Turnin' Two at the Zoo!

My baby girl is not a baby anymore!!! She turned TWO on Saturday, and we celebrated the entire weekend- but the grand finale was her party at the zoo on Sunday!! Before I get to the pictures- here are the most adorable things about her at 2 years old:

-She's 25th percentile weight, and 90th percentile height.

-She LOOOOVES school at Tigerland- and we LLLOOOOVE her teachers!

-She's really into animals, what type of environment they live in, and of course the sounds they make. (Hence the zoo party!)

-She made up a game where she finds as many shapes as she can in the "real world." She gets especially proud when she spots an oval or triangle.

-She sings along with songs now and it's precious. Most recently: "I will rriiiiise" with Chris Tomlin on KSBJ on the drive home from school.

-She's still obsessed with Shamu weeks after our Sea World trip. She talks about his jumps and splashes non-stop.

-She amazes me everyday with knowledge that she is just soaking up from the world around her. She told me just the other day that we were driving in a "forrest."

-"Toy Story" is her favorite movie, and "Blues Clues" and "Fresh Beat Band" are her favorite shows.

OK, here are some cute pictures! There are a TON more wonderful pictures of many more people that were able to make it out, so check out the Snapfish album, too: http://www2.snapfish.com/snapfish/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=5689928013/a=89282753_89282753/otsc=SHR/otsi=SALBlink/COBRAND_NAME=snapfish/

Starting off the weekend with cupcakes at school for the birthday girl on Friday!

My sweet birthday girl on the actual day of her birth: 9/25.

Arriving at the zoo for her birthday party! Sporting one of the party favors, the animal sunglasses:

The hit of the morning: the cupcakes MiMi ordered!

One of Ada's BFF's from school, Chloe! The other Tigerland friends we invited didn't make it- most of them were home sick with a nasty bug that's been going around school. :(

Kendra and Luis made it!!! (Despite the fact that I'd accidentally booked the party on the Texans vs. Cowboys home game which we all had tickets to... that really meant a lot to me that they came!)

Deep conversation with Uncle Drew.

Her favorite Great-Grandma, MorMor!!!

My shabby job of painting her face like a zebra....

Ada and Bella making up their own game....

Ada and Bella, future Aggie roomies!
Daddy leaving to make it to the Texans game... a little apprehensive because he is taking all of her presents!

Carousel rides for everyone! Probably Ada's favorite part of the day!

Exploring the zoo....

Ada and MiMi:

Riding in her new wagon with her friend Knox- not sure what happened to her lenses!

Again- many people didn't make the blog- check out the Snapfish album or my facebook page! I'm in a lazy-blogger phase and I didn't feel like uploading any more pictures!!! :)

Random Update

I've been neglecting you, www.thedailydowell.blogspot.com. Life is fine and dandy: I'm feeling loads better, we are all doing fine, work and school are going well. I'm teaching Chemistry still, but got 2 sections of Anatomy & Physiology as well- love the subject, love the class, love having two preps most of the time. I'm also Student Council sponsor this year, which is all good fun, too- I'm just doing the bare minimum with it for now, though.

We are super busy these days, so there are not a lot of fascinating happenings around the Dowell house. (Not like the million posts from this summer were fascinating to anyone else- but you catch my drift!) But there have been some cute pictures here and there that I thought I'd post before I forget about them forever! Here ya go:

Apparently this is how cool kids eat their dinner:

Naked box head!

Ada has been wanting to hold hands to and from school some days- and I looove it! Love this girl!

Playing in a late summer rain storm:

Playing at the mall playground- it's been too hot to do anything outside since July!

Ada is going to be TWO YEARS OLD on Saturday. I cannot believe it!!!! Her birthday party is at the Zoo this year, and I might be more excited than anyone else!!!! We are sending cupcakes to school tomorrow for her mini-celebration there- getting the weekend started early! I'll post a TON of pictures of the festivities very soon, I'm sure!

Sea World Adventure!

Hello long lost blog! It's been a while- I'm starting to feel better, so I might start posting more soon! (Betcha can't wait!)

So, here's a little background info before I write about our Labor Day weekend: Casey broke a big account at work: yay! And by big, I mean they had about 2 weeks to fill something like 60-something spots at Comcast. So- Ada and I went almost 3 weeks (and weekends) without seeing Casey- booooo! As proud as we were of him- it was REALLY rough on us at home, too. When you are just starting back to school (which is exhausting), being 7, 8, & 9 weeks pregnant (which is MORE exhausting), and being the sole caregiver of a very active toddler (which is the MOST exhausting!)- it was a recipe for fatigue that I am not even going to complain about because you just can't fathom it. Plus I hate complaining and complainers- so I'm leaving it at that. Anywho- Ada was SUCH an angel (and has been since I got pregnany sick- seriously. I never knew how easy an almost 2 year old could be!), and we missed out on a lot of family time- we decided to take advantage of the three day weekend and head to San Antonio or a little Sea World and Riverwalk action! So, here ya go!

Resting up on the drive over to SA:
First stop: the new baby seals!

A lot of the pictures I took are of Ada's expressions- I couldn't get enough of her that day!!!

Feeding the barking sea lion- which was HILARIOUS to Ada!

Waiting (with a sinus and eye infection- the doctor squeezed us in the day before, thank goodness!) for the sea lion show!

"WOOOOHHHH!" -Ada

"OH WOW!" -Ada, while clapping

Squealing!

Oh my gosh, this picture is SO unflattering- but too funny not to post!

Mommy and Ada and #2:

"Cheeeeze PIZZA!" -Ada

Obligatory Family Shamu picture!

Patiently awaiting the dolphin/beluga whale show "Azul."

Sittin' in the Splash Zone (with a random chicken toy I'd dug out of my bag)!

"Wooooooohhhhh!" -Ada

"WWWWWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWW!" -Ada

So tired. So stuffy. But being a trooper and having the time of her life!

Zonked out in between Azul and Shamu....

Still sleeping in line for Shamu.....

Well rested! "He's SWIMMIN'!" -Ada

"Splashin!" -Ada

Entertaining herself in the hotel room. (Hotel Contessa- I've ALWAYS wanted to stay here, and we got a steal on it since we booked it less than 24 hours before.... I guess they needed to fill up some more rooms! It was amazing. It'll be hard to down-grade back to our normal places next time we go!)

Stuffy, smiley girl!

Our favorite Riverwalk restaurant- Casa Rio. Yum!

"Hallo? MiMi?"

Going to sleep in a BIG big girl bed! (Where I slept with her since she kind of sleep walks!)

Ada's first trip to the Alamo- of thousands I'm sure!

Drive home on Sunday- annoyed right now at Mom and Dad's rendition of Pearl Jam's "Jeremy's Spoken." "STOP IT!" -Ada

We had an AMAZING time- I've paying for it in sleep and throwing up since we got home yesterday, but it's all worth it! I'd do it every weekend if we could!!!