Where I belong

Tomorrow we will start our trip home at last! Kate has been telling me to take her home "where I belong" since the day we left, but for the past two days she's just been a grumpy girl. So, one more fun trip and we'll be back in the minivan. We decided to go to Hershey Gardens with Aunt Kelly, Uncle Chris and cousins Annie, Ben and Sam tomorrow before we go.

It's been so nice to see the girls play (and fight a little - Kate) with their long distance cousins. Katie is trying to learn to swim on this trip. I guess I need to get her signed up for lessons when we get home. Rachel and McKenna have become fast friends. They are attached at the hip these past two days.

Little Katie has loved the past 9 nights sleeping with me and my sleeves...I hope I don't have to start all over again to get her to sleep in her toddler bed when we get home.

here are some fun pictures from the past few days...

Fun with cousins

Wagon rides

Giant cookies!!
Cookie, pretzel, cookie, pretzel

Rachel and her Great-Paup

Me and my PaupThis was as close as I could get to a picture with kate
It was 100 degrees all 3 days, but I told the girls they had to play outside for a little bit. Afterall, we played outside AND did not have air conditioning in the Ohio heat and look how we turned out....ahem.

Nice slides, but possibly blister-causing, so there was no sliding.
Teeter tottering was okay, but not for mom, because according to Katie "mommy is too big." well.

Then there was the great frog discovery...

Can you see the little guy? He's about as big as her fingernail.

No frogs were harmed. Really. After this picture, we let him go so he could find his mama.

Ah, the end. Tantrums take a lot out of a girl. And Kate.

Road Trip!!!

We are in Tiffin, at the halfway point of our 10-day trip. At the moment relaxing in our cozy hotel room with free internet and word world for the kids to decompress for a little bit before going to see my Paup and his curly haired poodle and freakish hairless pig...I mean cat.

Here are some highlights from our first 5 days on the road.

Daddy joined us for day one, to Lancaster.

There we had a nice breakfast and some silly time with cousins Nash and McKenna, and Uncle Kelly and Aunt Lisa

Day two: headed for Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park campground. Cute, grubby campground in PA. Upon arrival, Katie did a quick downward dog on the doorstep.

Kate wasn't so sure about Yogi (I think she was saying "what's your name?" here), but Rachel liked him

Her best most favorite was the little playground with sawdust(!) instead of mulch. It had been raining for days before we got there, so...just yuck. Mommy did a lot of sitting on the end of the slide.

The splash ground was cute (cold!) and fun...

That was my first experience staying at a campground NOT in my parents' cushy fancy RV. I think I'll stick to RV camping from now on...or better yet, a comfy hotel room ;)

Days 3 and 4 were spent with Aunt Erin, Uncle Brandon and cousins Grayson, Ryder and Griffin in Ohio. I can't believe I didn't get any pictures...but then again I guess I can. It's pretty non-stop with 5 kids and two moms all under one roof for 2 days. THANK YOU ERIN!!! She runs a tight ship! Certainly she gets more done in one day than I do in a week.

The girls and I spent a couple of hours at the waterpark. Ahh...not something I need to do again anytime soon, but it was fun. Rach got to do the lazy river by herself! Katie and I watched...

Kate did lots and lots of swimming and sliding at the kiddy pool, with much help from her sissy. Then there was, of course, dancing...

And more dancing...

This morning we went with Erin and the cousins to the Columbus Zoo, just a few minutes from their house. So nice! I think the girls liked the petting zoo best.

Well hellooo there....what is your name?

I swear Kate is NOT kissing this goat! Oh my goodness, can you see his funny teeth? He was smiling and closing his eyes. He must hate it there...

We had a nice visit with Paup this afternoon. I will post some pictures tomorrow of the girls visiting a little frog they caught in the backyard. We came back to the hotel tonight and did some swimming. Katie jumped and jumped off the side of the pool to me. She fell asleep in about 3 minutes when she crawled into bed. That's all for tonight...

Owls!

I finally finished the owl stuffties for the girls. Katie is using hers for a pillow at the moment. Here are all the characters I've made so far, except for the ones I gave away for gifts...oh, and the felt food. I'll spare you that, but it is quite cute. I think I like it more than the girls. heehee.

So cute!

I'm about to get cozy with a cup of sleepy time tea and a book. Big sissy Rach gave Kate her bath, got her in jammies, brushed her teeth and read her books tonight while I ran a couple of miles on the treadmill. What a treat! I think my foul mood has officially left me. whew.

We are on our 6th day (and counting) of rain here...my mood has been on the foul side for the past few. But, there is still alot of good going on. Some days we all need to look a little harder, use our imagination and blink so we don't miss it.

The past few days we've had

Cooking

Cleaning

Tickling in sissy's tent

Katie mommy taking care of sissy

Reading together (Kate is almost as big as Rachel!)

Next Saturday we leave for a road trip to see family in Ohio and PA. I've geared up with portable DVD players, movies, toddler tunes, crafts and new mom-sewn owls (still need to finish the 2nd one). A trip to Whole Foods is in the plans for the upcoming week for healthy snacks and some kind of food for my dairy sensitive vegetarian, Katie. She eats only about 6 things at the moment, so I'll have to figure something out.

Daddy is off to Paris for the week. We will miss you! xo

Girlfriends!

Katie's friend, Avery, came to play for a few hours yesterday. Two 2 year old little sweeties = lots of love and smiles, imaginary play, cuddles and only a couple of disagreements!

Sometimes we get busy and forget all the good that girlfriends bring. So here you go...

Girlfriends teach you good stuff

Love to wear funny hats with you and don't care what anyone else thinks

Share snacks and cuddle on the couch
Help you pick the perfect Christmas tree!
Teach you more cool stuff...

Cuddle cuddle tickle love love love you...

Here's to girlfriends, and all the good stuff they bring. :)

Yesterday, we took advantage of the one sunny day we will get this week with some time outside on the swing set and in the garden. As you can see, I made peace (sort of) with this big fat bumblebee

After I took the picture, he chased me around the yard. I don’t think he liked the flash. Or me. While I was watering the flowers, the girls decided to dig in the garden and sample more strawberries. I think Kate ate the whole thing, leaves, stem and all. I looked and she was eating one, then I looked again and it was gone. All of it. No harm done I suppose.

Then later, of course, there was dancing…

And love. The love.

We don't like bugs

Dear Katie,

I am sorry that I have passed my irrational fear of flying stinging things on to you. I hope they don't kick you out of Montessori school when you declare "we don't like bees", and I hope that you are not afraid to play outside with the ants, and that you do not demand the teachers check the sandbox for spiders before crawling in to play.

We will try again this year to have a little organic garden. Whose idea was it for a woman insanely afraid of bugs to have an organic garden anyway? I did put a few tomato plants in the ground with the hope that when we return from vacation we will have lots of red juicy goodness. Also, I planted this sweet looking deck garden which we will transport to Newport so we can enjoy cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and herbs there too! Maybe there will be less bugs up on the deck? Now I just need to figure a way to keep our bad cat Sophie from digging in the pepper plant. Now, this is why I'm down to two lonely houseplants, but I refuse to let her destroy the outside ones too.

So, this is the year mommy will try to overcome this silly fear. By wearing big silly hats to scare away the bugs.

And wearing lots of burt's bees bug repellent.

And having nightly tick checks.

Okay, and the occasional spritz of wasp poison by our local pest eliminators.

And just getting outside a little every day. Except NOT in the winter. Because we don't like the cold.