Carnival!

We had a very busy Cinco de Mayo weekend! The carnival was in town and we decided to take the kids! It was so much fun. :)

We waited to go until it was just about dark. Elena and Dominic loved looking at all the lights! It was definitely past his bedtime but he was fascinated by everything.

 

We started out with some rides first. This little girl is getting so big!!

 

 

 

 She seems to be getting a little timid about doing some of the rides she used to go on no problem! Kinda strange - must be a phase. She really wanted to ride this with me, but after we got started she had a death grip on the bars and wouldn't even let go to wave at Daddy!

 The carousel is more her style. :)

 We took a quick fresh-squeezed lemonade break next.

 

Then she hit a few more rides.  

 

 

 

Dominic just took it all in -

Finally we did some games next. This is all Elena really wanted to do - we let her pick pretty much whatever she wanted and she did all the games on her own!

Victory!!!

 

 A little basketball - nice form!

 

She even did darts! She was really excited about winning a hundred dollar bill yo!  ;)

This little guy was such a trooper! The people were so nice and gave him a little toy when Elena would play a game. (He was excited about that!)

We finally finished off with the lucky duck game.

 Even D got to do this one!

 He chose a little chili pepper! Ha ha!

 

What a fun night! The kids were so exhausted when we got home. Poor Dominic was wiped out! Didn't even wake up when I got him out of the car seat or when I put his jammies on! Wow.

It was so fun for Elena to play all of the games by herself this year! She was so proud of all her winnings - she even insisted on sleeping with them all in her bed that night! :) I remember the first time we took her to the carnival! She was so little!

10 months.

I am going to stop catching up on May to let you know what my big 10 month old is up to! 10 months? Not possible right? I know - I am having a hard time believing it myself! My sweet little man -

Dominic loves to play catch - and will try to play catch with you with anything. Balls, dolls, toy cars, clothes - literally anything he can get his hands on.

He is fascinated with cars or anything with a motor. He even goes after the vacuum cleaner when I use it. (Elena would cry and crawl away!)

There really is an amazing difference between boys and girls - I am seeing it more and more as he grows.

His new thing this month is picking up something and showing it to you.

He is getting louder and louder! There aren't very many words but Mama is pretty crystal clear and we have heard a few Dada's too! I swear one time it sounded like he was trying to say Elena.

Speaking of his big sister, he adores Elena. He wants to be doing whatever it is she is doing and be wherever she is too!

He tries to put everything in his mouth. When he sneaks something in that he isn't supposed to (dirt, rocks, legos) he clamps his mouth down and ties to not let me fish it out. At least he doesn't swallow this stuff, he just wants to chew on it!
He loves to swing, I think he would swing for hours if we let him.

He still only has 2 bottom teeth. But he has had a fever the last couple days which makes me think a couple more are ready to break through.

 He loves to clap, he gets this big smile on his face and gets so excited.  

When "Can't Hold Us" comes on the radio - he lifts his hands up in the air along with the music! It is awesome. ;)

His hair is getting pretty shaggy and he is about ready for a haircut - but momma isn't ready for that yet!

 My big boy tipped the scales at his check-up last month at 23lbs - 80th% and 30 1/4'' long - 95th%. (I think he has put on a pound or two this last month as well!)
He is wearing 12-18 month clothes and I have decided to not by anything smaller than 18 months anymore - he is growing like a weed!

He has gotten brave enough to let go from a standing position a couple of times but he only stayed up for about a second or two. I have a feeling this month he will make some big strides towards trying to walk!
I had the hardest time every getting good pictures this month! Little man does not want to stay still! I even tried two different photo shoots but he was constantly trying to climb off the chair - or laugh hysterically with extremely blurry hands!

Again, he is a happy, happy baby. Random strangers always stop me to comment on what a happy baby I have! I love this and feel very fortunate and blessed that his is so happy.

He is an absolute joy to be around but don't let all the smiling pictures fool you - when he is done with something (like taking pictures for example) he will let you know!!

I can't believe my little boy is closing in on his first birthday!! I am so excited to plan his party!!! :) Let the Pinterest searching begin! :)

Cinco.

 We had a pretty laid back Cinco de Mayo this year. Just hanging out and enjoying family time. Earlier in the month we went to Old Chicago and I just had to take pictures of the kids with these cutouts - hilarious!!

 

 We grilled fajitas that night and had some homemade rice and beans, so yummy!

 Then our neighbors stopped by for some play time and smores. :) (Dominic stuck to the hula hoop)

 The girls were very serious!

 Dom was entranced by the fire - (never mind the Corona in the baby chair! Ha ha!)

 I think these two put away about 5 smores each!

While the babies stuck to marshmallows.

Mmmmm....marshmallow!

 Maybe next year we will have more people over and have a fiesta!!

Color Me Rad.

 The day after Em's wedding my friends, Sarah, Lynette, Lindsay and I participated in the Color Me Rad 5k. We were so excited when we first signed up - little did we know it would be cold, rainy and almost freezing on May 4th this year! Seriously! We made the best of it and had a great time though. Here we are pre-race (notice how clean we look!) ~

and here we are post-race! Wow - that's a lot of color!!

It really was a fun race, even though the conditions were less than stellar! :) I need to do a 5k during nice weather next time! That makes 2 miserable rainy races this year already!!