Happy

That's the way I would describe our Tuesday. Just plain old happy. (Of course, I could say that about many days, but that day was particularly special). Met up with some friends visiting from out of town and we took the kids to Sesame Place for the day. SO. MUCH. FUN! It was so great to see my friend Liz and her kids and Ruby was the happiest camper ever. Started off with a show. Ruby was mesmerized. She was sitting nicely on my lap when all the kids started rushing the stage. I whispered in her ear "hey, you wanna go up there?" It took her all of 2 seconds to jump off my lap and run to the stage!

Yes, that is my daughters pigtails way up at center stage. My sweet little groupie tried to climb up stage left and I had to go get her! I let her stay up by the stage but stayed with her. She was so cute at the end when Elmo left the stage...she started to cry. "ELMOOOOOO!" she cried. Ha, ha -her first crush! I reassured her we'd see him again later and gave her a gummy and she quickly recovered. (Incidently, I found healthy organic gummies made with tea extract and loaded with antioxidants. Look for Teavana Menage a Gummies on amazon.com. Ruby loves 'em!)

Creating a little keepsake art...that turns into this:

Ruby could pick any animal and she wanted fish. So we will hang this in her bathroom. Very cute.

Cookie Monster wall. Hey, how many places can your child climb the wall...literally?

They have this great area, too, where the kids can just run and build and jump, then there's another section that is just one big 'ol jumping bounce house. The kids had a blast!

And then the rides. I went on one and then OMG I can not believe I let her go on this one. I was gonna go with her (though I know I would have gotten sick) but they had only one seat left when we got up there and they assured me she was fine to go alone. Ruby couldn't care less if I went. She just kept saying "UP! DOWN! UP! DOWN" and pointing to the ride. So up and down she went. I put her on and stepped back to watch. Thought I was gonna have a panic attack there for a minute. Surely they wouldn't let her go on if she wasn't safe? But I just looked at her little legs hanging off and nearly ran back to snatch her off there. But then the ride started. She was ADORABLE and laughing her head off the whole time. This kid cracks me up. She is such a dare devil!

So excited to meet "COOKIE!" as she calls him.

And of course, she HAD to get her face painted. She saw some older girls with this rainbow design when were waiting to get on the ride and had to get the same thing. They did her lips red and she was beside herself with giddiness. Must have said "Look! Lips! Ruby's!" like a hundred time before and after they did the make-up. When she took a sip of water 15 minutes later she stopped suddenly and said "uh-oh! LIPS!" I assured her they were still red and she lit up again. This child is such a glamour girl! I love it!

Happy on the "horsey ride" as she calls the carousel.

And last, but not least...the highlight of her day...meeting the infamous Elmo and giving him a hug!

This one they super-impose so it looks like she was on Sesame Street. It's really taken in front of a green screen, like this one:

I had the hardest time deciding between the two so I bought them both. Much better than the shots I took. I actually liked the green background so I had them leave it. But I especially love her sweet expression in this one and how happy she was to get a hug from Elmo. 

She was happy and silly the rest of the day and slept very well last night. When we first got home, she ran up to Jeff and said LOOK! LOOK! FACE! and pointed to her face painting. So funny! We put Elmo's pic (the one on Sesame St) in it's new Elmo frame by the TV in her playroom. She was so proud! And to think we have season passes and can go back again and again! It was a beautiful, sunny day but too cold to swim so we still have the whole water park section to see next time! Boy, it's gonna be the best summer ever!