Unorthodox

Elise and Avery tried to eat their own ice cream cones at McDonald's recently.  They're tiny, TINY little things so I thought they wouldn't be a big deal.  (They don't ever get cones because it's just so much easier to have them eat with a spoon and then give them my cone sans ice cream, at the end!)

It wasn't a big deal really, except that my youngest daughter insists on eating the "cookie" (cone) part first, because it's her favorite... thus making her dining experience a little unorthodox.

Exhibit A:



And then, because she did this all the way around and it was nearly impossible to get a container/spoon during the rush at this crazy place, Exhibit B:

Whatever works, right?  It tasted the same.

Meanwhile, her sister...

Never dull around here, for sure! ;)

Disney Family Day #5

"To infinity... and beyond!"

Our "Toy Story party" was a blast (no pun intended).  Because I never got around to making the Mr. Potato Head activity, we opted just to play with ours instead... which the girls loved.  It had been a while since the whole family played with them together!  Avery insisted on her Mrs. Potato Head joining her beau on the island with the food, but then wanted her back before I could snap a picture.   This one will have to suffice, instead :)

"Cheese!"

We also played the Toy Story Mania video game (very poorly, considering 2/4 of us are probably a bit young).  Elise and Avery got a kick out of seeing both their names and some of their favorite TS characters on the screen.

No coloring pages today (what?!), because the "event" was rather short.  We did watch the first movie in the franchise though (that is 15 years old... can you believe it?!), and the girls really enjoyed it.  Probably not as much as they we all enjoyed the cookies, though!

Next up, Lilo and Stitch!

Free Zebra to a Good Home

Recently, we were at lunch with some of the Kaufman family.  While dining, a little boy (probably about 8) came up to Elise (while Avery was in the bathroom) and gave her a zebra he had just won.

"I was just playing around in the arcade games and thought she would like this even better than I do."

She played shy and Avery actually took to it more while we were there, but we made sure both girls said plenty of "thank you"s.

I can only hope our children are so generous and thoughtful!

It finally happened.

Poop-smeared walls.

Seriously, I thought this stopped around 18 months?

No, as I might have mentioned, in a phase that started well AFTER 2nd birthday celebrations, the diapers come off nearly every morning despite numerous attempts at portraying exactly how much trouble Elise and Avery are in when this happens.  And no, I can't tape them, put them on backwards, or put onesies on - tried it, nothing works because they aren't infants going through this stage, they're 2.25 and can essentially dress (and undress) themselves.  And the diapers get pulled down like panties, rendering many solutions ineffective.

Anyway, this morning's early bath (5:30, anyone?) and wall scrub-downs were a fun wakeup call.

Rotten girls!

Disney Family Day 3

Ok, now we're back on track :) Our third DFD was a party under the sea with The Little Mermaid!

Of course what Little Mermaid party would be complete without swimming (and, as the case may be, an "Ariel Fountain Slide")? We played outside in the water until the rain started up, then moved the party inside for a Little Mermaid dance party! :)

There were of course the now-obligatory coloring pages, and a viewing party of The Little Mermaid.

Ursula Dogs, seashell pasta, star(fish) fruit and other ocean-themed goodies finished out the evening...

... and I'm happy to report that Elise and Avery love my second favorite princess movie just as much as I do!

*sigh*

I sure hope we can figure out how to get Avery to sleep in a bit more before the upcoming time-change. I'm not looking forward to the prospect of watching Playhouse Disney at 4am (is it on?), in order to avoid waking Elise up, too!

Playmates

How sweet it is to watch these two play together. On the (somewhat rare) occasions that it IS sweet. ;)

Disney Family Day 4

No, you didn't miss one. As if you're really paying that close attention.... An entry on the third Disney Family Day we did is going to have to wait, because there's lots of video to edit. Until then, I figured a post out of order was better than no posts at all, right? Right? :)

Anyway, our most recent DFD was a "Donald Duck Mexico Party", according to our two youngest attendees. They were close. In actuality, it was a Three Caballeros party - in honor of the ride that, along with "it's a small world", is STILL one of their favorites each trip. So without further ado...

While Mommy was finishing up a few last-minute details, Daddy and the girls decided to play a few rounds of Ring around the Rosie with Donald himself. I think he had fun! ;)

Finally, it was time for paper flowers and sombrero decorating!

Dinner (with Mexico Pavilion and Mariachi Cobre music in the background) was Donald's Taco Bar, Panchito's Lime Tostitos & Salsa, Jose's Spanish Rice, and Tres Leches cake... delicioso!

We finished up the night watching, of course, The Three Caballeros. And hey, with 4 DFDs down, it means we're just about one month closer to our trip!

