The Park and Spaghetti

I think that some of the best days are those that aren't over scheduled or preplanned. Last Saturday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and went to our favorite park, Ault Park. It is beautiful there and all the trees are changing. Our favorite part, though, is that the playground has two large play areas, one for the toddlers and one for the bigger kids. Claire has always enjoyed the toddler area as well as the swings. Recently, she has shown more and more interest, however, in exploring the big kid area. We indulged her last week and quite frankly were shocked at how much she could do. Certainly her petite size impacts some of the activities and makes mommy nervous because she could easily fall through cracks other kids couldn't. She had such a great time exploring the new area!

(Sorry I couldn't get these photos in the order that I wanted!) We were really hungry after the park so we went to Noodles. Claire had spaghetti and meatballs which she thoroughly enjoyed (as evidenced by the picture!). Our final destination was Toys R Us. Ari and I haven't gotten bored with her toys so we decided to pick up a few new things. We got more Mega Blocks; Ari and I love to build "castles" and Claire enjoys destroying them and building her own. We also got her a Little People Firehouse and Fairy Treehouse. We love playing with the Little People. I especially love watch Claire make them talk to each other! As you can imagine, after that Claire was beat. She took a 3 hour nap. What a great day!!

Sunflower Festival

Two weeks ago we decided to take Claire to a local sunflower festival. The farm offered plenty of sunflowers, a hayride, and a petting zoo, what a fun day! We started in the children's garden and smelling some zinnias. We then waited (very patiently, I should add) for the hayride which took us up to see the farm animals. There were chickens, roosters, sheep, cows, goats, and turkeys. The turkeys were so noisy and Claire learned that they say "gobble, gobble, gobble." We actually read and talk about animals a lot but not usually turkeys, they were definitely something new.
After the animals, we ate a quick bite and then went to the sunflower field. It had already been a long day so Claire was not the most cooperative for pictures. It was also getting cold. We did pick a few stems of flowers to take home with us, though. Claire also picked out a baby pumpkin to take home.

A New Car for Our Expanding Family

Ari has had the itch for a new car for a little while now. I kept balking and telling him that we didn't need one. With the new baby on the way, however, and the reality of two carseats and a double stroller, I had to finally admit that maybe his sedan could use an upgrade to something bigger. Ari did all of the research to figure out which one would be best and decided that a Hyundai Santa Fe would be a great fit for our family. Interestingly enough, this all happened after I received notification that I was being honored as a Hyundai Scholar for the Hope on Wheels campaign. For those of you who don't know, the dealers at Hyundai a few years ago decided that they would choose one cause for their philanthropic endeavors: childhood cancer. Since that time, they have given tens of millions of dollars toward the search for a cure. The coolest part is, when they give an award they bring a white Hyundai Santa Fe to the hospital and cancer patients get to put their handprints on it. So when I received my award a couple of months ago, my patients got to put their handprints on the car. The generous people at Hyundai also offered us a friends and family deal so I took this to be fate. It gets better, though... When we called to make an appointment to see the car we wanted, it turns out it was the exact same car that was at the Hope on Wheels event. The kids put their hand prints on with washable paint but then their hand prints are taken on another piece of paper and reproduced into clings that can just stick on the car. We were so excited when they pulled the car around, they had left the clings on just so we could see it. Now this was certainly serendipity and we bought the car and are loving it! So if you are in the market for a new car, I cannot recommend a Hyundai enough; not only for the excellent company it has become but also for the dedication of the dealers to fight childhood cancer.