Easter and spring

Ah, spring. We are all healthy and can play outside almost every day! Elizabeth is like a little puppy, begging to go outside as soon as she wakes up in the morning, even before breakfast. And once we get outside, it is quite a tricky business getting the girls to want to come inside at all! We've definitely been enjoying playing with lots of friends and family lately, inside the house and out.

Here's Daddy dancing with the girls in their pajamas. It's one of their favorite activities to play and dance to music with their Daddy.

We had a visit from grown-up Vanessa, our friend from NJ. Her little girl Samantha is the cutie next to Elizabeth. Samantha was a very gracious sharer, taking the ride-on car for a spin while she waited for a turn on the bike. And she reminded Elizabeth of all the fun one can have throwing all the balls around and hiding in the princess castle. Elizabeth was quite happy to have a peer in our house for once, especially such a fun and friendly one!

Toddler Vanessa also had a great time with Samantha. Finally, another little girl to explain the rules to! And I enjoyed the time with grown-up Vanessa and Samantha too. I can't wait to see them next time.

Here are Vanessa and Elizabeth dressed up in their bat costumes again. I think this is the first time though that I've managed to take a picture of Vanessa in her bat girl costume. For some reason I think she thinks it's a game not to get her picture taken while she's wearing the costume. Haha, I win!

I decided quite at the last minute to take the girls to an Easter egg hunt. I'm really glad I did. They had a blast! We met up with Vanessa's friend Paige, on the left in this picture. All three girls were so excited to have so much green grass for running around on!

Vanessa found five eggs. She asked me, "Did I win?" I told her that everyone is a winner in this kind of hunt. She told me, "I didn't push anybody." I told her that made her the BEST kind of winner, and she shouted "Yay!" and ran off excitedly.

Elizabeth did a great job with her hunt, which was inside just after Vanessa's hunt ended. She found 9 eggs, but I did get to help direct her a little. I thought it was interesting that both Elizabeth and Vanessa had to learn that they couldn't pick up a second egg while still holding the first egg. Here is Elizabeth about to learn just that lesson.

There were some crafts to keep the kids busy before and after hunts. Here is Elizabeth having entirely too much fun with a purple glue stick. It took some convincing to get her to move on to something else.

There were also some white eggs to decorate with foam stickers. This is a GREAT idea. We also dyed some eggs at Nana's house on Easter the next day, but it was a little messier. The girls stayed pretty clean remarkably, but I got to be quite colorful.

Here's Vanessa just being goofy about Easter. She's wearing a scarf, mittens, and a basket.

Grace and her mommy came to visit one afternoon last week. I think it's so sweet how Vanessa and Grace love to give each other hugs. And Elizabeth and I look forward to Grace's and her mommy's visits so much too!

Dressing up!

Since Valentine's Day, the snow has begun to melt and we've been sick less of the time, but we have still spent a considerable amount of time inside waiting for spring! The girls have responded with a lot of dressing up. Some days, the dressing up game lasts almost all day.

Here are the girls with their Valentine's Day balloons from Daddy.

My brother Jake taught me a cool trick of writing notes to kids when trying to convey especially difficult emotions to kids. I use notes occasionally when I'm feeling frustrated, but mostly if I'm feeling very proud of them for doing a great job. I usually put them in an envelope with a pretend stamp. Vanessa did a pretty good job at trying to write a note of her own for Elizabeth.

When the snow finally stopped enough for us to have a visit, Uncle Zak visited with his girlfriend Mary. In the eyes of our little ones, Zak = fun. If you're wondering, Vanessa is wearing part of the number mat as a tutu.

Vanessa loved learning some Spanish words with Zak and Mary. Vanessa forgot her shyness and warmed up to Mary with record speed.

OK, now on to dressing up! The girls have had oodles of fun with the purse of jewelry and hair ties that Aunt Hannah gave us. The adhesive rhinestone earrings actually last for days -- they're quite durable.

Here's a close-up of their weird little pony tails sticking straight up. One of these days they'll have longer hair that's easier to work with (a mother that knows how to do hair would probably help too).

