Early Celebration

In lieu of a birthday party this year, I took Caroline and Kate along with my very best friend, Kellie, and her two girls, Sofia and Amelia, to the Disney Princesses on Ice show Saturday. (That's when the girls destroyed the house btw when I was trying to get us all ready to go.) If you didn't know already, little girls LOVE princesses. Just as I was amazed how Jonah innately loved sports, cars, and guns. The girls love babies, the colors pink and purple, and princesses. Even before they can talk, it's weird. Anyway Caroline was thrilled to attend for an early birthday extravaganza.

Before the show.

I can NEVER get them to look at the camera at the same time.

That's all the photos that I managed to get at the show. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to manage two hyped up toddlers, our coats, my purse/diaper bag, and souvenirs? Forget pictures.

After the show, David and Jonah (no they didn't care to see the princesses) met us at our favorite pizza place, Mellow Mushroom, for dinner and birthday cake. Barbie kinda got tilted in the box but Caroline still loved it.

Our fam and Sofia.

Here's Kellie! Trying to help me get some pics.

And Amelia! Ain't she cute? She and Kate were born one week apart.

I think Caroline had a very nice 4th birthday celebration. Even if a week and a half early.
Amber! What's your rate for following around a mom who has her hands full and take photos?

Final Four Baby!!!!

In honor of our glorious UK basketball team, the Zoo Crew will repost our celebrated UK flag changing ceremony...



Dedicated to Dave.

Better Housekeeping

This morning while on Facebook I saw photos of our friends Jen's adorable new nursery and Melissa's beautiful new living room. And I felt inspired. Inspired to show off the destruction that two little girls can create in a matter of minutes.

Here's the girls' room. They were "playing" in there while I took a shower.

Somehow, somewhere Caroline got a hold of a permanent marker. Believe me I don't just leave those lying around. But she managed to get one while I was in the shower. And of course the only place to use a sharpie is on the walls and furniture.

After I got out of the shower and freaked out about the mess in the room and the marker, the girls went upstairs to play while I got dressed. And in just minutes....

Yeah. Nothing is quite the same after you have kids. Especially the house!

Field Trip

This week I have been on spring break. Spring break means something totally different as a returning adult college student with kids than as a 21 year old college student. This week I've cleaned the house, got caught up on laundry, and got out the girls' summer clothes. Yippee. But I wanted to do something fun, so Wednesday I surprised the girls with a trip to the Newport Aquarium. I've wanted to visit the aquarium forever, but David just grumbles about it being too expensive. So after he left for work, the girls and I and the GPS were on our way.

I never realized that the aquarium was located at this awesome riverfront plaza. Thank goodness we had the GPS. It was very confusing to find! I was very impressed with the aquarium. There were a bunch of these aquarium tunnels where fish, turtles, sharks, etc would all swim overhead. It was very cool. Unfortunately however the girls were very afraid of many of the animals. And Kate was terrified of the tunnels.

I had to coerce Caroline into petting just this painting of a shark.

Now these giant Japanese Spider Crabs even freaked me out. They were creepy!

There was a room filled with tanks of jellyfish. I thought it was awesome. Kate did not.

The girls did love this interactive wall screen of jellyfish that when you "touched" would swim away. I thought the aquarium was very kid friendly.
I think the girls favorite part of the entire aquarium was getting to see Nemo.

We will definitely go back again. And I'll make sure Jonah gets to go. I think he'll love it as much as I did. Maybe I'll even manage to talk David into going. We'll see!

Lil' Diva

Caroline has grown to DRIVE ME CRAZY lately regarding clothes. She only wants to wear certain outfits that fit a certain way. I've tried letting her pick out her clothes the night before. I've tried giving her a choice between two outfits. I've even taken her shopping so she can pick out her clothes. But in the morning she freaks out if she's not totally happy with her ensemble. Generally her outfits look a little something like this...

A sort of creative, eclectic look. She's the same way with her hair. She wants a particular hairstyle to complement her look. This day she insisted on a more demanding style...


I have no idea how I'm going to survive until she's eighteen.

One Month Late

I was looking for a picture to post today for a Wordless Wednesday when I came across these photos that I totally forgot about from Valentine's Day. This year David wanted to have a formal family Valentine's Day Dance. So we did.

We threw up some decorations.

We had some drinks and snacks and fancy napkins.

David insisted that everyone dress up.

He even wore his good suit.

Then we had a lot of dancing.

We had a lot of fun. We eventually got Jonah to join in too, even though he really fought us. I think he had a good time too. Amazingly David still manages to surprise me sometimes.