Bye Bye Baby, Take Off, and Mystere!

We left for Vegas on Wednesday May 9. We woke up that morning and finished packing Gracyn up for Aunt Jeffie's. We met Jeffie at daycare to show her how to check Gracyn out. Leaving her was so hard! Of course, she didn't realize anything was any different! She would be going to Clint's parents after school then they were leaving for Vegas Thursday afternoon. I've only stayed three nights away from Gracyn and those three times she was home with Clint. So to have her riding two and half hours to Tulsa, then getting on an airplane without me was very difficult!!!

Suitcase is packed...she's ready to go!

She wasn't phased at all!

After we dropped Gracyn off, we went to Briar Rose bakery and had the most delicious breakfast ever! We went home and finished packing up. We were so excited and couldn't believe the time had come to leave for Vegas!!! I had to bring my dress along so in order for Clint not to see it I put Gracyn's flower girl dress on one side and my mom's dress on the other. It worked. I will tell you, traveling with a wedding dress gets you all kinds of attention! Everyone tells you congratulations AND you get to board on the plane first!!!

At the airport....we're ecstatic!!!

We got to Vegas about 4:30pm. We had a slight flight delay in Denver. Once we got to Vegas we checked into the Planet Hollywood and freshened up. Then we headed to dinner at the Spice Market Buffet at Planet Hollywood. Then we hauled it to Treasure Island to see Cirque de Soleil Mystere! Once we got our tickets we had about 30 minutes til seating. Clint needed to use the bathroom so I decided to sit down at the Wheel of Fortune Slot Machine. I put in $10, lost it. Put in $20 more and on my last spin hit the Wheel of Fortune!!! I got to spin the wheel and hit $250!!!! Whooo hoo!!!!

We got into the show and it was amazing!!! The athleticism of these people is unreal!!!! We had great seats and thoroughly enjoyed the show!

Headed into the show!









After we got out of the show we were surprised to get a text message from Katie and Eric. They had just gotten to the hotel and were ready to hang out! Once we got back to our hotel we met up with them and hung out for a bit. Katie and I were exhausted so headed up to bed. The word is the guys had a lot of fun!

Gracyn's First Haircut

Yes, Gracyn is already 2.5 years old and yes, she is just now getting her first haircut. I feel like it took so long to come in and I was scared to cut it off. However, it started to get stringy and her bangs were always in her eyes. So I decided it was time for that first haircut.

After gymnastics Saturday, we took her to Pigtails and Crewcuts. She chose to sit in the firetruck chair. I was little worried that she may not want the girl touching her, but she did very well! She was all smiles the whole time! After her haircut we went to Louis's for lunch. Gracyn and I split the Chicken BBQ pizza....it's our favorite!!!

First cut!!!!

Got to style that beautiful hair!!!

The fist haircut package....includes the first lock of hair and an after picture!

Enjoying lunch with her beautiful hair!

Busy Little Bee!!!!

Now that Clint has off every Wednesday night, he keeps Gracyn every Thursday and Friday. They have come up with activities on their days together. They go to Toddler Time at the library on Thursdays. She enjoys circle activities that relate to the story they are reading! Then on Fridays they go to Boingo Bounce! We first discovered Boingo Bounce when we attended Maya's birthday party. Gracyn was a little unsure of the bounce arounds at first, but now is going down the huge slide on the biggest bounce around!

We are going to have one busy toddler! She will have library story time on Thursdays, Boingo Bounce on Fridays, gymnastics on Saturdays, and starting in June she will be a Twinkle Tot dancer at The Art of Motion! I think involving a child in extra-curricular activities is very important! They learn social, physical, and cognitive skills that will help them as they grow. I know gymnastics has already taught Gracyn patience, how to take turns, and helped with her coordination and balance.  I will continue to introduce Gracyn to all kinds of activities as she gets older so she can decide what she wants to do.

Enjoying puzzles before story time!

Down the balance beam she goes!

Little Zoo Animals!

Yesterday, Katie and I took the girls to the Gentry Drive Thru Safari! Katie got to the house and we loaded up the car then stopped by Wal-Mart to get food for a picnic lunch. We got stuff for sandwiches, chips and dip, cookies, and fruit cups for the girls. We arrived to the zoo and got out to let the girls get in the front seat with us. ** You only drive like 5 mph thru the countryside to it is ok for them to sit up front. We had to do a couple of picture poses first!

They love each other!

