Spring has sprung around here…

The weather has been absolute perfection lately, so we’ve been spending as much time as we can outside.  We’ve already had a couple days of “ugh, it’s too warm” when you stay in the sun too long, so we’re cherishing every nice day we have before the heat sets in.  We all know how much I love the heat… 😉

So we’ve been planting flowerpots:

Makenna has a little starter set of snapdragons that she’s raising up, and they’ve sprouted the cutest little shoots ever!  On the right is a planter she did at co-op last week, and so far we’ve only seen the one gigantic sprout.  I think it’s a bean sprout (I’m not sure, we poured a plethora of seeds in there, haha).

A couple weeks ago Mark and I took Kenna on a date to see “Mickey’s Rockin’ Road Show”, a live stage show that was playing about an hour away.  She thoroughly enjoyed the songs and special effects and outrageously overpriced souvenirs.  Seriously, there should be a law against Disney product price gouging!  Because who can say no to those big brown eyes on a special date like that?  Certainly not me…

During the most exciting part of the show, she was scrambling to get her camera and take pictures to show Kallie…I just about died from the cuteness!!

One happy little girl:

She looks so little in the picture above.  These days I’ll just glance at her and get a catch in my throat because she’s all of a sudden looking so grown up and beautiful.  It scares me; I want to yell “NOT YET!!”  So when I get a picture where she looks like my little peanut again, I breathe a little easier.  For a minute.  😉

Kallie continues to change every day and I’m so in love.  That blondish hair and those giant blue eyes just melt my heart.  Next week she will be 18 months old!!  She’s trying so hard to talk, but the only word she consistently uses with real meaning is “Dada”.  Any time she hears a car drive up or a noise outside throughout the day she gets all excited and says “Dada!”, thinking Mark is home from work.  To die for!!!  I’m embarrassed to admit that she tries to say “Maria” more often than “Mommy” (yes, Sound of Music), but she also attempts “Kenna” (Nenna), “Night-night” (Na-na), “Baby” (Baba), lots of family names, and pretty much anything else you ask her to say.  She does an excellent lion’s roar, but no other animal sounds yet.  Her sense of humor still keeps us rolling, and her dance moves improve by the day.  She’s the best.  🙂

She’s starting to say “cheese” for pictures:

Ugh, I can’t believe I’m having to explain this but, yes, she’s wearing football pajamas.  Come on, they were $4 vs. $10 for the girl version!  When you’re a parent buying new sets of clothes every season (Kallie has some of Makenna’s hand-me-downs, but their ages didn’t match up with the seasons) you start to get a little desperate, and “who’s gonna see the jammies anyway?”  That’s great until you want to blog and the cutest picture you have just happens to be in said jammies!  😉

Another “cheese” moment…she aims her “cheese”s at whoever is nearby too:

The other big event in our house was our kindergarten curriculum arriving last week, which we dove right into.  Here’s a messy sampling of what is included for the year:

I decided to go ahead and start the year now, since summer is no different to us (except for all of our activities breaking for 3 months, so if anything we’re bored!).  We’ll probably just go year round and take a few weeks off here and there.  So far we’re both really enjoying it.  One little student who ISN’T enjoying it:

This is Kallie’s favorite new perch: right at the school table.  She’s not diggin’ this whole deal where Makenna is hard at work and Mommy is focused on whatever Makenna is doing…we try to do most of our focused work during Kallie’s nap time, but by 1:00 in the afternoon Kenna and I are both so tired and irritable that it’s hard.  So sometimes we  juggle school and Kallie in the morning…and let’s just say the “Tips for Homeschooling with a Toddler” haven’t worked so far.  One day at a time, I guess…I remain bowed down in reverence to moms who do this with MANY more kids!!

At least she’s a cute troublemaker.  🙂

So that’s what’s up around our house!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from our little family.  🙂

I’m trying to accept that we are in the years where I will never get a shot of both girls looking at the camera, smiling, or even facing in the right direction…so I have to be satisfied with the fact that I even remembered to take pictures today.  I don’t think they have ever looked so cute, if I may say so!  😉

Makenna explaining the game of croquet to Kallie:

Kallie and Lily saying hi:

Kenna directing the babies, as she so loves to do:

Chowing on Grandma’s delish Easter cooking:

The girls:

Ohhh, those scrumptious cheeks…

Love it!!

The Easter egg hunt…Kenna and Lily were doing awesome, Kallie wasn’t interested…

Playing house:

Yes, that is chocolate frosting smeared all over Kallie’s face.  😉

Kallie with the coveted baby doll of the day:

Happy Spring everyone!

Girls Weekend!!

A few weeks ago, I did the unthinkable (for me) and left the girls with Mark for THREE WHOLE NIGHTS so that I could embark on a Girls’ Weekend Adventure.  My mom was visiting my very-pregnant-but-doesn’t-look-like-it sister Katy in Minnesota for her baby shower, and was bringing Katy back with her for a visit with the whole fam (or so Katy thought).  Little did she know that early that morning, Kylie and I set off on a little drive to Atlanta…

…and during their “layover”, they were greeted with a big surprise!  🙂 

We spent the next three days covering the basics of any girls’ trip:  lots of shopping,

lots of primping,

lots of pictures,

(mostly self-portraits, of course)

(you are VERY welcome girls, for sacrificing myself for that great shot of you three)

a little off-Broadway “Fiddler on the Roof”,

and naturally…LOTS of FOOD!!!!

Shall we make it a yearly event, girls?  😉