Lahsta

Thank goodness I have Madeline to help raise Audrey, I don’t know what I would do other than have a better self esteem. Really at 3 years old she already thinks she’s smarter than me?! I really wasn’t ready for this.

We turned the corner by the produce into the meat dept at Wal-Mart and Audrey kept staying… “lahsta.” I had no idea what she was talking about! Madeline, however, gives me the look that I am certainly going to know well in the next few years, and says “Mom, she’s saying lobster… they are right there.” Of course she was right!

Madeline always has loved going to pet stores but there just aren’t many of those around down here. So the lobsters have become Audrey’s favorite part of our trips to Wal-Mart. No kidding the security cameras must watch us because we seriously make about 6 different passes by the lobsters on our shopping trips. But somehow, it didn’t click what “lahsta” meant.

Just another fun Friday grocery trip to Wal-Mart! Happy Weekend!!

My Little Baker

Madeline loves to help in the kitchen! The other day she wanted to make a cake… although I have no idea why… she only eats the frosting. When it came time for frosting this was all her idea and she did it so neatly and patiently.

It all eventually ran together and looked like a cute patchwork quilt, but she ate none of it. She just wanted to make it. WOW… wish I could say the same for myself.

Catching Flies

For some reason, Madeline’s mouth motion must match her hand motion when she uses scissors. It’s really quite humorous.

She has improved a lot with her cutting skills as she loves to practice. Until last week the scissors stayed in her “learning time” box but when she nonchalantly told me she was going to cut her hair, they were promptly moved to a place unreachable by her. She promises she was only pretending!! AHHHHH!!! We do NOT want bangs!

Fit for Fun

We started out the morning early by taking Mark to work so we could all get our flu shots. (They were doing an employee/family clinic today.) Shots went AWESOME… neither one of the girls shed a tear, although Audrey might have put a hex on the nurse she had. What an evil little face! Fastest flu shots ever… way to go Brunswick County Health Department.

It had been pouring rain since we left home around 7:30am. Mark wouldn’t be home until 8:30pm because of a night meeting, so I had no idea what we were going to do all day. Instead of going back to OKI, I made a last minute decision to  hit up Fit for Fun, a kid’s place I’ve heard about a few times in the last month.

This place is FABULOUS!

All the toys your kids could ever want to play with…

An arts and craft room with unlimited supplies…

Madeline’s favorite… the ball pit…

Only $4 a child and no one over age 5 is allowed!! AWESOME. They even provided snacks. We will definitely be going back here again. What a great place for a rainy day.

Lunch. I asked Madeline where she wanted to go and she said, “what are my choices?” Sam’s Club was the third on my list and I didn’t have to go any further. Hot dogs, icees, and a pretzel… yes, please!

This is how excited Madeline was the minute we walked in the door:

She is a NUT!

After lunch we headed home so we could do naps at 2… about halfway home Madeline HAD to go potty. Thank goodness for the Harris Teeter! We made a quick trip, picked up a few groceries, and the essentials: balloons and cookies.

After naps we spent a few hours at the beach as the skies had completely cleared! We sure packed our day full.

Before bedtime prayers, I asked Madeline her favorite part of the day, as we do every day. “Getting a flu shot, mom!”

Like I said… she is NUTS!

Please excuse the poor pictures… since this was a last minute trip… I didn’t have either of my cameras, just my phone. But it served its purpose! Glad I had extra diapers, because I’m pretty sure I would have gone without them too! Sometimes Mom just can’t take it cooped up inside any longer!

Relax

When’s the last time you lounged on the couch, with a full belly, in only your underwear?!? Really, we don’t want to know! :)

Daddy Daughter Weekend

It’s been quite awhile since I’ve had extended “me” time… 3 years to be exact. :) I’m not exaggerating, since Madeline was born I have never been without the girls AND Mark overnight. CRAZY! It takes a good friend to call you out and say “it’s time.”

This friend happened to be my longtime BFF, Shannon. She decided it was time and stole me away for the weekend. She is expecting a baby in November so we knew we better do it before then. I enjoyed a lot of good rest, some shopping, and a fun night out in Raleigh on Saturday night. Shannon also knew I’d help her paint and decorate her nursery, so we did that too! (Always an ulterior motive with her. Haha!)

A HUGE thank you to my wonderful husband for being such an AWESOME dad each and every day so that I had no hesitation in leaving the girls for the weekend. He does everything as good or better than I do, usually just a little slower, so they were in good hands.

The next post is Mark’s contribution for the blog about their fun weekend without me. Enjoy the guest post!

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Don’t Tell Anna!

This parenting stuff is crazy hard! I can only do this without her for very short periods of time. This weekend was a big challenge and underscored my faith and wonder in my wonderful wife.

These kids are great, but they never run out of energy, they are rarely quiet and take so much preparation to do things well (the positive side is that they are fun loving, laugh a lot, and Anna makes all this look easy).

On Friday I took the girls to see my parents and we had a great time in the drizzle, cooking up some fun and visiting an old neighbor.

Saturday was the worldwide day of play at Marbles Kids Museum in Raleigh where the girls got to hang out with their cousins, make friends and art, make believe as nurse Madeline, turtle watcher Audrey and take a ride around town.

It’s so much better being with all three of my girls. I would do it all over again and would gladly take over any day without hesitation, but only if I have to.

love Mark

<3 Dad

Mess

Mark had a speaking engagement in Greensboro today so I stayed at my sister’s house in Raleigh with the kids. Isaac stayed home from school with us and what fun we had!

How they made such a mess in such a short period of time is beyond me. Sometimes fun just requires a MESS!! :)

Alphacakes

Just another fun way that Madeline and I work on her letters. Letter shaped pancakes!

