Picnic

The girls are getting to such a fun age it is funny watching them play and watching their imagination. So today while they were in school I got a new rug to put in front of the door to the back porch. I just found the girls sitting on the rug with their blankets and some of their playfood because they are having a picnic.

Pumpkins!

The girls have been noticing the houses in our neighborhood decorated for Halloween so they wanted pumpkins. As Natalie said, she wanted a pumpkin with a happy face...
So I took them to Target this morning so we could get a pumpkin to decorate the front door.
Well who knew that they also make pumpkins in different colors. Natalie of course picked a pink one and Izzie for some unknown reason wanted blue. She kept saying it was yellow and I kept telling her it was blue and she was happy. I was trying to encourage her to pick a pink one so that they would be the same which meant no fighting later on at home but Izzie would not let go of the blue pumpkin. At least the pink one looks a little like orange, the blue not so much. Either way it's their pumpkin and they were very excited.
We got a big one for outside and the little ones have batteries and they light up. I have a feeling this little pumpkins will be around for a while, not just Halloween. They actually are pretty good nightlights.....

Check out the pictures, you can see the rock that Aaron spent 2 days spreading all over the front bushes. It looks great and hopefully it will last longer than mulch.

My day today.....

So I am having such a wonderful day today that I had to share!!! (can you tell my sarcasm....)

So my day started at 5am (i am rounding here it was like 4:50am) when I heard banging around coming from upstairs. So I dragged myself out of bed and sure enough I find Natalie ready to start her day. So some arguing about the time and some threatening and I go back downstairs to try to get some more sleep. Well of course I can't sleep. I can hear Natalie opening and closing her dresser. So she is not going back to sleep. Now we need to make sure Izzie does not get woken up. So finally at 5:50am I give up on any sleep and get up. At 6:00 am Izzie is up. She normally wakes up at 7:00 so waking up at 6:00 is not good.
So I tell them they need to stay in their rooms until it's time to get up (my plan 6:30).
Whole lot of crying & screaming. It's barely 6am!!!

So 6:30 the girls come out. Sure enough Izzie is cranky! She is tired and clingy and whinny and I am trying to get ready for the day ahead of me.

By 8:00am the girls have had so many time outs I lose count.

At 9:30 I have had enough of all the screaming and fighting that I put them each in their room before it's time to go to Natalie's ballet class.

At 10:00 I go get Natalie to get her dressed for ballet and I find her sitting on her sink, pulling medicines from the medicine cabinet because the baby doll needs medicine. I look in Izzie's room and I realize that they have been going to their rooms through the bathroom and that Natalie had already been through Izzie's medicine cabinet. Luckily she could not open the motrin & tylenol or the huge bottle of baby oil..........

We go to ballet then it's home for lunch. Things are looking up. I see naptime in my future......

The girls go to sleep and although they did not take a very long nap like they should given how tired they are, it was still a good nap so hopefully the afternoon will be better.

At 3:15 we leave so that we can go pick up Parker's medicines at the vet which I had already called ahead so all we had to do was pick them up. And then off to playgroup.

So we get to the vet, I asked for the pills, they are finishing getting them ready. The girls are at next to me. I look down and Izzie is laying on the floor. I make her get up, why is she laying on the floor at the vet's . So as I am checking out I notice Izzie's shirt is all dirty, she stinks and she is holding on to something in her fingers.
I smell poop!
Then I notice poop on the floor and realize she has been playing with it, rolling with it on the floor and I am hoping she did not try to eat it. This all in the 5 min we have been there.
So Izzie starts crying and has this look in her eyes like she did something bad. She gets all serious and does not talk. So I am thinking she ate poop.
So I tell the people working there that there is poop on the floor, I take her shirt off, which is has poop all over and stinks. Well Izzie still stinks, so I take her to the bathroom (with Natalie following behind trying to leave the bathroom because she does not want to be stuck there). So I wash Izzie's hand, and I am trying to smell her mouth to see if she ate any, spraying water in her mouth just in case (in the end I don't think she ate any but I am not 100% sure) and cleaning her chest. I think we are good to go, when Izzie says "poop" and points at my feet. Well Izzie had stepped on it too, and she had stepped on my feet, so now my feet have poop too.
So I get my foot and flip flop cleaned and 15 min later we are out the door. We were at the vet for almost 1/2 hr when all I wanted was to pick the pills.
We leave and poor Izzie is shoeless and shirtless.

Thank goodness we had playgroup and Aaron came home early so when we got back he was home. The girls are still tired and I can't wait for bedtime!

I just hope tomorrow is a better day!

Natalie goes to Ballet

Natalie had her first ballet class today. She did great. I was afraid she was going to get all clingy when I dropped her off but she did great. She gave me a hug and a kiss and she went in with her teacher and her new ballet bag (with blanky inside her ballet bag of course....)

