First Field Trip!

Mallory went on her first field trip to Sunnyside Gardens in Saratoga a couple of weeks ago. We were a little nervous about how the trip was going to go but overall it was a success! The mode of transportation was a big yellow school bus and Mallory had no problems getting on board. There was a little resistance when it was time to buckle up (as you can see below) but she snapped out of it pretty quick. She had a great time on the ride up!




I don't want to buckle up Mommy!!

 



I'm better!

The kids had a blast checking out the pumpkins, flowers, and taking a ride on the train. Mallory did a great job of checking everything out and she especially liked the hayride. She also had a chance to hang out with a couple of her favorite classmates Allie and Dominic.

 

Picking Pumpkins

My friend Allie



My buddy Dominick


Here are some more pics from the Trip:

 

Checking out the train set

Hi!

Riding the train with Mommy

Lunch time!

Thumbs up!

 



Back to the Beach!

It's been a little over a week and we are finally back into the swing of things after a great vacation in Newport. The last time we were there was a couple of years ago and Mallory had such a great time playing on the beach. This year she picked up right where she left off. The weather was perfect and we were able to get her to the beach almost every day.

Not sure if I want to go in...

 

One of the big changes from the last Newport vacation was that we left the pups at home this time around. We had a good friend of ours stay at the house to keep an eye on things. As much as we wished the pups were with us, it was so nice to have one less thing to think about and we had more room in the car since the cargo area of the wagon was now free. The ride to and from Newport went well. We were not sure how Mallory was going to be in a car for 4 hours but she did great and was occupied with her Leap Pad tablet.

Here Mommy, have some mud!

We stayed at the same house we rented the last time, which worked out great because we were able to eat most of our meals there versus having to go out every time and it was so close to everything. The bed situation for Mallory was a little shaky at first because her room had 2 full size beds to work with. We wound up pushing one of the beds against a wall and setting up two bed rails on the front and side. The first night, she went right to sleep without any issue with her new surroundings and the rest of the week was the same. I think all the time outside and on the beach tired her out so much that she just crashed the minute she hit the bed.

Waves!!

Me and Daddy



One of the days we decided to take a field trip to a nearby Animal Garden park which we thought Mallory would like. We got there and spent about forty-five minutes getting Mallory to "warm up" to the place. After getting her to start walking towards the main garden area, we had a chance to see some really neat flowers and gardens.

Animals!

Alright, I'll check it out....
 

When we weren't on the beach or checking out animal shaped bushes, we spent a lot of time driving around and checking out different parks and drinking a lot of Dell's lemonades...at least one of us was drinking Dell's.

The week went by so fast and we snuck one more trip to the beach in the morning before we went back to the house to pack things up. It was so nice to have the beach to ourselves and see the waves one last time. Overall, the trip couldn't have been better and it was so great to see Mallory enjoy herself. Looking forward to many more beach vacations! Stay tuned for more pictures...we were still sorting through the hundreds we took each day!

Bye Bye beach :(

Waves are coming!

Higher Daddy!

Graduation Week!

It's been a pretty busy month of August and as we are packing things up for our vacation week in Newport, I wanted to share some pictures of Mallory's recent school graduation day. Although she wasn't an official graduate, since she just started at the school in July, they still had her participate and had her "cross the bridge" as shown in the picture above. Michol and I showed up after the musical entertainment began, so Mallory did not see us until after the ceremony. It was so neat to see her sitting up front with her classmates and singing a rendition of "Let It Go" for the parents. The only bad part was that Mallory was fighting a cold and kind of looked a little out of it during the ceremony. Overall she did great and is now ready to start a new school year in September.

I think I just saw my Mommy and Daddy?

I really think that's them!!
 

The two pony tails

In other news, we FINALLY were able to pull Mallory's hair back in a ponytail. This has been an ongoing struggle for us since day 1. We made it past the first challenge of getting a headband on and never thought that she would go for the ponytail but one day at school, one of the teachers gave it shot on the playground and she had no issue with it. No problem to this day....yay!

So we head off to Newport this week....stay tuned for a vacation post!

We're Back!

I know, it's been a while since my last post and even Mallory can't believe that the Merriman Tales are back. Lots of new updates to share with you since last left off!

In the early part of July, Mallory started at her new school (Spotted Zebra in Albany), and went from three days to five days a week. Leading up to her first day, we were very nervous and anxious about how the first drop-off was going to go especially since she was just getting settled in at her old school. To our amazement, Mallory's first day went great and she really adjusted well to her new surroundings right from the start. It's been a little over 3 weeks and things couldn't be going better.

In other news, we decided it was time to convert Mallory's crib to a "toddler" bed since she has been recently making attempts to climb out of the crib. We didn't know how well the new bed setup was going to go so we did it on a Saturday and had Mallory "check out" the bed before we put her down for nap & bedtime. Once again, Mallory surprised us with no resistance and eventually went right to sleep after we put her down and made no attempt to get out. To this day she has yet to climb out and explore her room during the night! The other strange thing about this is that we no longer have an aerial view of her bed since we had to relocate the camera so that we could see the entire room if she climbed out of bed...we have a rotating camera that allows us to scan the room from the hand held monitor which is great.

 

First night in her new bed!

On weekends, we have had some great weather for playing in the yard. Mallory loves playing with her water table and of course cannot get enough of her swing!

Yoga with Mommy :)

This past weekend was Michol's birthday and we went over to Nana and Papa Merriman's house for some lunch. Mallory had a great time running around the yard and scarfing down some cupcakes. One thing Mallory did that surprised us was she ate an entire cupcake. In the past she would not want to eat the frosting and would get upset if she got any on her hands. Well, she ate everything and she licked the frosting off her fingers. Who is this child???


I'm here! 

 

Peace out, I'm out of here!

 

 

I need to tell you something Mommy!

Trying on Nana's glasses



Coming soon....more updates on Malllory's new school, backyard adventures, and the Merriman Family Vacation in Rhode Island (first week of September!)...

Birthday Week (Part 1 of 2)!

We celebrated Mallory's birthday last week and had the family over for the festivities. For the most part, everything went well. First off, the weather could not have been better....it was sunny, warm, and not a cloud in the sky. For the first half of the party, we had a little trouble getting Mallory to warm up to the crowd  :) To give you a little history, last year she woke up right from her nap with everyone already at the house so it was a little overwhelming for her but she got over it pretty quick. This time around, we decided to wake her up before people showed up so she was more awake and it didn't go quite as well as we expected. After several attempts to get her outside, she asked us if she could take a nap upstairs (even though she had already slept for 2 hours earlier)....so we went up to her room, put her down, and she slept for about an hour. During the nap, everyone was enjoying the food and hanging out in the yard. Once we brought her back downstairs, it took a little bit of coaxing but she eventually came out and joined the party. We had a great time and Mallory received some wonderful gifts from everyone!

Come on out!

  

Almost there!

Dancing Around!

Holding my Birthday Cookie!

Birthday Cookies!

Opening Gifts!

Fun with Uncle Harry!

Kiss from Nana!

Kiss from Papa!

Kiss from Grandma!

Kiss from Grandpa!

The Family!

More from Mallory's birthday week....coming soon :)