Summer Recap Strawberry Picking

We took the girls strawberry picking the Saturday before Father's Day.  Tessa was very good, and kept reminding us (mostly Caroline) that you can't eat the strawberries until you take them home and eat them.  This was obviously lost on the 18 month old...she normally eats no fruit, so we let her eat the strawberries in the field, and of course once we got home she didn't eat another one.

 Strawberry all over her face...oh and just a couple of scrapes from falling off the swing the day before

 Feeding the goats

The small farm also had bunnies, ducks, and chickens.

For Father's day we went to Grampa's house (Tim's dad).  Tessa was thrilled that she got to make strawberry shortcake with the strawberries she picked from the field.  We had a nice time with Grampa, Uncle Dan, Uncle Kevin, and Kayla.  Tessa got to practice on her new bike at the playground in back of Grampa's house (this reminds me I need to take a video...she is getting fast and wants to try and take the training wheels off...we will see how that goes).

Summer Recap (Maryland Part 2)

Friday we spent the morning at Padonia Park with Trish, Kelly, and kids.  Unfortunately the water wasn't warm, but I think the adults were the only ones that really noticed.  After lunch at Chick Fil A and quick naps we headed to Evan's birthday party.

Evan in the middle, next to Tessa.

 Balloon time

 Here is Caroline...being a handful...as usual.

 Westley

 Calvin

 Calvin and Tessa

 Unfortunately Tessa "hurt" her leg while jumping on something.  She reacted poorly, I'm going to guess from all the over stimulation and lack of sleep.  We thought we were going to have to leave the party early, but she thankfully pulled it together so we could stay.

The next morning we headed to Dunkin Donuts for munchkins and then met Trish and her boys at Oregon Ridge playground.  We were there by 9:00...I'm pretty sure thats a first.  Although the hotel suite was spacious it was still very difficult with Caroline.  She could open all the doors, and was found repeatedly with her hand in the toilets, GROSS.  So we tried to spend as little time in our room as possible.  After playing at the playground for quite a while we headed back to wash up and get changed, and then we were off to Charlie's party.

Charlie had a really cool party, they had a guy come with all kinds of animals.  Unfortunately I didn't get to see them all because Caroline was once again being a handful.  But thankfully Linsey's yard has enough going on that I could easily distract her.  The animals I did see were: bunny, duck, turtle, snake, ferret, and spider.  I'm sure there were many more that I forget or didnt see.

 The birthday boy shaking the ferret.

 Cupcakes!

 Kelly and Avery

 Daddy and Caroline

 Later that night we our old babysitter Kate come and watch the kids so we could go out to dinner with the adults.  I'm dressed, and the kids are watching TV.  Pretty much any picture where they are sitting still involves the tv.

The next morning Tessa had one of her friends from nursery school, Erin, come and swim at the hotel pool with us.  We then got a quick lunch, not Chick Fil A much to Tessa's sadness because they aren't open on Sunday, and started our drive home.  We will never try to drive home on a Sunday in the summer again.  Traffic, traffic, traffic.

We had such a great time in Maryland, and we were lucky enough to see all of our friends.  Some of them we only got to see briefly, but it was still better than nothing.  We are hoping to be back to visit sometime in October.

Oh, and while we were there we checked on our townhouse.  The renters are taking a good job of it, so hopefully they will decide to sign a lease for another year.  We also got to see our old neighbors which Tessa loved.  She really missed Mr Mark and his dogs. 

It was very interesting to me what Tessa remembered and what she didn't.  She remembered most of the people from Maryland and their houses, playgrounds etc.  But she didn't remember our old neighborhood.  Couldn't pick our house out from the rest of the townhouses.  She forgot about the elementary school that we probably went to a couple hundred times to go on the playground. 

Summer Recap (Maryland Part 1)

Tessa got out of school at the beginning of June, we had her skip the last day and instead we got an early start on our drive to Maryland. 

 Ready and VERY excited to be finally going back to Maryland!

 My kids love DVDs.

30 minutes into the ride, Caroline got carsick...the stop to clean everything up took 30 minutes.  Not exactly ideal.  Thankfully the rest of the ride was uneventful.

 Snacks at the hotel

After we checked into the hotel we headed over to Trish's to see the newest addition, Luke!  He was too cute and not nearly as fussy as I've heard.  Tessa and Calvin loved playing together and Westley found a new best friend in Tim.
The next morning we got the girls ready early for the hour drive to Dutch Wonderland.  We took Tessa last year right before she turned 3 and she has talked about it probably at least twice a month since then.  This time we were lucky enough to be joined by, Linsey with Charlie and Henry, Kelly/Mike with Rylan and Avery, Melissa/Bob with Olivia, and Audrey with Alex.  We had the best time and stayed way past when we thought we would have to leave.  Tessa loved every ride she went on!  Caroline on the other hand got scared on the log flume and didnt happily go on another ride for the rest of the day...she did however have a blast at the splash park.  Here are a few pictures:

The little ones, Avery and Caroline, at Dutch Wonderland.  They were not tall enough to ride the slides, which all the big kids loved.

