Weekend Water Bugs!

This weekend was jam packed with a lot of fun activities!  We managed to do a lot and get to see several of our friends too, so it was a great weekend.

We had Birdies class like normal on Saturday morning, and then Chad watched the kids for me so I could go to a used book sale at the library, which then turned into going to get my nails done afterwards, and even an impromptu lunch with my friend Jessie!  I am so thankful that Chad enjoys spending time with the babies and is so good at watching them so I can get out every now and then for some "me time".

When I got home we got the babies ready to go to our neighborhood's pool.  They had a blast!  We went around 5:00 and didn't get home until 6:30!    We spent quite a bit of time letting them float in the baby pool, and then when the big pool cleared out we took them to float around in there too.  They just LOVE the water and I am so glad.  Here are a few pictures:

When we got home we decided since the kids were already wet and dirty, we would let them play in the backyard with their sand and water table until bath time.  They had a great time but by the end they were soaking wet and covered in sand!

Busy playing...

What a mess!

Drinking from a cup full of sand:

Brady was still for a moment and I managed to get this picture.  I can't believe how fast his hair is growing!  They just had a hair cut and he already needs another one!  We are going to my cousin's wedding soon and I don't think we'll have time to get it trimmed beforehand so he'll just have to have wild hair I guess!

Yesterday our good friends and old neighbors from the city, Carlea and Dustin, came to visit us for lunch and we had a great time catching up with them at Cici's and back at our house for a little while.  We are so glad they came to visit!  Then yesterday afternoon we went to visit the Dermody family to celebrate Sam and Abby's 2nd Birthday!  They had a water table and a pool set up in the backyard and our kiddos had a blast playing with all the kids in the pool!

They were the youngest babies there but they didn't seem to mind at all!  Chloe is in the pink hat and Brady is standing in the middle in the blue shorts with red crabs.  We were so glad we could be there to celebrate Sam and Abby's Birthday!  We finished up our Sunday evening by eating some birthday cake before we headed home after another eventful day.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Chloe and Brady have their 15 month doctor appointment today, so expect a 15 month stats post tomorrow most likely!

 

First Story Time at the Library!

Today I took the babies to their first Story Time at the library.  As they are getting older, I think it is important to start doing some more structured learning and social activities.  We already go to The Little Gym once a week on Saturdays, but I'd like to start doing some other things with the kids during the weekdays.  So I found this Story Time at the library and decided to give it a try.  It is one thing to go to a class when you have two parents and two babies, but it was a whole different experience getting them ready and taking them to class by myself today!

We got there only a minute or two late but we were surprised to find a class full of babies!  I don't know how many were actually there but it felt like 30 or 35 at least!  Each child had a mat to sit on, and two books laid out to read.  During class we sang a lot of kid songs (I didn't know the words to a lot of them, shame on me!), read the two books, and at the end of class they had free play time with a bunch of toys in the middle of the room as well as bubbles and balls to play with.  The babies were very familiar with the bubbles and balls part since that is a regular part of their classes at The Little Gym.   They also loved playing with the toys.  New toys they've never seen before are a big plus!

The babies seemed to really enjoy themselves, I was very proud of both of them.  Brady in particular seemed comfortable walking around and looking at all the new toys all by himself.  He found a truck and happily played with it on his own.  Chloe of course was all over the place and enjoyed playing with the balls and making new friends.  Here are some pictures from Story Time:

Getting ready to read a story:

It was a big room!

Brady found a truck and a new friend:

Chloe having a ball as always:

It was a fun experience and I believe we will go back again soon!  Happy Thursday to all, we're almost to the weekend!

 

Mother's Day Recap and Tuesday Hodgepodge

I hope everyone had a wonderful Mother's Day weekend and that you all got to spend some quality time with the Moms in your lives.  I had a great Mother's Day and spent it with my sweet husband and babies. I was spoiled with beautiful flowers, a new bedding set for our bed, and Chad took me out on a date Friday night to an awesome Italian restaurant and to see The Five Year Engagement.  Saturday I got to take some time out for myself to go get my hair done, and Sunday I even got to enjoy some shopping time!  It was a fun weekend and I felt very loved.

