Countdown to the Birthday!

List of things to do today: Finalize security arrangements for Iraq, take out boatloads of cash for travel, and... send out Isabelle's birthday invitations (featuring the above picture)! It'll be an east meets west party with a Turkish apple tea party following a Cape Cod dinner (quahogs, lobster...).

Highlights from the past week:

When the waitress at Talk of the Town asked her name Wednesday night, Isabelle responded: "Isabelle Marjan Murphy."

Nana and Isabelle had another play date this week with Emma and Diane Collette. Yesterday's destination: Horseneck Beach known for the best hermit crab hunting on the Cape!

Here's the official invite!

Barnstable County Fair

Isabelle and I went to the Barnstable County Fair last night (Mom is in San Francisco for the week), and pretty much did it all!

We started with the Ferris Wheel - her first - and she loved it. From way up high we were able to scout out the whole place, and knew that after I won her a stuffed animal (a purple monkey), we would be headed to the Super Slide. On the way to the Super Slide... we found the Big Bears (the whole thing spins, and we could control the spinning of our own bear - very fun, very easy with a 23 month old)... had a gyro, some ice cream, went potty 4 times (we now bring the potty with us when we have the stroller, it is so much easier than waiting in lines!).

Every time we went on the Super Slide, as soon as it was over Isabelle would turn to me, with a huge grin, and say "Again! I want the Super Slide again!" and run to the front of the (rather large) line.

Other highlights: She wanted to go on the dragons (similar to the Big Bears but for older kids). I told her she was too little. She looked at me and said "I want to be bigger". Feeding the farm animals was a large part of the day. There were lamas, lots of goats, horses, a turkey, bunnies, and a pot bellied pig. She only got nipped on the fingers once, and frankly it didn't bother her much! My favorite memory of feeding the goats was when a goat thought the strawberry on Isabelle's outfit was real, and started biting her pockets - look closely at the photos and you can see that the greens on the strawberry stick out - this is what the goat was grabbing!

The french fries, doused in catsup, were popular too. And ff course we went on the merry go round, more than once. "Again, Again!", and "you sit on this one, I will sit on THIS one!". She loved it!

Finally, at 9pm, I won her a teddy bear and we headed for home. As I was loading her into the car, she was clutching her teddy, she looked up at me and said "where's my monkey?". I had left it in the stroller. She hugged both the teddy and monkey the whole way home.

Tuesday my parents picked Isabelle up from daycare, as I had a lacrosse game. My mother was asking her about the fair, and specifically asked what she had to eat. Isabelle replied "Daddy had a sandwich, and I had a bite". While technically true - I did have a gyro, and she did have just one bite of it - for the record I brought carrots and chicken for her, which she very much enjoyed.

Monkey Face

Isabelle's Year One video is finally complete! After "finishing" it for her first birthday, we found a few more tapes - Sonoma, the Triple Dip and the one with Daddy and Isabelle at the Grand Canyon!!! Incredible. It's the first time we've made an AppleTV file. Isabelle can't get enough. "I want to watch Baby Isabelle. Baby Isabelle. Watch Baby Isabelle. I want to see Baby Isabelle. Baby Isabelle..." Then she jumps up and down on the couch, dances wildly when the Italian music hits, and waves her arms around like a "maniac" (something she's been calling herself recently - and, no, we do not call her this!). She screams and claps when she sees herself being fed the bottle... when Daddy dives off the swim platform... and when she and I are swinging.

I just counted how many tapes I have for her second year video, and I can't believe it: 22! Wow. And this week Principle Pictures moves into an office at 18 Middle Street. 18!

We had so much fun at RJ's 7th birthday party this weekend! He's into Star Wars - especially R2D2 - just like me at that age. Next he'll be feathering his hair! The 80s are back, baby! Auntie Briana made RJ the most amazing R2D2 cake, and there were big plans for a water gun showdown. Instead we fled indoors when a flash flood threatened and hail balls came hurtling down from the sky. The food was delicious! Bonnie's famous baked beans and poke-someone's-eye-out sword skewers were big hits! As were Mom's legendary taco dip and new great potato salad with summer squash and vinegar. While Anika had fun driving the tractor and eating under the umbrella, she most enjoyed playing hide-and-seek with Brita's car keys.

Driving to the party we saw what will become Isabelle's playhouse! I think we're going to have them paint it purple! It is precious - and wired.

Isabelle is up to some new tricks:

--She makes a monkey face by pulling her ears forward and blowing up her cheeks. (Daddy does the same face.)
--She pulled her bathing suit bottom off on New Silver Beach in order to walk into the water up to her knees and tinkle. (Jane tells the story of Dennis doing exactly the same thing on the same beach as a boy.)
--She is good at the matching game.
--She loves her pillow (Thank you, Sean and Sara).
--She likes sharing watermelon with her class every Friday during the summer.