Park Series: Greenfield Park

We are nearing the end of August and V and I have a looooong way to go on our New Berlin Park series but honestly I'm looking forward to many park mornings in September and October because fall is my favorite season! We ventured to Greenfield Park last week which is technically Milwaukee Parks but is super close to our house. One of my running routes is through this trail that passes the park and I saw it had a "toddler" section with smaller equipment for V.

This is Miss V curiously marching around the playground checking it out and looking for the swings. This particular section of the park had no swings and we of course had to take a walk on the trail to go find them.

Can't believe you didn't bring me here first mom!

I remember loving this feeling as a kid...throw your head back and feel weightless until you woosh forward. Now, it makes me nauseous LOL

Okay, now that swinging time is fulfilled we can start tackling these steps.

"BIG step!"

almost there!

I don't need the toddler section Mom this is so much more entertaining!

Safe to say, Miss V was way more curious about the big kids playgrounds as she has become more and more adventurous this summer. I recently read Oh Crap! I Have a Toddler by Jamie Glowacki and she advises to NOT have separate toddler playspaces because we need to let them just figure things out (I know I am guilty of saying "be careful" 100 times a day) and that their developing bodies need "big play" to burn all their energy :)
*I also highly recommend Oh Crap! Potty Training by the same author and I am happy to say that Miss V is nearly "trained" at just 2 years old!*

Drumroll please..............she went down both of these slides!! V is past the fear of going down by herself! She now uses our Step 2 slide in the yard allllll the time.  The only place she still has trouble is at our daycare playground if I'm outside with her class. She pretends she needs my hand I think because she just wants my attention since I only see her on the playground usually.  And because there are usually a lot of kids behind her wanting a turn and then she feels rushed- ha!

Exploring the running/biking trail

Curious Miss V continues to grow and develop at a rapid rate. A lot changes in 2 years! 

Birthday Bowling

We took Curious Miss V bowling for the first time over her birthday weekend. She has a plastic bowling pin set for outside from Grandpa and Krista that she loves. She calls them "bo pins."  And she loves rolling/throwing/pushing the balls so we figured with a ramp by the alley, this new activity would be tons of fun.

Lesson from Dad

Where did that ball go?!

V wanted to carry the ball of course but we helped her, set it on top of the ramp and she pushed it down. She was so enthusiastic and there was a lot of clapping and cheering "yay bo-bins!" and "crash!" She would immediately run back for another ball and even wanted to "help" on other peoples' turns :)

helping Grandma

Let's do it again Uncle Ben!

You need help Auntie Kellie? I'm coming!

Towards the end she started plopping down after each roll to watch! That is what a full day of birthday will do to you LOL

One of the funniest parts was watching Miss V cautiously watch the ball return. She jumped when it popped up for the first few times and then smiled and laughed about it! The little air vent made another great "toy" too!

Uh...what is about to come out of there?

Safe to say Curious Miss V will be going bowling more in her future. Oh...and MOM WON!

Curious Miss V Turns 2!

This year, Violet seemed to "Get" her birthday to some extent and it was so fun to see her excitement at balloons! cake! song! Adding to the fun were special visitors all weekend and a "strawberry" themed party!

I love to bake and started branching out around Christmas this year when I tried several new Christmas cookie recipes from the WE energies cookie book. I am already looking forward to the one coming up this November. I have never really done a strawberry flavored cake and Miss V's favorite fruit is strawberry so I tried a few recipes over the last month and ended up with a very moist and dense rectangular layer cake with buttercream frosting. The actual strawberries in the cake did the trick and it was really yummy! I added some of Violet's signature purple decorations and she was in cake heaven. She loved everyone singing to her.

Birthday girl's place of honor during the party (decorated by Krista!)

Party day breakfast...we did a big 1 shape last year and V did not want any part of eating the cinnamon rolls. Much different this year! She called them doughnuts! 

It was a sugar filled weekend. Her first successful ice cream cone on party-Eve!

Auntie Kellie and Uncle Ben came all the way from Virginia to celebrate. V was lucky enough to spend her first birthday with them too last year when we were all on vacation in Cape Cod. She really warmed up to Uncle Ben this trip!

No spill bubbles...good find Auntie!

