Fall Fun

A number of weeks ago Fiona and I went to Holliday Park. The weather was beautiful (notice the short sleeves and skirt!) and some of the leaves had already started to fall (thank you drought). Here are a few silly pictures from our day.

Leaf queen

My mom and my aunt made Fiona the cutest costume this year (huge kudos to them!). Fiona picked out the pattern (which didn't end up being as easy as it looked) but my mom and aunt persevered. I'd say the results were worth it!

My little gnome girl

Wee! Aren't I cute?

I will say that she had one of the cutest costumes in her preschool class. Callie's elephant and Amelia's pumpkin costumes were also very, very sweet, but I think Fiona stole the show! Of course, I'm a little biased!

Michigan Fun

In July Fiona and I hitched a ride with my aunt and uncle up to my parent's house in Michigan. We had a blast! The weather was warm and sunny and even Lake Superior felt warm (a rare occurrence!).

Helping Poppa pack for his trip.

Watching the Strawberry Festival parade in Chassell. The strawberry shortcake was to die for! Fiona loved watching it all. Most of the candy wasn't appropriate for her, but she enjoyed the one sucker that came our way. We were nice and shared the other candy with the other kids who were watching.

Fiona's favorite part, playing at the beach with Nini. She loved going in the water and splashing in the waves. She also loved playing in the sand and rocks.

Beach babe!

Fiona (2) and Great-Grandpa (88) He thought she was something else!

Over Labor Day weekend we took a family trip back up to Michigan. This time the weather wasn't as warm, as you can see from the pictures, (we actually had to go out and buy some more warm clothing for Fiona!), but we had just as good of a time.

Nini, Fiona and Poppa


Playing in the sand. Notice the difference in clothing from one trip to the next!

Yay, we're at the beach!

First Day of School

Yay! I get to go to school today!

Today was Fiona's first day at Speedway Co-op Preschool and she loved it! She was so excited to go and bolted into the room as soon as Ms. Kenny opened the door. She had fun painting pictures (3 of them and wanted to help the other kids paint theirs!) and playing outside and didn't want to leave when I came to pick her up. She goes back on Wednesday. Telling her that was the only way I could get her to leave! I'm so glad she's enjoying it, as I was positive she would.

A non-cheesey smile! Normally she looks like she's grimacing!

St. Louis

Jeff's Father's Day present from Fiona was a trip to St. Louis as a family to attend the Cardinals/Athletic's game. Our last trip there together was right before we found out we were expecting Fiona, so this was Fiona's first trip and she had a blast! We started off the day with a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. It is one of the nicest zoos I've seen in awhile. The Indianapolis Zoo is nice, but the St. Louis Zoo is FREE. You can pay $11 for parking or try to get street parking. We were there for two hours and only went through 1/4 of the park. We did start off the visit with a ride on the train, which Fiona just loves.


The train ride was great because it gave us a chance to see the whole zoo without having to walk it. The temperature was in the 90's with about the same level of humidity, so not having to do all that much walking was really, really nice. We walked through the River's Edge part, which contained the elephants, cheetahs, hippos and other African animals.


By far the best part was the hippos, as shown below. The exhibit lets you get right up to them and view them through huge panes of glass. We could see them both above and below the water, which was really, really cool. Fiona was absolutely fascinated by them, and to be honest, so was I. I think there were about six hippos in the enclosure along with a ton of fish, which we got to watch eating off the hippos backs when the hippos were under water!


Of course being the big two year old, Fiona insisted she had to push the stroller for part of the time!


Really cool tree trunk tunnel (fake, I think) that Fiona had fun going through.


And finally, game time. We were fortunate to be sitting up under the awnings, so it wasn't quite as hot as it could have been if we'd been in the full sun. Fiona enjoyed being there for a short while, but it was hard for her to see and she just wanted to move around. So, she and I went down to the food area and got some ice water which the Red Cross stations were giving out for free, thank goodness! We all left around the seventh inning, but not before Fiona got to build a Busch Stadium bear and get her own pink Cardinals hat. All in all it was a wonderful way to spend some quality family time together!

