The Greatest Place on Earth!

Today was Lilli's last day at her current daycare! Hip Hip Hooray!!! We're moving on to bigger and better things, and after too much worrying and stress it was time to CELEBRATE! So tonight we took her to Chuck E Cheese!

It's been a LONG time since we've been there - really for no other reason than we're just so busy we haven't had time to go! We're always doing fun stuff and going lots of places, we just haven't squeezed in any Cheese time.

We endured the torturous rush hour traffic and made our way to the Rivergate Chuck E. By the time we got there Lilli was losing it and screaming Eat from the backseat. Ugh! But as soon as we walked in and she saw the Fun she was fine. First thing she wanted to ride:Then she had to give Chuck E some love:
She pretty much hugged and kissed him ALL night. I'm sure there's no germs on this thing.....HA!
When our food was ready we headed down to the concert area. She was MESMERIZED by the show!
Waving at the "crew"
Clapping when they finished their song....
The "band" has gotten so weak from what I remember! They only played two songs and then they just play various cartoons on the TVs.
Afterwards we played more games, and since there were several birthday parties going on I guess Chuck E himself was scheduled to make an appearance. At first she went chasing after him, but then got super scared when he got near and wouldn't go near him.
Looking cute in the little car:
She loved the tickets! I'd have to watch her from stealing people's tickets as they played games. We played a few things to get tickets - Skee ball and some other basketball and challenge games. We ended up with 76 tickets - enough to get some absolute junk - a little necklace, plastic Chuck E and a couple of stickers.
She had a GREAT time and completely passed out in the car on the way home. We've really got to keep Chuck E Cheese on our regular rotation!

MRS. Shannon

Saturday afternoon we took Lilli to her first wedding for her "Miss Shannon" from school. Shannon has been our favorite teacher and our babysitter! It was a crazy day for us with it being Tomato Festival weekend. We got back from the festival around noon & she was so hot and tired she wasn't interested in lunch at all. We got her down for a nap, ate and showered and had to get her back up at 1:15 and literally head out the door. Normally she takes a good 2-3 hour afternoon nap, so we were running at just barely over an hour! Of course we didn't want Lilli to be a distraction, so I had packed a few books and things for her and we planned to sit in the back of the church and Brent would get her out if she "lost" it. Little did we know their church was an old skating rink, so it's completely wide open with no foyers or hallways to evacuate fussy babies! As Lilli would say, "Ooooh, no!". So our NEW plan became Brent just taking her out to the car and running the AC until I gave him the all clear. AND, since it was all in one room they asked everyone to sit in their seats about 10 minutes before it all started so the wedding party could line up in the back.
She was SO squirmy and already in the floor before the parents were even seated. But I had a trick in my bag - a Lunchables!!! We pulled that out and she watched the wedding while eating her ham, cheese and crackers. She sat and ate and ate and ate the whole time like she was at the movies, HA!
We thought we had "made" it when they announced them bride and groom - until they asked everyone to stay in their seats another 15 minutes while they took pictures. Ouch! But at least we didn't have to be quiet or anything like that. They had a really nice reception with all kinds of food and during the reception they came around to say hi.
Lilli was so excited to see Shannon and REALLY wanted to go to her. Of course we'd been eating and she was all goopy and there was no way that was going to happen!!
She just kept staring at Shannon and wanting to touch her veil and dress.
Our table was all friends from her daycare, the other little girl is Henley. Naturally the two of them didn't even act like they knew each other. And that's Ms Sami, her teacher in the Infant room.
And another one of her teachers, Miss Stephanie.
She got down and ran around after we finished eating. They were playing music and she was out on the dance floor, dancing around. The ONLY one dancing.
We stayed until they cut the cake. Of course someone got their little fork in and ate a good bit of it!!
Congratulations to MRS Shannon! We just know they're having a great time in Disney.

