the rest of spring break

The rest of our spring break week was rather uneventful. We had lunch at the mall one day and took Tatum to the Children's Museum (and lost my license in the process). Although it didn't feel like spring, it was spring break, so we fired up the grill one night. I can't wait until it is warmer and we can grill more often. And we got some stuff done around the house. That was pretty much the extent of it. Even though it wasn't super well  planned or exciting it it has still been difficult to go back to normal life.  But since this was probably one of our last years of having a spring break I guess we will just take what we get. :)

Tatum rocking a baby at the Children's Museum. It was almost as big as her haha.

 This picture was taken right before Brennan convinced me to send Tatum down a much bigger slide than she is used to. It ended with a head clunk and an unhappy child. I blame daddy. :)

 I love Brennan's face in this picture. He loves the ball room at least as much as Tatum.

 Tatum assisting with the grilling. This girl is ready for it to warm up. She loves being outside.

 Love that face.

 Grandma made her a little sweater/jacket. It was difficult to get her to model for me. She finally managed to be still and the lighting was bad. Oh well.

Davenport

Last week was spring break! Woohoo! Haha. I wish I was about to start a blog post about some awesomely exciting (and warm) trip we took, but I'm not. We were boring and mostly just hung out at home.  We had big hopes of going on a trip, but we just never came up with anything that sparked our interest enough to make it worth the money.  So our big trip was to Davenport on Tuesday. I know, I know, maybe a little too exciting, we should probably be careful. :) Brennan needed to go there over break to check out St. Ambrose University, so Tatum and I tagged along. We went to a nearby mall while Brennan met with a professor. I knew it would be too early for the stores to be open but at least it would be a warm place to walk around. I had no idea how packed it would be! It was swarming with the elderly! Hello mall walkers. And they were not friendly. I thought Tatum would get lots of smiles and hellos, but that definitely didn't happen. They mostly just acted like we were in their way. It was slightly uncomfortable. Luckily it didn't take Brennan too long to call and then we went and got him and headed to the John Deere Pavilion. Originally we hoped to make a day of it by taking Tatum to the zoo, but since Iowa refuses to recognize the fact that it is spring we went with a warmer option.

I wasn't sure Tatum would really care much for the John Deere Pavilion. A bunch of big tractors didn't seem like something that would entertain her for long but she loved it. She loved climbing into them, twisting the steering wheels, and playing with the little toy ones. It was a lot of fun to watch her. We took a disgusting amount of pictures and although I won't post them all, there will still be a lot. But we all know pictures are the best part of a blog post anyway.

 Playing at the little farm table.

 She makes this face in public a lot. Just taking it all in.

 She tried very hard to pick up those rocks. Couldn't quite understand that they were definitely not moving.

 Something was funny. :)

 I though this picture was funny because we are basically in the same position.

 Trying the simulator with dad. Between the two of us Brennan and I managed to get negative 100. We actually removed dirt from the area we were supposed to be moving it to. Oops.

 This picture is hilarious. You might have to enlarge it to truly appreciate it.

 Such a classic Tatum expression.

 The family in front of the giant combine.

After the John Deere Pavilion we stopped at a few stores and then went to get some food at The Machine Shed. I've been there a few times with my family but Brennan has never experienced it and since it's one of a kind we figured we better go. My favorite thing about this place is that in addition to the crayons and paper that just about every restaurant gives to kids, they also give them a tractor to play with. That tractor entertained Tatum for a lot longer than crayons.

After they brought my water Tatum begged and begged for my lemon. It didn't take her long to change her mind.

 What a cutie.

 On the tractor outside The Shed. It's a little bit older than the ones at the Pavilion.

 Just a couple of corn fed Iowa girls (eh, mom?) standing by a giant ear of corn. :)

So maybe Davenport isn't a super exciting spring break destination, but it was enough to be spending the day as a family doing something out of the ordinary. We had a lot of fun.