 Watching the big kids on the frogs.

Watching the frog prince show.  All the kids loved this.  Tessa saw the same show last year and still can't stop talking about it.

 Daddy and Caroline.

 Linsey and Henry

 Passed out just minutes after leaving Dutch Wonderland

When we got back to Maryland we went to Olly's Shoe store in search of shoes/sandals for Caroline and maybe something for Tessa.  We ended up with white sandals for both and no sneakers for Caroline.  Her feet are so narrow, everything looked silly. (When we got home, I opened up Tessa's shoe box and found a pair of sneakers that fit Caroline perfectly so I'm glad we didn't get her anything_.  After shoes we stopped for ice cream at Hunt Valley

 Breakfast at the hotel (you can see Caroline's new sandals)

We're still here...

Haven't found the time to blog lately, need to work on that.  Here is a quick snapshot of what the girls are up to:

Tessa continues to love school!  We had her parent/teacher conference a few weeks ago, and she is doing really well!  She spends all of her "free" time at the craft table...there are so many other things that are offered, but she prefers to work on her creations.  We have seen all sorts of things come home from school, hair bows made out of colored tape, kites, helicopters, hats, necklaces, and many more that I cannot remember right now.  We are trying to encourage Tessa to try some other activities while she is at school, so far with limited success.  She started a "ballet" class at the Little Gym.  It is 15 minutes of tap, 15 minutes of ballet, and then 30 minutes of gymnastics.  She can't wait to go every week!  And never wants to leave.  While at home, she loves to sing, play music, do crafts (surprise surprise), and read books.  Her favorite show is Jake and the Neverland Pirates.  The weather has been getting warmer and we have visited quite a few area playgrounds, Tessa always wants to play in their sandboxes.  So today we pulled our her old sand table and filled it up.  So far it is a hit at home too.  She enjoys the swingset, and wants to learn how to do the monkey bars all by herself.  Tessa has started telling "fibs", mostly very minor things, basically answers questions in a way to best suit herself.  Tessa is excited to try any new thing or place, and can't wait to tell everyone about it.

Caroline is a joy to have around.  She is still a cuddle bug, and loves to give hugs and kisses.  She too has started a gymnastics class at the Little Gym. Her favorite thing there is the rings to hang on.  She loves the part of class where they blow bubbles...so much so that she can be found trying to open the drawers where they keep the bubbles, and cries when the bubble part is over.  She is working on learning to blow her own bubbles (at home) and has had moderate success (for a 16 month old she is pretty good at it).  Caroline loves to be outside!  And cries anytime one of us goes outside to do something quick and we don't take her with us.  She too loves the sandbox...but still needs to learn that the sand isn't for eating.  Caroline loves for us to read her books, she will pick up her favorite books, bring them to us and sit down.  As if to say, ok read it to me now.  She is saying words, but not too many yet, right now she can say: No, night night, mama, daddy, doggy, cracker, and please.  I swear I heard her say Tessa tonight.  Caroline is in no hurry to talk.  Although she can say all those words, if you ask her to say them, most of the time her response is: uh-uh.  Caroline loves to climb...anything, but mostly the things she has been told repeatedly to leave alone.  She loves Tessa to pieces, and NEEDS to be doing whatever Tessa is doing.  Caroline can be timid in new surroundings, but if she sees Tessa doing something, she will follow right behind her without fear.  While at home Caroline likes to: color, use chalk, follow Tessa, read, play in Tessa's bed, brush her teeth, climb on the kitchen table, be with mommy, get chased by daddy, watch nursery rhyme videos, knock down towers, dump out containers of toys, pop bubbles, and many many other things.  Caroline is truly excited about life, and meets any new adventure with an "oooooh" and a huge smile.

And here are some cute videos, taken with my phone.

 

 

If you give a baby an icecream cone

Laundry Basket Fun

These pictures make it look like Caroline wasn't enjoying herself, this couldn't be farther from the truth.  She through a mini-tantrum when we told her we were done, and kept climbing back in the laundry basket.  We will have to do it again sometime, when one of us feels like our arms/back need a workout...pushing 55+lbs on carpet is no joke.

Snow storm (from a while ago)

 Both girls thought it was great to watch Tim/I shovel the snow.  (Yes we do have a snow blower, but we thought the 4 inches or so didn't warrant getting it out...next time we will, we have a WIDE driveway.)

 Pretty pretty Baby Doll.

(I have videos on my phone of the kids playing in the snow, hopefully I'll get them off of it soon.)

If you give a baby a cereal bar