We also spent some time Skyping with our Moms who we couldn't actually be with in person, but we were glad we got to see them over the computer.  In a couple of weeks we will actually be taking a trip home to attend my cousin Hannah's wedding and to visit our families, so we are looking forward to getting to see many of our family members in person soon!

I didn't take many pictures over the weekend since we were busy most of the time, but I did snap a few.

First here are my beautiful flowers from Chad and the babies:

Next, here is Ms. Chloe hanging from the bars at The Little Gym during Birdies class on Saturday:

The other parents can't believe she can do this.  She can hang on the bars longer than many of the kids in her class who are bigger and older than she is!  She loves it!

Now here is a picture I took on Friday of Mr. Brady sitting in the glider in the playroom.  That might not seem so remarkable, except that I didn't put him there.  He crawled up there and sat in it himself.  Unfortunately for me, he has mastered this skill and is apparently a climber.  He can climb onto the glider, the couch, and he also enjoys climbing under the coffee table.

Just look at how proud he is of himself!   He is into everything these days!  He is now walking at light speed, so that doesn't help!  Here is a little video of him from yesterday:

Chloe of course is also keeping me on my toes.  It is amazing to me some of the things they come up with to do.  Here she is last night sitting in a decorative bowl I keep on the coffee table.  It usually holds three decorative balls, but I think it looks even better with this little girl sitting in it!

Speaking of decorations, I mentioned our sitting area a couple of posts ago, and the long wait we've had in order to get the furniture in.  Today the missing and final piece was delivered, the chair!  Yay!

Well this post turned out to be quite the hodgepodge!  I guess I had a lot to catch up on!  I hope everyone has a great day!

 

Lunch Date with Daddy!

Today I decided we could all use a little change of place.  During the week we usually stick close to home and do most of our venturing out on the weekend when we have Chad's help, but today I thought it would be nice to go visit Chad downtown and have lunch with him.  The babies hadn't been to visit his office in a long time, so I thought it would be fun to have them stop by and say hi.

This was my first time driving from the suburbs into the city by myself with the kids, but it wasn't bad.  We were able to go at a pretty quick pace the whole way there, so it didn't take too long.  The kids were surprised and so happy to see "Dada" during the day, it was a special treat for them.  Chloe sat beside Chad at the restaurant and was pleased as punch the whole time to be next to her Daddy.  I think Chad was happy to have a visit from all of us as well.  We went to eat at one of my favorite Mexican restaurants in the city, so that was awesome!

Here is Ms. Chloe and her "Dada":

Brady sat beside me:

After lunch we went to Chad's office to say hello to a few of his coworkers.  One of the sweet ladies in Chad's office gave Chloe a pink tennis ball and Brady a blue car.  They just loved their "prizes" and carried them all around the office.  In the pictures below you can see they even fell asleep holding them on the ride home:

We had a lot of fun visiting Daddy for lunch today!  I hope everyone had a great Wednesday!

 

The Six Week Sofa and A Few More of My Favorite Things

While most of my posts are updates on the babies, occasionally I like to post about a few other things of interest to me, like a recipe, craft idea, or a home decorating update.  This is going to be one of those posts, just a head's up for those of you who might have been expecting a baby update.  There are still a few pictures of the babies sprinkled in there for good measure too!  This post will feature the Six Week Sofa, the sitting area Before and After pictures, and a few pictures of some of my new and old favorite things.