When we got home Tatum insisted on helping when Brennan started washing the dishes. So I didn't have to wash or entertain Tatum. Pretty relaxing way to end a good day. :)

 And lastly a picture of Tatum in her St. Patrick's Day dress from last week because it was just so stinkin' cute.

technology junkie

Tatum loves technology. It's a little scary sometimes. She has come to think that every time I get out my phone to text she needs to have it. Not fun. She can sense a computer being turned on from miles away. And she can operate a touch screen almost as well as my mom. ;) 

A couple Sundays ago we were at my parents' for dinner and my mom gave Tatum an old phone of hers that she had charged for her. You'd think she had died and gone to heaven. Mom set her in this rocking chair and Tatum probably sat there for at least 20 minutes, feeling like the coolest cat in town with her awesome cell phone. What a goose!

almost

Brennan and I have been talking about getting a dog for quite a long time now. We had an opportunity right around the time Tatum was born but I decided I wasn't sure I wanted to do a newborn and a puppy. It seemed a little overwhelming. But now that Tatum LOVES dogs, we have had extra motivation to get one. But it still hasn't happened. There haven't been a whole lot that we have been interested in but when we are they are usually gone before we get a chance to see them or else there is something else to make us decide it's not the dog for us (the right breeds are always wayyy out of our price range, of course). Last week, however, we got close. I mean really close. My mom, Tatum, and I went out to the humane society to see some boxer/border collie puppies. I went in the back to look for them and when I came back out mom and Tatum were sitting on a bench holding the runt. She was very cute. Very, very cute. And before I knew it I was filling out the adoption application and scheduling a time to come back and pick her up. 

We went back to see her another time so Brennan could see her. Here are some pictures we took. She was really active during that second visit so it was hard to get a good picture.

I'm sure you gathered from the title of the post that we didn't end up getting her. I talked to a couple of friends about breeds and they weren't terribly excited about this combination. Brennan didn't seem completely on board (and believe me he has been really excited about other dogs), we would like to finish the fence in our backyard but we need to wait until the ground isn't so hard, and probably lots of other factors. Bottom line, she isn't ours. But she sure is cute.

old school

Brennan and I were going through Tatum's closet the other day so we could move some stuff downstairs for storage and have more room for the things she is actually using. We found a box of a few of my old clothes that we took from my parents' house. In it we found a gem of a sweat outfit that looked just about Tatum's size. So of course we put it on her and snapped a few photos.  I need to find the picture of me wearing it so we can do a side-by-side comparison.

Skyping with grandma and papa to see if they recognized the outfit.

Lookin' good, Tatum, lookin' good.

gymnastics and a derby

This last weekend we decided to head the Hawkeye women't gymnastics meet for something a little different to do. I was a little worried that it might be boring, and I suppose it probably was for Tatum, but we enjoyed it! The scoring seemed a little inflated but it was a lot of fun to watch. Tatum was definitely done after about an hour or so so I took her up to the top and let her run around the top of the arena. She was in heaven. That girl could run and look at her feet all day I think.

 This is her "Where is it?" (and "all done") stance. I'm not sure what she was looking for, probably her dad.

We left before they were finished with the floor routines and the balance beam but those were a little boring anyway.

She is not afraid to just run off without us. It's a little frightening...

                                                                                            Lately she looks a lot like Alfalfa.

On Saturday the weekend fun continued with a Potato Derby at the Church. You know, like the Pinewood Derby that the boy scouts do. But instead of using wood, we carved potatoes. It was a pretty clever idea, I think, and a lot of fun.

Here is Brennan with his creation, The Squirrel.

I thought it was a cute little car. Emphasis on little. He probably took too much of the potato off, leaving it too light. But he did alright in the consolation bracket. :)

I didn't help with the car at all. Most of my time was spent chasing this trouble maker all over the church building. Look at that face, she knows she is up to no good.

 And trying to get her to eat something besides potato chips.

 She was a big fan of The Squirrel and drove it around in our kitchen when we got home. She is a future potato derby winner for sure.