A new first

Super Leyna!

Favorite ride - Daddy leg rides :)

Today was all about Egg Hunt prep but tonight the girls had a first. The first time they were babysat by people other than grandparents - Uncle Doug and Teresa/"Deesa"! Oh, and Sterling of course (pronounced "Stur-wing" by Cora). Daddy and I went to supper club and the girls got to spend the evening with some of their favorite people. They had no issue with us leaving, especially since they were given 2 new books to read and I borrowed the "Ponyo" DVD from the library for them to watch. When we got home the girls were all zonked out in Leyna's bed and Sterling was very happy to see us :) Unfortunately I only have one picture that Teresa texted me so it'll have to do!

Easter Party

Today was Leyna's Easter Party at school and I was lucky to be able to volunteer for it. They had an egg hunt, lots of crafts, songs and stories, and of course snacks. It was so fun watching Leyna interact with her classmates yet again. She is such a little ham in class, but at the same time she listens so well to her teachers and excels in all of the activities. I'm a proud mama :)

SO CUTE!!!

Playing hot potato (with an Easter egg)

Leyna made it all the way to the top 3!

Check out this snack! YUM.

Leyna's friend Sadie (to the left) said, "Hey, you didn't take a picture of ME!" So I did. But I accidentally cut her off a bit. Oops.

While we partied preschool-style Cora hung out with Pee Paw and Rudy. Then the girls and I did lunch and some shopping and then headed home so I could run around and do some more prepping. The egg hunt is getting close!

Prepping

We have 300 Easter eggs to stuff tonight so this is going to be quick! We've had a busy day running errands, painting shelves to finally finish up our powder room before the weekend, cleaning off patio furniture, and some playing and running in the yard to round it all out. Here the girls are enjoying their afternoon snack on the deck and keeping each other warm...

Wordless Wednesday

First Report Card

First, look at these adorable hand print bunnies we made today. Love them!

So tonight Pee Paw came to watch the girls for a bit while Daddy and I went to our first parent-teacher conference. Of course we weren't surprised to find out that Leyna is a star student. She received nothing but the highest marks on her "report card" and the teacher talked about what a quick learner she is. She is also a good friend and a star hand washer. That's our girl! Let's hope she does this well on all of her report cards! :)

Five days and counting down!

Time to get moving on our annual Easter Egg Hunt! Today I broke out the decorations and the countdown chart and the girls were just a teeny, tiny bit excited. Ha! They were hopping around like Easter bunnies and practicing their egg-hunting skills all afternoon. It's going to be a busy week!

Oh, and speaking of excitement. I bought this 100-piece fairy puzzle for Leyna the other day and she has been just dying to put it together. Nana and Pee Paw dropped by this afternoon and Leyna quickly recruited Nana to help her out. She was SO PROUD of herself when she put the last piece in :)

Sunday

Dressed for church

(admiring jewelry)

Chinese buffet lunch with (and courtesy of!) Nana and Pee Paw

Watermelon popsicle!

Fun at Conner's house this afternoon & evening

Baby Anna love :)

Daddy Day

As I drove away for work this morning it was crazy that I missed the girls (and Daddy) within about 3 minutes. Being a stay-at-home-mom you'd think I would be running out the door without looking back. Nope. I missed my girlies all day. And I got a GREAT welcome when I got home. Turns out they missed me too ;)
Here's what they today:

Daddy made THEM do the dishes!

Playing in the rain

Sugar rush courtesy of Uncle Matt :)

These little ladies sure are lucky to have a Daddy who takes good care of them!

Heart breaking...

Today Leyna said 2 things that broke my heart a little bit.
#1. "Can I dye my hair?"
#2. "You used to pick me up all the time until Cora came along."
Oh man. Where do I even start? Well, she wants to dye her hair red like Ariel. If she only knew she had the most desirable hair color on the planet! I tried to tell her that God gave her the right color hair for her and besides, over half the world tries to dye their hair to be exactly her color so she should consider herself lucky! It was lost on her.  I think will have to hide the red paint, red markers, and red juice. And as far as the other thing, I guess I need to pick her up more! What else can I say? Point taken.
Anyway, we had a busy day. But what else is new? School, errands, spring cleaning, pizza dough making, bike riding, swinging, dining on the deck, bathing, movie watching, and a super quick bedtime thanks to the very busy day!

Pure swinging joy

Loving her "grape hyacinths" in bloom:)

Time is moving way too fast...

I'm really feeling it these days. The girls are growing up SO quick. Cora is less and less of a toddler every day and Leyna is like a pre-teen more days than not. I'm trying to hard to remember every moment but I look back at pictures from a year ago, and two years ago and they are harder to remember than I would like.

1 year ago

2 years ago

With this nice weather we have been doing so much playing outside and I haven't taken nearly as many pictures as I should. It's good to live in the moments, but at the same time they are gone so fast I really need to record them. Gotta keep myself motivated and this blog on track!

