Taco Stop!

Taco Stop!

Bubble girl in Ponca City

examining a dead bug on our evening walk

examining a dead bug on our evening walk, originally uploaded by Sweetypants.

Goofy smile.

She is definitely consistent when it comes to smiling for the camera.

Blue lollipop

.....with an obvious end result.

Carl's ice cream

Carl's is a summer staple where we live.  Both kids loooooove the chocolate shakes.  Perfect on a hot day.

Summer crafts

 Summertime and crafts seem to go hand in hand.  It's even better when clouds and rain preclude trips to the pool and the park.  The local craft store had these wooden bird houses on sale.  A couple of those and a variety bag of kids' paint brushes were perfect mixed with a bunch of my acrylic craft paints, craft aprons, and two very busy little ones.   The results:  A pair of lovely birdhouses and an hour of quiet, focused intensity.

Memorial Day Weekend

 

We had a relaxed Memorial Day weekend.  Started off with blowing giant bubbles in the backyard....

A rare still moment....

Turns out bubble solution doesn't taste very good and results in faces like this.

My gorgeous girl loves to put on her sunglasses and declare herself "pretty".

Always active,  S had a grand time climbing in his castle and sliding down the slide. 

More climbing up the wall.

We headed down to Richmond on Sunday.  We stopped at Deep Run park and had a picnic comprised of sandwiches from the European Deli....a Russian/Polish grocery store that makes fabulous sandwiches to go.  The kids enjoyed their three cheese sandwiches.

Lots of running about, climbing, sliding and swinging ensued.

H has no fear and definitely has an attitude of "if S can do it, I can do it better".  Brave, strong girl!

Sliding down the big slides, just like the big kids..

We went to the Richmond Zoo, which is a private zoo and smaller than the big one in DC.  There are lots of hands on experiences....like this bird exhibit.  For a $1, you can buy a bird seed coated stick and the budgies will sit and nibble on it.  H.  was a bit wary of the whole thing.

S thought it was pretty cool that the bird would sit right there.

H.  was thrilled that the deer would eat out of her hand.  Every time she fed the animal a treat, she would squeal in delight and declare, "I did it!"

The day was overcast and cool, so perfect for the zoo.  The sun broke through the clouds right as we left and really warmed up the afternoon.  Just the right time to stop for chocolate milkshakes before getting on the road and heading home.

Lights out for everyone on the drive home......

Big day wore everybody out.

Potty Time

We have been working with Spenser this week to start the potty training process.  He has been doing very well, I think.  He can go all day in big boy underwear with no accidents, though he has had a few.  He is actively seeking to wear underwear when we change his clothes in the morning.  Previously, he has refused to wear underwear, telling us that those were for babies and big boys wear diapers.  He was convinced to make the switch after we talked him into wearing his underwear over the diaper.  Apparently Spiderman and Cars are cooler than Elmo after all. 

Spenser is very excited that we will be getting on a plane in a week and a half.  He knows we will be seeing Grandma and Grandpa.  I think he might be a bit let down that we won't end up in the mountains this time.  He thought those were pretty cool when we were in Colorado in October.

Rainy cold day....taking the kids to a giant indoor bounce house to wear off energy.

January Happenings

 Most important thing that happened this month was that Harper got her first haircut!   Her hair is wispy fine and has a bit of curl to it.  Together, this means that it likes to stick in all directions.  It has gotten long enough that it was always in her eyes and when wet, the back of it is past her shoulders.  Off to my favorite hair guru we went.  Harper is now the proud owner of cute little bangs.  She looks so serious in this picture because her mouth is full of shortbread cookies.

 We had our first snow of season last night.  The kids thought it would be great fun to "help" Daddy shovel the drive with the ice scrapers that belong in the car.    If you look closely at Harper, you can see her poor split, swollen, bruised lip.  She tripped over the cord to the laptop the night before last and face planted into the floor.  Much crying and bleeding ensued, but she acted like nothing was wrong the next morning, even though she looks like she was on the losing end of a boxing match.

Spenser was actually pretty effective with the ice scraper.  There is a squeegee on one end and the snow was very light.

The kids were not particularly bundled up in the first photos because we were on our way to the store to get SNOW BOOTS.  Spenser was very excited about them.  Since he is likely only going to wear them a few times before he outgrows them, I was pretty please to get them on sale at Target.  Both pairs were $20 and Harper's are big enough that she can probably wear them next year as well.  Here they are, each  with snow boots, snow bib, coat, sweat pants, two shirts, hat, and mittens.  (OK, Harper is refusing to wear mittens in this pictures)  They were pretty over-stuffed looking as they toddled through the snow.

