at first & fussed a little until she figured out she could splash in the water just like in the bathtub!  She had so much fun, & I enjoyed watching her.  She kept putting her face in the water to try to drink it!  She was surprised that her face got wet every time.  Thank you, honey for a fun way to play with our little lady!  I think maybe she will get Bert some pool toys for Father's Day!

Easter

Easter Sunday was a lot of fun this year.  I'm really enjoying being a mom & having a little one with whom I can celebrate & enjoy all her "firsts."  The Easter Bunny came to our house & brought Charli & her daddy a few things.  He also hid some easter eggs that Charli had to find.  She enjoyed shaking them once her daddy found them for her!  Then we got all dressed up for church to celebrate the resurrection of our savior.  I love having a girl that I can dress up so girly!  After church, we headed over to Nana & Opa's house for lunch with Uncle Rusty, Aunt Tia & Aunt Bear.  Charli ate everything we ate!  The Easter Bunny also stopped there to fill a basket for all of us!  After lunch, we went to Grandma & Granddad's house for dinner.  Once again, Charli ate everything we ate.  She's such a little piggy!  The Easter Bunny knew she'd be there, too.  She received three Easter baskets this year!  I can't remember ever getting three baskets!  She certainly is spoiled!  It was a very busy, but very blessed Easter Sunday.  We are blessed to have Charli's grandparents nearby even if it does mean a lot of running around on the holidays.

Riding Bikes

Ok, now that I'm on a roll, I'll post some pics of Charli's first bike ride!  Rob's parents got us this awesome little cart to pull behind our bikes.  Who am I kidding, he pulls it behind his bike!  She loves it!  This was on April 10th.

Dying Easter Eggs

It was always a tradition in my family to dye Easter eggs before Easter.  To continue this tradition with Charli, we (read, I) dyed eggs with Ashlyn at Nana's house!  Even though I did most (all) of the work, I hope Charli will enjoy looking at the pictures when she's older.

 Note that Charli no longer wants anything to do with baby food

 besties

I like the pink one better!

Charli's First Trip to the Zoo!

I love going to the zoo, so I was thrilled when my parents gave us a family pass to the zoo this year for Christmas!  I decided to take Charli to the zoo, just us girls (with her daddy's permission) for the first time on April 15th.  She loved it!  Well, at least she loved riding around outside in her stroller all day watching people and maybe some animals, too!

 Go Pens!

 Her favorite animal