Wordless Wednesday

 

First Day of Spring!

Well, I didn't actually realize it was Spring until a little after noon today. Oops. I would have planned a craft or something to celebrate!
I took a break from the Spring cleaning I started yesterday so we could enjoy the weather (I swear I'm never going to get done if we keep spending all of our time outside but I really can't complain!) and we went on a long walk with neighbors and got some smoothies and coffee while we were at it. After nap we went for another walk, played with other neighbors, came home to throw dinner in the oven, and went back out and played with other neighbors. These girls are so lucky to have so many playmates in the neighborhood! And I'm lucky they all have cool mommies I can talk to to try to keep me relatively sane ;)

HAPPY SPRING!!!

You're killin me rainbow

"You're killin' me, rainbow-oh-oh." That's the song the girls made up and danced to today. In the outfits below. It was odd and hilarious all at once and they sang it for no less than 5 minutes straight on repeat, 2 minutes of which I have on video :)

Just us girls

One last day without Daddy today. We sure missed him! We spent the morning shopping for supplies for our upcoming Easter Egg Hunt. We also bought some spring flowers planted them after Cora's 3 hour nap. Tulips, Daffodils, and Hyacinths - can't wait to see them in bloom! After dinner we went for a brisk walk and then relaxed on the porch for longer than we probably ever have. I drew lots of Easter eggs with chalk and the girls decorated them.

Then just before bed time Daddy FINALLY got home. You can bet two little girls were very happy to see him :) It's been a long weekend and that's all I have to say!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I got up at the crack of dawn this morning, got ready, got Cora ready, and pretty much took Leyna straight from bed to the car. I had work today and they were going to spend the day at Nana and Pee Paw's!
From the looks of the pictures Pee Paw sent they had a great time as usual :)

(I thought this was Leyna when I first saw it)

When I arrived to pick the girls up Pee Paw was just about to take a batch of his famous baked spaghetti out of the oven so we all had dinner together. It was SO GOOD and SO NICE not to have to cook!!! As you can see above Leyna got some schooling on how to make it herself :)

When we got home the girls were pretty upset to find out Daddy wouldn't be home until tomorrow so they gave him a call and had a nice chat. Then we settled in and made a "foot pile" while we watched some bed time shows. Good night!

What did we do today?

Does anyone else have days like that? Where you think back and wonder, "What did I do today?" Let's see, Leyna had school this morning and Cora and I did grocery shopping while she was gone. We came home and had pizza for lunch, did the nap time thing, and went outside on the deck to slide for a bit. Then a bunch of neighbor kids showed up out of the blue and our back yard was completely overtaken with screaming and laughing. Then we went in and did dinner and waited for Mee Maw to show up because I had Bunco tonight and Daddy is away for the weekend. I guess that was our day - it just seems like there should have been something more notable maybe... Oh well!
Anyway, the girls had a great night with Mee Maw. They watched Pocahontas, ate Happy Meals, read lots of stories, and were all tucked in their beds when I got home. I had a much needed fun night out and now I'd better get to sleep because tomorrow morning is going to be hectic! Good  night!

Mee Maw and the girls snuggled up and ready to watch Pocahontas

Cracked hearts and other quotes

I guess we're still catching up on sleep or we have a sweet new schedule. The girls have been sleeping in, Cora until about 7 and Leyna until 8! I love the quiet time in the morning but it does make it a little harder to get out the door! We were due for another warm and sunny day so I wanted us to get outside and enjoy it. When we finally did we went on a short walk with our neighbors. Well, it was short distance-wise but very long time-wise. It took us over an hour to go about a quarter mile. Leyna and Aubrey must have stopped and looked at every single bug and flower on the street! It was slow going. When we finally got home Cora had had an accident and Leyna was having some issues with not listening and talking back. I put her in time out and when I went back to talk to her she was doing this:

I asked her what that meant and she said her heart was cracked. Oh my. She has become all at once super sassy and super sensitive over the past few days. Maybe her age or maybe adjusting from post-vacation let down or who knows what. After a little scolding the other day she told us she felt like no one wanted her for a daughter anymore. Poor dear Leyna. I remember being the same way when I was younger. Well, I think I'm still that way sometimes now too. Lots of hugs and reassurance will heal her cracked heart. But it won't get her out of trouble!

On a lighter note, here are a couple of funny quotes from yesterday and today:
Cora: "Mommy leave me alone. I'm trying to pick my nose and take the boogies out!"
Leyna (when she wanted me to turn the TV on and I told her after I was done talking to Daddy): "Mom, you can walk AND talk to Daddy." See? Sassy. Haha.
This evening we stayed out til it was dark and ended the day with filthy feet, tan skin, and tired girls. I love this summer weather!

Cooling off with some water play

Walking on air!

Our little monkey trying to climb the light post like the big girls. Good grief.