Post-Thanksgiving Funtime

We were so lucky to be able to have Christina's sister (Auntie Cyndie) and Steve's parents (Nana Rose and GDaddy) out to visit us this Thanksgiving. Although we had lots of fun on Thanksgiving Day, even more fun was the next day where we had activity bonanza!

The day started quietly enough - Elena took a rare nap with Christina (oh, how happy was Christina! It's beautiful being able to watch the girls while they sleep!) while Clara caught up on some reading with GDaddy.

Then, we all went on a trip to the carousel. Nana Rose and GDaddy treated the girls to a trip on the ponies, but Elena was feeling a little bit attached to Christina so she went along for the ride too. This shot is a little blurry, but was still too cute not to post.

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Where is the missing baby? Clara poses on the pony, while Elena tries to figure out if she wants to sit on a pony that's staying still. In the end, no, she did not. But the set-up was a cute idea, and Nana Rose made sure to have room for her!

The girls are starting to have so much fun at the local children's museum that we just went ahead and bought a membership while Auntie Cyndie was in town. This made it a lot easier to take the whole crew in to have fun.

GDaddy coaxed the girls to do what they had not done before this November -

Go through the tunnel on their own! They got so good at it, they went through the big tunnels as well. We were so proud of the brave girls.

Christina, Clara, and Elena in the dino dig. It was fun to watch the girls. Elena went right at the "dirt" with the shovel, while Clara picked the "dirt" up piece by piece and put it daintly into her shovel. So funny.

GDaddy put coins into this contraption so that Nana Rose and the girls could see how they spiraled down and out of sight. They loved this. You know we aren't usually matchy-matchy with the girls, but these hats from Nanny (Nana Rose's mom) were too cute not to wear together!

Before we left the museum, Elena showed Nana Rose how much she loves puppets. These little finger puppets cracked her up. Oh, and Christina mentioned that she was making winter coats fro the girls - here is Elena modeling hers.

Clara and Elena LOVED their Auntie Cyndie. She would chase them all over the house and pick them up and tickle them and they just couldn't get enough. We didn't get nearly enough pictures of her with the girls, but here is one we call "Sisters with sisters." It's a nice tradition in our family.

Elena was clutching this tylenol bottle all day - she liked something about the top. The fun part of the picture is that she has gotten really good at following directions. This is the result of us saying: "Elena, can you give Nana Rose a tomato?" Turns out, she can!

Although Elena was a little shy this visit, she blossomed on this Friday after we had all been together awhile. Here she is modeling her giraffe-riding skills. Something about this picture just makes her look so grown up!

Auntie Cyndie was so good with the girls - here she reads them one of Clara's favorites: "The Skin You Live In."

And as a final shot in our series on play, here is Gdaddy making Elena laugh hysterically. He had this game where he would stand her up in the chair, then slide her down. She just loved it and laughed so beautifully. We should have gotten it on video!

Nana Rose made us all turkey soup out of the leftover turkey, and she got the humongous wishbone off for the girls to pull. We found the one from last year we had been letting dry (my, how long can you keep those things??) and so we wanted the girls to pull it. Oh, it was tenacious, but once we got six people in on the action it finally broke. Nana Rose declared that everyone had won - and it seems we did.