Tickle Trees and Cake

Today was glorious!  It was 70 and sunny AND it was Daddy's birthday!  We celebrated with breakfast at R.J.'s Bob-Be-Que, and then we stopped by Antioch Park to run off some of the carbs we had just shoved into our bodies. 

First, we hit the pretend town.  Sarah's favorite part of the town?  The jail!

Once she had busted out of prison, we headed over to the playground.  She's pretty good at climbing, but she's not above getting a little help from Daddy!

Then we took a walk on what Sarah calls "The Bridge."  I love, love, love that she wants to hold hands with us right now!

 When we came home, we had a very light lunch and then celebrated with some "cake" for Daddy's birthday.  I say "cake" and not cake because the silly man requested boxed carrot cake with Cool Whip/cream cheese frosting. YUCK!  Normally I would never consent to such low standards, but you'll do just about anything to make the man you love happy on his birthday!

The only part of making this cake that I enjoyed was letting Sarah help with the process.  She likes to watch the mixer, so I pulled a chair up for her to supervise while I made the cake.  When I pulled the bowl out to pour the batter into the pan, I turned around and caught Sarah licking the batter off the paddle while it was still attached to the mixer!  I went ahead and pulled it off so she could hold it...

After lots of slurping, she announced that she was "all done" and handed me the paddle.  As I walked it over to the sink, I heard her say, "Look, Mommy!  MORE."  I turned around just in time to see her stick her entire hand into the batter I had poured into the pan!  It made a mess, but it was too cute for me to get really upset about!

In fact, Sarah has been a bucketful-of-cuteness a lot recently (when she isn't throwing a tantrum, yelling "NO!", and/or refusing to go to bed!).  Here are some examples of her adorableness:

• This spring, Sarah has been calling any blooming tree a "tickle tree."  I have no idea where this came from or why they would be labeled such, but it's really cute to be in the car with her and hear her say, "Watch out, Mommy!  Tickle tree!"  And then she laughs and laughs...

• Sarah has been increasingly curious about the names of items we see in our everyday world.  I'm not always the best at guessing which item she's pointing to, but I try my best to give her the names of things and describe what they are or what they do.  She never asks, "What is this?", though.  She just points and says, "This is?" 

• At some point in the last month, Sarah started calling her daddy, "Tom."  I guess I laughed one time too many, because he taught her how to say, "Kristin."  We were in the car one night and from the backseat we heard, "Hey, Tom?  Hey, Tom?  Hey, Tom? (big pause) That's Kristin!"  So nice of her to introduce the two of us!

• Sarah has also started calling the yard her "garden."  Anytime she wants to go play outside she says, "I go in my garden?"  Ironically, she has no interest in playing in our actual garden.

• For some reason, any time we put Sarah in short sleeves, she thinks she is a ballerinia.  This also applies to pajamas, so each night after tubby, we put her in her jammies and she says, "I rina!"  She then has to run into the hall, twirl around twice, and THEN we can start our stories!