Mommy and Riley enjoying the fire
I think she liked them!
Riley pretending that she was asleep
It was a little cold in the morning, we had to have a fire to warm up
Morning walk down to the lake

Real Camping

We finally made it this weekend, we went camping. After many attempts over the summer we were finally successful on Friday night. Riley was so excited. We went to Falls Lake which is close to our house. We had the whole hot dog and smores event which was a huge hit. We went for a walk down to the lake and Riley thought it was so neat to walk through the forest and look for animals. She had a little bit of a hard time going to sleep, but it was her first time not sleeping in her bed or pack and play. After about an hour she gave up, but not before she said "Daddy I want to go home" she did sleep through the night and was so excited in the morning when the sun came back up. It was great family memories created.

Eliza's 3rd birthday party

Riley has had a bunch of birthday parties over the last few weeks and she is loving it. Her friend Eliza had a Tinker Bell party which was a really neat theme. They made Peter Pan hats and went on a treasure hunt. Riley's favorite part was the birthday cake! She loves cake right now.

1st day of school

Riley has officially started preschool. She is attending Grove Park Chapel where is in the 2 year old class and goes 3 mornings a week. It is from 9-12, but on Mondays she gets to stay for lunch bunch which is thinks is big stuff as she gets to take her lunch box with her. She is such a brave little girl. She has had no problems at all with dropping her off. It has almost been to the opposite extreme that she is so happy to be there and says "bye mom" and off she goes. It has been harder on me than it has been on her for sure.

Rain, Rain go away

Riley is so aware of the weather right now. They have been talking a lot about that at school so any time she sees the rain coming you better have an umbrella close by. Her new thing is she is totally into her rain boots and rain jacket right now. One day when Leon was watching her it rained and they went outside and played in the puddles, so she now thinks that is something we do every time it rains. This week she saw that it was raining and it was a school day. She was determined that she was wearing her rain boots to school. They are a little big and do tend to fall off of her and I tried to explain that to her, but that is like trying to explain why the sky is blue! Anyways, it was one of those battles that was not worth fighting so I put a pair of shoes into her backpack. Needless to say when I picked her up from school she had her shoes on. I am sure that her teacher was loving me that day!

Raleigh Farmer's Market

We went on an adventure to the Raleigh Farmer's Market with our friends Luke and Anna. Riley is learning so much right now it is just blows my mind. We had the best time at the market talking about all the different fruits and vegetables. We have really been focusing a lot on colors and it was amazing to me how the light bulb just went off one day and she now has them down. There are so many ways just in our every day life that we can teach our kids things, and this trip was a highlight of our summer to me.

I think she likes shoes!

We ran into the shoe store to look for Riley some new shoes for the fall and little to my surprise she had a different plan. As you can see from the pictures she really wasn't in the right size section, but she certainly found some that she liked.

Which ones do you think, pink or orange?

Brightleaf Square

We have found a new fun Friday night family date night. There is a place in downtown Durham called Brightleaf Square that has a few restaurants and live music on Friday nights. Riley had so much fun. We went down there not knowing about the music, so it was a neat surprise for us. We stayed until almost 9:00 eating ice cream and dancing, which she thought was so cool!

All Saints' hit the ball park

Our church, All Saints' UMC, had a family outing to the Durham Bulls game a few weeks ago. It was a lot of fun and of course Riley was all about the cotton candy that her daddy bought her. I am not for sure if he truly bought it for her or because he wanted some for him. Anyways, she loved it and thought that it was "yummy in her tummy"

Blake's 2nd Birthday

Riley is so into birthday parties now. She all week talked about her friend, Blake's birthday party and his presents. We sang happy birthday so many times that week getting ready for the party. His party was at Gymboree which is a little gym for kids and was a lot of fun. They are growing up so fast.

Camping in the backyard

We have tried multiple times this summer to go camping and the weather just has not worked with us. So, we decided late one Saturday afternoon to just put the tent up in the backyard. It was BIG time fun for Riley. We popped popcorn and watched a movie in the tent. Then her little friend, Luke came down and had marshmallows with us which was a big hit.

Slip and Slide Time

I am not for sure who the slip and slide was more for - Leon or Riley, but they both had a blast. A couple of weeks ago, Leon got it out and the fun began in the backyard. She had lots of fun trying to spray us with the elephants nose.

Dress Up!

Riley is starting to get into playing dress up. Right now her big thing is wearing dress up shoes and jewelry. She of course does not want any help with putting anything on, so it takes her awhile to get some things accomplished.

Riley dancing on the beach

Riley's beach pictures

Leon and I decided the last night that we were there that we would try and get some pictures of Riley. We were so pleased with how they turned out.