Class is only 1 hr long so I did some quick errands with Izzie. That was tough. Izzie would not stop asking about Natalie. She kept pointing at the empty car seat and asking "Natalie, were did she go". In the beginning it was cute that she was asking for her sister. But after 30 min of non stop talking and asking about Natalie no matter how I responded it started getting very annoying.

We got back and we still had about 20 min before class ended so we could see her through the little window and she looked so happy. She was smiling and following instructions and jumping.

When class was over she came running and kept telling me "Mommy I had so much fun".
I am glad she had fun, so far it's been a hit! If only Izzie could do it too it would be fantastic!

My Little Princesses

Izzie has started playing dress up, Natalie has not been as interested but when she sees Izzie dressed up then she wants to be dressed up too.
Here are some pictures of them dressed up from last night.

Ring around the rosie......

Caught the girls playing Ring around the Rosie with Hello Kitty. Each of them are holding Hello Kitty's hand and spinning around. It was so cute to watch.









silly with her monkey shirt (and the crazy hair

CT Trip

We just got back from spending a week in CT. We went to see my sister and her husband and their two boys and also we got to see my brother who lives in NYC.

We had a great time. The girls had a blast. They loved playing with the boys and going to new places. We were very busy but we had such a good visit. Natalie has not stopped talking how she is going to go back and visit Titi.

The girls did great on the plane ride. I was most concerned about that. We were flying from Austin to Chicago and then on to White Plains NY. They did awesome. I really did not expect it to go so smoothly. I have hope that as they get older traveling will continue to get easier.

On the first full day we were there we went to the Norwalk Aquarium. The girls had a great time looking at the penguins and seals and the big turtles.

On Friday we took the train to NYC. It was so much fun. We were exhausted by the end of the day but the girls had a great time. It was their first time on a train and they were very excited. Then in NYC we went to the Central Park Zoo. We took a cab to the zoo and Natalie kept talking about how much she liked the yellow car. I realized that she does not see that many here at home. At the zoo they saw all the animals but they had the most fun in the petting zoo. Natalie was beyond herself when she saw the piggy. For some reason she loves pigs. She wanted to go inside the pen and be with the sheep and the cow. The most fun I think for Natalie was that she got to ride the Central Park Carousel. She had never been on Carousel before. She loved it. She cried when it was time to go. Izzie enjoyed it too. She feel asleep on Aaron while on the ride.

On Saturday we went to Ridgefield beach and the kids had a great time swimming in the lake and playing in the sand. In the afternoon we went to Bridgeport for a baseball game.

Sunday the girls were exhausted so we took a rest day ;-)
Monday was a full day at the amusement and water park. It was very hot that day so the water park side was very busy. The girls had fun on the pool but they enjoyed the kiddie rides on the amusement side more. We all went on a ferris wheel. Izzie got to do the rides too. It was fun seeing all the kids playing together.

Then Tuesday was time to come home. We can't wait to go back.

Now we are home and the girls are back to their routine. Aaron had to leave this afternoon to go to Seattle for work. The girls are a little upset after spending so much time together that he left. He will be back late Friday night. We are looking forward to a relaxing weekend.

Here are some pictures

on the train station waiting on the train


RC & Natalie in the train


in the Central Park petting zoo




Izzie being silly




RC & Natalie


Izzie's baby went everywhere with her




Jack


RC & Jack (Natalie in the background)


In the Central Park Carousel


Frances & Jack


Natalie was very excited to ride in Uncle Rob's convertible


At the baseball game


Natalie, Izzie & Jack having a snack


Natalie, Frances & Jack


Natalie & Tio (my brother Jaime)


Natalie & Buster Brown


At Lake Compounce




About the take off in the Ferris Wheel

Sea World

We took the girls to Sea World yesterday. My friend from high school and her husband are moving back to San Antonio so they met us there. It was so nice to see them, hopefully we will start getting together more often.

Now the girls had a great time at Sea World. They were both so excited to go. We have not been since last December so I was worried about them forgetting and being scared again. Well not really worried about Izzie, more about Natalie who is scared of everything.

Well Natalie was jumping up and down, she even fed the dolphins!
We saw the Shamu show and the aquarium and the penguins. We did not see any other shows because it was very hot so we decided to take the girls to the water park side. There they went nuts. They had a little splashing pool and they were so excited we could not take them away.

We got to Sea World right when they opened at 10am and left at 4:30!!! The girls were exhausted but they had a great time. You would think they passed out in the car for the 2hr ride home but nope, they stayed awake. Izzie finally fell asleep with just 1/2 hour to go. Natalie stayed awake. They did sleep good last night.

Here are some pictures:

Feeding the dolphins


Natalie feeding the dolphins


Izzie feeding the dolphins


Natalie & Aaron coming out of the pirate ship