Below is a short video of one of the elephants cooling itself off. We kept hoping it would spray us!

Louisville Zoo

To continue Fiona's birthday celebration we decided to take a trip to the Louisville Zoo. She loves going to the Indianapolis Zoo and we were up for a small road trip. Into the car we hopped. We made a brief stop for lunch.

The joys of a Happy Meal. Who needs toys when you have fries and a box?

Sitting on a turtle statue

And we thought the big draw would be all the monkeys. There was a nice exhibit and as we were pointing them out to Fiona she got all excited, but no, Fiona didn't care about those. All she wanted was to swing and go on the big slides that were just past the monkey exhibit. Sigh...

Daddy, Fiona and the lions. It was a hot, hot day. Very few of the animals were moving or visible, which was disappointing. The exhibits aren't as nice as the ones here in Indy, but it did make a nice change of scenery and they do have animals Indy doesn't.

So we decided to let Fiona cool off. Once we moved from the bigger kids area to the preschool area, she didn't want to leave! Now she's a splash park convert.

Fiona's 2nd Birthday

Birthday stats: 26 lbs, 35 1/2 inches tall

The beautiful aquarium cake made by Sarah Taylor (http://www.sarahs-sweets.com/Welcome.html). The cake not only looked beautiful, it tasted wonderful!

She blew the candle out all by herself! What a big 2 year old!

Birthday present from Uncle Eric and Aunt Sadie

Almost Wordless Wednesday

Must...have...Cheerios...NOW!

Recent Pics

We have been spending just about every waking moment outdoors. The first thing Fiona asks when she wakes up is if she can go outside. Here are some pictures from today and then one from March 28th.

Today was unseasonable warm and humid, so I decided to go ahead and set up Fiona's pool. She jumped right in even though the water was a little cool. I did add some warm water, but it didn't seem to bother her! She had a blast. She laughed and giggled as she poured water over herself.

Unfortunately her time in the water was short as it started thundering after about 15 minutes. She wasn't happy that I made her get out. She kept trying to climb back in. Luckily tomorrow is supposed to be warm again so she'll get more time in the pool.

Earlier in the day she helped me do some gardening. I had to laugh at her outfit. She insisted on wearing her Easter hat and her rain boots. This past weekend we got her some of her own gardening gloves and a wheelbarrow. She loves to help me weed. I pop up the dandelions and she puts them in the bin. We also planted some veggies: potatoes, onions, garlic and just for her, we planted some sunflowers. Hopefully the squirrels won't eat the heads before they have a chance to really bloom.

Fiona and Jeff doing some puddle stomping after an afternoon rainstorm. This is one of my favorite pictures!

Happy Easter!

New Fiona Funny

In the car this morning:

Megan to Fiona: Are you ticklish?
Fiona: No.
Megan: I think someone's lyin'.
Fiona: Roar!
Megan: I didn't say you were a lion!
Fiona: Roar!

Way too funny!

Recent Visitors

We've had a few visitors to the Humphrey household recently. Here's some video from their visits.

Fiona was looking out the front window. I asked her if there were any animals outside as we frequently have squirrels and birds visiting to eat the bird seed we put out for them (it's one of Fiona's favorite things to do--feed the birds). Fiona said yes, it was a kitty. I looked and found this instead!

Another special set of recent visitors were my parents, who were on their way back home after visiting my younger brother out in Arizona. I'm not sure who had more fun, Fiona or my parents! I love that she can't say Grammie or Grandpa yet. Instead, she calls my mom Mie (short from Grammie) and my dad, Bapa (short for Grandpa). I'm sure she'll eventually get them both right, but for now, I love hearing those names come out of her mouth. Unfortunately it was a quick visit. After they left Fiona kept asking for them. Bapa? Mie? I kept telling her they went bye-bye in their car, that they had to go home to their house. I don't think she's happy about this. She's still asking for them! Luckily Jeff's parents come in a couple weeks, so she'll get more quality grandparent time.

