What life looks like

Emergency pony tail holders everywhere...

Emma

We went out to dinner a few weeks ago to one of our favorite local Mexican restaurants.  It's a family owned place, and apparently they keep baskets of toys up by the cash register.  We've been going there for a while, but this was the first time someone has brought us a basket of toys.  They toys were pretty random, but the girls loved them.

Emma had some whole scene going between this dinosaur and poor Theodore over there.  (And that sheet of paper?   She wrote all the P's and U's on her own.  The "BOOK" and "KITE" were where she asked us to write dots for her to trace.)

And then Captain Hook decided to ride a dinosaur.

Full-on crazy, I tell you.  And thanks to this trip, I can know say that I have looked up "Chipettes" on Wikipedia to find out that the girl chipmunk in the basket was in fact Brittany.

Oh my goodness...

... my car is going to turn into the turtle!

Random

Emma holding Bear's straw for her.

Apparently Momo's feet get cold, too.  And those socks that are starting to get too small for the girls are perfect for stuffed animals.  Note that Bear has socks on in the above photo, which I didn't even notice until now.

Emma "reading" a story and her sisters actually listening.  (It's "Mystery Ride.")

Lefty likes to play dress up, too.

This was the first time I'd seem Rebecca write her name (this is in Papa's birthday card).  There are a couple of J's in there, and a backwards (?) Emma, too.

I spy...

Spy glasses from the bristle blocks from when daddy was a boy.

On current events...

Glad that Obama won re-election.

Sad that SC was called by NBC for Romney with 1% of precincts reporting, and of the 1%, 24% of the votes were for Romney.

Sad that I rear-ended someone in traffic last week.

Glad that everyone was ok, except the van.

Sad that the rental van is much fancier than any van we'll ever own.

Glad for insurance.  And air bags.

Sad that I have been sick since Sunday night.  Like, home from work sick.

Glad that I am finally turning a corner... hopefully.

Sad that my brothers still don't have power restored after Sandy.

Glad everyone was safe and sound, and that my brothers live close enough to my parents that they can go there for power if needed.

Sad about the gas rationing in NJ.

Glad my parents power was restored fairly quickly.

Glad for some cold weather...  I still haven't worn a coat to work yet.

Sad that my coat from last year doesn't fit.

Catch up

So much to catch up on!  For example, did you know that Monkey now wears bows in her hair?  And that I'm sometimes told to call her Cinderella?

I haven't had a chance to update since Greg's parents were here in the beginning of October.  We've been up to all sorts of fun, playing outside, farm trips, arts and crafts, pumpkins, a trip to the "big" zoo and the children's museum, Greg's birthday, Boo in the Zoo.

More to come soon.  I'm not sure what's taking up all of my time lately.  I did think my laptop was broken for a little while, but that doesn't fully explain the last three weeks.  Since I filled up my old laptop with photos, I've been trying to be more diligent about editing and deleting on the new one, and that seems to be taking up some of my blogging time.  My sleep schedule is a mess again, too.  And I still have random days (usually Sundays) where I just sneeze and sneeze and sneeze all day long.

Oh yes, that is my child...

At the grocery store, Becca spied some pumpkins.  And all on her own, she ran over to them and sat down and said "Mommy, take my picture!"

A big 'ol string of random; otherwise known as Monday

They were all sitting at the table with pencils (we actually had to buy a pencil sharpener), writing in their little notepads.  When I asked them what they were doing, they told me they were working on their scrapbooks.  :)

You can see that they are loving the dress up costumes.  Becca and Emma's are the fairy costumes, but more often than not, they tend to just want to wear the green dress part, not the "fairy" part that goes over top.

By the time dinner was over, they had changed costumes again.  Well, partly.  Then papa called, and they were passing the phone around for a while.

Any Given Sunday

All dressed up to go to lunch.  This was the day she insisted on being called "Ballerina."

Out for lunch playing with our new-to-us Polly Pocket dolls.

It doesn't get much better than this.

We got some new flip flops in the mail last week and finally got to try them out.  They were more than I was usually spend on flip flops, but I love the little toe protectors.

And then a trip to the grocery store.  They love, love, love to stop at the deli to get samples of turkey and cheese.  They know us there.  :)  This week, they also talked their way into cookies from the bakery.

Now back to our regularly scheduled chaos

Last week was mine and Greg's 7th wedding anniversary.  The girls love any excuse to party (although I don't think we were actually invited to the party).  They stole the cats' scratching post and set it up in front of the front door.  I believe it was a pizza party.

