Flower Power and Sisterly Love

The title sounds very 60's, doesn't it!

Our gardenia bushes are just blooming like crazy. They are close to the back of the yard, near the girls sandbox. They were quite taken with them.

Sara kept smelling them blooms and saying "mmmmm" just like Mommy was doing. As much as I hate to admit it, Sara also licked it...which Mommy did not do, I might add.

Emma liked stroking the petals of the flowers. One of the older blooms fell off in her hand and she kept saying, "Mommy, we need to fix it!" It was hard to explain that we couldn't just get "sticky tape" and put it back on the bush.

The other day I was able to catch one of the cutest things on film...well, memory card anyway. Sara grabbed Emma's hand and they started walking around the house together. It started in the living room and then they walked into the kitchen and then to the dining room. They rounded the dining room table, back through the kitchen and into the living room. At this point, they would drop hands and run into Emma's room. Then they would come back and start the process over again. They did it at least three times. It was so cute!

Oh course, a footrace did ensue on the last pass through the kitchen. And I'm not sure why Emma wouldn't let Sara hold her right hand...would have made things a lot easier!

Who Needs Water?

They finally had the small kiddy pool in stock at Wal-Mart yesterday! You should have seen us trying to pay for it. The pool display was out on the sidewalk outside of the store. I had to pick up the pool while pushing the double stroller into the garden section to pay for it. It was a little awkward to say the least! When we got it home the girls enjoyed having a tea party in it! We're hoping to break it in this weekend!

Strawberry Patch!

We were invited to go to the strawberry patch with a bunch of our friends from MOPS. At one point I counted that in our group we had 15 children, 8 mom's, 5 strollers, and 1 wagon.

Sara was too busy eating up a strawberry to take time out to smile for the camera. Emma enjoyed playing with the little flag that marks where you finished picking.

Sara didn't mind being strapped in her stroller, which was quite surprising. She would sit there contently eating a strawberry and humming. When she would start whining, another strawberry would appear in her hand. It was like magic!

I was surprised Emma wanted to eat any of the strawberries because she is our banana girl. She loved them! She didn't want to pick them but, boy, did she want to eat them! I turned around to put more berries in our basket and saw that she was taking berries out of the basket, eating the tip off and then putting them back!

Thanks for inviting us Jen, Madeline, Nancy, Laura and Wendy!

Artists At Work

One of the girls favorite things to do is painting with water. As you can see, Mommy is a little obsessive and makes them wear their bibs while doing it. They don't seem to mind wearing their "artist smocks" and it cuts down on my stain removal time!

Sara is doing very well holding the paint brush and not knocking out the 1/4 tsp of water that I put in her cup. She will suck all the water off the bristles of the brush, which I'm trying to get her to stop doing. This is the same child that will try to drink the bath water but that's a different story. She still moves her brush (or pencil, fork, etc.) from her left to right hands while she is using it so I'm still not sure if she's a lefty or a righty.
She loves water! One of her favorite things to do is stand on the kitchen stool and watch the water fill up the washing machine. Then she helps me put the clothes in and pushes them down with her pudgy little hands. So cute!

Emma really loves to do crafts and she loves "to make." When I ask her if she would like to help me "bake," I think she hears "make" instead. She will run to her room to get her "ribbon" (it's her apron but she won't call it that and corrects me if I call it an apron) and she says "I love to make!" She saw me making a cup of tea and ran to her room to get her "ribbon." Then we had to go through the hand washing and climbing on the kitchen stool ritual just so she could place my tea bag in the cup!
We were given a bunch of stickers last week and Emma had a great time sticking them to a little piece of paper. She said, "I'm making this for Daddy so he will be happy." How sweet! She carried it around all afternoon waiting for Marcus to come home. She was so proud of it! Daddy leaned it up against the salt and pepper shakers on the dining room table so they could look at it all during supper.

Mommy and Daddy's Vacation

Marcus decided to treat me to an extra special birthday this year. He made all the plans for a long weekend (Wednesday through Sunday) at the EPCOT Flower and Garden Festival. This year's theme is Fun in the Sun. I'm not much of a gardener but I was really inspired to come home and make our yard a real showplace. Now if I could just get the time and the talent to do it!
We stayed at the Polynesian, one of our favorite Disney resorts. When we checked in, the cast member informed us that we had been given a complimentary "up-grade" to concierge! Woohoo! That meant free food and drinks from 7am to 10pm! Let me tell you, we took advantage of that and I still have 5 pounds to show for it!
Here we are enjoying the view and the free food in the concierge lounge! We ate a fortune in pineapple and caramel sauce! Yum!
Here is one of the many topiaries that adorned EPCOT. Beyond the huge butterfly is the butterfly house. We didn't spend much time in there because it was packed with strollers.
Aren't these the cutest planters you've ever seen? If I could have found them, I would have bought a few. In England (I should say, in EPCOT's version of England) they had these planters set throughout the English Garden behind the Tea Caddy store. We have really become interested in tea the last several years so seeing the different ingredients in their natural form was really neat. This is a picture of vanilla. Who knew it looked like that?

Okay...enough of Mommy and Daddy but we have plenty more pictures for those who are interested! Anyway...we'll get to pictures of the girls soon!

Best Souvenir!

Our parents went to Disney World and all we got was this sheet of bubble wrap!

(Action Shot!)

The girls did get other prizes when we returned but this sheet of bubble wrap seemed to be the best thing we brought home. It was used to pack something breakable and I gave it to the girls yesterday so I could get their lunch ready. Who knew it would be so much fun!

We ended up bringing some of the Disney napkins home and Emma used one this morning during breakfast. I asked her what was on the front of her napkin and she looked and said, "It's Cinderella's Castle! Look, Daddy! It's Cinderella's Castle! Look, Mommy, look!" I said, "Yes it is." She looked at me all agast and said very reverently, "Mommy...say ohhhh! It's Cinderella's Castle!" I did as I was told! Another treasure from our trip that cost us nothing!

I'll post some pics from out trip later on. We had such a great time!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!

I thought I would do a little entry of some of the funny things the girls have said lately. Hope you find humor in them too!

Some of Sara's latest news:

"It dark."

"My Daddy's here!"

"Oh, stinky! Oh, pw-etty!"

"I love cheese."

"I want mmm-k "(milk)

"I stuck!"

"I want color."

"There the door."

"There it is. My bay." (what she calls her blanket)

I just added this photo to up the cuteness factor.

Some of Emma's latest reports:

(I wrote them like a script so you could tell who said what. Hope it's not too confusing.)

Mommy: You need to eat your grapes, Emma.

Emma: I don't want to eat them. I can use magic.

Mommy: Are you telling me the truth or a lie?

Emma: A lie.

Daddy: Thank you.

Emma: Anytime, Daddy.

Emma: Good morning, Sara. What can I help you with today?

Emma: I don't want to take a bath. The water might be too hot...or it might be too cold.

Emma to Sara, after Sara put the chalk in her mouth: Sara, where are your manners?

Mommy, pointing to a picture in the book Meet Me in the Magic Kingdom: Emma, what's that?

Emma: Space Mountain...where Daddy and Jesus were born.

That's all that's fit to print!

The Story of the Grocery Cart and the Stroller

Once upon a time, two little girls wanted to play with the same grocery cart. They pushed and pulled the cart all over the kitchen while their mother tried to get Sunday lunch together.

Their mother decided to get out the play stroller (which had been taken out of the toy rotation a few months before because it became a bone of contention between the sisters, but that was before the grocery cart appeared at Christmas) to ease the tension before lunch. The older sister decided this was a good move and took Mickey for a ride...until she got bored with the whole thing and went to her room to read.

The younger sister noticed the abandoned stroller and decided she could push both the stroller and the grocery cart at the same time. If you've even been in the path of the younger sister and her grocery cart, then you know how well this whole thing worked out.

THE END

EPILOGUE

All of the work tired out the younger sister. She sat in her chair and read a coloring book for 1 hour and 7 minutes. No kidding! Her mother watched the clock and took a picture of this event because it was so unlike the younger sister. Those of you who witnessed the younger sister throwing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse in the singing video understand how out of character this truly is!

