April 19: B-Day Visit from Grandma & Grandpa

Grandma teaching the girls how to make REAL whipped cream - a family tradition!

Mari doing her puzzle for the first time. Each animal makes a sound as you place the piece. She LOVES it and still does it at least once a day.

Calli - all decked out in her princess attire and jewelry.

Singing Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Mari!

Momma & Dadda

Dadda dressed as the pretty princess - if you think that is disturbing, you should have heard his "pretty princess voice"!!

And Grandma & Grandpa brought a whole bag of balloons. We had tons of fun hiding in the balloons, and playing catch.

Peak!

Mari loves her dvds!

Feb 20: Dear Grandma

Visit to Grandma & Grandpa's House

We spent a couple days this week visiting Grandma and Grandpa. We all had fun! Unfortunately, the girls were a bit under the weather - especially at the beginning of the trip.

Calli, eating popsicles for dinner because she had an upset stomach. Grandma also made her orange jello, and orange salad (which she liked to stir more than she liked to eat).

Mari had to be fed the popsicle bite by bite on a spoon. At first I gave it to her, but she got upset because holding the popsicle was too cold. Then, I got her to hold the stick, but she tried to eat the stick. I had to take it away from her and feed it to her.

But later that night, Mari had some corn on the cob. She loved it. And for only having 6 teeth, she did a great job!



The next day, when Calli was feeling better she got out all the musical instuments, and she and Grandma made a band. She asked to take the whistle home, but I explained that it was so fun to play at Grandma's house ;)

Vacation Hotel

In honor of Fathers' Day (and the outlet malls) we planned a family excursion to Michigan City, IN this weekend. We planned to shop, stay in a rental home, visit the beach, spend the night, and have a leisurely morning with the girls' Grandparents and Tia KT.

Unfortunately, the house, in addition to being too small for our 7 person group, had a very strong odor and we had to make other arrangements. Oh, how Calli cried. She was SO looking forward to the "vacation house". So Rich had to explain how the vacation house was too small, but we would look for a "vacation hotel" instead.

Some fun things to do in hotels:

Play peek-a-boo in the cupboards!




Play with Daddy on the King-sized bed!

Long Weekend in Michigan

We went to Zeeland/Holland to spend the holiday weekend with friends and family. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures later. But here are the best quotes from the weekend.

Calli goes downstairs to check on Tia KT who isn't feeling well. Calli comes back and reports "Tia KT has a stomach, like the caterpillar". Translation: Tia KT has a stomachache, like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" in the story who eats too much.

Calli, Mari, Grandma, Grandpa and I are eating breakfast together. Out of nowhere, Calli turns to Grandpa and asks "Grandpa, where did all you hair go?" LOL!

Another beautiful spring day

After this weekend, I thought we might have to be content with rain today, but no rain yet. So with Grandma's help - we headed out for an excursion.

Enjoying a picnic lunch at the "pirate ship park". I discovered this is a great park for my girls because Calli can do most things by herslef, and there are large surfaces for Mari to crawl on.

I discovered a new trick to get Calli to look at the camera. Then, after agreeing to ride in the stroller on the way to the park, she got her promised time riding her bike. And on her second day of riding a tricycle she was going all by herself!