If I've talked to you recently, I've probably mentioned that Elizabeth is obsessed with Batman. You know I'd like to claim full responsibility for her gaining this obsession, but believe it or not, there's someone else who has been instrumental in developing this love of the caped crusader... But the bottom line is, she LOVES to play with the little Batman action figures we have and she thinks that the sole purpose of a laptop is to play the theme to the 60's Batman show, as well as several other superhero jingles from that era. Vanessa likes Batgirl best because Batgirl wears purple, so we got her a Batgirl costume, but she won't let me take a picture of her in her new costume yet. We don't have a Batgirl action figure, so Vanessa improvises by playing with the Batman action figure, saying "he's changing into Batgirl."

Other costumes that have been popular this week include the swimsuits. Vanessa and Elizabeth have spent a lot of time jumping into the "pool" that is actually our exercise mat. Oh boy are these girls ready for warmer weather!

Elizabeth is 21 months old now, and Vanessa is officially 3 and a half. Every three months, I try to take a picture of them with their special Dee dolls. At 21 months, Elizabeth can count to ten and recognize several words without context -- no, yes, up, my, boots, boo, and many names, maybe including yours! The girls insists on my writing the names of their friends and family on the sides of every box of Kix that we open. That way they can look at the names of the people they care about every day. Elizabeth can climb up into her booster chair and buckle herself, and climb from the ground into her car seat. She can dress and undress herself with very little help. Vanessa at 3 and a half can defeat the child safety door knob covers (that didn't take long), repeat patterns of 3 or 4 notes that someone else plays on the piano, tie the knot on her shoe (but not the bow), and follow simple written directions. Both girls are also really great at singing, making messes, and getting into trouble. :)

Ballet time! Vanessa and Elizabeth are already anticipating the ballet class I promised we would enroll them in this summer, when their ages align such that they can take a 2-3 year-old class together. So, they've been practicing their moves and making sure their ballet clothes still fit!

Here's another picture of Elizabeth with her Dee-Dee doll.

Here's Vanessa with her Miss Dee doll.

Elizabeth tries out Vanessa's old tap shoes.

Time for a bow!

Texas and the biggest snow ever

It's been quite a whirlwind of activity this month. We took a chance with some good deals on airfare to make it down to Texas to see Jake and our nieces. We made it there and back without any trouble due to snow, although some snow fell here while we were there. After we got back, of course, everything was buried in about three feet of snow! I guess snow fell in Texas shortly after we got back too. I guess we were lucky to be able to make our trip when we did!



We saw some amazing basketball played by Bryn and Jadyn's basketball teams. Bryn's game was first. That net was so high and they looked kind of small in comparison, but I vow never to underestimate 6-year-old girls playing basketball again. It was a really action-packed game, with well-executed plays and good teamwork, and with an incredible shooting percentage especially on Bryn's team. We even got to see Bryn make her first basket in a game! Here are the girls warming up for the game.

I think Bryn made this basket in warm-up.

Vanessa was a little shy around Jadyn at first, but Jadyn won her over in short order with a shiny plastic ring.

Elizabeth is equally excited about her own shiny plastic ring.

Vanessa definitely didn't take too long to warm up to Jadyn! Jadyn sure has a way with little ones!

Elizabeth is ready to make friends too!

Later at the mall, Jake was kind enough to carry a sleeping Elizabeth. Jake said he liked the baby time (and I have to say I enjoyed the break)!

Jake kindly shared some of his Build-a-Bear gift certificates with us. Vanessa went straight for the Hello Kitty doll, which she named Texas. She was SO excited to go to Texas to see her cousins! Before Elizabeth sacked out, she chose a little red purse rather than a stuffed animal.

Jadyn and Bryn discovered that if they pooled their gift certificates, they could get a very cool dalmation, which I believe they named Cutie. (I think that was Katelyn's financial advice that helped them figure out how to get more than just the basic bear.)

Here's Jadyn making one of the three baskets we saw her make in her game later that afternoon (Jadyn's best shooting of the season!). Jadyn played point guard and did a great job controlling the ball and setting up plays.

