Preparing for Derby

That's right...it's that time in our "Old Kentucky Home" again.  Time for Derby!  Personally, I have never really understood horse racing (blasphemy, I know), but Anderson really seems to be getting into the spirit of things.  So, as the old saying goes, if you can't beat them, join them.

His daycare, which we love and adore, celebrated its 24th anniversary with pony rides and cake.  It turns out, Anderson is a fan of both!  His cute little class sat down on the "magic blanket" to wait their turn!

When it was Anderson's turn, he jumped right up and wanted to pet the horse.

Once he pronounced the horse "soft," he was ready to ride!  He held onto the saddle and did not stop smiling from there!

He was very excited about the sound the horse made!

After riding the horses, Anderson got a piece of cake from Sandy ("Sanny") who is one of his favorites.  She definitely solidified that title after this cake...it was fantastic!


On Sunday, April 28, we went to the Chow Wagon (because, let's face it, you haven't really prepared for Derby until you have had a corn dog as long as your right leg and an elephant ear that could cover your pillow).  Anderson loved it!  These deep feelings didn't come from the food or from the rides, but from the people that walk by dressed as different characters.  Anderson met a duck...

...and he met a giant Subway sandwich, who gave him a free subway card...

...and he met a giant bottle of shampoo ("shampoop"), who he tried to give his free sandwich to.

Once we got our free sandwich back, we headed to check out the fountains.  On the way, Anderson noticed a huge dog making its way across the grass.  He was very focused on the process of inflating the dog.  He wanted to pet him, so we headed that direction only to see a group preparing their balloon for the parade.

Once the novelty of the dog wore off, we were able to make our way to the fountains.  Anderson is convinced that he conducts the movement of every fountain.  And...he might.

On the way back to the car, Anderson met a friend (and again, had to pet him).

Finally, we were ready to go.  As we left, the band was starting to warm up.  When Anderson heard it, he just had to keep the beat!

I am beginning to think there is something more to this whole Derby Season thing!  I am in!

Busiest Weekend Ever!

Every once in awhile, a weekend fills up so quickly and you must hit the ground running.  That was this past weekend for us!

We ended up winning tickets to Sesame Street Live on Sunday afternoon, but also won a special meet and greet with Elmo and Super Grover!  We told Anderson that he would get to see them and he buzzed about it the whole way there!  We arrived a bit early, so we waited on the fourth floor of the Louisville Science Center.

We waited for, what seemed like, a long time.  Luckily, we are experts at keeping ourselves entertained!

Finally, the heroes made their grand entrance!  Elmo and Super Grover took the stage.  They danced around a bit and walked through the crowd giving high fives and hugs!

After that chaos ended, they sat down and allowed a line to form to get pictures done with them.  When it was our turn, Anderson sat on Grover's lap and was entranced as he absorbed every moment of the experience.  This was fantastic, but led to me not getting a single smile out of him.

The show itself, at the Brown Theater, was much the same.  He was so mesmerized by the show that, for a solid 90 minutes, our toddler did not take his eyes off the stage.  He was as serious as could be and could not be distracted.

I was beginning to worry that he wasn't having fun, but that was disproven as soon as we left the theater when he was more hyper than I have ever seen.  He talked about the show for days after and had so much built up energy that he had trouble sleeping that night.  Even though he will not remember this, it will go down as one of my favorite days with him.

Also this weekend, we attended UofL's spring game!  To prepare, we went to Cabella's to find a tailgating grill.  Although we didn't find one that we wanted, we had quite an experience at the opening weekend of the sports store.  Anderson saw lots of stuffed animals (real ones, not the ones you carry around with you while you suck your thumb), fish (real ones), and fun people (Cabella's is a great place for people watching)!  On top of all of that, he got to touch some snakes!

When we left Cabella's, we headed to get a preview of the 2013 Sugar Bowl Champs at the spring game with Anderson's Aunt Jackie!  It ended up being a beautiful day!  We arrived ready to see some amazing talent...

and we were not disappointed!

We take UL football pretty seriously in the Parrott family!

But this was a day when even the serious fans could lighten up and enjoy the talent on the field!

Even though it was busy, we had a great time and made memories that will last me a lifetime!

Spring Break 2013

Our Spring Break this year was quite a bit different from our other breaks to start off because we didn't travel anywhere.  That's right...we stayed at home!  We did this because we decided we would potty train Anderson.  It turns out that he wasn't quite ready for that (the proof was in the puddles on our floor), so our week opened up quite a bit and we had a great time!

We figured that we better find some fun things to do and what better place to start than The Mall?  Anderson immediately caught on to the idea of Spring Break!

We were so proud! He also wanted some money to throw in the fountains!  Finally, he decided to work on his Fantasia routine with his dad!

We continued our week with some painting!  Anderson wasn't quite sure about it at the beginning.  We put some in his hands and he gave us a questioning look.

After some time though, he became pretty free with the paints!

I was so excited that he was having a good time and that we had something nice to show for it in the end!

I have heard so many horror stories about how art projects go horribly wrong, no one has fun, and in the end the product was not what anyone expected (or wanted to keep).  This however, turned out to be a positive experience and Anderson asked to paint almost everyday for the rest of the week.

We also spent some time with our friends Jen and Oliver at the walking bridge in downtown Louisville!  We had a great time!  It was a little cold, but still fun and not nearly as crowded as I had anticipated.  First, Anderson looked in the Ohio River for "dolphins".

Surprisingly, none surfaced, but he and Oliver did see a boat!  That was definitely a highlight!

Poor Oliver wanted to run up the ramp to get to the bridge, but Anderson wanted to take his time.  I love that these two are so different, but just adore each other!  Our afternoon looked a lot like this...Oliver and Anderson would take off running.

About two seconds in, Anderson would slow down to look at something.  Oliver would keep running until Jen would tell him to come back and get Anderson.

Oliver would then run back and tell Anderson to come on.  Anderson would, and it would start all over again.

When we finally got up to the bridge, we had so much fun running around and playing!

We went back down after awhile and played on the park until we were all starving and tired!  We are so lucky to have Jen and Oliver as friends!

Another set of friends we got the chance to see over break was Kristy and Charlotte.  They met us at the park and we got to catch up and play all afternoon!  While we were there, they met another friend!

Charlotte spent most of her afternoon on the slides, while Anderson went for the seesaw!

It was so nice to get to see Charlotte and Kristy and catch up with them!

We also took a family trip to the zoo!  It was super crowded, but we had a great time!  This was our first time taking Anderson's wagon with us and it was a hit!  It carried all of our stuff, plus the kid and his snacks!

We saw lots of fun animals and Anderson worked to perfect his animal sounds!  Some animals were right out in the open!

Some, we had to really search for.

At times, our searches got a little off track.

We had a fantastic break with fantastic people!  We are so blessed to have a break to spend together!  We ended our break with a big Final Four win for the CARDS, followed by a National Championship title!  It was a great ending to an incredible week!