The Six Week Sofa is aptly named because that is how long we have waited for its arrival.  After a two hour (with toddlers in tow) furniture shopping ordeal, I finally broke down and decided to order this couch and a chair Special Order for the sitting room.  I don't know why when I said "we need a neutral/small sofa" that translated in the sales lady's mind to a lime green sofa on clearance and a neon blue crushed velvet chaise, but needless to say our options were limited.  The Special Order sofa was the exact right color, texture, and size for the space and we had exhausted all of the other options in the store.  We definitely weren't about to take the babies to a different furniture store.  Since this wasn't our living room furniture and we didn't NEED it to have a place to sit, I figured it would be fine to wait however long it took to come in.  Note to self: don't ever buy special order furniture again.  I do not have the patience for it.  We still don't have the chair, maybe it will turn into the Eight Week Chair.

This is what the "sitting area" has looked like for the last month and a half:

And today, at long last, the much anticipated Six Week Sofa arrived:

The chair, when it is finally delivered, will go next to the lamp and roughly under the black frame.

Chloe and Brady are trying to figure out what all the hoopla is about:

Now for some of my favorite things.  This next picture is of my Aunt Gigi's lamp.  She bought this lamp soon after my PawPaw (Aunt Gigi's father) passed away (I was about ten years old).  At that time she told me she was going to hold onto it for a while, but she believed that one day PawPaw would want it to be mine.  Aunt Gigi mailed me this lamp and it arrived on February 18, 2011, the day the twins were born.  Since we didn't feel comfortable having it in our very cramped and small house with the new babies, our amazing friends and neighbors Carlea and Dustin gave it a home for about a year for us.  Now that we have moved into the new house, it has assumed a special place in the sitting room.  Every time I look at that lamp now I am reminded of Aunt Gigi and of PawPaw.

A few other favorite things reside on the side table next to the sofa in the sitting area.  The shadow box has our wedding invitation and one of the boutonnieres from our wedding in it.  My brother Thomas saved his boutonniere and made this for us and I love it.  The glass container holds the two different colors of sand we poured together on our wedding day in lieu of lighting a unity candle.  I am glad we decided to do this instead of the candle lighting because now we can always keep our sand.

On the dining table across from the sitting area, sits a new favorite thing.  Our friends the Dermodys brought us a beautiful orchid when they came to the house warming barbecue we had a few weeks ago.  I repotted it and have been trying hard to make sure it lives.  My Grandma says the best way to keep an orchid alive is to leave it alone.  So I've been trying to do just that.  So far it is working (fingers crossed).  Another one of our friends brought us some beautiful calla lilies that I also repotted, but unfortunately I overwatered them and I am trying to rehabilitate them, but I don't know if I will be able to or not.  Here are some pictures of the orchid:

And the last favorite thing is an old favorite.  It is a picture that used to hang in my room when I was little.  My mom found it in the basement, cleaned it up and had it shipped to me.  I was amazed that it got here all the way from NC in perfect condition!  I hung it in the playroom and I love to look at it and think of my Mom.  I am so glad the kids will be able to enjoy it just like I used to!

Well, that's it for some of my new and old favorite things!  I hope everyone had a good start to their week!
 

 

Off to the Races!

If you saw Wednesday's post then I am sure you know that Brady has started walking!  He took his first independent walking steps in the playroom on Monday afternoon April 30th, 2012.  With both babies we were very lucky they decided to start walking in the afternoon when Chad was home from work to witness it!

Here are our big boy's first steps:

The funny thing is that after those initial steps, he hasn't stopped walking.  With Chloe, walking was a more gradual process.  After the first time, she would walk off and on and gradually increase the frequency and complexity of her walking skills.  So the day after this video I assumed it would be the same way with Brady, but I was wrong!  He has been walking his little legs off ever since Monday afternoon.  He is very steady and I would say even though Chloe has three weeks of experience over him, they are walking at about the same speed and with the same dexterity.  

We are so proud and excited that we now have two walkers on our hands!  We can't wait to go to our Birdies class at The Little Gym tomorrow morning for the first time with both of our children as walkers! 

Brady, we are so happy for you and proud of you!

 

Wordless Wednesday: TWO WALKERS!