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Austen and Morgan visited Sesame Place. They enjoyed the park with all the rides, activities, shows and characters.

Austen loved meeting Elmo. She was very excited while waiting on line and when her turn came, she practically ran into Elmo’s arms giving him several big hugs, a handshake, a high-five and some more hugs as she was leaving.

Morgan and Austen enjoyed playing in an area filled with plushy shapes but eventually wandered off.

Austen and Mama caught the ending portion of this theatrical performance by some of Austen’s favorite characters.

Morgan went on the spinning cup ride with Mommy. No one else in the group was brave enough to join them.

It was a hot day so Austen and Morgan spent a lot of the day in the water activities.

After all that activity, Austen took a nice nap cuddled with big bird.

Austen and Morgan also saw the Elmo’s World show where some selected older kids got to join in on the ending dance session.

Morgan visited for a few days. Although we planned to go to Sesame Place on Friday, it was a rainy day so we rescheduled for Saturday. Instead, we went out to eat for burnch, the girls played at home and then we went to the play area at the mall.

Here’s Austen greeting Morgan, who just woke up. Morgan slept in late because she was up late the night before with the long drive down.

As we entered the mall, the girls spent some time stomping the monkeys!

Here are the girls playing at an indoor gym in the mall.

Morgan goes for a ride on the escalator with Da.

Here’s Uncle Tod using his fancy new camera, trying to look like a pro. We have yet to see if his results are any better.

Morgan pushed Austen around in a stroller while we roamed around.

Here are Austen & Morgan playing at a toy store. Austen is also eating chicken nuggets.

Everybody held hands as we left the mall.

Once we left the mall, the girls did some extra running around and around and around.

Austen enjoyed her trip to Cape May. On the way there, we stopped at the zoo. We saw lots of animals, ate some food and went on a short train ride.

Afterwards, we went to our motel and coincidentally, everyone was pulling into the parking lot at the same time. We went to eat, where Austen got to meet the gang, including some new people. As usual, she like the “big girls,” Katie & Hannah.

Since we had some new visitors, we had to assign new handles.
Joe (Heather’s friend) — Dirt Dog, ODB, Ol’ Dirty Bastard, Dirt McGirt
Katie (Hannah’s friend) — The Ganj
Stephanie (Zack’s friend)– Bruiser (after the chihuahua from Legally Blonde)

The trip was full of long dinners at various restaurants but Austen forged through them, accompanied by toys, sticker books and singing.

We only made it to the beach one morning. Austen enjoyed it a little but didn’t really want to go in the water this year.

Instead of the beach, Austen went to the pool a few times to play around.

Austen enjoyed eating ice cream. It helped get rid of the crankies and temporarily beat the heat.

We went to the annual hot air balloon festival where Austen enjoyed watching all the shapely balloons filling up and taking off.

Video of various balloons getting ready for take off.

It was very muddy conditions because of the earlier rain and really hot but we still managed to have a good time. There were rides, games, jumpy castles and pony rides. Austen enjoyed many of them but didn’t like the pony ride too much today.

Austen also found a friend to run around and play with.

They also hugged for a long time.

Look at all those balloons!

Peanut balloon:

Birthday cake balloon:

Bumble Bee ballons:

Doggie balloon:

At the end of the day, Austen enjoyed some ice cream!

Austen had a blast at her friend Riley’s 2nd birthday party. She dressed up as a punk rock girl, even though she had her sparkly red shoes on. She played with her friends and got to make her own little cupcake, which she then enjoyed eating.

Mama was a bit anxious. We filled the Acura with three toddler seats, three toddlers, three moms and two strollers. But the ride went fine, all the kids enjoying the Baby Einstein DVD.

Wow, Austen rode all the rides, including the swing ride and the super-fast alpine ride. She smiled and was agreeable to being pushed in her stroller and she even shared her snack crackers and craisens with the other kids.

Boat video:

Plane video:

Swing video:

Train video:

Austen invited several of her friends over for a summer party. All the toddlers enjoyed playing with the water toys and some went into the pool (although the water was a little chilly).

Austen ate some BBQ chicken wings with Dada and tested out the water table toy before anyone else arrived.

Puzzles are fun when playing alone but they’re even more fun with a group.

Splash fest with Dean.

Singing the alphabet song.

Singing the itsy bitsy spider song.

The parents also played some games. It was the Mamas vs. the Dadas. The all-Mama team, composed of Lucinda, Daljit and Kelly won.

Austen and Mama enjoy going to the local Metuchen pool. It’s a fun activity and they can stay cool splashing in the water. Sometimes, Austen’s friends join in on the fun. Austen splashes in the kiddie pool, plays with other kids’ toys, hangs out in the playhouses and sometimes eats some food.

Playing with Aaron, while showing off their shades to each other.

When she happens to come upon older boys, she sometimes follows them around and tries to befriend them. If they’re not too much older, they usually enjoy her company. Here, Austen and some older boy stolled around the kiddie pool holding hands and then ran off chasing squirels and playing by the covered fence.

I had the best day at the pool today. Perfect weather: not too hot or too cold. Us kids ran around (in and out of the water), played, kissed, held hands, and shared our snacks. “Please” and “Thank you” were heard numerous times, as well as my playmates names, to whom I love saying “Hi!” and “Buh Bye!”

Thanks to Dean, baby Theo, Aaron, Nicolas and Catherine for playing with me.

At around six, Dada showed up and played with Aaron and me for a while until Mama, Dada and I headed over to dinner at Cafe Paris. There I enjoyed the bread and chocolate milk while Mama and Dada ate fish and buckwheat gallette.

Love,
Austen

After being told “I love you” everyday by Mama and Dada, today Austen said “I wuv you” back to both Mama and Dada.