Photos of the Day

I went to visit my Gramma today. She has a great yard for picture taking. These are my favorites of the day.

Around my neighborhood

I like to take the girls for a walk in the evenings. As we were walking the other day I started to notice some things that I don't think are typical. This picture doesn't show it as vivid as it is, but the top pic, that house is PINK. It is not pretty. I like that mailbox. I think it is interesting. Then there is the house that doesn't know where they live. This house looks like it is in the middle of a forest. They have a fence made out of logs along the front, overgrown pine trees, and it is not terribly messy looking. It just doesn't fit into a suburban neighborhood. Then there is the house without yard. They tore out all the grass and replaced it with rocks. A few shrubs and trees, but no mowing for them. Then of course I always see my girls. Becca likes to walk behind me. Whenever I turn to snap a photo, she yells at me to "go mommy walk!" and Bridget who weeds all the yards by picking all the dandelions.

TEN things that I'm thankful for

1. Schaun--for being a great husband, father, provider and that he likes to cook
2. Bridget--for keeping life exciting with her imagination and dramatics
3. Becca-- for making me be patience with her do-it-myselfness
4. My Mom- for instilling a need for my independence
5. Kristin-- for always seeing the other side of things
6. Stacy-- for being the best "babysitter" EVER
7. Oprah--for her work to educate children and empower women
8. books and magazines for endless inspiration and entertainment
9. chocolate
10. My camera and photos--my memory is not that good
a little extra.......
TiVo, callerID, cell phones, mini-vans, and the internet

Perfect Weather....finally

We have been waiting for a day like this. Sunny and warm. Finally!

This is where we went. I think this is a great playground. Since Bridget believes that she is a princess, she should play in a castle. There were a lot of kids there--as I expected on this perfect day. But the more the merrier. Bridget just joins in with them. She makes friends easy. Becca is not sure of the slides yet. She likes to go to the top and just hang out there. It makes me nervous that one of the bigger kids will knock her down. I only let her hand out up there for a while before I bring her back down. She is just as happy running off in the trees and grass alone. So it is hard to please them both. Once is all social and the other not so much. But when it is time to leave and they are both unhappy about that, then it seems to me they both had a good time.

Official second birthday photo

Today we had an appointment for Becca to have her "official" second birthday pictures taken. I always go to the same place, Portrait Innovations. They take wonderful pictures. And when I walked in today I was greeted by name from a couple of the photographers and several of them knew Bridget and Becca's names. I guess we have been there a few times. Becca is not hip to having her picture taken in this setting. She doesn't want to stand near the backdrop and she will not keep her hands out of her mouth. It is frustating. On the other hand, Bridget is a pro. I wasn't even going to have her pictures taken, but she got so sad about it, I let her. Bridget fell down last night. She was running, but other than that, there was no reason for her to fall. She hit the floor face first, and she hit hard. She split her bottom and top lip open. It was all swollen and looked really bad last night. I thought, wow, that is gonna look great in a picture. But she sat with ice on it for a long time and a lot of the swelling went down. So with a bit of lip gloss, I don't think you can even tell.

My sweet little baby turned TWO!

We had Becca's second birthday party on Sunday. Her actual birthday is Thursday, the 11th. It was a great party. We had a Mickey& Minnie Mouse theme. The super cute Minnie cake came from Aunt Kristin--she provides all our theme cakes. We had balloons galore and lots of great gifts. Schaun smoked some pork on Saturday, so we had some fantastic pulled pork sandwiches along with the brats, dogs, burgers, and chicken he grilled during the party. One of Becca's presents was a big crab shaped sand box (from Gramma Kathy). Once we went outside to take a look at it, all the kids were off and running. They sure do love the outdoors.

It is hard to believe that my tiny Becca is two. I am constantly amazed when she says complete, understandable sentences or when she listens, understands and (sometimes) follows directions. Just little reminders that she is getting big and smart really fast.

Pony Birthday Party

Gabrielle is one of the girls in Bridget's preschool class. She had a pony birthday party. When I say pony--I mean REAL ponies. There were three ponies there for the kids to ride. What a great idea. I mean, what little girl doesn't want a pony? The ponies didn't stay the whole party, but it was a great time. I wish that they would have let me ride.

I miss

I've been challenged to blog about someone that I miss. There is not one name that jumps at me, but you know what I really miss?

Jello pudding pops.

When I was a kid, I ate these all the time. They were the best treat. Cold and creamy, just perfect.

Jello does not make these any longer. I am not sure why. I didn't believe that they really stopped making them for a long time. I would search every grocery store I was in looking for them. No luck. At one point I contacted the company. I thought maybe I could order them. Maybe they were not available locally. That is when I learned the truth. They told me that pudding pops were not produced any longer. I think that is a crock of you know what. Everybody loves pudding pops, so why not make them?