Violet got some Peppa Pig coloring books and toys from them as well as a pair of Toms which are adorable. Finally, she got a Melissa and Doug laundry set with pretend soap, spray bottle, dryer sheets, ironing board and iron. She LOVES this, especially because she can screw and unscrew the caps on the soap bottles "all by herself."

Day after party lunch with Grandma Diane and Auntie Kellie

V is getting a little annoyed with the annual Becker girls pic now that she is getting longer ;)

Doing laundry in the tent

Grandma Diane got Miss V an indoor play tent which she loves crawling in and out of and bringing various toys and stuffed animals into. It is tight but doable for adults to join her too :) Grandma also got V some new tennis shoes and a Peppa Pig rain coat!

Top view

Grandpa Rick and Krista gifted Violet with a battery operated Minnie Mouse car she can drive herself! Jackpot! Her face just lit up when she saw it and when she realized she was in charge of driving. She kept looking behind her thinking, "who is pushing this?!" They also were the behind the scenes party set up crew the morning of...thanks guys!

priceless expression

Test drive on the road! Watch out World!

Back view of V's curls after Auntie braided her hair!

Miss V was also lucky to have Great Grandma and Great Grandpa Merry come to the party as well as cousin Jordan, Uncle Steve, Aunt Hope and karate friends Mr and Mrs Quirk, Mr. Hansen and baby Parker! Cousin Kristin and Brian visited the night before! 

V had several different birthday outfits and hairdos throughout the weekend. She is one loved 2 year old! Can't wait to see what this year brings...

Random Curious Fun

Tunnels/tents or anything you can crawl in and out of are most kids' favorites and Curious Miss V is not an exception. Stay tuned for some awesome indoor tent (birthday present from Grandma) pics! This day she was all about her tunnel and I just love her goofy, full-of-excitement smile. 

Here I come!

Standing is even more fun!

We have showed V how the tunnel can attach to the inside of her tent and that will provide hours of fun this winter I'm sure.  Seriously, garage sales are the best thing ever. I know I've mentioned this in previous posts :) A $5 tunnel=brand new fun.

Another random curiosity: Miss V could not help herself when her car seat was in the house after being shuffled to Grandpa's car a few weeks ago. She plopped herself down and inspected the buckles so carefully. She has been loving the buckles on her booster seat (no more high chair!) and has almost gotten them a few times. She decided that the car seat buckles were a tad too tricky and just started a game of "climb-in-and-out-of-the-car-seat-a-million-times."  She was in heaven!

Don't mind me: sitting in my car seat in the kitchen.

I remember when we got this seat when she was just a year old and it sat in our dining room for a few days before being installed. She was not even walking then and just pulled herself up on it and stared the seat down as if her willpower would magically lift her into the seat! Now we are starting to think about switching her to forward facing: TIME slow down!!

State Fair Fun

Kyle and I have not missed a Wisconsin State Fair since 2012 when we first started dating. Probably the most memorable year was 2017 when I was just 5 days away from giving birth! That year was strange too because it was legitimately cold! I remember wearing a jacket the whole time. And I had to take bathroom breaks very, very frequently!

For Violet's first State Fair last year she was blissfully pushed around the whole time in her stroller. This was pre-walking and she was still in the wonderful morning nap stage.

rough life

Cool girl ready for action 2019

Fast forward to this year and we have a marching, potty trained toddler leading the way! We started by trying some different flavored milk at the Bucks booth. She does not yet have the hang of drinking from a regular cup which resulted in some spills but she thought it was delicious none the less. And of course she had to sit next to the "teddy bear" for a picture!

Then we continued with breakfast in the Wisconsin products pavilion; our favorite. The breakfast pizza was gone between Kyle and V before I got a picture! Apple cider donuts are our other favorite. 

We moved on to the animals; my least favorite LOL. Curious Miss V was super curious however and loved every minute. She wanted to touch and pet everything.

There were some big tractors to climb on near the animals. V has always been curious of all things farm so she loved looking at these too.

In the big "scooper"

I could drive this thing no problem!

Dad did take V on the big slide too. I think it happened so fast she did not have a chance to react. We also enjoyed walking through the garden section and there were some kid games involving water and sand that V wanted to explore.  Lastly, we headed to the indoor shopping part and here is the hands down best piece of parenting advice I can give...don't take a stroller into the exhibit hall area...EVER! Under any circumstances!!! Needless to say we were out of there very quickly and learned our lesson! On to next year!