THE PEANUT GALLERY: All These Things That You've Done

There are so many great and memorable images of Peanut from 2012. But if I had to choose one to sum up her year, it's this one:

Her first day of school.
Nothing but confidence.

Her confidence, her lack of anxiety, eased OUR anxiety. (I wrote about that HERE.)

She sat right down and went to work.

That was the biggest moment, the biggest milestone for Peanut in 2012. But my favorite picture of her is this one:

This is all kinds of awesome. 

She KNEW she looked hilarious, and tried to fight the smile as best she could. There was no arguing her talent for swinging the bat, however. She's kind of a natural. (And I'm kind of bragging.)

(You can read about her tee-ball experience HERE.)

When I asked Peanut what SHE remembers about the past year, she told me, "We went to Land of Make Believe." Out of everything, she picks a day trip to a two-bit amusement park less than hour away from our house. That's what I love about her.

Daddy is forced to endure the spinny rides.

Never mind the bust-the-budget family trip to Disney for her fifth birthday:

Snow White was the first princess we found

Peanut became a princess herself.

Sleeping Beauty

When I asked her what else she remembered from this year, she replied, "Googily was hiding all over the house." Googily, of course, being our Elf on the Shelf. This response gives me a free pass to finally include gratuitous Elf photos on the blog:

Googily was a little frisky this year.

A lot frisky, actually.

(It also allows me to mention the time Googily was hiding in our tree, and our tree fell, causing complete chaos.)

Peanut learned a lot this year. She started riding a big girl's bike:

 (Training wheels still firmly ON.)

And began swimming on her own...

And thought night swimming was awesome.

She also helped us deliver supplies to victims of Hurricane Sandy in My Hometown.

And we made some memories on the Jersey Shore, before it was forever changed:

Casino Pier, Seaside Heights
August 2012

Her first spin in the fun house barrel.
(We went on this three times.)

We had 6 unused tickets left.

We're #JerseyStrong for Christmas

Since she was starting Kindergarten in the fall, I called the summer of 2012, "One Last Summer as My Baby." Here are the highlights:

She called this day "The Best Day Ever."
(That earned it its own post.)

We found a lot of shells and made up stories about them.

We also added a new member of the family.
And we're happy to report "Pinky" is still alive and well.

My favorite story from the summer - for the year, in fact - was when My Director did something I couldn't do if I tried 100 times. She won the big one all by herself:

She actually won BOTH of these.
An amazing feat.

Peanut humored ME by going on a pirate cruise on my birthday. (And made me get my face painted.)

So I humored HER by camping out with her in the backyard.

(Our camping adventure also earned its own post.)

We cherish the big moments, like her graduation from day care...

On stage at her Stepping Up ceremony.
I wrote about this milestone HERE.

...And performing as a flower girl at a family wedding:

Paying very close attention at the ceremony.

And cutting quite the rug at the reception.

(The funniest picture of Peanut from that wedding was taken during the cutting of the cake. You can see it HERE.)

But we cherish the small ones just as much, like when I took her puddle jumping on a rainy day after school:

We are head over heels for our little girl....

She also taught ME to do THIS.

This little girl, who is more like her dad than either of us would like to admit...

I love this picture because we're making the same
facial expression.

She brings out the best in us...

This picture was our Christmas card this year.

She also inspired our Halloween costumes.

What a wonderful year, with our little angel:

Thank you to all of you for reading the stories we choose to share on DKL, to My Director for being so damn supportive, and to Peanut for being so damn inspirational. So damn inspirational, in fact, that I  overcame one of my biggest fears this year, thanks to her. You can about that HERE.