It's our 5 year anniversary on August 2.  I am posting now because Joe and I are leaving for Belize early tomorrow morning.  I am so excited to have my husband all to myself for 5 days. 5 days to reconnect, relax, explore and just enjoy each other. 

It's so fun to look back at our wedding pictures and remember the emotions from that amazing day.

I was pretty sure that I was going to marry Joe just 6 months after meeting him.  I think he knew too (even though it took a little while propose.) ; )

We are complete opposites but complement each other quite nicely (kind of like peanut butter and jelly.)  

 We are learning that marriage takes work but definitely worth the time and effort.

Joe is the only one that sees all of my true colors, which are sometimes not that pleasant.  He gets to see all of me because I trust him and I know he'll love me through it.

There are many reasons that I wanted to marry Joe and when I look back on our wedding pictures, it's so fun to revisit all of those emotions and feelings.  Because, even though the same feelings are still there, sometimes they get lost in laundry, crying children and bills.

I am so glad we said, "I do" five years ago.  It was the best decision of my life.

I can't wait to look back at 10, 20, 30, 40+... years.  

Marriage is a risk but so worth fighting for.

If I didn't take that risk, I wouldn't have had the opportunity to spend the last 5 years with my best friend.

I love planning something almost every day of the week.  Our weekly schedule is: M- Walk with my friend, Hillary/ go swimming. T- Museum, zoo or aquarium outing or stay home  W- Museum, zoo or aquarium outing or stay home  Th- Story time at the library and F- Play date with friends.  We typically have only one day a week where we stay home.  Even though we keep busy, we are always home for naps and spend the afternoons playing in our playroom or going to the park.  Here are some pictures from our recent adventures...

Children's Museum

 Downtown Aquarium

Our membership includes airbrush tattoos and feeding stingrays, which is super fun (especially when we bring friends).

Mia chose a mermaid and blue motorcycle (just like daddy's).

Touching a starfish

Mia was so brave and actually fed the stingrays for the first time!

Her face is priceless.

There was a petting zoo outside of the aquarium when we went with Daddy on the weekend.  It was definitely busier on the weekend but there was a lot more going on than during the week!

Denver Zoo

All of these adventures in the last couple of weeks have been so different now that Naomi is walking.  It is so fun and exhausting at the same time.  She is definitely my adventurer and loves exploring the world on her two feet.

I had a lot of fun ideas for the letter T but we ended up keeping the week pretty simple since Mia wasn't feeling too well for a couple of days.

All of these books are great!  I Wear My Tutu Everywhere! is one of Mia's favorite books.    It's one of those books that I could read with my eyes closed.

T is for Tree

We simply stuck tree stickers to the Tt sheet.

Tt printable

T is for Teeth

My husband cut out a giant tooth on yellow construction paper (to replicate a tooth that needs to be brushed).

We found an old toothbrush and let Mia "brush" the tooth with white paint.  We encouraged her to paint the entire tooth, which was a challenge for her. 

T is for Train 

Here are some toddler friendly train books.  I loved the simplicity of, Freight Train, which focuses on colors.

I would never encourage anyone to do worksheets with their two year old, but Mia loves them so we do them occasionally.  This counting page was great because it only goes up to 5, which was perfect for Mia to work independently.

Link to transportation literacy and math worksheets

When she was done, she wanted more.  Since, I didn't have anymore printed, I drew a T on the back and told her to use the do a dot marker to cover the T.

So Proud.

I've been saving diaper boxes to make something fun. We simply taped the boxes together and created our own train. The boxes could easily be decorated to create a more realistic train, but Mia didn't seem to mind, so I kept it simple.

Mia played with this for several weeks.  She loved loading the boxes with her toys and finding a box to sit in for her adventures.  This was such a fun and simple activity that provided hours of enjoyment.

Also, check out the letter Nn for another fun train activity that uses numbers and counting.

W is for Watermelon

This was a simple project but fun for Mia to match the red w on the green w.

link to w watermelon project

Her "seeds" were more like scribbles but after all, it was her project, not mine.

W is for Watercolor

Mia used watercolor paints to paint the Ww sheet.

link to Ww sheet

W is for Wind

The book, Windblown, is about several shapes that turn into different animals throughout the story.  They get all mixed up at the end and the author encourages you to make your own creation.

I created the shapes from the story with construction paper and let Mia come play with them.

Once she was done playing, I gave her glue to stick them to a piece of paper.

This was such a fun project that could be done with all age levels (older children could also use marker to add to the picture.)