Bama & McKenna's Annual Visit

As they have for the last 4 years, Bama and McKenna made their annual trip to the Midwest.  And, as usual, we had a fun-filled 7 days.  We only missed out on visiting one of the places on McKenna's list (Living History Farms) because it was SO DANG HOT the entire time they were here.  So, a lot of time was spent finding fun ways to keep cool.  The best part of the whole trip (in my opinion) was as McKenna and I were driving home from the ice cream shoppe on their last night here.  McKenna turned to me and said, "Auntie, I really like Iowa.  But don't you wish you lived closer to me?"

Who needs a water park when Uncle Ethan can set up the sprinkler at the top of the slide and the pool at the bottom?  The girls played on their very own water slide for hours!  Meanwhile, Bama, Ethan and I sat under the shade of the willow tree, beer/margaritas in hand. :)

One of McKenna's few requests this trip was for steak and corn.  Well, she came to the right place!  McKenna and Bama really wanted to buy corn out of the back of a truck, but Ethan made sure they knew "You can buy corn at the grocery store."  Yeah, but only in Iowa can you buy corn out of the back of a truck.  So, never one to disappoint my niece, we bought corn out of the back of the truck!

McKenna LOVED helping out and feeding Jeanie.  She's such a good cousin (and made sure we all knew that too.)

What visit would be complete without a trip to the zoo?  We got up early (to avoid the heat) and made our way.  It took a while to get used to it ("Auntie, this is kind-of freaking me out."), but the girls loved feeding the birds.

Getting ready to ride the train!

McKenna riding a camel!  I can't believe how big she's getting!

Evelyn's favorite thing about the zoo... the carousel.  I can't believe she chose the zebra - usually she goes nuts over the dragon!

 Spent after a long day.  Fortunately, Ethan was out of town - he never would have approved of this. :)  The best part was when, at 4:00 in the morning, I heard McKenna helping Evelyn on to the potty (she's nowhere near being potty trained!).  Lots of coercing and telling Evelyn to climb up, scoot back, etc.  Followed by McKenna's attempt at putting on a diaper.  After about 5 minutes, Evelyn wandered in to my room, sans diaper and both legs in one leg of her PJs.  When we returned to Evelyn's room, McKenna had crawled back in to bed.  When asked about the diaper situation, she said sweetly "I tried."  My words don't give the night justice.  Comedy.

Sunday, we struggled to find an indoor activity, as everything in this town doesn't open until noon on Sundays!  We ended up at Pump It Up and the bouncing started off great!  However, after 2 trips up and down the slide, Evelyn was done.  She climbed up one more time and a fit ensued.  And I mean FIT!  Kicking, screaming... the works.  McKenna tried to help her down, but she was having none of it.  So up I climbed and we slid down like nothing had happened.  After some bouncing elsewhere, Evelyn decided she wanted to try the slide again.  And again, a fit!  So, up I went again.  This time, though, the high school kids in charge noticed that I wasn't wearing my socks and I was scolded.  I felt like asking them if they preferred I leave the screaming, kicking, hitting child at the top of the slide, but I didn't.  Instead, I just smiled, nodded and walked away, screaming child in hand.  Whatever.

Bama and the girls braved the heat and headed to the splash park.  No good pictures of the girls splashing around together, but of course, pictures of Evelyn snacking (it's a common occurance for her at the splash park.)

Bama and her silly girls.  Just hangin' out.

Can you find the 2-year-old in this picture?  This was our attempt to get a picture of the girls for Bama in their matching PJs.  It pretty much sums up the week. 

We had such a great time.  I was sad that the week had to come to an end, but McKenna and I are already planning her trip out next year. We've decided that she should come back next year to go to the Fair.  It was wonderful to have the extra sets of hands while Ethan was off playing.  And, yes McKenna, sometimes I do wish I lived closer to you.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Ask anyone and they'll tell you I'd been planning my birthday outing for months!  As soon as I found out that the zoo had Zoo Brew on Wednesday nights (coincidently, my birthday was a Wednesday too!), I put out the invitation!  Although it was H.O.T. (106 degrees!), this was the best birthday I've had in years - celebrated with wonderful family and friends.

With girl friends Megan, Ashley and Leanne. 