Mini-Golf

Friday night we went to dinner at Caney Fork, a catfish place over near Opryland. The last time we went was nearly a year ago, and MY have times changed! It's kind of sad how empty the places over near Opryland Hotel are right now without as many tourists in the area. One thing we found incredibly strange was that their kid's coloring menu had a man with a gun on it. Only in the South.... And the tourists behind us were just in love with the place - snapping camera phone pics of all the dead animals on the wall. They had the same band playing, and instead of sleeping through it this time Lilli danced along. She loved the restaurant and all the animals on the wall, just don't tell her they won't be dancing along!
Afterwards we went over to the Grand Old Golf just up the street, which was also pretty empty. We decided to play some mini golf. Lilli absolutely loved it, although it would've been easier if the course was only 10 or 12 holes because she got somewhat bored and tired as it was getting late. And I "wisely" picked the Old Mill course, which meant lots of water features around so we were constantly chasing her down and making sure she didn't end up as part of a water feature!
As soon as we'd hit the ball she'd go chasing after it, so it was a race to try to know where your ball landed! She quickly figured out that we celebrate when it went in the hole, and that was the ultimate goal.
They even had a little plastic club for her, and we got a couple of balls in case she lost hers. No worries since she was way more interested in ours.
Trucking off to the next hole....
This is how much I ended up losing by! No fair!! I claim a Lilli distraction since I was leading by several strokes until the last few holes when she started losing it.
See: 1 point!!!
It was a fun night and we'd definitely take her back, especially if we got an earlier start. The up-side of fewer tourists is that we were never waiting on anyone else and no one was waiting on us, either. And it was also about 100 degrees, so we all got a little overheated outside. Lilli sweats like a pig and was just drenched by the time we were done.

Tomato Fest Outfit

The Tomato Festival is all about the outfit! Luckily since Lilli is just a peanut she could still wear the same 6-12M dress she wore last year, just with some bike shorts underneath!

I'm glad we took some cute pictures of her before since right when we got there she got chocolate popsicle all over herself!What makes the outfit even better is that it's all consignment! I think I paid $4 for the dress and got two years out of it, the shorts were $2 on a Children's Place online sale and the shoes were $3 at a consignment sale!
One last pic with big bro!

Sunday!

Still too many pics from the weekend to go through, and Brent was super nice tonight and helped me organize some things after the DoodleBug went to sleep.

When we were headed out of church "the other Brent" was driving by on one of the Security golf carts and offered us a ride to the car. It's not THAT far of a walk and I instantly said No but they talked me into it in the name of "Lilli would love it!". And of course she did (although this picture doesn't do it justice!) So I just had to get a pic of them on the golf cart. I'm pretty sure she's going to want one every Sunday from now on!To continue our wild and crazy adventures we had Fazolis for lunch. Toddlers + Pasta Sauce + Sunday Clothes = Living on the Edge!
We've been trying to hit the pool for a little while every Sunday afternoon before it's all closed for fall (which seems ages away since it was 103 yesterday!) This is the first time I've put her in this swimsuit (I think I paid $4 for it at a consignment sale). I didn't care for it, she didn't really float and was just harder to grab. I think Brent enjoyed the 5 million Jihad/terrorist/bomb jokes he made about her. And then for the first time EVER she pooped at the pool and changing her swim diaper with this suit was WAY harder than in one of her normal two piece swimsuits.
She is SUCH a mess!!!
I can't believe the weekend is already over!

Saturday! Saturday!

MAN! What a Day!!! It's Tomato Festival day here in East Nashville which means lots and lots of activities and catching up with lots and lots of friends.It was also Miss Shannon's wedding day so now Lilli has a Mrs Shannon!Thankfully among 3 hikes up the Tomato Festival and one wedding planned plum in the middle of "afternoon nap time" Lilli clearly kept her composure. Actually she did pretty good today, as well as you could expect an 18 month old who never got a chance to sit still today, have lunch or dinner, and only got a 1 hour nap could do! Oh yeah - and it was up to 103 degrees today and we spent most of it outside. Good times!!

Lots and lots of pictures to come - we took about 900 today. And we took her mini-golfing for the first time last night and got lots of cute pictures. I just need the time to get some uploaded!

Fishy

We had lunch at Long John Silvers on Sunday morning. There's one particular employee who has worked there since before Lilli was born and always comments on how much she's grown. Isn't that funny? It's really not a place you'd expect someone to work for years, but she's so nice. We were thinking the same thing on Sunday - we used to bring her in there in her little baby carseat and she'd sleep the whole time we ate. Not so much anymore!
That girl loves her popcorn shrimp! I'm also partial to this one - her posed "Say Cheese" look.Such a stinker!