Dora Live!

So I apologize for not updating as often as I should. BUT... I have a good excuse! I've been chasing around not one, but TWO 2 1/2 year olds.

Dora is to toddlers as Baby Einsteins is to babies.
Dora is to toddlers as Hannah Montana is to preteens.
Dora is to toddlers as Garth Brooks is to me.

The girls love Dora as evidenced here. So when tickets went on sale via Ticketmaster you can bet their Daddy was right on top of it! He scored some killer seats about 15 rows back from the stage of the Orpheum.

Photography of the stage or show was strictly prohibited.

The girls LOVED the show but couldn't grasp intermission or the actual end of the show so tears ensued. I mean, really, intermission... for Dora?! She's speaking in 5 word sentences for crying out loud.

Here is evidence of our happier times at Dora Live!

Grace and Daddy.

Daddy had to put his leg on her seat so she didn't become a human taco. It was cute. And yes, I would have most certainly taken a picture if it had happened.

A rare image of Mommy in front of the camera. This is why it is rare.



Peyton looks like she's having a WONDERFUL time.

I think the most magical thing that happened at the Orpheum besides seeing a grow man dressed like a monkey doing cartwheels on the stage...

...was that Peyton used the potty!!! (during intermission no less!)


All in all, we had a blast and are looking forward to our next theater adventure:

Vacation ~ Butterfly Center

Callaway Gardens has a butterfly center which had a neat parrot show we took the girls to before we headed into the butterfly center. Here are some pictures of the girls checking out the scene.

I love these shots where they are side-by-side.

Looking at the fish in the pond below.
PS -Check out those parts, great job Mom!

Overkill.

After the rather warm air in the butterfly center we headed inside and ended up being the only group (Nana, Aunt Teresa, and Baby Nathan, Gina, Ryan and Baby Carter and Aunt Debbie) in this area with a couple rows of chairs in front of a big screen that played a continuous movie about something, I'm assuming butterflies.

As I let the girls stretch their legs I hear Grace say "Ready, Set, Go"! All the sudden Peyton takes off down the row of chairs and I hear Grace say, "My turn!" and off she goes.

Here is Grace - look at that form!

Peyton, mid-stride.

Peyton's turn to yell "Ready, Set, Go!"

Parent of the year!




Peyton got a glimpse of Grace's form and proceeded to give her some gentle pointers.

"You look at me Grace, stop pronating!" - Peyton

Maybe the gene for being slow is recessive...

This could be the first proof that the girls may have avoided their parents fate.

Parenting lesson learned at the Callaway Gardens Butterfly Center: if you're in air conditioning and the kids aren't crying, bleeding, or hungry and just running around like hoodlums...keep doing what you're doing.

Vacation ~ Callaway Gardens

We went to the Read Family Reunion in Pine Mountain, GA last week and had a great time! Callaway Gardens was nearby - it has, surprise, gardens, famous golf courses, and a really nice lake complete with a mile long "beach" among other things. We took the girls to the beach and they loved playing in the sand (it was our first "beach") and were scarily unafraid of the water. I took some pictures of the girls in their suits before we hit the "beach".

Grace giving me a quasi-smile.

Not sure if Peyton is smiling with her eyes but I think Tyra Banks would still be proud.

I haven't been a fan of the swimsuit "shirts" until recently. After reading some crazy statistic that states only one sunburn in a child's young life increases their chances of skin cancer by 20% I started looking at the shirtsuits a little differently. I have to admit, I'm a fan now and think they are cute! If you don't think they are cute, your opinion is wrong.

I brought a tent to the beach, you know, for some shade...

...it seems I didn't tell Grace what it was for.

More to come...

Pigs Have Flown

They frequently wear pink, Nana and Poppa have even given them pom pons, and now looks what's happened...

(please disregard the yellow paint on Baby A's leg, we were on our way to the bath tub, I promise!)

You might think I'm getting soft or just good at painting but in both cases you'd be wrong. You see they had just come in from their first of what was to be two-a-day soccer practices and they wanted some strawberries and... you're not buying this, are you?

As evidenced by their angelic faces and completely coerced smiles, they were happy.

I'm just a mom - trying to make my children happy.

And yes, for those of you that know me, I'm dying a little inside. :)

5 kids under 5

This Saturday we were able to spend some time with our good friends and their three kids. The have a nearly 5 year old and twin boys who are about 6 months younger than the girls. Seeing them all sitting down, at the same time, we decided we need to take a picture of this monumental event!

We quickly realized that getting them in the same frame was a very big "check" in the "Mom Book of Things We Have Surprisingly Managed To Do". We proceeded to pat ourselves on the back and yet still went a step further...

We foolishly attempted to get them all the smile.

To no avail.

What were thinking?