Dessert & Dancing

Kyle and I had the wonderful pleasure of spending a recent evening with one of my closest friends (Leah) and her husband (Dave) at her parents' annual "Dessert & Dancing Party". This casual, end-of-summer event is a great time - fun band, great company, and dessert. Ohhh, the dessert.

I'm still disappointed in myself that I only sampled three. Next year, I definitely need a better game plan!

It was a really nice, long overdue date night with the love of my life, and some quality time spent with one of my other favorite people on the planet. Thank you, Karen and Daniel, for having us!

On clothing sizes...

Today, August 19th (at 26 months and 3 days), Avery and Elise are finally wearing (as opposed to me chasing after them holding on) their 18-month Osh Kosh jeans! For months (purchased in the spring, when the girls were 20 months old or so), we've had the adjustable waist adjusted as far as possible, and - perhaps in large part because 18-month-olds are "supposed" to have diapers and therefore parts of the pants are larger - they could NOT keep them up on their scrawny little bottoms.

The reason this was of note to me this morning, is because I'm a tad annoyed. Last fall, we were preparing for a trip to Walt Disney World. Because, you know, sometimes we do that. I went to put outfits together and purchase what else we might need, and as you well know, there are NO shorts in the stores after about the 4th of July... because then it's time to put out Halloween costumes before it's too late!

Not a problem this year. I'm so organized and on top of things (ha!) that I stocked up on 2T shorts, capris, etc. By getting 2T, I figured we'd be set for the fall and likely through next summer, since many kids stay in the "T" sizes much longer. Of course, this is also where I should mention how often I read that my two-year-old really CAN survive on just 4 bites of food a day (which is apparently the norm), and wonder how 18-month clothes fall off of my children when they eat LITERALLY as much as I do in a given meal. But I digress...

This morning, I put on the absolutely adorable 2T jean skirts that I bought after, quite literally, 6 months of stalking them to go on clearance and then an afternoon tracking down the two I needed. They were purchased almost entirely for our trip, because if it is cool then we can always put on thick leggings and be just as cute, if not cuter. I was pumped when I scored them, and today when I put them on.... not so pumped. I swear, Elise's first reaction was to quickly grab at the waistline because she could feel the gaping 4 inches or so between her body and the skirt. Not good.

So here we are, just 2.5 months away from our trip, and we might be in the same predicament. Thankfully it will be mid-November, so in theory we'll all be fine in jeans - of which they have several pair that, I think, should fit by then. If not, then we at least have the dark and light versions of the ones that fit today, and - of course - the Children's Place ruffle flares that we've purchased in every size since 0-3 months and have loved equally as long. But what about outfit variety for pictures?! ;)

And what if our propensity for ridiculously unseasonable weather continues? Because let's be honest, we're batting about 0.000 on "normal" weather in our past trips.

And what is this about, anyway? Our girls have solidly established a place in the 25-40%-ile on growth charts. I got the size discrepancy at 4 weeks early and barely hanging on the charts, but that was "fixed" very quickly. So who are these clothes made for, anyway?!

This, my friends, is what I'd rather do on a Thursday morning than clean. Or upload pictures from events that should have been blogged a week ago.

Happy Thursday!

UPDATE: Or not. Apparently the girls have inherited my (lack of) butt. This is just the beginning of clothing struggles the rest of their lives...

(Apparently the entire art class (and after, as I witnessed), Elise just kept saying, "Pants falling down. Help you [me]? Pants falling down!")

Tee ball

Need a laugh? Best clearance find ever, perhaps.

Love and Honor to Miami

One of the reasons our Alice Party was moved to last Friday evening was because we made plans that Saturday to go to Oxford to share a toasted roll with my family since they were there for a wedding. Any excuse, really, to go...

We spent a couple of hours roaming around campus with the girls, played a while in the Shriver Center during a bit of a family delay, and enjoyed every minute of it. We won't ever force our children to go there (especially if Kyle works at his current job when they're off to college and one of the benefits is still free tuition... in which case, Go Bearcats!), but we know they won't have any shortage of good memories there as they're growing up! More in Picasa.

Disney Family Day #2

Read up on DFD's here, because right now (and always) it seems we're late for a very important date!

Disney Family Day #2 was an "Alice party", which thrilled the girls to no end. They love Alice, despite having never seen the movie, Alice in Wonderland. (Or, rather, SINCE they'd never seen it? Your call, but I think that might be a good guess.)

