Pool Party Cook Out

For Labor Day, we headed over to Aunt Mindy's house for swimming and FOOD! I took a few pictures with my camera, but I would have to go into the other room to upload them, and I am too lazy. However, Mindy also took a bunch, and I took some with her camera, and they are right here on a CD so you're in luck. Okay, so we're swimming, and Mindy comes out and takes a couple of pictures with this cute little camera. Then she DROPS IT IN THE WATER. I freaked out. Turns out it was water proof and she did it on purpose.

Cute girl in the floatie. She hung out in there okay, but she kept trying to climb out; she really wants to swim on her own. She kicks her legs and kinda puts her face under.


One of her favorite things to play with in the water was a plastic shovel. I don't get it, but whatever.

Awwww....
I took tons of pictures underwater because it was just so fun, but it was really hard. When I went under, all I could see on the viewscreen was my reflection. If I held really still and looked really closely, I could kind of see Joanna, but she moves, and I was moving, and I just can't hold my breath that long.
Cute swimmy feet!

Pruney toes!
I think that child would've stayed in the pool all day if we'd let her, but I was done having fun. Plus she was starting to shiver.

Look at all that hair!
After the swim we went in, got dried off and changed, then Joanna actually took a really good nap. I wasn't sure how she would do in the pack-n-play now that she knows the freedom of the toddler bed, but she didn't seem to mind at all.

Then for dinner we had a FEAST: chicken, sausage, potato salad, and all sorts of yummy dips and stuff. Joanna polished off a chicken leg all by herself. No wonder she's jumped up the growth chart!

In other news, I am feeling the baby like crazy these days. It feels like she's just jumping and stretching all over the place. Joanna knows where to point when I say, "Where's the baby?" or "Where's Baby Sister?" but I think she kind of has the baby confused with the belly button. It does kind of protrude these days. She likes to give the belly kisses. It is soooooo cute. I need to get someone to take a video or pictures.

I am definitely in "nesting" mode. I was pretty sure I wanted to do some kind of mural on the wall in Joanna's room. I'm neurotic about hanging things above her bed -- in that I won't. I'm nervous whatever it is will fall down on her in the night and either bonk her on the head or smother her. Seeing as how nothing I've ever hung up has fallen down, this is not a logical fear. However, I'm still not hanging anything above the bed or the crib. Since the toddler bed is so low to the ground, it really makes that section of the room seem empty with nothing on the wall. I'm not much of an artist, and I was really having trouble coming up with something to do. I finally decided on a series of "frames," each with a different picture inside. That way, the pictures didn't have to relate to each other. I'm wanting to do things that Joanna loves to look at. Some of the frames will be low enough for her to touch. I want to fill them with animals and pretty flowers and things. She loves making animal noises and pointing to animals and flowers. So far, I have the frames painted. I still have some touch-ups to do, and my mom (read: artist) is going to help me add depth/finish to them so they look more like picture frames and less like brown squares/rectangles. It's funny; I'd been wanting to do this, but not exactly jumping to it. What got me motivated were sales at the craft stores. I was looking at ads and discovered that last week brushes were on sale at Hobby Lobby and this week paints were on sale at Michaels. Good sales, too. I already had a decent selection of colors and brushes, but I was missing a few key things. Like brown. I had no brown. I had to go to Michaels before I could even start on my frames. I got like six different browns. They're so pretty! I had never bought brushes before; all mine are inherited from my mom and Grandma. It is really hard to buy brushes. Matt and Joanna came with me. Poor them; it took me forever! I've taken pictures of the whole frame process so far; I'll upload them eventually and let you look at it all. I know you're excited. I think I've rambled long enough; I'll let you get back to your lives now.