Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Bike rider

This girl has been in love with bikes from the moment she saw one.  A few weeks ago something just clicked and she got the whole pedaling/steering thing down all on her own.  She was so proud of herself and we were proud of her too!
 She still loves her princess sit-and-ride too.  For some reason this is a favorite toy amongst all the neighborhood kids.
This particular evening, Lucy rode her bike while I followed her with the camera and Ryan and Claire hung out on the front porch waiting to go in for bedtime.

Sunday, April 20, 2014

Hanging out

We had so much fun on our staycation that we had to spend the first day back catching up on some chores, like laundry.  My girls entertained themselves on my bed while I sorted and folded laundry.  It was great company.

Grass-hauk

Lucy went with Ryan to Home Depot this last Saturday and got this free hat.  She loved it.

Staycation 2014

Ryan's parents were supposed to come visit us this last week but had to cancel due to a funeral.  Ryan still had the time off of work and had to use so many rollover days before the end of April, so he kept the time off and we decided to have our own little family staycation here in Columbus.  We had so much fun just our little family exploring the things around us and spending time together.  I hardly took pictures... I thought about it a few times but decided that this was one of those moments where I was just enjoying the moment completely instead of worrying about getting all the right pictures.  For my own memory, here's the run-down:

Friday: Much to our surprise, Ryan got off work pretty early and since it was the first really warm-ish day (relatively speaking) we decided to get pizza for dinner and take it to the park.  Of course it got a little chilly by the end and had some crazy strong winds going on so I had to keep chasing our napkins and plates and even our box with pizza in it!  We followed that up by getting ice cream cones on the way home.

Saturday: We decided to give in and get zoo memberships and go this day... along with 75% of Columbus. ;)  Seeing as it was the first warm, sunny day of the year, not to mention the weekend, it was pretty busy!  But that's the beauty of having the annual pass- we saw a few things that Lucy wanted to see (she insisted on monkeys and elephants), ate lunch, and left. Later on that evening, Ryan and I hired a real babysitter for the second time in our lives and went out on a date to see Captain America.  We even bought popcorn, which is a big deal for us.  Ha!

Sunday: Of course we went to church in the morning, where Lucy went to nursery and stayed the whole time without any problem (that's like the 5th time in a row or something- I think it's a one deal!). Then, after afternoon naps for everyone, we took a nice long walk around our neighborhood, explored the pond by our house, and chatted with a few neighbors who were out and about. After dinner we watched some Mormon Messages and just hung out at home and relaxed.

Monday: We took Lucy to a place full of bounce houses and huge blow-up things called World of Bounce.  It was raining hard outside all morning, so perfect day for an indoor activity.  The place was pretty empty for most of the time, so we really got to enjoy it ourselves.  Lucy had a blast and made us stay the whole 3 hours of open bounce time.  We packed a lunch to eat there and played some more.  On our way home, we stopped and got ice cream cones again. :)  The afternoon consisted of running a few errands, and then having FHE.

Tuesday: This morning we ran some more necessary errands but planned a lunch at a local mexican restaurant that we love.  It was fun to go out to eat at a sit-down restaurant with the girls.  And I pretty much drink the salsa there.  So good!  After that, we went and finally bought me some new glasses.  Te afternoon was pretty simple and I can't even remember what else we did.

And that's that!  It was a bummer when Ryan had to go back to work on Wednesday morning bright and early.  But that's reality and we were happy with the time we got!
 The gorillas were all active and swinging everywhere and chasing each other, but they were super loud!
 World of Bounce

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

A new driver on the road

Watch out everybody, Columbus has a new driver on the road and she's only 6 months old!

I put in the floor to the cozy coupe and put Claire in it for a ride yesterday.  It's fun that she can start going in things like this now, and it's also fun to see kids' reactions to trying something totally new.  Claire loved it and Lucy loved being a big helper and pushing.... for a minute until she wanted her turn.   Ha!

Sibling love

No one can make Claire laugh as easily as Lucy can.  Claire will watch Lucy for a long time and just laugh at everything she does- even if it is not funny.  Lucy also loves to make Claire laugh and even if she is being defiant towards me in the moment, she will stop and do anything I ask her to do for Claire. I'm sure this won't always last and that we will have good and not-as-good phases, but I hope this sure lasts for a while!

These pictures were while I was vacuuming.  Claire is kind of scared of it still, so I asked Lucy to sit by her so she wouldn't be as sad.  She not only ran and sat by her, but grabbed a few of Claire's favorite toys on her way.

Monday, April 7, 2014

Rain, rain, go away...

By late afternoon today, both the girls and I were getting a little stir crazy and had to get outside.  It wasn't completely freezing so I figured we could get out for a quick stroller ride.  As soon as I got the stroller outside, it started to downpour, thunder and all.  So much for our walk!  But Lucy was not going to take going inside for an answer, so we sat outside on our porch and watched the rain come down.  Of course cute little Lucy is just too curious to sit and watch it for too long and she slowly but surely inched her way more and more into the rain.  As soon as the thunder stopped, I let her go out and ride her bike in the rain, which made her a happy camper!  Even though it was pouring rain, it was nice to get a breath of fresh air for a few minutes.
I love this picture because it captures her "satisfied" look perfectly. :)
Claire's cheeks aways getting in the way. ;)
 Rain, rain, go away... we want to go out and play!