Trippy as it is, it's a classic and one I was determined to stay awake through and love. And I'll be honest, it's cute. Way cuter than I'd ever given it credit for, mostly because I couldn't relate having never taken acid and because the "plot" (is there one?) always put me to sleep. Watching it in several chunks with 2-year-olds proved to be the key, so as not to require too long an attention span. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First, and not for lack of creativity (though that may be true) but because Avery and Elise can't get enough, we started once again with coloring pages. I venture to guess this will be a recurring theme, at least at some point during each of our future "parties". The focus for this particular day, though, was the White Rabbit (who-didn't-stay-white-for-long-because-that-would-defeat-the-purpose-of-coloring).

There was also to be a fun, toddler-friendly card game, a climb through a rabbit hole/tugley forest course, etc but - because of scheduling issues and lack of motivation - these didn't happen. The girls didn't know any better, and won't until they're old enough to read this. If I ever get it printed.

Dinner was a "tea party" of sorts, minus the tea, the teacups, the tea pots... um, where was I? Oh, yes. Dinner was even less themed than the previous, so perhaps I should have spread them out rather than scheduling them on back-to-back weeks? I swear some of these things will be more worth your time! ;)

The movie, which we watched in part on Friday evening and finished up over the course of Saturday and Sunday, entertained all of us even more than expected. Over all, I count the day a success. I think Elise and Avery would agree, if only because of the Unbirthday Cake.

Groceries

If Avery and Elise had any grasp on the concept of favorites, Avery would tell you one of her most favorite activities right now is putting groceries away. Elise enjoys it on occasion, but Avery BEAMS at the opportunity, and especially loves helping with the heavy stuff. Any guesses on how long this helpful streak will last? Do I at least have a couple of years? :)

Too fit.

No, I'm not talking about anyone in our family being in excessively good shape.

I'm talking, instead, about when something is an appropriate size (fits).

You know, it's not "too big", or "too little", it's "too fit(s)" - which is usually a very exciting finding.

These girls make me laugh.

Sally's Sea Plane

(Or, "Big Yellow Airplane/Hairpain").

The girls rode this at KI the last trip --

Even Avery enjoyed it, once we got her settled down. ;)

A few more cute KI pics from our last visit in the August Picasa album!

Zoo, Cici's, and Arcade Games. Sounds good.

What, I'm blogging about things that happened THIS month?! Crazy!

Kyle was off on August 2nd (schedule rearranged for the week), so we decided to take the girls to the zoo in the morning. It was the first dry day without a heat index of 100+ in quite a while, so we were concerned about crowds but still willing to make the trip. Thankfully they open at 9 (instead of 10 like most attractions around here), so that gives us an extra hour before naptime and - because people are crazy and think getting somewhere at 9 is "early"- means crowds don't really roll in until we're almost finished with our visit. Works for me!

We got up close and personal with some giraffes, saw dozens of other animals in the really good, productive morning, rode the carousel and the train, and called it a (fun!) day. It had been a while since any of us had gone, so everyone had a great morning!

In the evening, Kyle had a work function to go to so Avery, Elise and I met my parents at Cici's for dinner. Always satisfying, and then Pappy inspired two more family members' love of arcade games (Disney memories of lost Pappy & Cassi, anyone?).

It was a beautiful - albeit still pretty hot - day all around, and I think these smiles are proof --

Disney Family Days

We go to Disney World in just under three months. Not that anyone is counting.

Because of this, and because Kyle is now home every weekend, and (mostly) because we're giant nerds, we've started weekly "Disney Family Days". Kyle had wanted to start watching some of the feature films we love with Elise and Avery, so he thought what better way than to pick one each week and watch it, either in part until we were finished or in whole on a "special" day where the girls got to watch extra TV? ;)

I took it one step ten steps farther with the help of some equally crazy friends, and Disney Family Days were born. Or, if you're 2-years-old and need things simplified a bit, "[Fill-in-a-Character/Movie] Parties" were born.

First up was a "Pooh Party"!

The girls wanted "to cheese" (you can figure it out) with the books they helped to set up, so I thought it a good time to take a few pictures. Avery was very cooperative

but Elise had her own ideas. (When doesn't she?) She insisted on "cheesing" elsewhere.

When the "party" started, we read a Pooh story ...

... went on a Heffalump hunt ...

... and played Pin the Balloons on Pooh.

Then we watched The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh

(where again Miss Elise had to do her own thing)

and the girls colored pictures of the Hundred-Acre Woods gang while I finished dinner.

A dinner which, of course, was Pooh-themed. Sort of. Give a girl a break, we're still on a tight budget around here. ;)

Stay tuned for future DFDs! (And yes, I just abbreviated that. Call me an even bigger dork, I can handle it.)