Harper's 18 month update

Harper had her 18 month doctor appointment today.  She is 27 lb 8 oz and 33 inches tall.  She is in the 85th percentile for both those measurements and she is only 4 inches behind Spenser.  Baby girl is solid and strong.   She has figured out how to carefully go down the stairs on her bottom, but would prefer to hold a hand and walk.  She is starting to talk, saying:  Mama, Daddy, Kitty, book, belly button, eat, please, woof (for dog), kitty, milk, cheese, and juice.  There are many more, but we can't quite pick them all out.  She is very good about following directions and will put away toys or fetch her coat if asked.  She is also very willful and determined and cannot be swayed if she thinks there is something she needs to do.  She continues be fascinated by animals and is learning how to pet the cats gently.  She has finally started to sit down long enough to look at books with us and can point out many different items in the pictures when asked.  At school, her teachers describe her as "very busy".  When asked, she can point to her hair, eyes, ears, nose, teeth, cheeks, fingers, toes, and belly button.  She continues to love her bath time and shoes.   She loves to color at the easel.  She dances to music and prefers to hold your hand and have you dance along.  She can wave bye-bye and will give kisses as well as blow kisses.  Her favorite song right now is "Row, row, row your boat".  She also knows the hand gestures to Itsy, Bitsy Spider and Twinkle, twinkle little star.

On Friday, she goes for her first haircut.  It's finally long enough to put up into a tiny little ponytail, but she won't leave the elastic in for any length of time.

And to all a good night

If my replacement wasn't already here, I might have volunteered to work all night.  Harper has drawn on her face with black magic marker.  C is not feeling well.  Christmas Day is going to be fun!

Spenser's new bed

Need to get some pillows and a blanket and it's all done.

Late October Musing

Why are snack size Almond Joy bars sooo much tastier than their full size counterparts?  (Smacks self for preemptively opening the Halloween candy and putting it in a bowl)

Stinky

Spenser's beloved Bear was starting to stink and was looking a little manky.  I just threw him into the wash on gentle with an extra rinse.  This method has worked for Elmo and Cookie Monster.  Fingers crossed it works for Bear.

Virginia Beach and Back

We spent a late summer weekend in Virginia Beach again this year since we had such a nice time last year.  We returned to a favorite place to eat...a tiny Cuban place called Mojito Cafe.  We were there fairly early for dinner and had the place pretty much to ourselves.  It's tiny, so being the only customers was great since the kids couldn't bother other customers.  Harper with her customary cheesy grin.

Mojito Cafe, unsurprisingly, has fabulous mojitos.  The challenge was convincing Spenser that it was a "daddy drink" and not a kid drink.

We started off with conch fritters as an appetizer.  After one taste, Spenser stole them all off the plate.

The next morning, we returned to a favorite breakfast place, the Pocohontas Pancake House.

Both kids ate up their pancakes.  Once again, it pays to be early at this place.  It's large, but gets really crowded quick.

We spent the early part of the day at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center.  We visited here last year, but only had a few hours to explored the main building.  This time, we got to see it all, including the nice nature walk between the buildings.  Here, Spenser is making the seismograph jiggle by jumping on the ground.

They have a great tunnel to walk through with fish, sharks, and rays swimming overhead and all around you.

Eaten by sharks!  Again!

The next building over was more about Virginia aquatic life and had this nice play area for the kids.

Spenser inside a column shaped aquarium demonstrating the aquatic life in Virginia's bays.

After lunch, we went to Mt. Trashmore.  They have an amazing playground there and the kids ran and played until they were both exhausted.  Harper spent a lot of time inspecting this slide before going down it.

Spenser "rock climbing" at Mt. Trashmore.

After a nap, we spent the late afternoon at the beach, had some dinner and then headed back to the hotel.  If you can't tell, both kids were exhausted.

Just a great picture.  This is actually a little park we found on the way to Virginia Beach.  It was in the middle of a random neighborhood right off the highway.  Shout out to Yelp for always helping us find cool things to do.

We took the back way to drive home and stumbled on this great nature preserve.  It's part of an old farm that is being allowed to go back to native grasses.  The park bumps up against a waterway that dumps into the Rappahannock River and there is a canoe put in and a fishing dock.  Spenser had a lot of fun collecting sticks and inspecting the little garter snake we found.