Fun Night and Truck-in

Last Friday night Julie wanted to have a family fun night so we bought the makings for hot dogs and s'mores. We have a brand new grill, but I have yet to put it together so we roasted our dogs over the fire pit, ate them on our new patio and then made s'mores! I managed to get melted marshmallow in my hair, but that's not relevant. Have you ever tried to get melted marshmallow out of your hair??

Emerson was giggling the whole time we were having our fun night.

On one hand the girls are the bravest little devils then on the other hand they will be so cautious that they miss out on some fun stuff. Avery has some major "patrol monitor" tendencies. She made sure no one stepped too close to the pool on vacation and during the wienie roast she kept saying, "fire hot!" and neither she nor Emerson would get close enough to even hold the stick to roast their marshmallows. Emmy just wanted to eat the chocolate and could have lived without the rest of the s'more! Not me man, I love a good chared mallow!

I mean look at how far away Emerson is standing!

Saturday the plan was that Julie had to work (she is making me clarify that so people dont think she stayed home and watch TV while her kids were out having family fun. And we missed her terribly, but the bills have to get paid)and we (me and the LGs) were going to go with our friends Pam, Katy and their son Graham to an easter egg hunt in Oldsmar.

I have no idea what an Oldsmar is or where it is for that matter. But, when we got there it was this quaint little town with the cutest houses. To bad it's in Oldsmar.

As we were driving upto where the egg hunt was suppose to be we saw people leaving with baskets full of colorful plastic eggs...sadly we missed the "hunt", BUT the Easter Bunny was still there and we asked the kids if they wanted to go sit on his lap. Graham totally ignored the question and ran off to play on the jungle gyms. The LGs on the other hand both enthusiastically said YES!

Katy and I trudged through the mud with them waited in a long line only to have them start crying and yelling, "no mama!" once we got upto the beginning of the line... so off we went to find Graham and Pam.

The park was also having a small fair like thing happening too so we hung around till it opened up and Pam bought the girls their first very own softy serve cone. No, I did not make them share...then again Pam was buying ;-)

We then took them to ride some of the rides. The first one was this thing that looked like a train except it was trucks instead of train cars. We were not aloud to ride with them, but they LOVED IT!!! Emerson actually looked like she was having the most fun then she decided she was DONE and that was it. I had to get her out of that thing ASAP! The cutest thing was she was riding with her arm hanging out of the truck like she was a real trucker (pig tails and all!)

I am so excited that my girls like rides. I love roller coasters and cant wait till they are big enough to go on them with me!!!!

Zoo's Who!

The day before yesterday after my shower I noticed it wasn't draining. I'm a pretty handy lipstick lesbian so I got out the Drano and let it do it's thing. The only thing is it didn't work...HUH? I have never had a clog I couldn't fix with Drano. I tried the plunger. NOPE. Did discover that the shower and the toilet are connected though. Not a thing you really want to find out when one stops up so does the other...ICK!

I have a neighbor that has been building things since we moved in. A few wks ago he built a shed. Then a gazebo. Then he put together a trampoline. He is always doing something. I went over to his house in search of a snake. Not the kind that hisses, the kind that helps remove icky stuff from clogged pipes. He did not have one but did have something he said was even BETTER! It was this thing you attach to the end of a garden hose put it in the drain and it fills with water then creates a really forceful jet of water knocking whatever nastiness is blocking the pipe right out of the way. Unfortunately for us this did not work. I had to give in and call a professional.

The plumber shows up and has to snake our main line. Meaning he had to go on the roof and snake it. Good thing we have a home warranty or this would have been some big bucks!

When he finally left I wanted to get the girls out of the house. More accurate would be out of the back yard. Since we had a new patio put in it is hard to get them to leave the back yard. I offered "wanna go bye bye?" "No" So being the great negotiator that I am I knew I needed to up the anti. "Wanna go to the zoo?" "YES!!!" So off to the soo we went.

We had a great time despite the fact that the zoo was more crowded then I have ever seen it. Crazy busy!

One of the first things we did was ride the carousel. They love the carousel so much! I thought they we would try riding this little kiddie roller coaster they have too. They dont meet the height requirement to ride it themselves and I wouldn't want them to anyway. We got up to the beginning of the line and I see that the cars only hold 2 people. The girls were so excited they had their little faces sticking through the gate to watch. Sure enough when it was our turn we had to do the walk of shame. So guess what we dis instead...rode the carousel once again.

We also fed the giraffe and they enjoyed that so much. Yet they were afraid of the little birds that you can feed.

"Picnic...COLD!"