Madeline loved helping me make them and enjoyed eating them too.

Audrey, however, wasn’t impressed… it just slowed down her eating time. :)

Learning the alphabet and learning to cook at the same time… life skills friends, life skills!

Hermit Crab

Not sure if they are really hermit crabs since they crawl underwater on the bottom of the ocean, but we’ve found a few of these guys this summer.

The one we found today was quite brave and would come out of his shell while you were holding it.

Madeline wasn’t fascinated with him very long but Audrey was not sure what to think about this creepy shell thing. At first she stood at a distance and would scream every time he came out of the shell.

She got a little braver and came closer the more times he popped his head out and then she finally decided she wanted to hold him too.

Here’s a short video of her experience:

I always love watching as their little minds (Audrey’s that is… not the crab!) figure out what is going on. She sure had no idea what that thing in the shell was until he crawled around a bit on the sand.

We freed Mr. Hermit Crab back into the ocean and hope he enjoyed our visit today as much as we did! HA!

Boardwalk

Just another day at the beach finding some fun while exploring. We found a fun boardwalk for walking along the intracoastal waterway.

We looked hard for an alligator… Madeline SO wants to see one… but we didn’t find one, just a bunch of lizards.

Audrey was worn out by the time we finished, she insisted on walking the entire time by herself. I LOVE this picture:

Another daddy’s girl. Pictures like these warm my heart!

Dog Walker

Audrey found her perfect match for dog walking, Pepe, Mike and Paige’s Italian Greyhound.

Pepe is not a big fan of kids, but he was a sport today in letting Audrey walk him for a short distance.

He doesn’t weigh much and he walks well on a leash, so he didn’t pull like our dogs do. We just kept our fingers crossed that we wouldn’t take off running. After all, his breed is known for racing!

Audrey LOVED it and it kept her occupied while Madeline enjoyed riding her tricycle. Hmmm… wonder how old she has to be before she can start charging for this service?!? :)

One Angry Elf

WOW… so now that Audrey is walking with great confidence, she can’t stand to be left out.

On our daily walks Madeline is all about being Miss Independent on her tricycle. Audrey is NOT a big fan of that and walked behind her the whole way today just SCREAMING! Fun times.

Madeline, being the great big sister that she is… or maybe just being sick of hearing her scream… decided Audrey needed a turn.

Life was good again… until Madeline wanted back on!!

Lunch With Gramma

Today we drove to Wilmington and met Gramma for lunch! The girls were more than thrilled to see her and had a great time eating Chick-Fil-A and playing in the play land.

Now that Audrey is walking ALL OVER, instead of part walking/part crawling, I turned her loose on the play land. She followed Madeline around and tried her best to climb up on stuff, even using Madeline’s back as a step one time, but she is just too short.

Her favorite place to play… the shoe cubby. This girl has a shoe OBSESSION!! She is always looking for shoes to put on or to put on over her shoes. A little girl came in with glitter light up tennis shoes and I was sure Audrey was going to rip her leg off just to get to them. I see problems ahead with this. :/

Thanks for meeting us, Gramma… we had a blast!

XOXO

Audrey is all about giving hugs and kisses these days. Mark and I LOVE it and most of the time Madeline does.

The dogs… not so much!

Her sweet personality is coming out more and more each day and she definitely is no longer a baby. They just grow up too fast!!

BIG Girl

We got home LATE on Sunday night from our weekend in the mountains. Audrey’s pack ‘n play that she sleeps in down here at the beach was the last thing that could be unpacked from the car.

We’ve been talking about it for awhile because Audrey is such an awesome sleeper and we’d have more room without a pack ‘n play around, so decided to let Audrey sleep in the twin bed that Madeline has been sleeping in.

Audrey always falls asleep unbelievably fast, and she was pretty much still asleep last night when we got her diaper changed. She snuggled right up with Margot, her sleepy doll, and we didn’t hear a peep out of her.

BUT at 7am this morning we heard Madeline yelling from their room, “I have a problem… I have a problem…” Audrey had gotten out of bed when she woke up and was sitting on the floor trying on all the shoes she could find. Madeline, still sitting on her bed continued, “I told her not to get off the bed, but she wouldn’t listen.” She is such the little mother hen.

I wasn’t sure how naptimes would go, but it went just as well. She did crawl around a little before she fell asleep, but she did fine.

Doesn’t she look like a happy girl?!?

YAY Audrey!!

Creeper Trail 2011

After last year’s rainy weekend (see HERE), the weather was absolutely GORGEOUS for our Saturday morning Creeper Trail ride this year.

Here’s the “official” 2011 photo. (See HERE for years past.) Our friends Paige and Mike came along with us this year and I don’t think we drove them crazy, although we tried our best. :)

The kids and adults all had a blast riding the trail:

 

This was the first year for Audrey and Lucas to ride the trail. Brian pulled them in the bike trailer, Isaac was on the back of Rachel’s bike, and Madeline on the back of Mark’s. (Luckily no one was on my bike because I took a graceful tumble into the woods when I hit a rock in the trail. I know, just call me Grace!)

While riding the trail is the big event of the weekend, we have as much fun hanging out at the house together, eating good food, watching the kids play, riding bikes around town, playing at the playground, and feeding the ducks.

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Audrey had her first ride around town with Aunt Rachel on a bike as opposed to being in the bike trailer! She loved it.

We had a wonderful weekend of relaxation! It is always too short but we look forward to this adventure all year long. There is just something about that quaint place, with people you love, and nothing to do… what more can you ask for?!?