My Kind of Weekend

What a great weekend!  I think I start every post with a description of the weather, but the weather really has been fantastic this weekend.  Warm (but not too warm), clear, sunny skies - perfect.  I love weekends when we get to spend time together without running a zillion errands and when we spend most of our time outside.

On Saturday, we set out for the Peachtree Battle shopping center in Buckhead to visit Happy Feet, the quintessential children's shoe store.  Elizabeth scored two new pairs of shoes for her spring/summer wardrobe.  She measured a size 7, which means that every pair of shoes she currently owns is too small.  After shopping, we had lunch and ice cream at the same shopping center - how's that for one stop shopping?  There is a Lilly Pulitzer store on the premises as well, but I managed to stay away.

Today we went to the zoo, where we met up with our friends and their daughter, Lena.  Lena and Elizabeth go to the same school but are in different classrooms.  The zoo was crowded since it is such a nice day today so it took longer than usual to get through it, but we still hit all of the favorite exhibits as well as the carousel and the train.  After the zoo, we grabbed lunch with our friends and came home for naps (Elizabeth and Dad).

"Daddy, I Need a Cardi!"

These were the words spoken by a sweet little girl this morning before we headed out the door for a walk to Starbucks for the first Sunday morning smoothie of the season.  How cute is she?  We had beautiful weather here this weekend that actually felt like late spring or early summer.  I'm in no hurry for it to be too warm outside, but I do enjoy breaking out the colorful spring clothes!

We had a nice weekend at home for the first time in a while.  On Friday night, we ordered pizza and watched basketball.  Here's how Elizabeth entertained herself:

Spring Break 2012

This past week we traveled down to Siesta Key for a spring break visit with Mimi and Bapa.  Elizabeth was great on the plane ride down to Florida and ran into Mimi's arms when we arrived at the airport.  We tried out the pool a few times on this visit and Elizabeth seemed to warm up to it quite a bit.  She was even kicking and doggie paddling by the end of the trip.  We also spent time playing at the beach.  As always, Elizabeth had a great time playing with her grandparents.  We all agreed that the highlight of the trip was Elizabeth hitting the dance floor at a restaurant in downtown Sarasota, much to the delight of all of the nearby diners.  She loved dancing to the live music!

Playing with our friends Adrienne and Evan, who came to visit us from Tampa

Reading stories with Mimi

Hitting the pool

New play-doh at the condo

Hold Still!

Elizabeth's classroom at school has a dance floor, and often I arrive to pick Elizabeth up just in time to see the afternoon dance party.  One of Elizabeth's favorite dance songs is the Yo Gabba Gabba song "Hold Still."  I almost died laughing the first time I saw how excited she gets about this dance when she does it with all of her friends.  She's less animated at home, but I still thought this was cute.

Daddy/Daughter Bonding

I have been out of town the past two weekends (once for work, once for fun), so John has had lots of time to hang out with Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is lucky to have a Dad who takes her out for pizza and ice cream, puts her hair in pigtails, and bakes peanut butter cookies with her while Mom is away. 

After so much time apart, we are all looking forward to our trip to Sarasota this week.  On Elizabeth's agenda for the trip: "fly in an airplane up in the sky and see Mimi and Bapa and dip my toes in the water and eat ice cream all day."  Sounds good to me!

Out and about

Eating breakfast

Daddy makes the best toast

Art time

Guess who dressed herself this morning?

Pizza with Dad

Ice cream for dessert

Baby Doll had to use the potty