Princess Party

Yesterday we had a princess party at our house. It was fun to see A with a few of her friends, mostly girls from church and one little girl from school. The party confirmed our fears that we don't have to worry about A being bullied, as she is the "mean girl." Really this means she is a super sensitive, sweet person and just doesn't want people to know. We recently got into "Sophia!" and are adapting to adding a princess to our Elsa world. Sophia seems to be holding her own though, and the idea behind Sophia is pretty good. We had some Elsa stuff and Sophia plates. We also wore Sophia like tiaras since they didn't have any crowns for the Elsa party stuff.  Fun was had by all and the kids entertained themselves quite nicely.  For the cupcakes I made the standard chocolate cake with peanut butter icing. We got some tips from a friend though and did some designs on the cupcakes (A and me before the party) and I hope to get to try and decorate more cupcakes sometime.

In other non-A news, G is going to hit a growth spurt soon. At least that's what we expect with all the eating he's done this weekend. He ate 4 (yes, 4) pieces of pizza -- so half of the medium sized pizza we got for the party, had a cupcake (the whole thing, not just the icing) during the party. Then he ate a good dinner. For breakfast this morning he ate a bowl of oatmeal, a banana muffin, a pancake and had some Kix. He's eaten Kix off an on all day for the past two days, as well as oatmeal. We are going to be in a ton of trouble when he gets bigger. For the picture above, he was super hungry and Chris had instructed him to go sit and eat his pizza. Chris was expecting G to go over to the girls and eat, but G just sat down and started shoving food in his face. 

Summer classes start for Chris tomorrow. We have a rare day off, so we are going to do some mom and kid stuff and possibly end up at the pool. We shall see.

Yearly Stats

We went on our annual check for A, and the 18 month check for G. She weighs in at an astonishing 32 lbs and 38". He weighs in at 22 lbs and 32".  Both are doing well and remaining in their respective percentiles. The doctor did well with both kids as always. We are going to a Pediatric ENT specialist in a near by town in the next month or so for G's ears. Hopefully we can get some answers.

Biltmore 15k

For our birthday girl we woke up super early and went to Biltmore. We spent last night in a hotel, something that A LOVES to do. Then woke up around normal time and got on the Biltmore grounds by 630. It was a good race and A had a fun time telling everyone it was her birthday. The last selling older shirts when gave her one to sleep in. She enjoyed wearing her tiara and is excited to wear it for her birthday party next week. 

Cheer squad that is ecstatic to be up a bit early

Ready to go run a few miles around the Biltmore Estate

Best signs on the route

Now that the race is run, can celebrate with the birthday girl!

Me Tarzan, you, Jane.

Our neighbours are trying to trans the wilderness that is encroaching on their backyard. This wilderness has many vines from trees and invasive plants. This past weekend we kind of had an impromptu block party as we helped them attempt to get rid of some vines. After swinging on them and attempting to chop them down the neighbours have it all up and just said have fun to all the kids. I mean, if it will hold all the grown people and not budge what will a 10 or 4 year old so to it?  A had a blast after she figured out she could go really fast. We would give her a push but since she is so small she goes really far. She went again today though the vines today goes in circles. She fell off, and we are working on teaching her the "get back up and try again philosophy."

Work is work for both Chris and me. The semester is basically over for him though so he has a few weeks with no students.  Work for me continues to be crazy with no end in sight for that.

Church is going well and A had decided she is going to learn to play guitar while G plays drums. The kids love to stand and stare the band during the services.

Past few weeks in pictures

Showing up catching frog eggs on a stick

On a fantastic ramp at a park in Lexington, KY

Big sister pushing baby brother

Ready to go

A still not so sure about people dressed up in foam costumes

At the giraffes! See the one between us?

NJ and A in a bee hive at the zoo

Chimpanzee exhibit with a bronze chimp

Trying on Daddy's hat!

Mudcafe. Yes, G's eye is dripping mud in this picture

Dressed and ready for church

Swirling the chalk

Well, if you made it this far then you can see that we've been busy. We've managed to make it to Lexington, KY and back. We also went to the NC Zoo with our wonderful cousin, NJ the following weekend. We had a blast seeing the animals, not riding in the wagon, and playing in the mud. We hope to go back sooner rather than later because both A and G did wonders in the "Mud Cafe." A played executive chef with her sous chef G. She would stir things and have him "help," very similarly to how we do things here in our kitchen.

On the Sunday after Easter, we did dress up like Easter since NJ was here. We had fun and just played outside most of the day.

It rained and on Monday we went and played inside since it was raining. After the rain stopped though, we went outside and drew on the wet pavement with sidewalk chalk. NJ showed A how to "swirl" the colors and make a right mess.  A has since used this technique more as we've had kind of a rainy week. G refuses to be inside if he can help it. He is working on getting his shoes on himself and will go outside the instant you let him. His favorite toys are sticks, and we've recently discovered the mud and it is also tasty I think.  :)

Fun at the zoo!

Some pictures of a zoo trip yesterday.

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Palm Sunday

A is super excited about Palm Sunday. She has asked every day this week if it is Palm Sunday or not. We've also done fantastic on not sucking our thumb. We've worked on it for a month now and she's doing really well. The weekends seem to be difficult times for her. She actually likes to climb into the crib with G and snuggle, therefore ending up sucking her thumb some. Maybe this weekend we will break her of that. It is just super sweet to see them snuggling. That and they will sleep a bit longer on the weekends if they snuggle. 

This week continued what we feel is a "string of Monday" type days. We've seen very little let-up from this type of day.  It is at both of our jobs and we are just tired. Maybe someone wants to come visit and we can pawn two very cute children off on you long enough to sleep one night?

In terms of sleeping, G has slept through the night most nights this week. He has put himself to sleep after nursing and simply wants to be put with his blanket in his crib.  He is also very communicative these days. He's pretty adept with again, more, hungry and please as signs. He also has a very distinctive pointer finger on his left hand that he likes to point where he wants to go, which is typically outside to play.

I suppose I'm going to go watch the rest of the OU/Michigan State game and attempt to leave the sleeping children asleep despite the outcome of the game.