Bowling Party!

Tyler officially finished his first year of medical school at Des Moines University! Yeah! I must say, it feels incredible to have the first year done with. To celebrate we went bowling with some neighbors/friends/fellow classmates and their families/ward members (all the same thing--so many of us live in the same town home community--an unexpected yet nice advantage of being here). Ashtyn knows what a "party" is now and so she gets pretty jazzed when we tell her we're going to a party.

Step 1: Pick out a good ball. She was attracted to these orange balls, but in the end went with her signature color: yellow.

Step 2: Get someone big to help you put the ball on the ramp.

Step 3: Push the ball down the ramp and watch patiently as it slowly rolls down the alley.

Step 4: Chant, "roll, roll, roll."

Step 5: Get anxious as it moves closer to the pins.

Step 6: Triumph! raise you hands and squeal "yea!" as the pins knock down.

Step 7: Wait patiently and look sweet as mom makes us pose for a picture.
Not pictured: Ashtyn's initial response to bowling: totally wigging out and crying when the pins would crash down! Who would have guessed that my little girl who thinks hilarious things include bonking heads, crashing toys, tumbling towers and anything worthy of the Three Stooges wouldn't like bowling pins crashing? (I distinctly remember her laughing uncontrollably when she was only 8 months old when I would pull weeds out of the ground.) Shocked me I must say, and I don't know if the loud noise scared her or if she just didn't want them to crash or what, but she cried everytime someone's bowling ball crashed the pins down. Eventually we convinced her that it was "silly" and then she had a great time. All those random surprises to parenting....

Also noteworthy of that day was earlier in the morning when I was trying to get ready to go to work, I came back from brushing my teeth to find this:

What the heck? Ashtyn! Your only 21 months old, you're not supposed to be able to learn how to make fancy towers all by yourself!