California with the Cousins

Caroline was so excited to meet her baby cousin Lauren for the first time this week. We made the trip out to Cali on Saturday and got to stay until Wednesday.  Caroline played great with both Leah and Lane and wanted to hold Baby Lauren (what Caroline called her) and talk to her every time she was awake. 

Both Lane and Caroline were potty training so everyone was on high alert constantly asking them both if they had to potty.  They both did great!  I was the most nervous the day we flew out there but Caroline was a champ and didn't have one accident.  

Lane and Caroline were big buddies constantly making each other laugh over the silliest things.  Oh to be in the mind of a toddler..... Leah is still in school until Friday so Monday afternoon Stephanie , Baby Lauren and I took the 2 little kids to a splash park.  The best part was Stephanie stopped at Chick fila so the kids got to have a picnic

Before running around and splashing in the water. Aunt Teddi {what Caroline calls Stephanie} also taught Caroline a really fun new song called Slippery Fish.  Caroline requested it multiple times!

Uncle Chris after playing golf with Luke holding Baby Lauren.  She is such a sweet baby always happy and was sleeping through the night at 4 weeks! 

More swimming for all Monday evening. Caroline wanted to finish her cracker so her daddy pushed her around in an inflatable raft until she finished eating -What a diva!

Eating dinner outside to finish off another wonderful evening.

On Tuesday morning Stephanie, Caroline, Lane and I got to go on a field trip with Leah's Kindergarden class. It was to a local ice cream shop where they make the ice cream right there in the store.  They showed the kids how to turn a liquid into a solid.  It was a delicious science lesson!

Both Caroline and Lane picked Chocolate.  Leah was sweet and introduced her Texas Cousin to her little friends.  It was neat to see Leah get excited about it. 

When we got home Caroline wanted to hold Baby Lauren again and was really gentle with her.  Lauren seemed to like her too! {of course I doubt Lauren has ever met someone she didn't like}

Sharing a cousin moment

Baby Lauren let me snuggle with her all afternoon on Tuesday. On Tuesday night we got to go eat at Benihuna- a really good hibachi place.

Leah ordered Lemonade to drink so Caroline thought that is what she should be drinking too. Only she kept calling it Nemo-ade.  Whatever it was she was a fan. 

The kids were highly entertained and it was so nosey in there that no one noticed 4 extra kids talking up a storm. I'm so happy we go to visit the Hendricks Family.  We always have to best time when we go.   The good news is that we get to see them in a few weeks when they come to Texas! I'm already thinking of fun things to do while they are here.

Little Fish

Because tomorrow is the first official day of summer I thought I would post about my little fish.  This summer Caroline has loved the water.  She has very little fear when it comes to the pool which is good and bad.  Good, because teaching her to swim will be easy- bad, because a healthy level of fear keeps you safe in the water! 

She likes to get her face wet, blow bubbles, kick her feet and loves to be free of that life jacket! These pictures are from Andrew's new splash park.  They really did a great job making fun for all ages.  There was a gigantic swirly slide in the deep end that Caroline thought she might like to try out.  Soon, Caroline, Soon.

Eyvn and Carter have really shown her how to swim at Sun N Fun.  Her favorite game with these older kids is tag.  They splash around in the shallow end where she can run around.

We are going to see the Hendrick's in California and was told to bring our bathing suit.  We can't wait!!

Potty Training

We have officially started potty training at the Prather house.  I have been reading every book, article, blog post by experienced mom, talked to friends and family trying to figure out what the secret to cracking the code on potty training.  The biggest consistent component that everyone has said is your toddler has to ready. This is different for every kid. Caroline has been ready for a while.  Her school has done most of the leg work for me. Although most of the books say stay away from pull ups it is what they required at school and what she has been using for the past 4 months. Her teacher takes the kids every 2 to 3 hours in groups of 5 so she has lots of practice.

All last week we have been talking about using the big girl potty. I cleared 3 days off the calendar where we would have nothing to do.  I got a few potty board books from Hastings and the library and we have been watching Daniel Tiger Potty episode on Netflix.  Daniel Tiger says "When you have to go potty stop and go right away. Flush and wash and be on your way."  We also let Caroline pick out her big girl panties last weekend. She picked Cinderella, Belle, and Tangled princess panties. Chris cleaned up the backyard because we knew we would be spending a lot of time out there.  Now it was time to get our hands dirty.... literally.  

