Flower Girl Part 2 - Meredith and Ben's Wedding, July 2, 2011

Callie had another opportunity, this summer, to wear a princess dress and try to steal the bride's spotlight.  She was the flower girl in Matt's cousin Meredith's outdoor wedding this past July.  The location was Aunt Laura's family property in Giles Co., a beautiful setting by the creek.  It was a gorgeous wedding, perfect weather (maybe just a little too hot, but no rain despite the forecast for it!) and everyone had a wonderful time.  Callie was a little more distracted at this wedding, probably because she was outside and she was a little hot and fussy.  I escorted her and the ring bearer, Meredith's cousin David, down the hill to the ceremony and then let Callie and David go on their own after crossing the bridge.  Callie stopped and dumped out all her petals and feathers, but then, instead of prancing down the aisle like she did in Michelle's wedding, she stopped to play with the feathers and then wouldn't move.  She had to be helped out of the aisle by Daddy, but the bride did not mind and Matt's Uncle Don said watching Callie's antics kept him from crying all the way to the little gazebo in the front.  Callie, Grampy YooHoo and I sat under a tree during the ceremony and kept Callie busy with coloring.  When it was time for her walk back up the aisle, she was must less enthused and I ended up having to carry her up.  She didn't want to stop coloring.  After pictures, I changed her into a cooler dress and she danced the night away under the tent.  Thank you Meredith and Ben for letting Callie be part of your special day!

Practice makes perfect.

The creek was a big temptation for her!

 Helping Ma-maw down the hill...isn't that cute!

She insists on looking at the pictures of herself after they have been taken.

Janny got some Callie time.

Callie was excited to get to spend the weekend in a hotel with Aunt Missy.

Cousin Andrew and his girlfriend Brie

I definitely got a good leg workout in that weekend with that hill!

Wedding time!...

 I made these for Meredith's Bridal Luncheon but she was able to work them into the decor on the head table.

Pretty classy for Giles County ;)

Andrew and the Groom - both so handsome!

Meredith's cousin Kristin was looking way too grown up!

A few daddy-daughter tears were shed before the ceremony...

I only wore the hat a little...I promise.  This picture reminds me of those you see in the tabloids of movie stars trying to hide from the paparazzi.  At least that is what I thought I was.  I did, unfortunately, come across this picture from a royal wedding blog of how NOT to wear a hat to a wedding.  I am in denial...I think I rocked it...and I would wear this red and magenta outfit too!  Check out those awesome shoes!

Callie's extra handsome escort...he definitely rocked that suit!

Proud, and exhausted, parents!

I gave them the award for the most romantic first married kiss of any wedding I have seen.  Their response was that they have had lots of practice since they have dated since they were in Jr. High!

This is how Callie and I came up the aisle!

And this is why she didn't want to do pictures or anything else.  She has to finish the entire book in one setting!

The outdoor setting and really creative photographers resulted in some unusual but adorable photos.!

 the Little Princess...

Both of us princesses enjoyed a ride back up the hill!

This was the only oops of the evening!  A combination of the uneven ground under the table, baker error and the heat caused the cake to be more Dr. Seuss than Martha Stewart.  The top layer jumped for it before the reception started so cake cutting became the first order of business!

More plaques..

Callie got a few Daddy moments in.

And then lots of Yoo-Hoo and dance floor time!

Callie the Artist (creative adventures in June)

To wrap up my June-blog blogging (just in time for August!), I wanted to write about all the changes we have seen in Callie lately and her very unique personality and style that is becoming more apparent to us each day.  Callie definitely marches to her own beat and has specific likes and dislikes now.  And one of those major "likes" is art.  She may not look much like her mommy but she is certainly taking after me in that one area.  She will color and color and color - intensely - for long periods of time.  And it is not just scribbling all over a paper.  She will pick one color that will be her main color for the day and she will color EVERYTHING that color.  When she has finished a picture, there are no white spaces left inside the lines of the object she is coloring.  This coloring in the lines came about fairly suddenly one day after she watched our friend Charlotte color.  I have been teaching some art lessons off and on, as time permits this summer, and Callie loves to participate.  She was already a good colorer for her age, but once she watched Charlotte color (Charlotte is 5), it was like something clicked in her mind and she new what to do from then on.  The most stunning thing for us, though, has been her drawing ability.  I know I sound like just another mom who is completely infatuated with her kid and thinks they are the best at everything.  But Matt and I actually researched developmental stages of drawing and realized that Callie is on par with a 3-4 year olds in that area.  She may not be completely understandable when she talks, although she is improving her verbal skills daily, but she is definitely ahead of the game when it comes to physical tasks and mental ones.  She regularly amazes us with her problem solving and her creativity and quirkiness.  Just take a look at the pictures and judge for yourself!...

