Toledo Zoo

We all ( Grammy, Aunt Janet, Mike , Mack and I) loaded into the car for Mackenzie's first trip to the zoo!Mike set Priscilla ( Grammy's Garmin who hasn't officially been named, but she seems like a Priscilla) toward Toledo. It was a hot and sticky day but Mackenzie still enjoyed the animals that she saw. I think we were all a little relieved when she was ready to go home after lunch. Here are a few pictures of our trip:

Mike , ready to go:
Mapping out a plan of action:
Mackenzie scopin' out the Polar bear:
Mike's right when he says that tigers and lions are just like giant house cats ( that eat people). Watching them is like watching a kitten play. The tigers were Mackenzie's favorite:

There was a neat " In your Neighborhood" exhibit which has things like small salt water fish aquariums, a bee hive that you could see into, an ant farm and cats ( to name a few). Mackenzie liked this part best. She could bounce and play in the "water"
You can see that we were all wilting by lunch time and ready to go home!
This picture was taken mere minutes after buckling seat belts. Her face is still red and her hair matted to her head with sweat:

Lady bug!

Mackenzie got her first glimpse of a lady bug yesterday. She ( The bug) was crawling in the grass we were playing in. It was hard to get good pics since the lady bug flew off so quickly, but here's a picture of Mackenzie trying to kiss her and a few others of Mackenzie playing in the grass:

Thankfully Lady had crawled to the back of my hand before the attempted kissing occurred...had she not, she may not have liked where she ended up:
I asked her where the sunshine was:

Videos!

Mackenzie has been so busy! She's learned to count from 1- 10 ( with prompting) and has learned several random letters. Here are a few videos of her accomplishments!

The first video is of Mackenzie trying to sing "Jesus loves me". This is a vast improvement since before she would sings " Cheese nana Me, I know it! bubble me so!"



Here she is practicing her numbers:



And lastly, here she is with her letters.

Stepping stone

For her birthday, we got Grammy one of those stepping stones that you can add hand or foot prints too. It came with stones that you can add for decoration. It took us THIS long ( her birthday was in May) but we finally got it done! I have to hop over for a picture of the completed project , but here it is "in process":



Grammy even let Mackenzie help decorate ( even when she wanted to put stones inside her hand and foot prints)!
Grammy treated us to ice cream after words but Mackenzie earned a double treat ( notice the pearl necklace- she's a lady of high class):

Bronner's

Bronner's , the world's largest Christmas store, is the perfect place for Mackenzie. It's full of huge santa's, elves, reindeer, snowmen and of course...CHRISTMAS LIGHTS! We rode along with Grandma Mary as she made her yearly trek ( about an hour) to Frankemuth. It was hard to know what Mackenzie loved more- all the Christmas lights or the shocking pink tinsel Christmas tree ( which we though we may have to pry her from). Here are a few pictures of our adventure:

We waited until it was just about nap time to leave, crossing our fingers that Mackenzie would sleep the whole way and she did!
And she woke up just in time for lunch at the Frankenmuth brewery:
Rain coats were a must that day but it didn't stop us from having fun!
Enjoying the view from daddy's shoulders!
An attempt at a mother/daughter photo. You can see that Mackenzie is ready to dart for those lights!
Got it!
And a candy cane on the way out!

Are molars really necessary?

Mackenzie is getting in all four molars at once! I'm starting to question the value of said teeth....
Notice how this picture is taken..that's because I can't get more than 12 inches away from Mackenzie before she cries! Poor girl...on a positive note, the dentist will have something more to count at our next visit!

Letters

Mackenzie REALLY wants to be able to sing the alphabet. Each time we sing it ( about 30 times a day since she loves it so much) she hums along, adding random letters in as she thinks of them. With her growing love of letters, we got her some bathtub letters and fridge magnets. That , along with some of her other toys, has really helped her to recognize letters. Here's a short video of her and her two favorite letters, T and O: