Memorial Day Fun

We had a nice, relaxing Memorial Day. After naps, we enjoyed some frozen apple juice pops and some sprinkler time. Sara ate her juice pop like corn on the cob.
Emma really enjoyed herself and wanted another juice pop when she was finished.
I thought this was the cutest picture! This is another classic Sara look.
This is Emma's beauty shot!
Sprinkler time!

Sprinkler Fun

I found a great deal on a kiddie sprinkler last year at Target. Since then it has sat in our laundry room but now...drum roll...we finally took it out for a spin! Before that, we had to fuel up for fun! (I think I should trademark that phrase if someone else hasn't done it already.) We had a balanced snack of grapes, pretzels and ice water. You can also see the Croc-wannabe shoes we got the girls last night (you can see Sara's right foot). Sara's arches are so high we can't get her feet into the water shoes that Emma wore last year. So now Emma has a pink pair and Sara has a turquoise pair of new shoes. It was so nice to just hose them off and leave them on the deck when it was all said and done (the shoes, not the children), but I'm getting ahead of myself...
Emma was a little timid about the sprinkler at first and would only run around it or through it while holding her Daddy's hand. By the time we turned it off she was running right up to it and trying to catch water in her hands.
Here is our brave girl!

CAUTION: Semi-topless baby ahead!

(Daddy will not be thrilled that this was included in our blog entry!)

Sara loved the sprinkler and walked right up to it the first time. She and her sister are so different when it comes to new experiences...much like Beth and me! Anyway...Sara was quite mystified when the sprinkler turned off. She ran right up to it, picked it up, shook it really well and then threw it down. Not sure which side of the family that little trait comes from.

The girls enjoyed the sprinkler more than the pool we bought them. My guess is that they felt like they were in control because they could run in and out of the sprinkler at will. Little harder to do with the baby pool. Just a little child psychology thrown in for good measure. We hope you are having a great Memorial Day Weekend too!

Party Time!

We had a Mickey Mouse/ Winnie the Pooh birthday party for the girls this year. The theme made for a rather crowded cake top. The girls ate the cake very nicely so we don't have any "cake on the face" pics this year.

Emma and Sara weren't too interested in opening the presents. Guess we'll say the same thing we did last year...maybe next year! Emma was quite excited with some of the ribbon and tissue paper though. This magic wand was a hit!

Both of the girls have enjoyed the double easel Grandma and Grandpa gave them. We've put it in the kitchen so I can see them while I'm cooking. It's great because one side is a chalk board and the other is a wipe-off board that is magnetic. Now they aren't playing with their magnets on the refrigerator while I'm busy opening and closing it.

NOTICE: We aren't letting Sara do this anymore!

Thank goodness she forgot about going down the slide face first. She loved it though! For some reason the slide is a lot more interesting when it is in the living room than when it is in the backyard. We'll probably be moving it back in soon! Grana and Grandaddy picked a winner!

Too bad this pic isn't focused...Emma wasn't thrilled to put on her new Cinderella dress, but it grew on her. She even went down the slide with it on!

We tried out two of the girls presents yesterday. They look so cute in the Minnie Mouse swimsuits Daddy found and they love the water table that MawMaw and PawPaw gave them. Emma pretends to cook while Sara throws things into it and squeals. You can see that she threw in her sister's pink sippy cup!

Sara is into destruction so Aunt Beth gave her a construction kit. It even came with a stop sign! The little tape measure make sounds like hammering a nail or sawing some lumber.

Emma loves the rocking animals that are on our church playground so she (and Sara) have loved having a blue dog of their own.

Some of our party participants: Sara, Aunt Beth, Mom, Papa (Susan's grandparents) and Emma.

Emma, Grandaddy, Aunt Beth, Sara and Grana. (Susan's parents and sister)

PawPaw, MawMaw, Sara, Grandpa (put her shirt down!), Emma and Grandma. (Marcus' grandparents and parents)

We know we don't throw the most exciting, well organized parties in the world but we do have the cutest birthday twins! Thanks to everyone for making the girls birthday a blast! See ya next year!

Birthday Re-cap!

I know the days not even over yet, but I've been inundated with requests for birthday pictures...well, maybe not inundated, but a few people have asked!Our day started out with special birthday number pancakes! Sara ate two and Emma ate four! A record for both girls!

Yum! Yum!

After a hamburger and french fry supper, we had fun eating chocolate cupcakes with white frosting. Emma and Daddy almost looked like twins!

Of all people, I would have thought that Sara would have jumped on top of this cupcake. Oh, but no! She picked at it with her fingers until I got her a fork and then she was able to eat a little of it. The girls just isn't that big on sweets! Too bad her Mommy is!

We'll upload more pictures as time allows...or should I say, as the girls allow!

Happy Birthday Emma and Sara!

A Walk Down Baby-lane! Emma

May 13, 2005

Sara

May 13, 2006

Welcome to the family, Sara!

Happy 1st Birthday Emma! Sorry your party had to be a day late, but your sister wanted to share a birthday with you!

Happy 1st Birthday Sara! She didn't care for her princess crown. We'll try it again this year!

Happy 2nd Birthday Emma. She humored Mommy by keeping the crown on for at least part of the party!

Happy Birthday to our girls!

Early Birthday Present

Mommy and Daddy gave the girls their "big birthday" gift Sunday night. This was the only chance Daddy had to work on it before Tuesday so we had the housewarming a little early.During construction, the girls watched anxiously from the living room. Emma said Daddy was building a big birdhouse.
The house has two living areas, distinguished by the different flooring. The living room has a wood floor while the kitchen (above) has stone. This little picture reminds me of the scene in Wizard of Oz when Dorothy is welcomed to Munchkinland and all the little people all open their shutters and sing to her. Or maybe I've ridden the Great Movie Ride one to many times!

Who knew shutters could keep children entertained?

Hours spent researching play houses online by parents: 2 hours

Money spent on the Neat & Tidy Cottage: $150

Playing in the box it came in with your dog: priceless!

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!