We also saw Jadyn make some great steals!

Our two girls and their three cousins make this a complete set. The best collection of girls I know!

We whisked Katelyn away for an afternoon and went to the skating rink at the mall. The first pair of skates we got for Vanessa were just too small (darn wide feet run in the family!).

Katelyn helped me get Vanessa to the ice.

When I first got on the ice with her I thought I would slip for sure! It took me a while to figure out how to balance myself AND a three-year-old! Thank goodness Katelyn was there.

And the wall helped too! Vanessa and I made it about half way around the rink before Vanessa started to get a little tired. Some encouragement and a helping hand from Katelyn helped us get all the way back around to Daddy!

Well, of course Elizabeth wasn't about to let Vanessa get away with doing something she couldn't, especially where any type of shoes were involved. So we let Elizabeth try on Vanessa's skates.

Vanessa tries very hard to let Elizabeth share the ice-skating limelight. Once Elizabeth had skates on, she had us where she wanted us... it took only a little more persistence on her part before she had convinced us that she should have a short turn on the rink!

We stayed behind the cones, and went out for just a couple of minutes, but she did pretty good!

She kind of figured out how to balance. Not bad for having oversized skates on.

Back at Uncle Jake's place, Vanessa played her own version of Superman with Uncle Jake. This version, as near as I could tell, involved pretending to fly around the house and then pretending to crash to the floor.

Bryn joined this game of Superman.

Some family time relaxing on the couch!

Jadyn's turn to join the Superman game!

Bryn and Vanessa have a little computer time.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth takes a little snooze on Jadyn's lap.

Vanessa and Jadyn played a little bowling on the Wii. Bryn observed while she waited for her turn. Jadyn and Bryn were seasoned Wii experts, and Vanessa learned quite a bit from them.

On Monday we visited the children's museum before heading out on our flight. The girls take a minute to pose in an alligator's mouth.

The girls tried to make sure that their Pooh Bears had a great time at the museum.

There was not just a train table, but a train ROOM at the museum. The girls were in heaven.

Ooh, and there was an ambulance to pretend to drive in a hospital-themed room.

Elizabeth helps one of the baby dolls wash her hands in the neonatal unit.

There was a dinosaur exhibit complete with skeletons and interactive games. The girls probably spent 20 minutes sitting in this dinosaur footprint.

We saw a 3-D movie about natural gas. Only the big energy companies could find a way to make this such an action-packed heart-thumping sequence so as to scare the heck out of Elizabeth, poor thing! Well, she did really enjoy the glasses, in any case!

There was a great exhibit for playing with engineering toys. Elizabeth made a birthday cake with candles out of some tinker toys.

Both girls enjoyed the wind tunnel that floated paper helicopters or parachutes straight up and out the top!

Elizabeth and Daddy play with some mosaic tiles.

Vanessa drags a finger through the sand on a rotating table.

Elizabeth was fascinated by this display too.

Soon we were on our flight back home. Grandma stayed with us after we got back, and the girls enjoyed some great story time with her (this time story time came with props!)

Not long after Grandma had made it safely back home, the biggest snow we had ever seen in Virginia came! And kept on coming! Our first attempt at shoveling the driveway left enough snow to have a little sledding fun on.

There's a smile!

Vanessa's favorite activity was knocking the snow back into the driveway....

We built a snow cave to keep the girls entertained and a bit warmer.

It bears noting that we didn't have to build up to make this snow cave -- James just dug a spot out of the giant wall of snow lining our driveway.

I should have tried to get a car in this picture for scale -- when James's car was parked in the driveway earlier it nearly disappeared behind the snow.

Vanessa sits on the floor of the kitchen looking out at the snow at her shoulder level outside.

Here's a picture of the high winds blowing while additional snow fell during the following day.

James was away on a business trip during a good portion of this storm, unable to get back because of canceled flights. I'm just so glad that he's back safely and I'm so glad that we were able to see our family in Texas with out any travel trouble.