Day One:

 Most of the successful attempts from moms say to start out with toddlers with nothing on from the waist down until they get the hang of it.  I decided the less laundry the better. So when Caroline woke up she was striped down from the waist down and got to keep her favorite elephant PJ shirt on. We ate breakfast and started drinking lots of liquids {I even let her have gatorade and her dad's tea} then hung out in the kitchen with the lady bug potty close and in sight.  The first accident she had she right in the middle of coloring and looked a little confused. I put her on the potty where she put 3 drops in the bottom. I gave her lots of praise. "Way to Go Caroline!!! You did it!!" She looked at me funny and I cleaned up the mess.  She had about 5 more of these accidents and she started to get frustrated.  I kept calm because I knew she would get it around and at 11:00 am she told me she needed to potty and she did! I followed her around all day and she didn't have another accident.  We played outside most of the day and finally got to wear big girl panties. She decided she wanted a pair on her bottom and one on her head. Silly kid!

Day Two:

 Went great! She got to wear her big girl underwear all day we even went to the park for 40 minutes and brought the lady bug with us just incase.  She ran around like a crazy person and we were so glad to have a successful trip under her belt. At home while playing in her room she told all her animals: "Lamby is a big boy" {put him on the potty} "tell Ms. Caroline to go potty".  Then all the animals got to get a turn.  I guess following her around telling her "remind mommy if you need to potty" must be rubbing off. Daddy took her to get a chocolate milk as a reward for doing so good but really to get more practice in. 

Hope we are on the good side of this.... a lot of the blog post say mistakes they made were after they thought their toddler had it down and quit asking them if they needed to potty so I will continue to annoy the toddler until she goes to kindergarden.  My baby is growing up!

Hole in One

The first official day of summer for the Prather girls has begun! Yesterday was my last day of school so I have 6 weeks of uninterrupted time with my family. Today we went to Andrews to see Lolly. We got there right around lunch time and then immediately took a nap.  When Caroline woke up the fun began.  Lolly took Caroline to the park to play and when they came back a bird was caught in the squirrel trap so they had the chance to set it free. {don't worry my dad takes the squirrels he catches in this trap and releases them at the cemetery or so he says} After they did their good deed for the day Lolly turned on her backyard sprinklers and Caroline ran around like a crazy person for an hour playing in the water.

After 4:00 we went and played golf.  The Andrews Country Club has an open course after 3:00 so we didn't have to get a tee time. My parents have a gas powered golf cart.  Caroline figured out really quick how to drive the cart on her own so Lolly had to take the key every time she go out to hit the ball.  She is very observant and was trying to tee up on her own.

I have a video where Lolly helped her actually hit the golf ball off the tee box.  Caroline would take her golf ball to the putting green and use a 4 iron to tap it into the hole.  The only thing she didn't have down was the "no talking while someone is swinging" rule.  It was really fun! Thanks Lolly for the fun afternoon.

Hammock

We celebrated Kelley's 21st birthday today! Just for the record I met Kelley in 3rd grade when I coached her little league basketball team so I now have known her for more then half her life! Before we went over to the birthday party Caroline and I went to pick a card out and get a gift.  It was hard to convince her to get a birthday card because she had her heart set on a father's day card with a duck on it.  We settled on a flamimgo or a "ming-o" card & then she decorated it with Mickey Mouse stickers.  

Nana made homemade lasagna and got a cookie cake for Kelley's birthday party night.  Yum! Yum! Kelley got a hammock from Nana and Papaw.  Papaw set it up and everyone took a turn relaxing.  

This is the life!

What a great gift!  

Also from this weekend Caroline got her 2nd haircut of her life.  This one went MUCH better then the first.  Chris had the idea to talk it up all week.  "Haircuts are so fun," & "Sarah gives lolly pops" were frequent phases we used all week. She did great and was calm! Papaw got to go  and took some cute pictures!

Little smile

Cutting her bangs

High Five!

Blueberry Sucker