Grandma Connie has so many neat cookie cutters from her Kindergarten classroom. Emma played with shapes, letters, animals, and different types of transportation. (There were several more bags of cutters, but we limited her choices.) She has fun naming the colors and objects, rolling the Play-Doh on the table to form snakes, using a ball of clay to pick up smaller pieces, and mashing up the creations to make new ones.
Scott, Emma, and I took a trip to visit good friends during one June weekend. Drew and Heather grew up with Scott in Beardstown and now they are raising their two children, Olivia and Jack, in Indiana. Scott's known Drew since he was three, so it is fun to have all of our kids together and watch them play. We chased bubbles, swam in their little pool, drew on doodle boards, rode on push cars, played with a kitchen set, dressed up as fairies, rode a rocking horse, organized Matchbox cars, built with Legos, ironed clothes, read books, and much more. You'd think this would tire a kid out, but not Emma. She was wide awake during the four-hour car rides to and from their house and skipped her nap the full day we were there. Thank goodness Heather suggested a portable DVD player and gave us several of her children's DVDs for the journey home. It was a life saver!
During the first week of "squatting" with my parents, we all ventured to the zoo. I thought that getting an early start would be good to avoid the heat and crowds. But it turned out to be an 80+ degree morning, and the zoo was hosting a free admission day. We made the best of it and saw many animals: flamingos, monkeys, turtles, zebras, camels, emus, alligators, meerkats, prairie dogs, and much more. We took Emma on a train ride and the carousel. She had so much fun, and didn't want to get off when the carousel's white tiger came to a stop.
We had a lot of packing to do in preparation for the big move on June 1. Emma was a great little helper. She loved helping her daddy make and seal up boxes. 
