Bowling

Ellie and Audrey went to a bumper bowling party last weekend and had a blast! The party was for the newly turned 4 year old son of one of my dearest friends. Ellie loved bowling and Audrey enjoyed just watching and playing around on the (completely clean I'm sure) floor. After lunch and birthday cake, the kids got tokens for the arcade games. You'll see in the last pictures which game was a hit with the kids!

Karate Kid

Na na na na

Audrey loves to sing and we've been trying to capture it on video for months. Like most kids, she clams up the second she sees the camera. Today though she was singing in the car and I was able to film it from the front seat without her noticing. This is her favorite song to sing and we have heard it multiple times a day for the past 3 months! A complete lryic starts at second 11....

Maybe someday I'll capture her singing "Doddy No No No", also known as Frosty the Snowman.

Dress Up

For curious minds, Ellie is wearing a hippie Halloween costume with a pink tutu and Fancy Nancy sunglasses. Audrey is wearing her normal clothes with a Fancy Nancy tutu and sunglasses. The dress up box is another great idea for a cold day inside!

Gingerbread House

Mimi got all the needed supplies for gingerbread houses at Christmas, but we got so busy that they didn't get made. We're at Mimi and Boppa's house for the weekend so Ellie made one this afternoon. Another very fun winter indoor activity!

Audrey was not such a fan of the marshmallow chimney!

Ellie's finished house, complete with front door, chimney, and holly bushes.

Audrey decorated some gingerbread cookies with rice milk icing (surprisingly not so bad!). Eventually she figured out that she could just eat the icing with the spoon.

Winter fun at home

The past few weeks have been very cold by our regional standards and we've been spending more time than usual at home. It has been a challenge coming up with ways to entertain the girls for hours on end inside! Today I resorted to letting them play in the bath for an hour before lunch! Here are some of our other activities....

Audrey and Ellie laying on the couch watching The Sound of Music on Lori's laptop.

They love the two-side easel from Grandpa. Audrey uses the chalk side while Ellie uses the dry erase side. Audrey is of course strictly forbidden from using the dry erase markers!

Ellie playing games on the Sesame Street web site. She feels so grown up being sllowed to use the computer!

Hope you're staying warm wherever you are!

Happy New Year!

Wishing you a 2010 filled with peace, joy, and love!

We're welcoming the new year in in style....

Merry Christmas!

We wish you all a very merry Christmas! We enjoyed an amazing morning at home with the girls yesterday where they were thrilled to find all that Santa had delivered. Ellie had a couple big gifts this year (a bike with training wheels, roller skates) and her favorites were the piggy bank from Santa and a microwave from Aunt Barbie. They also loved their joint gifts - an art easel from Grandpa and a toddler basketball hoop from us. Audrey was much more into the excitement and mess than the actual presents of course! After opening and playing with their new toys, we drove up to Mimi and Boppa's house to see the girls' grandparents, great-grandma Olive, Aunt TT, Uncle Ty, and baby Addie. Round two of presents commenced and we've been relaxing here since then. We hope you all are enjoying your time with family and friends and we wish we could see more of you this holiday season!

Ellie quickly figured out how to ride her new bike

Opening presents!

Ellie learned how to roller skate in our kitchen :-)

At Mimi and Boppa's house, Ellie got a "laptop"!

Audrey's favorite gifts involved her babies - a highchair...

and a bottle set!

Ellie's Fancy Nancy skirt and shoes

Audrey, Addie, and Ellie - Santa's newest reindeers

The big cousins help feed the littlest cousin her bottle

Ellie and Audrey with great-grandma Olive

Audrey helping Mimi make dinner

Three little cousins

Christmas Eve

We have had such a wonderful few weeks leading up to Christmas! The girls have really enjoyed all the sights and sounds of this holiday season. Audrey has especially enjoyed the lights! The past week has seemed full of preparations for tomorrow. They had their Christmas party at school yesterday and Ellie's best friend came over this morning to decorate cookies with us. As we do with every holiday, we dressed the girls up in festive garb for a week or so beforehand and tried to take a picture every morning.

We wish you and yours a very merry Christmas! At our house, the stage is set downstairs for a magical morning!

Ready for Santa!

Winter fun!

We woke to a winter wonderland this morning and two very excited little girls! We have at least 12 inches of snow on the ground and it is cold. Although last night was too cold for them to play in the snow, I took Ellie out this morning for some fun. Audrey watched from inside with Lori and we had a good time throwing snowballs at the door!