We drove thru the safari and go to see deer, buffalo, lions, tigers, bears, an alligator, hippo, and rhino! Meanwhile, several emu birds came pecking at the window. I don't if it was the time of year or something else, but there weren't as many animals out as usual. In the past, we have seen tons of emus, llamas, and camels walking about. Last time, we even had a Texas Longhorn lick our car window! However, the girls still enjoyed it!

After the driver thru, we parked our car and headed to the pavilion for the picnic lunch. There were 2 chickens and a rooster walking around and the girls could no nothing but watch them. When the chickens would get close they would start screaming at them. Once we were done with lunch the girls each got $1 to buy animal feed. Then we headed to the goat pen! Gracyn took a minute or two to warm up to the goats but then came to love them!

She loved this little, black goat.

This little piggy wanted in on some of the action!

Counting the kangaroos! 

Look under the picnic table and you will see a Mama Hen and her little chicks!

Observing the lemurs. These little guys were so much fun! A baby lemur had gotten out of his mama's cage and was putting on a show for everyone! The mama lemur kept trying to grab him and pull him back in. We all had a blast watching the little guy!

The last thing to do was ride the camel and ponies! This is Jewel the camel. The entire way around the track you could hear Caroline asking why the camel had a towel on!

We had a couple of falls by both girls, Gracyn got her finger pinched in the fence, and we had a couple of fits, but overall we had a great time! I can't even imagine what our beach vacation is going to be like in August, but I am excited to find out!

Discover the Dinosaurs!

Last weekend we headed down to Fort Smith for the Dinosaur Expo! Awile back ago, Gracyn watched an episode of Dora that was about a baby dinosaur. Ever since then she has just been obsessed with them! Once my mom told me about the expo I just knew we had to go!

The first part of the expo consisted of aminated dinosaurs. We could read about that specific dinosaur then push buttons to make it move and roar. Kaeleigh and Gracyn loved this!

Loving on the dinosaurs!

Posing with my favorite dino! Ole Steggie!!!

Kaeleigh got to sift for gems!

My Little Paleontologist!

Caroline showed up!

Waiting in line to ride T-Rex!

How brave is she?!

Hoppy Easter!!!

I'm a little delayed on posting about Easter. I've been meaning to every night since Easter, but have just been too busy.  Easter was good. The day before we went to the NCAA Regional Gymnastics Meet. The Gymbacks took 2nd place overall which qualified them for Nationals!!! This meet went a lot longer than we thought it would. We didn't get home til 7:30. So Clint made dinner and Gracyn and I started on the Easter Treats! We made Easter cookies, bunny pops, Peeps rice crispy treats, and chocolate covered peeps! Yes I know...I made way too many treats for just 3 people! I made Clint take it all to work the next day!  After dinner, we dyed Easter eggs! Gracyn had a blast! As soon as she put the egg in the cup, she wanted to use the wand to get it back out. It was difficult to make her understand that it needed to sit in the cup for a little bit.

The next morning she got up and walked into the living room and was suprised to find the Easter Bunny had set out all the treats we had made, hid the eggs we dyed, AND left her an Easter basket full of goodies!!! We had a great breakfast of Bunny pancakes and bacon!

Look at that balance!!!

Mmmm...M&M's!!! She also got sidewalk chalk, a necklace and bracelet set, stickers for her potty chart, a new book about Splat the Cat, Bunny Pajamas, and a Minni Mouse Bow-tique Cupcake Set! Oh and a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse CD....we listen to it all the time!

That Easter Bunny sure is a good egg hider, but Gracyn is one of heck of an egg hunter!!! I think the Easter Bunny will start hiding the eggs outside next year.

She insisted on putting on her new Bunny PJ's! Can you also tell she had been eating M&M's?!

\

Bunny Pops!!! Gracyn devoured these! They were super easy and I loved how they turned out!

Bunny pancakes....this just might have to be a blog post in itself. Let's just say that Clint shot one in the face and I will NEVER ask him to make cute animal creature pancakes again!

Wizard of Oz Ballet

This past weekend Kaeleigh was in the Western Arkansas Ballet production of Wizard of Oz. She tried out a couple of months ago and got the part of one of the flying monkeys! She has had rehearsals every Saturday and has worked so hard at it. I was really impressed with the whole production! After the ballet, we all went to Goody's Frozen Yogurt. Yummy!

We weren't allowed to take pictures while the ballet was going on, but I was lucky enough to pull some from Google Images! These are pictures from the actual ballet Saturday night!

Waiting for the show to start!

The little dancer after the show!!!

Nothing like a little froyo after the show! I just love this picture!!! Kaeleigh is such a great aunt and Gracyn just adores her!!!