Julie has been on vacation this week. It's been colder then normal here in the sunshine state. The other day she decided that we should have a picnic at the beach. Sounds nice right? It was! Kind of...
She packed us a great meal of popcorn chicken, sweet potatoes, honey glazed carrots, wine for us and juice for the girls. We packed up the car and headed out for a fun family picnic at the beach. We even took the dog, "Pooper" AKA Cooper to those over the age of two. It was cool and breezy at our house so we were not prepared for how freezing cold and windy it was going to be at the beach.


Since this picnic if you say the word picnic in front of Avery she will start a complete dialog containing many many "No, Mom. Picnic COLD. Pooper, No Mom... COLD" It can go on and on... To say that is was cold would be an understatement. It was REALLY FREAKING COLD! I have to take some of the blame on our lack of preparedness. I had them dressed in short sleeved dresses and when Julie suggested that we go on this infamous picnic I put some leggings on them. That's it. I did NOT grab sweaters or jackets for them. Thankfully, we have blankets in the car for them. Blankets are their lovies. So we were able to have them wrap the blankets around themselves for a little extra warmth.


You know how they say a picture says a thousand words? Well, in this case a a video says it ALL...

At this moment we are on what I call "my vacation". We are staying at the beach with the girls. We have to have (at the very least) a one bedroom suite because the girls go to bed at 7:30 most nights 8:30 is actually really late for them.

We got here at like noon. AND, by the way, with in 10 minutes of getting in our room Avery managed to get herself stuck INSIDE the coffee table. She saw Emerson attempt it. Emerson stopped when I told her to. I missed Avery's attempt so I had to help her get out.

I wanted to get the girls some lunch and get them down for a nap. Naps are VERY important!

At home they sleep together. Here for some reason they want to sleep on separate beds.

When I put them to bed for their nap Emerson started to cry when I went to leave the room so I decided to lay with her till she fell asleep. She was happy about this and cuddled up to me. Avery on the other hand laid in her queen sized bed and yelled at me, "MAMA, GO AWAY!" At the time I thought it was cause she wanted to trash the room. I found out at bedtime tonight that the actual reason was cause she wanted her Ma (Julie) to lay with her. This is what we had to do tonight to get them to sleep. Emerson and I laid in one bed and Julie laid in the other bed with Avery. Our plan was to lay with them till they fell asleep then head into the living room enjoy some wine and go to bed a few hours later. I kept my part of this plan, however Julie fell asleep at 8:30 with Avery. I feel bad for her...sort of. hee hee. I'm enjoying my solitude right now actually!

Here are some pictures from today:

Here is the view from our room:

Headed to have a snack on the beach:

(Avery on the L)

Emerson:

Emerson's First Pony Ride

Last Saturday I took the girls to a birthday party for a pair of their twin friends Abi and Bell. It was fun (hey there was beer there) they had a petting zoo and pony ride.

The only issue I had with this party was the time...2:30. 2:30 is right smack in the middle of naps, but I was pleasantly surprised that they held it together pretty well. They had a great time running around, petty the animals, and riding the pony!

Every time we have had an opportunity to ride ponies Emerson has sad no thank you! The last time was at the Twin MoMs holiday party. She was very excited till it was actually her turn then she was not so happy with the idea. This time her sister did it (her first ride WAS at the holiday party) and then when her turn came she let me put her on and she enjoyed it like she had done it many times before.

Before I had kids I had no idea there would be so many pony riding opportunities. It's crazy how many we have had...

First time riding a pony for little Emerson:

I think Avery was worried about her cause she tried to follow right behind the horse...not THE best place to be...

Avery looks bored...I mean she HAS done this before after all:

Not sure why Avery is petting the animals through the fence instead of going in...

Avery's action shot for the day:

Where Is THE Waffle Man???

A friend of mine met me at Lake Eola a few months ago for the Farmer's Market that happens there ever Sunday. She introduced me to the most Heavenly Thing I have ever tasted...a waffle. It need no syrup, you eat it as is and it was about the best thing I had ever tasted! So a few weeks ago we went to Orlando to visit grandma. I started thinking about the waffle I had a few months back and couldn't get it out of my head. We made plans to meet my friend and some of our relatives at the farmer's market so we could all have a heavenly waffle.... the thought awakens my taste buds and makes me salivate. (of course when we lived just 4 blocks away from Lake Eola they did not have the Farmer's Market!)

We get there and let the girls and their cousin Cameron play at the park for a bit then head over to the market. First thing on our agenda was to find the WAFFLE MAN! We walked all the way around the courtyard to no avail. He wasn't there. I was crestfallen. We decided to get some lunch there. We found a nice place to sit and I headed back to get us some food. I went to the first place that looked good. Tacos...While the guy made our tacos I figured I would ask the taco guy where the H#LL was the waffle guy. He tells me he had to go back to Belgium to renew his visa...No freakin wonder those waffles were so good. The guy is from Begium! We still had a great time and some wonderful food...but no waffles...so sad.

Grandma bought them a little hair salon to play with and they LOVED IT!!!