Saturday: 1st pigtails, horses and playtime!

Today I got a little extra camera-happy, but it was Clara's very first time to have pigtails, so I couldn't resist! 

Clara with a pony tail = adorable

Clara with pigtails = DOUBLE the cuteness! 

It's actually rather challenging to find a way to do Clara's hair because she hates having anything in it. It's okay to brush it, but nothing more. Sometimes I can distract her with letting her brush her teeth more than usual while I get one in, but she was extra distracted or something because I was able to manage TWO before she noticed I was spending longer than usual brushing her hair. Sadly there was no time to make them look straighter, but the extra character just makes it even more fun in my personal opinion :)

Seeing herself for the first time with the pigtails :)

how can you resist the grin!?!

Hanging in the car as we make our way to The Woodland's Mall

While waiting for a table at The Cheesecake Factory we decided to check out the boat and the water features. "Ohhhh, pitty!"

Family Portrait :)

And we "pet" and neighed at the gigantic horse statues.

Looking at the colorful cheesecakes while waiting to be seated

"Watcha doin', Daddy?" :)

We thought it was so funny (and cool!) that she lifted her napkin off of the tiny plate as we did and spread it in her lap. We've never explicitly taught her that, but I suppose she sees us do it enough at home and out that she's observed enough to imitate. She shook it out, placed it in her lap, and smoothed it out, completely nonchalantly, without seeing what we thought at all!

As soon as she had her napkin in place the way she thought it needed to be, she emptied the remaining contents of the raisin box onto her tiny plate to tide her over until she received her lunch.

We LOVE it when we're seated next to windows or by other children because it provides interesting things to look at and talk about with Clara while we wait. 

Waving and smiling at everyone who walked by :)

Lulu & Papa joined us just in time for some DELICIOUS cheesecake and to tickle and giggle with Clara, of course :)

Then Lulu and Papa took Clara to the mall playground while Bryan and I ran an errand elsewhere in the mall.

Papa took some fun videos:

Can you tell it was busy at the mall today!?

Clara does love to slide and climb!

Then when Bryan and I finished up our errand we went in search of the rest of our crew and found Lulu and Papa and Clara admiring the "fishies" :)

We finished up our outing with a ride around the Carousel. She really loved it until right at the very end. She was getting pretty pooped out by this time.

Video:

:)

She was so tired we decided it was time to call the afternoon quits. Had so much fun with Lulu & Papa!!

So sleepy even her pony tails started to look droopy, poor baby

I fell really hard on the bathroom tile last night so I've been pretty sore today. To spare me a long walk, Clara and I hung out by the doors while Daddy went to get the car. Then we had our last fun surprise of the afternoon: we saw a REAL horse!! And when I walked up to the horse to show Clara the mounted officer was so nice and let Clara pet the "pitty horsey" and even gave her a little card with a picture of the horse "Tucker" which she keeps admiring and neighing at. So sweet!

She crashed hard at bedtime. Have a lovely evening! (If you're like me you're writing tests and watching the Olympics, not a shabby Saturday night :)