The last few days of August...

Friday, August 27th
Alexa and I went to the Columbus Zoo with our friends, The Nguyen's. It was their first trip taking Baby Matthew - and Alexa will tell you, "he cried." She had fun with Daniel & Joseph, the older two children. The highlight of the trip occurred at the polar bear exhibit... We heard on the speakers that they were going to be feeding the bears so we stuck around. All of a sudden we noticed a school of fish (we were at the upstairs viewing area) and then the one polar bear poised & planned and finally pounced at the fish - splashing the entire window directly in front of the 3 kids! It. Was. Awesome.









The two of us had a picnic lunch at the riverfront before riding the Merry Go Round and heading home. Doesn't Alexa look so blissful going up & down?!?!









My quest to shower Alexa with undivided attention her last few weeks as an only child continued that evening with a picnic at the park and loads of playtime with Mommy & Daddy.









Not only has she successfully learned to navigate tunnels, stairs, and even ladders (much to my weary and hovering dismay), Alexa has learned to climb onto Clifford all by herself (now she's just gotta figure out how to get down, lol).









We are continuing to work on gross motor skills (such as climbing, running, & jumping) with Alexa because it is the area in which she has has developed the "slowest" (if you will). I think that being outside a lot this summer and having her ever-active BFF Kyla around has certainly helped Alexa a lot!









Family self-portrait before leaving Library Park - it is our new favorite park in Powell.









Saturday, August 28th
What was just two weeks ago seems like forever and since I don't have pictures from that day to jog my memory, I'm assuming the three of us just shopped, played, and whatnot. That evening we had Pat & Becky over for dinner. Thankfully, Daddy was able to capture a picture of them with Alexa for a frame in her room since we didn't have a photo of the three of them!









Sunday, August 29th
We went to Mass early (7:30 am) so that we could get to the Zoo early because it was a high of 92* (if I remember correctly) that day.









It is always fun to take Alexa to the Zoo with someone who can "tag team" her and the stroller with me... she really enjoys being able to get out & explore once in awhile rather than just being pushed around by Mommy. Since the train was broken STILL (it has been broken the entire summer - we've never ridden it), we took the scenic boat ride and Alexa was able to ride the Merry Go Round with Daddy.









Our last trip to the Columbus Zoo as a family of 3 ♥ It was such a FANTASTIC day!! Alexa fell asleep the moment we got to the car!









Later that evening we had a BBQ mini-neighborhood BBQ at Tammy & Sal's house. It was nice to meet Laura, John, & Zoey (now Alexa will have a new friend!) and Gina & Brian. And of course, Alexa enjoyed entertaining Anthony & Francesca :)









Tuesday, August 31st
A quick look at our two girls - Nov 2008 and now...









After ZUMBA, Alexa and I convinced Bobbi & Kyla to join us at Babytime. It was the first time they had ever gone to storytime! Lex (as B&K call her) had so much fun showing Ky the ropes and playing with her!!









After Babytime, we took a trip to the southeast side of town to visit Tiffanie one last time before Jack is born. We were there longer than I had originally planned and surprisingly Alexa did not fall asleep on our car drive home... however, we both crashed hard when we got back to the house. This is the first time in FOREVER that Alexa has actually fallen asleep in my arms! She is normally too busy talking and squirming to fall asleep with someone next to her. So I cherished every single moment of this ♥ Of course, Daddy caught us mid-nap and took a picture.










This is just a quick post - mostly pictures with little commentary - on the end of our month of August. I'm heading off for my first [and last] night of PSR right now and will try to get my post on the kids' rooms uploaded tonight and then finish up my blogging sometime later this week with a post on our September, thus far. I want to be all caught up with my followers before my induction in 8 DAYS!!!!! Ciao.