Cooking Class!

Courtney loves to cook and bake with me. I have to admit that for a few years there(while she was a baby), I had forgotten how much I enjoy cooking and baking. Now that she is older and able to help, it's fun again. Thanks to her aunt Betsy, she is in possession of an easy bake oven. I don't know who named the thing but "easy" should not have been included. For those of you who don't know, everything is completely miniature. I bought a cake mix, as well as a cookie mix, hoping to let my daughter bake on her own. Little did I know that the pan you use to cook is about 5 inches in diameter, and you are supposed to bake three cookies in it at a time! It was way too frustrating for me but Courtney had a great time. We've put the easy bake oven away for now and I think we'll just use the regular oven, which is much easier for me.

A Day Out With Thomas

I know what most of you are thinking. Yes, Courtney is our daughter, not son. But lately she has had a fascination with "boy" things. She loves cars, trucks, trains, basketball, golf, and many more. I think it's mostly due to the fact that the poor girl has almost all cousins and friends her age that are boys. Don't get me wrong, I think it's fine. She still loves princesses more. Plus, she'll have plenty of time for that. Truth be told, I was quite a tomboy myself for most of my childhood. I turned out relatively normal. :)

It all started with my nephew having to go ride Thomas. The weekend of the ride, my brother came into town from Las Vegas. It turned into a whole family trip and was a lot of fun. Courtney was so excited when she saw Thomas. I could tell it was confusing for her though when she said(after riding on the train for 15 minutes), "Can I ride on Thomas now?" Oh boy! She didn't even realize that we were riding him. Still, she had a good time.
She loves to be with her cousins and grandparents more than anything, so that made it all the more fun for her.
Of course the first place she wanted to go after we got off the train was into the gift shop. Luckily, she is really good about looking and not wanting to get everything. I told Dave that we should get her the train track that they have at IKEA. It's only ten dollars!

Other highlights were going to the petting zoo(that was smaller than my master bedroom). It was fun though. The kids got to pet all kinds of cute little animals. Courtney also waited in line for about 15 minutes just to get a Thomas tatoo on her arm. She loves it and will be very sad when it's finally all washed off.