Hanging with the girls

Daddy was gone in Boston for a few days... so it was just us girls. We played blocks, dress-up, Bug Bingo, and of course put on fairy music (Enya) and danced! I even let the girls play in the sand box (something I am usually opposed to.. all that sand in their hair, yikes). We had a great time playing together.

Lady used a dish towel to enhance her special number.

Fly, fairy, fly!

This girl LOVES to dance

My three fairies: the blue fairy (Lady), the pink fair (Bell) and the Naked Fairy.

The twins are so good with Gretters. They are always kissing and hugging her and cheering her on as she pees on the potty (yep, she is still interested in the potty). I often hear them saying to her "I'm so proud of you!"

"Mom, will you take my picture?"

The shirt says it all...

Daddy may think Sesame Street is socialist propoganda ... but this girl LOVES her Elmo.

Comments from the peanut gallery

Special Pajamas

Lady: Daddy, don't worry... just because I don't want to wear my "I love Daddy" pajamas, doesn't mean I don't love you.


Nightmare Competition

Lady: I had a bad dream last night.
Me: What did you dream about?
Lady: I dreamed a duck bit me.
Me: You dreamt a dog bit you?
Lady: No, a DUCK bit me.
Bell: Oh, well I had a dream that an alligator bit me, and then a shark bit me, and then a whale bit me.

The Things I learned in School

Me: Where did you learn that?
Bell: Oh, I learned it in High School
Me: You mean "preschool?"
Bell: No, Mom, I mean H-I-G-H- S-C-H-O-O-L

The last days of Summer

The mornings and evenings are cooler, the days are shorter and the leaves are starting to turn. It's those last few moments of Summer and we're trying to take advantage of every moment before it's too cold to play outside. Here Bell poses next to the flower garden, donning the sundress her great-grandmother Grammy made her for her birthday.

Lady loves to wear dresses (or skirts)... it's her preferred outfit of choice, no matter what the occasion.

Sunday evenings in the summer usually consist of several lawn games including Red Light, Green Light and Ring Around the Rosie, but today we decided to play ride the horsey. Hmmm... who would make a good horse?

Giddy-up Daddy!

Gretters LOVES the flower garden... she especially loves to pick as many flowers as she can before she gets caught. She usually is the first to initiate our family night walks and points out all the flowers as we go.

We'll miss our Summer nights and long, sunny days. There's still nice weather forecast for the immediate future, so we're not packing up our summer clothes yet... but we know the end is near and we're taking advantage of every last moment.

Happy Fourth Birthday!

My girls are growing up at lightening speed. It's hard to believe they are already four, although they sometimes act more like they just turned 14. Daddy took them out to lunch, and afterwards we spent several hours at the Children's Museum. We ate dinner at a Mexican restaurant and went home to have cake with some of Daddy's family. I made a decadent chocolate cake, decorated with butterflies. Lady is on the left wearing the princess crown and Bell is on the right.

Birthday Girl Lady

Birthday Girl Bell

Children's Museum

We bought an annual family pass to the Children's Museum and our first day was the twins' birthday. They loved the make-believe town, and here they enjoy building a castle.
The museum had a stage with costumes and backdrops and scripts. Lady played the part of the singing unicorn.

Bell preferred to be the intimidating Cheetah.

Living Potty Proof

Our big little girl

Trip to Oregon (The Coast)

There's a reason why they call the Oregon Coast "the Coast" and not "the beach." When people think of the word "beach" they think of hot, sunny weather, warm, sandy beaches and lots of people sunbathing and swimming in a semi-warm ocean. That is why Oregon has a coast... even the bravest polar bear swimmer would find the water too chilly without a wetsuit. But, the scenery is breathtaking.

My parents rented a beach house that we've been going to for 25 years as a family. It was so fun to introduce my own little family to our little traditions... such as the fabulous tide pools. You have to walk over treacherous rock to get to them, but the variety of sea life is worth the venture.

We had a special treat while we were there because the tide was the lowest we have ever seen it... and hundreds of crabs were stranded on the beach. If only we had gotten there a little sooner, we could have had a real crab-fest. Here Bell looks curiously on as Grandma holds up one of the many large crabs left on the beach.

Lady loved all the beautiful starfish. She was sad we couldn't take them home as "treasures."

Gretters did plenty of running around, but we put her on Daddy's pack as we made the trek over to the tide pools. Mommy's legs got so numb from the water, that she almost fell over onto the rocks because she couldn't feel her feet.

The girls love their Grandma!

Thanks Grandma and Papa for sharing Tillamook with us (we especially enjoyed the trips to the Cheese factory for the delicious icecream).

We had a wonderful time in Oregon. It was worth every hour of the 26 we spent driving back and forth.

Trip to Oregon (Monster)

Growing up one of my favorite games was playing with my "Monster" with my dad. He would chase me and my siblings around the house with his arms stretched over his head and letting out his version of what a monster yell would sound like. He would capture us and we would try and escape. This tradition has passed on to the second generation. Here is a picture of Papa the Monster capturing the princesses.

Of course, they would only play "Monster" if Papa would agree to play "Ring Around the Rosies."

At least they didn't make Papa dress up as a princess...

Trip to Oregon (Corn and Berries)

Grandma with the Red Hair (as she is affectionately called by the girls) used to live in a yellow house, but it's since been re-painted... so the only thing yellow was the corn we schucked and ate. It was the first time the girls had schucked corn, and they were so excited about the fruits of their labor, that they didn't want to wait to cook the corn... they ate it raw. Here Lady is making good headway on her ear of corn.
Bell like the sweet, white corn.

My parents have 3 large blueberry bushes that I used to have to pick every summer. To this day I find it hard to "pay" for blueberries in the store. The girls love the book "Blueberries for Sal," so we pretended we were Sal as we picked berries every morning and evening for our breakfast and dessert.

Just like Sal, Bell had a hard time keeping many berries in her bowl and found it much easier to just pick and eat. Notice the heart-shaped princess bowl Grandma provided?

Here's our own little Sal. She did a great job of only picking the blue ones.

Trip to Oregon (The Zoo)

Time to play catch-up with the blog. In August we drove to Oregon to visit Grandma and Papa. Even though we have our own zoo pass here, we wanted to see a different zoo. I thought the Portland Zoo had lions... unfortunately they were on vacation when we arrived, so we missed them by a month. It didn't matter... we had fun, anyway. We saw all kinds of bears, baby elephants, and a bunch of hippies waiting for the Joan Biez (sp?) concert. No kidding, we saw a group of hippies driving a VW bus with a peace bumper sticker. Gotta love Oregon!
Daddy toted Gretters on his back so she had a great view of all the animals.

At the end of the day we rode the 30 minute train ride that goes from the zoo to the Rose Gardens (Washington Park) and back. Pap, Bell, Lady, Mommy and Gretters.

Woo-woo!

For those of us who love Boston...

A friend of mine at work made a word puzzle for Boston... it brought back many happy memories. Missing all of my friends in Boston, those who have moved on and those who are still there!