L'Artiste

Madelyn immersing herself in her new favorite art: watercolor. I especially like the outfit she decided to wear.

She's also becoming quite the little culinary artist. We've spent a lot of time lately with her building and baking "cakes" for me.

Two Cute Girlies

We met up with Sara today and let the two girls play around on just about the coolest park I've ever seen. It was part maze part castle part everything a little kid could want. We're so glad we live close enough to get to have play dates with the Birches!

I just have to clarify with this picture that Madelyn was closer to me than Rose. She's not actually as gigantic as the picture makes her look. 

Konza Visitors Day

Rory helped out with the Konza Visitors Day this weekend. Since he gets to research for free out there they like to call in favors sometimes. It was a fun little event. Madelyn got a "tattoo" and felt some bobcat pelts. We also got to go on an educational hay ride. 

I'm not really sure why she's making this face. She wasn't screaming… just being weird.

Hanging out in Manhattan

So we haven't really been doing anything huge and post worthy lately but here are a few pictures of what we've been doing around town.

Waiting for a Lindsey Stirling concert to start. It was free so we thought we'd check it out. Too bad it started about an hour late! We only heard a few songs before we had to head home to put the little one to bed. The few songs we heard were great though!

Hanging out with R2D2's friends at a street fair in Aggieville.

Madelyn getting her first face paint. The sorority/fraternities put on a free children's carnival. Madelyn got so much candy!

Playing dress up with dad. I feel like the song "I'm so glad when daddy comes home" was meant for moms, not kids. When Rory gets home it's instant relief for me. He's so good about playing with Madelyn and I get a few seconds to myself. Yay!

Bites and Konza

Madelyn and her bite wound. She tells me about it often. Check out her swim suit tan. She's so brown!

We took another hike on the Konza. This time we went further. Madelyn was a trooper and hiked over a mile all by herself. She sang little hiking songs to herself a lot of the way. So cute!

She did have to ride the last little bit. She was one tired baby.

Splash Pad and Other Things

We have a few great splash pads here in the Little Apple. Since it's been so stinking hot we've been spending a lot of time at them. Here's some pictures from yesterday's adventure.

Wondering if she really wants to get wet.

When she gets bored at the splash pad there's a park right next to it. Genius!

Also, there's a fountain. But it's not for playing in. Which, of course, means Madelyn is constantly trying to climb in.

She's not actually in the fountain so I figure that's as good as it gets. I told her to wash her bum off because it had dirt all over it.

And back to the splash pad.

That's one attractive baby!

There's also a little rope course next to the splash pad. She eventually worked up the nerve to try it. Her first time up she slipped and ended up like this. Being the responsible mother that I am I told her to hold on tight while I took a picture before I helped her down. Don't worry grandmas, she wasn't very far up.

Try two. Tongue out in true O'Connor fashion. She was much more successful this time. No falls. What a monkey.

And on to other things… sort of.

iPhone shot of happy family at park.

Rory pudding painting with his baby. So sweet!

Rory made me this little desk for our office space. He's so handy!

Kansas

I didn't take many pictures of our move but here are the few I did.

Sitting in the truck… we did a lot of that. Madelyn can't say 'truck' normally. She pronounces it with an F which we find funny but is sort of offensive. She'll figure it out eventually.

So happy to be unpacking.

Madelyn was just happy to be out of that truck.

One of the first things we did was check out our town's little zoo. It's pretty fun! They have a whole family of chimps ranging from a baby to a blind old mama chimp.

We've also checked out the Konza prairie which is where Rory will be doing his research. They have a network of hiking trails that we will be utilizing.

Having lots of fun running around.

It's actually quite pretty on the prairie. We do miss the mountains though.

A hill!

There were a lot of interesting bugs on our walk.

This is what they were looking at in the previous picture.

At the end of our hike was a homestead site that they use for educational purposes now. Madelyn loved it so much we had a hard time getting her to leave.