Not to leave Jeff's parents out of the mix, Fiona calls them MeMaw and Papa. She says those fairly clearly, as they are easier for her to pronounce. On a recent visit to their house in Mishawaka, whenever Papa or MeMaw would leave the room without her, she'd look around and say, "MeMaw go?" (or "Papa go?") with her hands raised, palms facing up (in other words she's saying, where did MeMaw go?). Very, very cute!

Oh, Boy, the 2's Are NOT Going to be Fun!

I should know better by now. Whenever Fiona says uh-oh from her crib, I should check on her. Usually it just means she dropped her blankie. Yesterday I decided to ignore her as I'd already been in once to check on her (she needed a diaper change). She fell asleep so I didn't think anything of it. However, when she woke up and I went to get her, I found this.

So, note to self, check on Fiona whenever she says uh-oh from her crib (or just make sure she has a onesie on so she can't take her diaper off!) No matter what she might think, she's no where near ready for potty training, as proven by the nice wet spot on her sheet.

More Fiona Funnies

Fiona's newest discovery this morning was how cool chewed up food looks in her mouth. We went out for breakfast to Charlie Brown's (a wonderful local Speedway establishment) and they have mirrors at the end of some of the booths. She thought it was really neat how her chewed food looked in her mouth. Luckily the fascination didn't last long.

Lately she's also been discovering how sounds are different when she puts her fingers in her ears. We were driving home from the restaurant and Fiona was in the back chattering away with her fingers in her ears. Really cute!

Bathroom Renovation

Here are pictures of our newly completed bathroom. I'm so glad it's finally done and proud of all the work I did.

Newly installed beadboard and mirror.
New vanity, toilet and floor.

New light, mirror and vanity

New towel rack, beadboard, toilet, sink.

Happy Birthday MeMaw!

This past weekend we went up to South Bend to see Jeff's parents and celebrate his mom's birthday. I found a card with cats singing happy birthday and I knew Fiona would love it as well. If you listen closely at the beginning of the video, she's meowing along with the cats. She was so serious about it, too!

Fiona Funnies

I don't have any new pictures downloaded to add to the site, but I do have some fun stories of Fiona. She's getting so big and doing so much now. I was talking to Jeff on the phone yesterday around lunchtime. Fiona came into the kitchen with her hand on her cheek saying, "whoa, whoa". It took me a minute to realize she wanted to talk to Jeff on the phone and was saying, "hello." She actually talked to him, too (well, Fiona speak, but she didn't stay silent like she normally does).

She loves to be outside, but can only handle it for a short while (1/2 hour at the most). She LOVES to feed the birds and will carry a cup of birdseed out to the yard and dump it for them. She also likes to play in it, but it keeps her occupied while I shovel (esp. as we got 8-12 inches this past week). She has her own shovel but doesn't really know how to use it yet. She also likes to go for rides on her sled.

Today she put her baby in its bed, covered the baby with a blanket and then turned to me with her finger on her lips (or up her nose, hard to tell) and said her version of Shhh! It was too cute! I didn't even know she knew what it meant.

Another recent activity has been "shopping." She'll take her baby stroller (or grocery cart, depending on her mood) over to the pantry and start putting cans, boxes, whatever she can get her hands on into the stroller and then cart it around the house.

She's lately become obsessed with eating soup, mostly for the carrots, I think. She's not happy when we tell her she can't have it for breakfast. Although, Jeff did give her spaghetti-o's for breakfast the other morning because that was the only thing she said she'd eat. And she did eat them! Crazy kid.

I'll try to get some pictures up soon. She's changed a lot in the last few months and is getting taller and more mature each day.