Like Father, Like Daughter

As you might have heard on an earlier post, the girls love to listen to Marcus sing I Should Have Known Better by The Beatles. Emma decided to sing the song herself while she played her Indian sitar...okay, it's just her little pink guitar, but it sounds like Indian music. Enjoy!

Butterfly Hunt

This was our first year to attend Hiland Park's Butterfly Hunt and Resurrection Celebration. We loaded up in the van Saturday morning, fortified with our Starbuck's coffee (adults only, of course) and headed out. Here are some pics from our outing!

Sara adds to her butterfly bag. The butterfly's were cut out of paper with a Bible verse and piece of candy attached.

Emma found a yellow butterfly!

Emma shows off her butterfly to Miss Emily, while her son Ethan looks on. Emily got me into blogging. I'd never heard of it before! Thanks Emily!

We are so glad that Aunt Beth was able to be with us.

A quick pic of Daddy and his girls. Sara's got her eye on another butterfly!

After hunting, we went back downstairs to enjoy some cookies. We saw Marcus' cousin Teresa, her husband Greg and their children.

While Emma did the fishing booth, Sara enjoyed stomping around the Fellowship Hall with Daddy!

Emma got a cute lamb from the fishing booth.

I think the girls would say that the best part of the morning was going on the playgound!

Sara loves to slide!

Next time we'll post pictures from Easter morning!

Happy Easter!

We'll post pictures from the Butterfly Hunt and Easter morning soon but I at least wanted to post our Easter 2008 family photo.

Be not affrighted: Ye seek Jesus of Nazareth, which was crucified: He is risen; He is not here: behold the place where they laid Him. Mark 16:6

You Never Know

You never know where Emma and Sara will turn up next!Sara might turn up under your table...
and tickle your feet while you are trying to eat your snack!
Or Emma and Sara might show up in the little window beside the front door...
or Sara might be there all by herself!

Watch out!

Turn It Up!

Just thought you might want to see and hear what we get to experience each and every day. Enjoy!

Spring-like Sunday

One must have a good snack before playing outside. What better way to fuel up than a picnic! Like I tell Emma, you need energy from your food so you can play.
Guess you really don't need energy to do this though. Don't Daddy and Sara look content?
Okay...resting is over for Sara and looks like Daddy may have a few internal injuries. Don't worry, folks. He was able to walk away with a few bruises but no stitches were needed. Meanwhile, Emma continues to color with her sidewalk chalk.

Poor Daddy couldn't catch a break! McDuff dragged him off the hammock so he could have a spot all to himself! He probably just wanted to get away from those little girls that continually chase him, throw sand at him, or try to hit him with golf clubs. What a good dog!

This One's For Coop

We're sending out this song in honor of our favorite cousin...Cooper! Happy 1 week and 2 days birthday. We would have done this sooner but our Mommy couldn't figure out how to get your picture from your blog. We hope you enjoy it and we're keeping a spot open for you in The Kolmetz Kid Band. Are you better at tambourine or maracas? We love you!

Emma and Sara

If you listen closely, you can hear both of the girls singing along. They were both in Emma's room when they heard the beginning chords of this song and they both ran out into the living room as quick as lightening! This is by far their favorite song! Sorry for the poor lighting quality. Guess we'll have to bring in the flood lights during the concerts!

All Kinds of Things

The title of this blog entry comes from Emma. We've been learning how to pray before bedtime and I asked Emma, "What would you like to thank God for today?" She replied, "All kinds of things." So, here is "all kinds of things."

Emma and Mommy planted some cilantro and mint last Sunday afternoon. Mommy is looking forward to using the cilantro in Mexican food and the mint in iced tea! We hope the squirrels leave our herbs alone!

Emma was very precise while watering the cilantro.

Meanwhile, Sara was able to have some one-on-one time with the sandbox!

She was so excited to have it all to herself!

Emma and Sara were lunching ladies today at McDonald's. We were supposed to have a MOPS playdate, but we were the only ones who showed up to play. We weren't surprised since it rained early in the morning and the playground was still wet.

We decided to share a Happy Meal instead!