Hey Diddle Diddle

Hey diddle diddle,
The cat and the fiddle,
The cow jumped over the moon,
The dog laughed to see such sport,
And the dish ran away with the spoon. (and the fork ~ P&G '09)

We were given a clock before the girls were born that portrays the nursery rhyme "Hey Diddle Diddle" and has the words to the rhyme around it. We say it to/with the girls before we go to bed every night. I'm not sure why or how it started but it's part of our nightly ritual now and they let us know if we forget to say it! They also decided the rhyme needed a little something else to the end. And I have to agree. Why would the dish run away with the spoon and not the fork? What did the fork do to deserve the dish dis? (You're trying to say those last two words again, aren't you?) At least the girls understand the importance of including everyone.

Back to the rhyme at hand.. this weekend I was able to catch video of Peyton singing the rhyme, at least part of it. Now that I think about it, this is also a true portrayal of the attention span of a 2 and half year old. They wake up at 6:30am and go to bed at 8:00pm. That's 13 and half hours in the entire toddler day... with a 2 hour nap that leaves 41,400 awake seconds... with the average toddler attention span at, let's be generous and say, 13 seconds:

• that's 3,185 separate attention spans a day
• adding another 3,185 for Baby B
• for a grand total of 6,370 separate attention spans...
  

Who wants to babysit?!?!

I digress, here is the video...

Cute Alert! Cute Alert!

Yes, I agree.
You can only really understand the last word she says as she squeezes the life out of the word "moon".
Give her a break... she's only two!

Miraculously and with the help of the gravitational pull of the moon we were able to convince both toddlers to stand in the same frame so we could capture the SINGING EVENT OF THE SUMMER!

Nothing like singing in your PJ's and sandals at 10:00 in the morning...

Yes, they are standing on the picnic table and singing.
They also like to jump off it.
Are we terrible parents? Maybe.

But we got the video! And the blackmail video catalog gets a little bigger...

First Milkshakes!

There is nothing like a guilty pleasure milkshake on a Sunday afternoon. We took the girls to Steak n' Shake for some cheeseburgers and shakes on Sunday.

I'm not sure why I feel the need to commemorate this mundane task with a post but kids enjoying ice cream is always cute, right?

Grace

Peyton

I highly recommend the "lower-mess-maintenance" milkshake as opposed to the "spoon-in-hand" method. Much easier to clean up when the straw is the vehicle for consumption!

Mission Complete!!! (Part 2 of 2)

Peyton has caught up folks!

(Although Grace is still clearing excelling - if you call going 3 times in a week and half excelling...)

Next up: Mission Consistency

Only 2 minutes...

That's how long I was gone... I just had to change out of my work clothes. You'd think they could behave themselves for 2 minutes. They have up until this point and to be honest I thought I was going to be lucky enough to avoid the horror stories that I've heard about other toddlers. I'm not sure what I was thinking.

Their weapon of choice, you ask?

A green sharpie of course!
What ELSE were they going to use?!



Their medium?



What else but carpet would show the intricacies that a green sharpie creates with every stroke??


Oh yeah, they also drew on themselves.

And no, I do not have pictures. It's hard to take pictures when you're yelling...

Mission Complete!!! (Part 1 of 2)

That's right! Grace used the potty for the first time yesterday!!! We are ecstatic as evidenced by this post being shared on the www...

The girls helped me make their poster so we can track their "successes".

No shocker that Grace picked Dora.

Here's to hoping Peyton follows in her footsteps today!

Elephant Pool Time

Where the frog pool fell short last year...the elephant pool (complete with slide) has picked up the slack! While the girls were sleeping we put water in the pool so it would warm up before they got outside. It worked and the girls seemed more apt to get in the pool as opposed to last year. A big thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for getting the pool!

Testing the water...

The girls loved the pool and played for a good part of the afternoon however I have no photographic evidence to show you here on this blog. That's because I got in the pool with the girls... in my bathing suit.

While I have no pictures to verify they got in above their knees...you'll just have to take my word for it.

This blog intermission was brought to you by Mom Jeans, Land's End catalogs, and holiday themed applique vests.

Here are the girls coming in from the pool and sunburn free...

...thanks to Coppertone Kids Continuous Spray SPF 70.
This stuff was great and super easy to put on a squirming toddler.
I highly recommend it!

Harris Wedding

A big shout out to Meghan and Steve Harris who tied the knot this weekend! We had a great time at the wedding!

Here are some pictures of the girls from the reception at the Dixon Gardens...

Holding hands... Peyton (L) Grace (R)




Mom clicking away so as not to miss a single second of the adorableness!




Look! Mom is still taking our picture!

I'm not done if they're not done!




The last one! Promise!




Daddy and the girls




Here they are sitting on the "troll bridge" a la Dora.