Willa is ONE!!

Happy (belated) Birthday to Sweet Willa Mae! She turned one a few weeks ago and we've had visitors and parties and craft shows galore so I haven't had a chance to update with new pictures!

I have been making a TON of 1st Birthday Sets through Hip Violet lately, so it was pretty fun to make one for my own Willa! I picked out some super special "retro mushrooms" fabric and made her a shirt and bib to match.

We had so much fun on her birthday! Oma was visiting for her big day so we went to the Botanic Gardens where we got this picture:

Later we had a super fun party where she ate her mushroom cupcakes and very much loved her first real sweets!
Out for dinner on her birthday. Cheese Nips! YUM!
All the Denver Cousins at her birthday party! They are all wearing my shirts! LOVE it!We have been really loving being outside and of course I love taking PICTURES outside! Here are some we've gotten over the last few weeks of both girls and of Willa's 1-year pictures:



Whoa! Look at that face! She makes that every time she is crawling with a mission. So funny!A girl and her dog...
Oma and Violet at the Botanic Gardens
Aunt Heather and Violet at the Gardens

Happy Belated Father's Day too! We took a nice walk in the morning on Father's Day. Here is the best daddy we know!
And here is Violet's first Family Portrait. Now people are getting noses, and sometimes arms, legs and hair too! I could watch her draw all day!

We love summer!

Summer is finally here! We are SO glad to spend more time outside enjoying all the fun that Colorado has to offer. This weekend we went downtown to the Chalk Art Festival. It was SO COOL! There were dozens and dozens of artists working on amazing drawings on the streets. I can't imagine spending that much time on something only to have it wash away...

We took some sidewalk chalk with us and Violet was really excited to be part of the action!Drew her first sunshine!Willa is finally figuring out how to drink from a sippy cup (and HAS figured out how to eat snacks from a snack-trap. HURRAY!), but still needs some help. Luckily she has a pretty fantastic big sister who helps her out when she's thirsty.
Getting some snuggles with daddy in the shade.
Sweet little Willa.
Pool time! We got a new pool for the girls this year - here are some pictures of their first swim!
(yes, they have matching mermaid bathing suits)
On Memorial Day we took another hike around Red Rocks, this time with Jon and our friends Carolyn and Hannah. We have found that peer pressure works perfectly to get 3 year olds to actually HIKE and not want to be CARRIED! In fact, it worked so well that Violet even did the steep steps in and out!

Violet and her pal Hannah.
Hiking girls! Violet also brought along her doll, Larry.
Random pictures of the two girls in pink!



Here is a funny video of the life that Porter lives. Violet had just spent about 45 minutes before this walking him around and around and around the back yard with his leash on. He was NOT HAPPY that she wasn't taking him for a real walk. When she finally brought him back inside he was exhausted and she took good care of him and put him to sleep. She cracks me up!


And Willa playing Peek-a-boo

Hurray for Horses!

Meet Grey! This is a horse that I am lucky enough to get to ride a few times a month while his owner is traveling. We took the girls out last weekend (I was secretly hoping they will both catch the "horse bug"!) and they had so much fun! Here they are helping me let Grey have a snack.

Violet has quickly gotten over her fear of real-live horses and sat up on Grey's back with me! Next time we'll bring her helmet and she can walk around. He's a pretty big dude (16.3") so she has a good reason to be a little scared of him, but he truly is a gentle giant!
Willa LOOOOVED him! If she had her way, she would have laid her head right down on his nose and snuggled with him. He was not quite up for that yet, but he did let her pet him quite a bit. Reminds me a bit of the picture below of Violet with my old horse Max (yes, I can't get away form grey horses if I try! This is the 4th one in a row!).

Back home the girls have really been liking taking rides in the wagon together.
And showing off their great smiles!


Help! Willa is trapped under her high chair!
And last, a very sweet video of Willa playing peek-a-boo. She WHIPS around things now to peek at is. It's so funny and you can here her GREAT laugh! I love it!

My Beautiful Girls

Ah, my girlies. They make me laugh every day and just seem to get more and more fun. Violet says the funniest things (see the bottom for a whole list), like this morning, before even saying "Good morning" she popped out of bed and declared "We're going to grow blueberries in our garden!" Great!
With her best buddy Porter on his new dog bed. He deserves it - he puts up with a LOT. Today when I was leaving Violet was lining up all her princesses on his back.
Freshly washedThis one too

Showing off her sweet smile and 3 bottom teeth. She now has 3 on the top to match. We call her Snaggle Tooth.Her patented Smushy Face Smile
Admiring her reflection in her high chair tray

My friend Brandi got what we call the Mini Unicorn Raver hat for Violet a few years ago. We tried it on Willa. We think it fits her personality to a T.
I know this picture is blurry, but this is what Willa (better known as "Wilsey Pants") and I get to do every time she wakes up from a nap. She is such a great snuggler - I just love it!
And now for another installment of "Funny Things Violet Says"

• If she is wondering who got her something or did something she says "Who somebody give me that?"

• She has been sick a lot lately but if she's starting to feel better she'll say "Feel me better" - for instance "That med-cine feel me better!"

• She calls Willa Willie. But she can't really say her "W's" and subsitutes an L. Thus Willie is Lily.

• If I ask Violet "Are you going to brush your teeth?" she may answer back with "I GUUN!" (aka "I'm going to ").

• Violet told me she also wants to plant cheese, palm trees and cheerios in her garden.

• She has trouble with the "s" sound if it is next to a "p" - so Special Treat turns into Feshal Treat. She will often ask "Can I have a feshal treat from my feshal treat box?" Because of this same problem she calls Smarties Farties.

• Along with that, she is also quite insistent on needing her "space" lately from Willa. She will shout out "No Willa! I need my FACE!"

• When we watch a video and there is a scary part, she wants me to "Past Forward" it instead of Fast-Forward. Make sense to me!

And not to be outdone, Willa, we swear, is starting to talk. She has said Hi a few times and definitely says Dada when Jon is around (the stinker!!) She also says

AhhhhhAH!
Ging! Ging! Ging!

And screams and cries hysterically if Violet takes a toy away from her. Playing her role as a little sister just perfectly! :)

Videos! And Art Class!

My good friend Megan had a GREAT idea to offer art classes to toddlers. We were lucky enough to get to test it out and Violet had a blast! Here she is getting ready to blow some bubbles of paint (which she never did figure out - instead she accidentally drank it)
Showing off her "Gak"

The girls hanging out between classes (Willa got to do some finger painting later. It was a messy affair).If you're in the Denver area, check out Bluebird Arts!

Violet took this cute picture of Willa and I
I scored a $5 picnic table at Goodwill last week. Because the weather hasn't been that great we brought it inside. Willa can crawl right up on it and she and Violet have been having so much fun playing and eating on it!

VIDEOS!

Here are the girls having fun at the aforementioned picnic table. Aw.



Violet has become QUITE the storyteller. She often tells us very long stories at lunch or dinner. Most of them involve a "scary wolf!" somewhere, although this one does not. We just love her facial expressions and how she changes her tone. My favorite part of this one is at the end... CHICK-MUNKS! And for the record, I only SORT OF know what she is talking about the whole time. She also demonstrates her tiptoeing, which appears to be more about the HANDS than the FEET. Silly!


And check out Willa! Saturday she was standing up by a chair and pushed it across the room! So we brought out this push-toy and off she went! Eeeks!