The Smith's and the Kruse's 

Me & Ethan with Rob & Kate.

4 months (+/-)

So, Miss Jeanie is no longer following in her sister's footsteps... she's leaps and bounds ahead of Miss Evelyn.  She seems to be following more closely in Daddy's footsteps.  At four months plus (scheduling SNAFU at the doctor, so we were  couple weeks late):

22 lbs. 5 oz.  (99th percentile, of course)

28.25 in. (again, 99th percentile)

And she's off!!

In her attempts to keep up with her older cousins and friends, Evelyn has learned how to ride a bike!!  It all started this Saturday at her cousins' house, riding little circles around the driveway.  Then, Sunday, while at our friends' house, Evelyn spotted Miss Natalie's bike.  She was immediately drawn to it.  With barely even a little push from Daddy, she was off.  Looks like a big girl bike is in our (very) near future.  I can't believe my baby's riding a bike!  Sniff sniff.

http://youtu.be/EUpatwjwrkc

Tummy Time!

Evelyn and McKenna, watching The Princess and The Frog, March 2010. 

Evelyn and Jeanie, watching Annie, June 2012.

While Daddy's Away, The Girls Will Play!

This weekend, Ethan had some (well-deserved) time away from his girls and got to spend Saturday at the golf course and horse races with friends - some much-needed man time.  So, the girls and I took full advantage of Daddy's absence and beautiful weather!

Jeanie did Mommy a HUGE favor and slept ALL NIGHT!!!  Our day was off to a great start. :)  Shortly after Ethan left home, the girls had baths and we headed to the zoo.  Evelyn couldn't wait to "Go see animals, Mommy?"  We had a great morning getting up close and personal with the monkeys and giraffes.  The highlight, however, was Evelyn's first face painting!  My big girl chose a Panda and, amazingly, she sat still the entire time the gentleman painted!  When we got home, Evelyn was so excited, "I'm a teddy bear, Mommy!," that we just had to run across the street to show our wonderful neighbor, Georgia.  Oh, did she love seeing Evelyn's face... and boy, did Evelyn love showing off!

After naps, we headed outside and played in the water table, the sprinkler and the pool.  Evelyn asked for the sprinkler, but being 2, by the time I had it set up, she was more interested in her water table.  So, I turned off the sprinkler and a fit ensued.  So, after a promise to play in it, I turned it back on.  As soon as the water was on, Evelyn was back in to her water table (no, really - she was in it!)  Again, I turned off the sprinkler... again, another fit.  Oh, the joys of being 2.  Finally, we settled on the pool (which I had to dig out of the shed) and all was right with the world.  Jeanie napped peacefully inside then joined us outside briefly (under the shade of the willow tree) for some loves from, a very wet, big sissy.

Even though Daddy was gone, the three of us had a wonderful day together.  He would have loved it too, but not nearly as much as we did. :)

Evelyn was much more interested in the other parents trying to take their kids' pictures.  We were SO close to the giraffes - we could almost reach out and touch them! 

 Brave mommy - asking a 2 year old to sit still long enough to get her face painted. :)

Evelyn the Panda!  She sat like this, with her hands behind her head, then entire time.  Who knows where she gets these things.

All tuckered out after a fun morning!

Just some of the fun we had playing in the pool.  You may want to turn up the volume. :)

3 months!!!

I can hardly believe another month has passed.  Miss Jeanie was 3 months old yesterday and continues to keep us busy, busy, busy.  Well, not Jeanie so much as Evelyn, who we are constantly trying to keep away from Jeanie. :)

We don't have any stats from the doctor, but yesterday I stepped on the scale with and without Jeanie... she's somewhere between 18 and 19 lbs, but closer to 19 than 18 I think.  At the risk of jinxing myself, I am happy to report that she has slept through the night the last 3 nights.  She's slept from about 9:30 to 6:00-6:30.  This makes for very happy mom and dad!  She's becoming quite smiley too.  I used to only catch her sweet smile at 2:30 am, but she's smiling more and more, so we get to enjoy her smiles and laughs all day long.  I keep telling myself that she's "too smart" for tummy time - she doesn't like it very much, but when we do tummy time, she either falls asleep or turns her head to the side (smart girl!)  It seems like she's doing just a little bit more every day and it is so much fun to watch her grow!