miss two-wheeler

Look what Ivy can do now...

Did you see?  No training wheels!

 Ivy has been practicing so much and finally got over her fear of falling off of the bike.  What an accomplishment!  I loved seeing the look of pride and joy and confidence on her face once she discovered that she could ride the bike without training wheels!

Great job, Ivy!

an errand day

Today was a very busy errand day!

Do you see our list? We had that many places to go!
The name beside the place was the person who suggested where to go and then that person had to drive us there.

Here's our car...Ivy is in the driver's seat first.

Letty had to bring her baby along.

First stop...DD ~ Dunkin Donuts...

Then, Letty drove us to the Toy Store...

but first she had to make sure the car doors were locked.

Owen found a barrel full of monkeys to buy at the store.

Then, we were off to the Bank...

where Ivy's customer service was superb - greeting us with a big smile!

Then, we went...APPLE PICKING! (Can you guess who chose to go here?)

OWEN...and he was in his glory to go apple picking!

Ivy drove us to our next place - the Post Office!

The Grocery Store was next where Owen had to get bananas and Oreos...

Mommy then had to get to the Laundromat to wash clothes, but Ivy said that she would put the load in for me!  (I hope she's this excited about doing laundry as she gets older!)

Walmart was next up on our list.  Ivy only needed to get a few items so while she was at Walmart, we were to wait in the car.  That is when Owen decided that he would pretend to drive the car and leave Ivy behind, which then started Owen's favorite game CHASE! 

Ivy was NOT a fan of that idea...

while Letty was just along for the ride!

A trip to the Library was next...

After every page, the "Librarian" had to lick her finger to turn the page. 

As we were running out of time, we had to quickly go to the Book Store, the Ice Cream Shop, and the Gym!

Whew!  What a busy and fun errand day it was!

snowshoe-ing

We FINALLY got some snow, and it was enough for us to go snowshoeing.  (Is that even how you spell that?)  Now that our kids are getting a little older, we are feeling like we can actually get out and do a some things that we enjoy as a family. 

As we walked along, we were looking for tracks that may have been left by wild animals.  Ivy made sure to bring her animal tracks chart to compare the tracks we found to the ones on her chart.  Owen was really wanting to see a moose or a bear, while Ivy was wishing for a deer or a fox.  (Can you not see the difference in their personalities just by the choice of animals they desired to see in the woods?)

Here are a few more shots from our day...

a "knotty" girl

This little one has started a habit of having to not twist but jumble her hair as she goes to sleep at night resulting in a huge knot in her hair in the morning.  Silly girl!  Daddy always wants to cut the knot out, but if we did that, I don't think she would have any hair left! :o)  At least, she doesn't mind the pulling it takes to get the knot out every morning.

and the winner is...

ME!!!! I am officially awarding myself the Mom of the Hour Award, an award just made up by me, but I feel so happy to have won it! Congratulations, ME!!!

Why am I so deserving of this award, you ask???

Well, I just had to come out of my blogging respite to tell you this story. Perhaps you may find joy and laughter in the story or perhaps you will find it utterly disgusting. BUT, here goes to all those willing and daring enough to read...

Our littlest, oh dear Letty, is going through this phase where she likes to take all of her clothes off, especially her pajamas. She has figured out how to muscle her way to unsnap the top part and then unzip the rest of them. She then wiggles her little arms out, sits down on the ground, and plops her feet out. BUT, she doesn't stop there...no...no... She then proceeds to...can you guess? That's right...the diaper!

Well...well...well...well, this morning... as I was in the kitchen making our breakfast...Letty comes around the corner with her pajamas off AND no diaper on. No big deal...I've seen that before. BUT, her hands are BLACK! Yes, BLACK! And, her belly is black! And then I see her little bum...yes, it is BLACK, too! And let me tell you...she wasn't playing with a crayon or a marker! :o) SO, I grab a hold of the non-black parts of her and carry her arms-length away (there was definitely no cuddling and snuggling going on at this point!) up the steps and plop her into the bathtub.

I wish I could tell you that we got all washed off and got dressed nice and warm again and we went about our morning just dandy, BUT I can't. If this moment was a movie, I think it would have been a scene from the movie Daddy Day Care where one of the dads sends the little boy into the bathroom to go to the potty, and then the little boy comes out and explains to the dad that he missed and then the dad goes into the bathroom and looks in horror at the mess all over the place. To see the clip I'm talking about, go here and watch the very end part. (sorry, if I knew more about computers and this blogging stuff and if I had more time, I would have spent the time figuring out how to get the video right onto this blog post for your viewing.)

SO, back to the story...I got the showerhead down and started spraying off my little poopy girl when I noticed that there was more there than what I was expecting, and it seemed to be extra sticky. As I was hosing Letty off, the handle slipped out of my hand and fell onto the bathtub floor spraying water everywhere as though it were a sprinkler watering the lawn. In my shock, I let out an excited scream causing Letty to panic and begin crying and trying desperately to climb out of the bathtub. Meanwhile, I'm trying to keep Letty in the tub, find a good way to grab a hold of the showerhead turned sprinkler without getting soaked by the buckets of spraying water wildly going everywhere, and keep myself poop-free. Needless to say, by the end of all of this, the rug, the floor, my camera, and myself were soaked; each side of the tub was black with streaks of runny poop; and Letty was still quite messy and crying. I finally regained control of the situation and now we are ALL nice and clean.

Okay, maybe this ordeal wasn't quite as bad as the one from Daddy Day Care, but it was definitely one of the worst things I had ever had to clean which would lead me to say that it was worthy of this award.ward-winning experience.

I thought to capture this award-winning experience in pictures, BUT as I began snapping I thought that pictures this nasty and disgusting didn't deserve to be looked at. Besides, I couldn't figure out how to capture all of it in a nice and pleasant and private way. So, here's the CLEAN and adorable version of Letty...

NOW, if you would excuse me, I need to go clean the bathroom! :o)