Choo-Choo! Tweetsie!

Last Saturday Ivy and her papa awoke bright and early, ready for a father/daughter trip to Tweetsie Railroad. Have you ever seen a more excited face?

Ivy posed outside the train depot...


rode the chairlift up the mountain...


flew an airplane...

captained a ship (she really wanted Papa to ride with her)...


got her face painted...


and became a Native American Princess, complete with headress and trusty steed.

Oh, and they rode the Tweetsie Train a few times, too! We have discussed several times, and with several people the reasons that we will never take her to Tweetsie when Thomas the Train makes his annual appearance. Now we know that we don't really have to worry about that... the Tweetsie Train is green and when she saw it she exclaimed, "It's Percy!" Let's be honest...green trains are much cooler than blue trains anyway!

Okay, so this picture isn't recent...it's just recently discovered! Apparently during one of the many times that Ivy occupied herself with my phone while in Costa Rica, she snapped this super cute close-up of herself. I don't look at the pics on my phone that often, but when I uploaded last weekend, I found this one. I think it's super sweet!

Here's another phone pic of Ivy grinning on her way to Aunt Shirley's one early morning. I love it when she lets me fix her hair, but it doesn't happen often enough!

Last week we began our month of birthday celebrations (between my family and Alex's we have twelve birthdays this month). Papa really wanted a puppy for his birthday, but with Isa on the way, the timing probably isn't the best. Ivy and I decided to get him a book on training puppies instead...and Ivy thought it made for very interesting reading.

She also really got into making Papa's birthday treat. She was a great helper!

That night, I spooned some of the treat into a dish for dessert. Ivy took hers to the floor, sat down, and with the most sincere sigh said, "This is fabulous."

We also celebrated Sissy's birthday with a family brunch at Cracker Barrel. I managed to snap a few pictures of Alex and Ivy playing checkers before my battery died.

Since I'm posting all of this a week behind, I've got lots of fun pictures from the father/daughter trip to Tweetsie that happened this weekend! Stay tuned... :)

A vow...

I know the exasperated look in this photo all to well... while I haven't actually looked in the mirror when I'm perturbed, I'm sure I look exactly like this. This morning, one of my last with Ivy before going back to work, I thought she looked so cute and I wanted to take a picture. This is the best out of four that I snapped. Um-hm. Willing subject aside, I am making a vow to you... I will be better at taking pictures in the month of September. (I may not update any more frequently, but I will take more pictures!)

Now, on to the only exciting thing I can think of (because it's the only thing I have pictures of)... Ivy's early birthday present! We knew after a visit to the Cadwallader home one warm evening in June, that a trampoline was destined to find a home in our backyard. In July, when we realized that Ivy's birthday party would have to be a little early because of Isa's arrival, I thought we'd get the trampoline for the big (fake) day. Then, it occured to me that they may not sell trampolines year round...and Alex pointed out that by that time the evenings would be cool and dark would set in early, so we decided to get the trampoline early...very early. I'm so glad we did! Ivy has been on her "tramp-a-leen" almost every day since we put it up. It (along with the friends that she has shared it with) has been in her prayers more times than I can count. So, here we are... the pictures.

.Can I get on yet???

.Here we go...


.Sharing the fun!