Wet Weekend

We had another wet weekend this past weekend.  (It rained the previous weekend, too, but I'm pretty sure we got more this weekend.  I think we got something like 4 inches of rain this weekend.)  We only had some drizzle on Saturday up until about 2:30.  That's when the rain really started.

We started Saturday morning with dance pictures.  They've got a recital in about a little more than a week now.  It was the first time I've had to get them in costumes, and then do their hair.  We tried little buns, but they just don't have quite enough hair for it yet.  So there were lots.  And lots.  of bobby pins. Luckily, they were so excited, they didn't mind.

This is the only even partly decent picture I got (and it's still crooked and blurry), but oh my - so cute.  I caught glimpses of pictures being taken and I can't wait to see how ridiculously adorable they are.

After that, we went to Lowe's to pick up some more plants for the back yard.  The beds in the back yard have been pretty well neglected, and we've got a lot of holes to fill in.  Plus, I found this gardenia tree at Costco the week before, and it got me motivated to get it together.  That being said, the plants are still sitting in the front yard.  Maybe I'll have time this weekend.

We went to lunch, and, after checking the radar, decided to try to go downtown to the rubber duck derby that we went to last year.  I'll be honest - it was cold and windy.  I'm glad that we didn't get there much earlier (except that we missed free hula hoops).  And I'm glad we found a really nice lady who let the girls stand in front of her on the bridge.

This happens a lot lately when we take pictures - posing, making faces...

We finally convinced Emma that the giant inflatable duck wasn't going to bite, though by the look on her face, I'm not sure she believed us.  Oh, and more posing + faces.

Julie and Emma got a duck tattoo on their hands.

Watching the ducks.

They all got duck stickers, too, but Becca couldn't decide where to put hers, so she gave it to me.  While she wasn't paying attention, I put it on her shoulder.  Love that you can see the bun in her hair still here, too.

The rain literally started with the duck race.  It was light enough still that it wasn't awful, but with the radar, we knew it was just the beginning.  So, we didn't stick around for long.  And as soon as we got in the car, Becca asked why we didn't do a lot of things ("tings") there.  

And Sunday was pretty much this:

and this.

Father's Day

We did all take a nap on Saturday afternoon, and did some more exploring on Saturday afternoon.  We went to a park.  Played at the playground.

But what were they most impressed with?  The giant postal facility on the edge of the park.  There was a huge ramp from the road down a giant hill.  We seriously stood and watched mail trucks for longer than we spent at the playground.

We went out for pizza for dinner, got some ice cream, and went back to play in the hotel pool for a while.  The girls loved playing in the pool.  I had packed some water toys, including these mermaid dolls, and we spent a good chunk of time tossing them back and forth and splashing each other.  Becca was the only one who wasn't too crazy about the pool.  She finally would get in and sit on the top step, but that was about it.  Emma wanted to be pushing her feet off the wall with me.  And Julie fell in love with floating on her back.

On Sunday morning, we woke up and had breakfast at the hotel.  Becca was up early, and demanding breakfast, so we let Daddy, Julie, and Emma sleep in.  I look at this first picture of Julie, and I can totally see that "I just woke up" face - I think her eyes are a little puffy still.  And when I look at this one, for some reason, I see a teenager that I've just roused from bed at noon.

They love the hotel breakfast buffet.  It was pretty awesome.  And Emma?  Just might like this dress.  You might see her in it in just about every other post.  It is adorable on her, but I finally figured out (since this trip) what it is that she likes so much:  it is long.  And princesses?  They have long dresses.

We went for a walk down by the river.  Happy Father's Day, Daddy!

Becca and Julie.  Julie almost looks like she has pony tails, but I assure you that's just going-to-bed-with-wet-hair-from-the-pool combined with no-hair-brushing hair.

It was hot, and we'd run out of things to do, so we decided to head back home,  with a stop downtown for some lunch and to play in the spray fountain.  They installed this fountain a few years ago now, when they did a lot of the work along the river.  I can't believe that we hadn't ever been there yet, because the girls had a blast!

Should I add here that we still haven't given Greg his Father's Day cards?  I've gotten so bad about that lately.

Derby

Last weekend was the Kentucky Derby, and while we don't have much interest in horse racing, it means that it was also the weekend of a local Duck Derby fundraiser.  We had lunch first at a little bar restaurant down town.

 We had a hard time being patient and waiting for the ducks to come.  Oh, and it was hot.

A smile from E, in daddy's arms.

You have to look closely to see the ducks going over the waterfall, and bouncing off the rocks.  I only brought one lens.

Pooling at the bottom of the falls.

Hi, ducks!

