Crawl On Daddy!

Having two toddlers can plain wear you OUT. Thusly, you have to create ways to play with them that optimize your oportunity to rest. Some of my favorite games are, "Mommy's Sleeping" and the one pictured below, called, "Crawl on Mommy/Daddy". All you have to do to initiate either of these is laydown and close your eyes;) They will first try to "wake you up" by yelling your name over and over until you open your eyes. If you roll over, that tells them it's time to crawl all over you. Hey, at least you're supine while still entertaining them!

Nummy Tweet--aka Ice Cream!!

As promised, we left the playzone and got ourselves a little treat. One ice-cream cone coming up! MacDonalds will serve your cone in a cup, which makes it so much easier for me. I just scrape off what I know Ben won't eat and share that with Emily. Mmmm!


I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! My children took that
poem quite seriously and screamed until I handed over the goods. They did NOT appreciate having to wait!

Ben vs. The Ice Cream Cone

"mmm! Not bad!"

Trip To The Mall #452

Since the mall is within walking distance, we go here A LOT. Sometimes we we go for lunch, other times for dinner. We always stop and play in the Playzone. We much prefer it during the week when it's not so crowded. On the weekends, there are inevitably way too many over-tired, over-stimulated children running around like maniacs and it's a little overwhelming to B and E. We usually have fun, no matter how long or short our visit is. Today was a pretty short visit because Ben just wasn't feelin' it. The little girl pictured kept following around, coveting his awsome new SpongeBob hat and he actually told ME it was time to leave! I managed to snap a few pictures before we took off, though:)


She loves to slide!

Ben, trying to protect his beloved hat from the overzealous admiring from his new, er...friend.

They were both all smiles when I told them we could leave to get a "nummy tweet"

Ribbons and Bows

I have spent a small fortune on adorable clips, bows and hair ties for Emily. She has always had enough hair to wear them, but she makes the personal choice to refuse. The most I can hope for is a pony-tail on top of her head or two pigtails--if I'm lucky. I know at some point she will pull them out, so I have stopped trying to make her wear clibs in public; she just loses them and ends up with weird hair. However, every once in awhile she'll keep one in long enough for me to get some pictures! I hope one day she will like wearing them because they make her look even cuter than normal;)


"Why did you put this flower on my head, mommy?"
I had this headband custom-made for her and she NEVER wears it:(

"Ok, enough with the camera. We both know
I'm ripping this off in about 2 seconds"

Milly's 1st Shiner:(

I mentioned earlier how she fell down the slide? Well, Little Miss Accident-Prone got her first black-eye yesterday:( She was crawling up the stairs at the Children's Museum and lost her hold. She face-planted right into the next step and ended up with this little beauty for the rest of the day. My poor little smooshy:( After a reasonable crying jag, she was off and running again! Is she too young to learn about the fine art of applying under-eye concealer?


The stuff around her mouth is some hard-earned chocolate.

Saddest picture EVER!

SpongeBen Square Hat

Ben's new favorite show is SpongeBob. We watch it ALL.THE.TIME. I don't really mind because at least the humor is a little more mature than say, the Teletubbies=) We were at the mall today and Ben wanted to go into the store, Lidz For Kidz(Ben's version of Heaven--a store filled with child-sized hats). I showed him this really cool SBSP hat and he put it on instantly. Well, of course we had to get it for him! He has worn it all day long, even to bed. Here he is posing for me!

Fun At The Park

Dan has been on vacation all week, so we've been trying to do fun things with the children. Yesterday we took them to the park and had so much fun. We played on the slide and in the sand, had fun in the water-feature and enjoyed some time on the see-saw. We had a minor accident involving Emily falling down the slide:( Poor girl tumbled half-way down and was very scared. She wasn't hurt, though, and still wanted to play!

Catching some rays on the see-saw.

Daddy helps Milly bounce on the see-saw

"Get that camera out of my face!" She's practicing for future paparazzi=)

After her "accident", we were much more careful helping her! She was doing great on her own, but we both felt terrible that she got hurt:(

She's such a big girl! She's so proud of herself on the slide. She even claps when she's all done.

Look closely at her hair! The static makes it stick straight up. So cute.

All done! Round of applause, please!

Ben, of course is an old pro at the slides.

I love this face=) He looks so happy!

I also love this face;)

And this one, too!

Running through the water feature is so fun on a hot day. If no one else is there,
sometimes I run through, too=) I don't like to excite the suburban dads with my wet t-shirts, though, so usually I just stand off to the side.

Ben finally has the patience to sit and play with the sand. He played here by himself for a good 15 minutes. It helps to have cool sand toys, I'm sure!

This toy is ALWAYS the hit of the sandbox. It also inspires much hitting and sand throwing when Ben doesn't want to share or another child tries to take it. Needless to say, it doesn't see many public sandboxes during peak play-hours.