 Hard at work with watercolors at her art table which is now in the living room.  Combining her art space and mine no longer works because she isn't satisfied with her art tools once she sees me working with mine!

 Coloring on herself - she is really into body art.  I think Matt's tattoo inspires her!  She loves to look at it and trace it with her finger.  Washable marker tattooing is the closest thing she will be getting EVER, if mommy has anything to do with it!

Matt drew a cat nose and whiskers on her one day and now she draws it on herself regularly and then walks around meowing.  This is her version of whiskers and nose...and apparently a beard as well.  She also decides at random times to act like a cat.  One day it was when she was walking through Walmart with Matt. She bent over and started meowing.  Matt just let her go with it until she dropped to her knees and wanted to crawl around the store!

Her biggest inspiration (pun intended!) is Oliver.  The two have become very close.  He meows around the house for her when we are sleeping because he wants her up.  I think he will be her first bed buddy once she is in a big girl bed.  Maybe then he will stop meowing.  We call him our rooster.  This picture was taken after she had finished making a pizza on Ollie's belly with her wooden pizza toy.  The toppings fell off before I could get the picture.

 Here is Callie coloring in the lines while working on her peacock picture (see previous post for backstory on the peacock.)  You will also notice that she is a lefty.  She got this from Matt's grandmother or my grandfather.  No one else is a lefty in the family that we know about.

 Here's her precious little hand stamping the eyes of the peacock feathers.

And here is her finished picture.  We ended up making two.  One for Daddy and one for Pa as Father's Day presents.

She also made Yoo-Hoo a mermaid picture (with lots of help from mommy!) and a flower picture for Mimi as a retirement present.

A quick side note:  I started a new art blog called Manda Panda to keep track of my own whimsical paintings and kid's room decor and also as a place to post project ideas and things that Callie and other kids have done at my house.  I will soon post the peacock project details so check it out and share with others.

 One night, Callie was drawing on this posterboard.  She first amazed us by drawing the oval object you can see in the middle.  She added two eyes and a mouth to it and said it was a fish.  I asked her to point out the eyes and mouth and she proved to us that she had intentionally drawn them.  (the circle thing in the middle of the oval is a fin, I think.)  But then she started drawing the object next to it.  Matt watched her and thought to himself that it looked like a duck.  Once Callie stopped drawing she looked up at him and said, "Daddy, guck guck" and pointed to the duck drawing.  We both stared at it in disbelief.  Here is a black and white version of it because it is hard to see in the orange she drew it in.  You can see the duck body shape, a wing and then two eyes and a pointy beak.  She loves ducks, including Daffy and Donald, and loves to visit the neighborhood ducks so it was not surprise that she drew one --just very surprising that she actually knew HOW to draw one!

And finally, to finish up my long list of bragging, here are some pictures of Callie doing some of the funny, quirky things she does.

 Her wings she asked the balloon guy at Friendly's to make for her.  She loves for Daddy to make her fly and can now almost say "butterfly" correctly!

Yoo-hoo hasn't gotten around to caning this little rocking chair, but that doesn't stop Callie from rocking in it!

 She insisted on bathing with her new pool toy.

 She loves hats and loves to pick out her own shoes.  She went to AC Moore with me in the outfit above.  Matt took this picture mostly because she was watching Star Wars and was loving it.  He was so excited!

Here is her typical shoe choice.  Rainboots and jammies go great together, don't you think?

Zoo Night in June

I am in catch-up mode on this blog right now and this is the second post for the day.  Be sure to look at older posts to make certain you didn't miss one.  Before July ends, I hope to have completed all my blogging about June!  And one event for us this June was the members-only night at the Virginia Zoo in Norfolk.  It was a nice evening for a party with the animals.  It wasn't too hot and the rain held off.  We haven't been back since because the heat but hope to use the membership a lot in the milder weather months.  Callie certainly loves it and Matt and I do too.  Here are some pics from our zoo night.

 Llama llama, bad hair momma!  Glad I have already gotten my hair done since this picture or I would be out the door right now to fix those roots!

 Looking at the bears with Daddy.

 Callie identified the otters on her own, surprising us that she knew that word.  She enjoyed watching them play.

 This family of geese were enjoying the night at the zoo as well.

 Callie wanted to keep going back to the giraffes.  She would say, "Bye bye, raff."  but then ask to go back once we walked away.  Another highlight of the night for me was when she said goodbye to the elephant poop.

 Holding hands with Daddy.

This peacock practically crawled onto Matt shoulders.  Callie was fascinated with it and the others squawking around.  It inspired us to make peacock paintings the next day during art time.  Here is Callie's picture of a "poocock" as she pronounces it!