They're having a grand time.  Like I said, I don't think Greg and I were invited, although the girls did keep saying "happy anniversary!"

 

For dessert, we had some ice pops out of our new ice pop molds.  I had to include these first two pictures, because when I look at them, I can see that Julie is in the process of making a point.  She's a little dramatic.

Last week

It's mostly a blur.  Luckily, I have photos.

I can't believe that it was just last week that my parents were here.  Greg sent me this while I was in class on Monday night.  My dad is fixing the little flower bed at the end of the driveway.  And the girls are, well, helping.  They're eating ice pops, and wearing bibs.  I had no idea we still had bibs, and couldn't figure out how my mom got the girls to wear them, until she told me that they used the catch flap on the bib as an ice pop holder.  Check out Emma's stance, too.  

Becca had a follow up at the ENT from her audiology screen a few months ago.  Luckily this time, her ears were pretty clear, and we've confirmed (for now) that another round of tubes won't be necessary.  She insisted on 1) the headband, 2) the toy phone, 3) the bracelets, and 4) a small teddy bear that you can't see in these pictures.

She was SO excited to go to the doctor.  I guess it's the lure of the prizes?  She got 3 stickers that she shared with her sisters later.  But, leaving there, she kept saying, "I had a good time at the doctor."  Of course, that morning, Emma and Julie were screaming because Becca got to go to the doctor and they didn't.  E & J started having "tummy aches."

I had my last class last week (hooray!), so on my way home from my last class, I stopped at Walmart (which is notable in itself, in that I hate Walmart and only go there once a year).  I got the girls each their own watering can (and, in another "I hate Walmart" rant, one of them leaks to the point where it's trash) to help water all of the new flowers that they helped plant.

Today was...

25 cent frozen strawberry lemonade day at McDonalds.  ("Look, that's a big M.  M starts with mommy!")

This?

This is our life.

The age-old problem...

What to do when you don't want to carry a purse, but you want to take a granola bar and paper fan with you?

Why, put them in your kitty cat (ok, Julie calls them bunny rabbits) boots.

Problem solved, ladies.

And just for info, on this same trip, Becca had 3 purses.  One on each shoulder and one around her neck.

The Story of the Sad Daffodil

Once upon a time, there was a "sad" daffodil.  It was sad because it wanted to be with its family.

So, it bent over and lay down on the step outside the door of three little ladies.

One day, one of the ladies named Emma almost stepped on the daffodil, despite mom's yells of, well, "don't step on the flower."

Emma saw the flower and felt sorry for it.  She sat down on the steps and tried to cheer it up by picking it up and twirling it around.  And around and around.

And then, Emma's sisters, started fighting over who got to take care of the flower.  And they all twisted and twirled it.

It seemed like the flower was finally getting cheered up about it's family being out at the end of the driveway.

Until a few days later mom realized that the sad daffodil had shriveled up, and looked like the top of the stem had been crushed.

All from too much love.

Well, last Monday wasn't *that* quiet

I was all ready to start a post about the rest of last weekend's adventures, but the I realized that I had a couple of pictures from our lazy Ladies' Day Monday last week.

I mentioned that we painted...  Well, Becca got bored quickly, but Julie and Emma kept going.  (Actually, Becca took dry paint brushes and was beating them against the bathroom wall.)  And then they started giggling.  A lot.  Apparently they had decided to paint Julie's face.

Emma helping her clean up.

We also played trains.  They really love the IKEA train set.  I love that they love train tracks.

We also did lots of coloring.  I snapped this picture because Emma's coloring is starting to becoming recognizable - she is starting to try to stay in the lines.

And one more ... Becca got into the punches again and wanted to punch "rocket ships."  (Take that, Jenni Bowlin banner punch.)  I am so jealous of their mental flexibility.

Wha...?

These?  Bloomed today.  About two weeks ahead of normal.  I really wish we had gotten a good dose of winter.  I kept waiting for a hard frost to plant some more bulbs, but it never really came.

I guess they might have bloomed yesterday, since I didn't go out of the house on Monday.  The nanny was on vacation, and I was home with the girls, trying to convince Julie that potty training is cool.

Becca Guacamole

Digging out some pictures from a week or two ago.  These are from when we went to the "chip and dip house."

She didn't eat the whole bowl of guacamole, but she put a pretty good dent in it.

Becca and daddy.  Yes, that is a pink bow hair clip on his pocket.

This was some sort of a triplet tickle fest/group hug as they finished eating and we were getting ready to go.