Griffin Updates: Flower Market Time!!

Many parents consider the start of the school year to be the most wonderful time of the year, but so far for me it's FLOWER MARKET!!! A place of so many memories growing up is now something that I can share with Hadley. This was her 3rd and BEST trip to the annual carnival held in Wilmington. The first year she freaked out on the first ride (the bouncing cars) and wouldn't go near the ponies. The second year she was too short to go on most of the rides and wouldn't go near those bouncing cars, but she did enjoy the ponies. And this year she was tall enough and brave enough to do it ALL!

On Wednesday, Harper and I picked Hads up from school and hit the road back to Chadds Ford to see Grandmommy and Granddaddy:

First order of business was to don her new Dora Fiesta dress and make some cookies!

And LAUNCH!
Harper successfully got a couple fingers in the butter cream frosting before I swooped in and wiped it off. Mean mommy.

Guess what day it is!!!

FLOWER MARKET 2011

On Friendly the pony

Grandmommy's turn to take the little cowgirl around the corral

Feeding the stinky goats

And the stinky giant sheep

And two years later she beams with excitement as we wait for the bouncy car ride to start!

SO many squeals of joy

It would appear that Grandmommy and Granddaddy wanted to go on the tea cups alone :)

"Look! No hands!!"

Ah ha! They did let Hadley go with them!

Hadley was enjoying being able to control whether our bee went high or low...and especially enjoyed jolting Mommy back and forth the whole time.

Hadley's first roller coaster!

While she held on, laughing and screaming the whole time, I was giving Grandmommy and Granddaddy the "THIS RIDE SUCKS!" hand signal and trying not to vomit. That little roller coaster was FAST! Clearly I've lost a little edge in my old age.

Perfect time for a lunch break

Harper's relentless pursuit of everyone's lunch and Hadley's relentless pursuit of Harper's personal space.

Griffin girls dance party on the lawn!

Hadley getting her face painted "like a beautiful girl." She has already requested that next year she gets to be Batman. Perfect! Harper can be Robin :)

Somehow Grandmommy, who is a Merry-Go-Round fanatic, got stuck on the weird cat with a fish in its mouth. But I think she still had fun.

Next year, sweetie.

The final ride of the day was a solo one for our big girl! Beaming with pride, she squealed and honked that horn like crazy.

We couldn't leave without paying Friendly one last visit. It's an entirely different ride with face paint.

The next morning Harper enjoys a little snack in her favorite seat in the house, while Hadley gets ready for...

...her first tennis lesson!!

Hadley's cheering section

Look at that form!

Trapping the giant tennis ball

Our future super star!!

Water break!
The two boys sipped silently as Hadley threw that water back with her signature loud gulping. So classy.

One last little game...the rules of which were completely lost on Hadley, but she giggled the whole time so that's all that mattered.

The 3 kids had to shake the instructor's hand at the end of class and say, "Good match," to receive their stickers. So cute! We'll be back in July for a week long tennis camp!

Memory Lane: We took a quick trip to my first playground, located just a few blocks from the first house I lived in. The girls had a great time and Hadley was very excited to know that I played there as a little girl.