Ruby Turns 2

Monday I took the younger 4 kids to Skyzone, Penny was happy to be back at the jumping. I was nervous but Penny didn't go too crazy. She basically hung out with Ruby. Their favorite thing was playing on the basketball/soccer court. Ruby would flop onto the ground and Ben would call it a foul and let them get a penalty shot. They all had a good time.

Tuesday Tyler and the boys all left on the young men's camp out. Having them out lent to a more chill week with no pesky brothers and less driving people places. I was a little nervous about Tyler driving all the YM in our ward to the camp in Grand Rapids in our untrustworthy suburban but *spoiler alert* they got there and back safely.

Wednesday after I dropped Lucy off for babysitting, I took Penny and Ruby to the Detroit Outdoor Center. It was fun for Ruby but Penny was less interested and kind of rushed Ruby along. It took up a lot less time than I had hoped it would. So on the way home we stopped at Costco because I NEEDED more snicker doodle cookie ice cream sandwiches, and also to take up some more time. I could not believe how crazy busy it was at lunchtime on a weekday. All this time I thought our trips for pizza Friday were bad but they were not nearly this peopley.

Wednesday night was supposed to be a young woman's activity at our beach but the weather forecastturned on us. The girls had invited some friends to come to the activity too so they were very upset when I cancelled on the friends because they were sure it was not going to rain. They even made me drive to the beach early because church had not cancelled yet. We were at the beach for a total of 10 minutes before the rain came pouring down. So dumb. But I did see Christy and James and get to chat with them for those 10 minutes so that was nice.

Thursday we had Asher over in the morning. They played with toys and then went and jumped in muddy puddles. It was all fun and games until they splased in particularly deep one and she got water in her boots. She then insisted I take her rain boots off and then walked home barefoot.

That afternoon we had Mimi, Luna and Geli over. The addition of Mimi with Geli and Luna was a good one. There seemed to be less fighting and less boredom than when it's just Geli and Luna. They all entertained each other and it was an easy afternoon for me. After everyone left, we went to Wendy's for dinner just because I didn't feel like cooking and it seemed like a nice way to celebrate our last night as just us girls.

Friday was Ruby's second birthday. The boys were still on their camp out so it was just us girls celebrating. We spent the morning at the Toledo Zoo. The weather was absolutely perfect and we got to see lots of fun animals. Ruby had the most fun at the petting zoo (where she tried to feed a chicken wood chips and got in trouble) and at the aquarium with all the fishies and "baby" sharks. She also really liked the hippos and the elephants. She is also in this new phase where she calls all "big" things "daddy" and "mama" and she calls all "little" things "baby" and I love it. It is always a good time at the Toledo Zoo. The drive home, on the other hand, was not a good time. Google maps tried to take us around some highway traffic and instead took us to a closed on ramp and then to even more traffic as we tried to get back on the freeway on the next ramp. It was stressful.

After the Zoo Ruby had some quiet time in her crib (she did not nap because she got a power nap in the car) and then she opened her gifts from the grandparents- a train set and pretend food. 

That night the boys all returned from their adventures and Ruby opened her last two gifts from us. She was getting quite good at opening gifts by herself. We got her a Paw Patrol Skye in a plane and a Doctor kit. Not much from us because I have bought her too many things already this past month and counted them as birthday gifts.

Saturday night we had Asher and Miss Julie over to celebrate Ruby. I was going to have them over on her actual birthday but we weren't sure what time the boys would get home from camp so we changed it to Saturday. I made a moon cake because Ruby loves to talk about the "moon, high, sky" and gets so excited when she can see it out before night fall. We sang "happy birthday", ate some cake and ice cream and then she got to open her gift from Asher (a bubble machine and sidewalk chalk). After that the babies played together, opened moon rocks that had lollipops inside (aluminum foil), colored on my parent's driveway with her new chalk and then played some inside until Asher melted down and had to go home. Is it wrong that I was happy to see him behave like a normal toddler? He's always so sweet and pleasant and patient with Ruby. It was nice to see he wasn't perfect ;). I am mad at myself though, I did not take any pictures of the two of them together that night. Failure.