Two!!

Happy Birthday!

Good morning,  birthday girl!

Snuggles in bed

She LOVED the strawberry oatmeal!

Ring around the Rosie

Random

Nate went on a hike this weekend and snapped this shot.

Violet saw her first rainbow while I was in Tremont!  They came inside and read the story of Noah and God's promise in the form of a rainbow.

She said she wanted to "lay down in mommy and daddy's bed" and she napped there for nearly 3 hours!

Tiring day

After a fun playdate we came home and did everything but nap.  I guess sleeping in until 8:45 didn't leave a lot of room in the day for sleeping. So we got out the spray bottle and sprayed everything we could find.  The grass, flowers, our feet, rocks, you get the idea.

She even sprayed the car

And climbed into her crib at 6:15 and was OUT.  We changed her diaper and she didn't even flinch.  It feels so much like summer I can hardly stand it!

Outside time!

Helping clean the windows

We made a tasty and colorful stir fry.  She liked the yellow peppers the best!

She "fixed" the garden at Ella's house

Jake supervised her work :-)

Chalk with friends

Outdoor activity stick - shaving cream!  She loved it and it smelled great :-)

Showing daddy her messy hands

Summer?

It sure feels like summer with all of the outside time we've been enjoying lately.

Violet LOVES sidewalk chalk.  We've been making "the letter A" up and down our block.  When we ask her what she wants to make or what she wants to make herself, it's one of these things: the letter A, a big letter A, a humongous letter A, a small letter A, a blue airplane, a starfish, or a snowman. 

She kept bringing me rocks from outside.  She would say "one, two, three rocks for mommy!
 and before I could get it out she would say "thank you" for me mimicking my intonation. 

The letter A!

St. Patrick's Day

We had a little St. Patrick's Day party with the Shooks and DiMartinis and it was so much fun!  We had a lot of kids between us but they were all well-behaved.  We ate dinner and put all of the kids to sleep.  We even played Partini and watched Honeybadger.  It was a very fun night!

The corned beef and cabbage turned out so well!  I'll definitely have to make it again.

Jamie brought super cute desserts.  Aren't these rainbow cupcakes adorable?  She also brought clover shaped pretzels dipped in white chocolate and festive mint oreos!  The DiMartinis brought green caipirinhas and we all enjoyed drinking them :-)

The Shooks imagined life with two girls...of different ages!

Beauties!

Sweet family!

My special red-headed Nora girl and me - her real mom.

All of the kiddos, um, posed? Violet - so over it.  Luca - not feeling the couch crack.  Margaret - about to eat Luca.   Nora - snacking on her dress.

Thanks for taking a cute picture of us, T!

What?!?

Crafty morning

Our activity stick was to paint! 

We painted a big truck, per her request.

Messy girl!

We were very prolific this morning.  Aren't the cherry blossom trees so cute and spring-y?

We smelled mommy's special flowers

Nate planted these daffodil bulbs for me because he knows they are my favorite flower.  They just popped up and they make me so happy when I see them!

We decided to take the babies for a walk.  I talked Violet into putting clothes on.

Violet: "Come on, girls.  Keep your sunglasses on, pacifiers in, and let's roll!"

I was hardly even needed for this adventure :-)

Another activity stick was to make a tape collage.  She didn't like it as much as I thought she would, but it was fun to be outside all morning. We even ate lunch outside :-)

So cute!

Margaret let her borrow the blue sunglasses.  Margaret is so sweet!

I went around the block like this and got 4 comments of "you've got your hands full" and "you have a full load" and "now that would just be chaos."  It was so frustrating!  Nobody was crying, I was fully dressed and awake, and we were having a nice morning stroll.  I feel bad for parents who have to hear these comments every day about their own kids.  Yikes!

Boo boo :(

All of that blood from these little scrapes on her head.  Poor girl!   The bump has gone down a lot and the only time it hurts her today is when she lays down for a diaper change.  She's so brave!

Activity sticks

A few weeks ago I heard an idea for activity sticks.  It's a great way to reward toddlers and to try new things.  I've been keeping a list of ideas from friends, blogs, and brainstorming.  I wrote all of the ideas on craft sticks and put them in a jar.  When we have a few minutes and she is being a good girl she can pick an activity stick.  It is really great for after dinner time when we are looking for things to do. 

The jar!

The activity sticks are so colorful and inviting

The first activity stick she picked was "toothpicks and marshmallows."  So we got them out and made interesting shapes and she had a lot of fun!  We also discovered she LOVES to eat marshmallows.  Duh!

So many sticks!

She said this one was an airplane so we're going with that.

It was fun to eat a snack of strawberries from toothpicks.  She had fun trying to stick the little pieces on her toothpicks.  This activity kept us all busy and having fun for over 30 minutes.  Amazeballs!