The girls hated the waiting, especially since we were down on the rocks.  They had on flip flops (poor planning, mommy), and Becca could hardly keep herself standing last weekend on flat ground.  (We think she might be going through a growth spurt, because she's eating like a horse, too.)  Once we got onto the rocks, we told them they had to sit and couldn't run around.  They don't take well to "sit and don't move."  Once the ducks started coming, I think they enjoyed it.

Taking Our Bikes for a Walk

Almost 2 weeks ago now, we went out on a Sunday afternoon to a nearby college campus to ride bikes and have a picnic.  We forgot that, to get to the fairly flat path around the lake, there's a big hill.  Becca went down first, and I was able to grab her arm and slow her down.  Emma, though, took off on her own, and flew down the hill on her own.  She freaked.  Got to the bottom and somehow managed to get onto the grass to crash.  (Actually, at that point, I was afraid she was going to keep going from the grass into the lake.)  She was a little dirty, but very scared.  She insisted on walking her bike after that, at least for a while.

Julie saw all this and it made her even more hesitant.  For the first stretch of our walk, she insisted on walking her bike.  Which is a very.  slow.  process.

They spent a good part of the time walking their bikes.

Julie, actually on her bike for a short stretch.

Checking out the ducks.

We didn't get very far before the girls were ready for a picnic.  We just about got the blanket spread out when Greg kneeled down and said the ground was too wet.

So we went in search of alternate picnic sites.  This one, otherwise a perfect "party house" as the ladies call it, was full of bees.

Eventually we found a table.  Becca insisted on wearing Greg's hat to keep the hair out of her face while she was eating.

Can you see her hand on her hip?  She was clearly telling us something important.

After lunch, there was even more walking of the bikes.  It was taking FOREVER.

Finally, we decided that we couldn't make it all the way around at that pace.  Greg headed back to the car with Julie and Emma, and Becca promised that she'd ride her bike the rest of the way around, so I went with her the rest of the way around the lake.

We stopped for a break near the end to watch the turtles.

And with Becca riding, we made it around pretty quickly where Daddy and the ladies met us with the car.

{princesses}

I try not to use the "p" word around the girls.  I don't like it.  I don't like its connotations, its air of entitlement, the way it portrays women.  And, almost on principle alone, I almost didn't take the girls to a "Pirates and Princesses Tea Party" play date that our moms of multiples club held on Saturday.  But it was raining, and we needed to get out of the house.

The girls are still pretty clingy in large group situations like that.  We walked in the door and they just kind of froze, and wouldn't let me out of their sights.  It took a little while for them to warm up enough to put on the costumes.  And I'm not-so-secretly happy that they looked somewhat uncomfortable in them.

Did you know it was possible to look this miserable in a princess outfit?

As much as I hate princesses, I did get a couple of cute pictures.

Crowded around the mirror

Their favorite part of the whole thing were these little magic wands that they got.  Of course, they don't know that they're magic wands.  They just call them "stars."

Someone offered to get a picture of us right before we left.  It's not very often that I get a picture with my ladies.  And you can see their excitement level with the whole thing hasn't really changed.  In their defense, I had promised them a special surprise treat, and apparently this did not meet their expectations.  

They are some pretty tough critics.

The farm, with minimal acts of animal terrorism

Yes, the farm.  Even though we have established that they're terrified of most things that move.  But it was our moms of multiples fall party, and it was such a perfectly gorgeous fall day.  And I knew there'd be a hayride, and we've established that hayrides can be ok.

We checked out the baby pumpkins.

And played on the wagon.

We went on the hayride and E and J insisted on holding daddy's hand.

And, lo and behold, they were about 6 crates like this around with bunny rabbits in them.  Do you see how close they are?  I couldn't believe it.  They didn't want to touch or feed the bunnies, but they were definitely interested in looking at them and telling me who was sleeping and who was awake.  They had some other animals, but we kept our distance.  Trying not to scar them for life here.

It was a pretty small place, which was perfect for us.  In lieu of a corn maze out back, they had a little maze set up with this orange mesh.  The girls LOVED it.  Loved running around, following the path, seeing each other.  And Greg and I loved letting them run free over a large area with only one entrance and exit.

What's going on in this picture?  Well, Becca's pulling the hay out of the bale.  Julie looks like she's about to stab that pumpkin with a piece of hay.  And Emma is seeing just how far she can move that pumpkin toward the edge before it falls off.  And yet what's the first thing I exclaimed when I saw this picture?  "Look at how long Becca's legs are!"

Emma has been asking to sit on Greg's "head" all the time lately.

A family pic.  Or, as close as we get.  I'll spare you the one where Greg's hand is on Becca's head, trying to turn it back towards the camera.

Headed through the orchard one more time to check out the baby pumpkins.