Squeezing out the last bits of summer

Even though back-to-school time has hit for Christina and Steve, we're trying to squeeze out the last bits of warmth and easy outdoor-time for the girls. This weekend we went to the 8th annual Buddy Walk in support of children with Downs Syndrome, and the girls walked/ran/were carried a mile around with loads of other people and kids, and made some new friends. We were all impressed by the mom and daughter who rode in on this double bike!

But the girls were also intent on the free apple slices:

Clara made friends with two girls who were doing somersaults, so she joined in on that fun:

And we've been spending a lot of time out in our driveway, exploring the leaves that have fallen, picking up rocks, and pretending to be cats (they love this game, not really sure why).

Here they are right before they tried eating leaves for the first time - not sure what inspired that move, but they realized quickly that they didn't like them!

Finally, the girls have been having lots of end-of-summer fun with their new friend, B. She comes to hang out with the girls if neither Christina or Steve can be home. When Christina came home from teaching class this week, she found them on the couch being bugs together - can you spot their pipe cleaner antennae?

A visit!

The girls' birth mom, Ashley, came to visit this weekend with her family. We were so excited to have them here and to get to hang out again. Last year, the girls were a little wary of any new people, but this year they warmed up really well.

First, Ashley won them over with technology - a never- miss with these girls!

Then, her son Gabe enchanted them with a game of "cheers!" over ice pops:

Even cousin Michael joined in!

There were trees to be climbed:

And then lots of pictures to be taken:

This is a close replica of one of the pictures that these three took in the hospital when the girls were born:

Got to get Grandma LeAnne in there!

What a fun family - we are so thankful to have them in our lives. Thanks for making the trek out to see us again this summer, guys!!!

On the homefront

In the spring we had a great time planning our garden, planting seeds, buying seedlings, and waiting for things to grow. Since then, we've spent a lot of time watering, weeding, and visiting the garden. Although the girls don't ingest much, they love picking. We've picked the odd tomato here, nibbled on the odd carrot there (the girls like to pretend they are rabbits!) and we've gone through a good amount of lettuce, beets, and loads of berries. But now we're starting to get the real harvest in. Today the girls helped us pick the food that was ready today - check out our bounty!

rls

A veggie lasagna is calling our names. But for today, our littlest bakers had something else on their minds. Christina recently bought a Cook's Illustrated magazine (to get the recipe for their cupcakes) and it has an illustrated back with pictures of all the other recipes in the magazine. The girls have been regularly pointing at pizza (pizzie in their lingo) and whoopie pies! None of us has ever had a whoopie pie, and we decided to forgo the full effect, but we made the dark, sweet chocolatey cookies for the outsides, and topped them with leftover vanilla bean buttercream frosting - yummy! Mom loves having such eager helpers.

Two turning Two

We had a party today for the girls - the theme was "Two!"

We had pairs of balloons, a Tat-Two (tattoo) station, horns to Two-t (toot) and various two-sounding refreshments (H20, two-berry lemonade, two-na (tuna) and red pepper crostini, two-layer greek dip, two-ti (tutti) frutti salad, etc).

We also had a huge number 2 balloon - and the girls spontaneously did this hilarious pose with it! (Can you tell who is who behind there?)

It was so much fun to celebrate - the girls slept till right before the party, and we were lucky to have so many friends to help us get the girls in a party mood (that's Charlie below, "Char-Char" to the girls):

The tattoo station was a big hit - all the kids had tattoos all over, and most of the adults sported a few, too. Here Elena shows her tiger, and Clara shows the placement of the flower she wishes to have on, but won't let Christina put on her:

Karen to the rescue! Clara happily allows her to put the flower tattoo on:

Elena illustrates the tooting horns:

But where are the cupcakes? The girls went into the garage and dragged out the box for the cupcake stand, and pointed helpfully to illustrate what they were waiting for. Christina was trying to have the girls wait for cupcakes until everyone arrived:

But an unexpected tragedy changed our plans. In the blink of an eye, the weights holding down the mammoth 2 balloon slipped off of the balloon, and suddenly:

Yep - away went the balloon. You can see it below right in the middle of the frame. This caused Clara some curiosity and caused Elena acute distress - she started sobbing. Straight up until bedtime they told us the story. "Two! Up! Reach! All gone! Sad."

They (especially Elena) were so upset that distraction was needed. Out came the cupcakes!

Cupcakes help everything:

Clara was especially enamored - these were double-chocolate cupcakes with a vanilla-bean buttercream frosting:

Last year for her birthday, Elena cried when she saw her cupcake and would only eat the lollipop that decorated the top. We're pleased to say she was much happier this year:

Cupcakes for everyone:

Clara illustrates that while these cupcakes were tasty, they were certainly messy!

Other favorite activities during the party were climbing the tree:

Hanging on the steps:

Pouring from the lemonade (all the kids were enchanted with this dispenser - it was so funny! One kid put his head right underneath and just let the lemonade fall a short distance from the spout straight to his mouth. The adults were a bit LESS enchanted than he with that one!)

Clara entertains the crowd with a trick - removing her skirt and then showing that she can "be snappy!" with the snaps on her onesie. She really did have some good dexterity - some said she should consider yoga!

Elena helped our friend Maeve draw one of the leaves they found on the ground:

And then our friend Kate introduces a new fun game - girls in the hula hoop turning in a circle. here are Elena and Clara with their dear friend Annie:

A few more kids decide to see what is so fun about this game:

And suddenly it is like a gravitational pull:

Nothing like hula hoops to bring out a good time!

We are so excited to be the parents of two-year-olds.
Happy Birthday Clara! Happy Birthday Elena!