Tuesday, August 21, 2012

These Feet Were Made for Walking!

13 Month Milestone:  Walking!

1st position
Whoa, whoa steady now!
Second position
And we're off!

Bowling is hard without bumpers!

The score speaks for itself!  The bumpers only came up for the kids to bowl and the poor parents had to actually try and bowl while wrangling the kids.  Totally not fair.  Piper always wins when she bowls- bumpers or no bumpers.  Maybe her sport will be professional bowling.
the bowlers- Piper and her friend Ava
Do these shoes make my feet look big?  I had to stuff 2 pairs of socks inside just to make them fit.  They were HUGE!
Piper and Mommy
Miss L and Ava


Hoping for a strike
At least I looked good while losing!
Miss L got a strike without the use of bumpers- pretty impressive!
Last week Wednesday, my friend and I planned a beach road trip as a last hurrah to summer.  However, there was a red tide in the gulf and thousands of dead fish littered the beach.  As much as I love the beach, I do not love dead fish or swimming in  an algae bloom that is known to make humans sick.  We decided to take the kids to a local entertainment center for some bowling and arcade games.  We had so much fun and didn't miss the beach at all!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

I find the STRANGEST things in my cupboards...

Somehow Puppy found his way into my cupboard
Then I suppose he got hungry and banana joined him
I heard knocking followed by "helloooo"
Suppose she got stuck up there
This is why I have nearly empty cabinets
My days are filled with more laughs than tears.  Thank goodness for that or I would go crazy.

Monday, August 13, 2012

Houston Museum of Natural Science and Butterfly Pavilion

Now that we live in the suburbs, I try to get my city fix at least twice a month.  A few Fridays ago, we decided to check out the museum with our friend R and Miss Molly. The museum had a big exhibit about dinosaurs and I thought Piper would love to see the fossils.  We walked through each dinosaur time period and saw some pretty amazing dinosaurs.  It was pretty dark, so I couldn't take as many pictures as I wanted, but the craziest thing we saw was a prehistoric shark- it was HUGE.  I also learned that there were saber-toothed dinosaurs during one of the eras.  The girls wanted to climb on top of the displays and touch the fossils, but after getting scolded several times by security, they were content to just stand in front of them.
T-Rex! Run away, run away!!
After we walked through the "Hall of Paleontology", we headed over to see the butterflies.  I think the girls would've been plumb happy if we'd just done this the entire time, but now I know for the future. This was probably the best butterfly house I've ever been to.  The butterflies were super active and plentiful.  They also had a bug house where you could see lots of yucky creepy crawlies.  I did not take any pictures of those because I didn't want to be reminded of all the ickies that live in nature *shudder*
Some photo ops are awesome in theory.  This was not one of them.  Piper was not happy at all to be on that giant caterpillar


Choke hold or hug? 
Piper had a very friendly butterfly land on her hand.  She was tickled pink to have such a friend!
Apparently, Brynn had a little butterfly friend as well.  We don't know when this little guy hitched a ride, but he was happy to be on Brynn.  I think he was attracted to her blue shirt. 
"Say hello to my little friend"
And in case you missed the butterfly, Piper was sure to point it out to everyone
After seeing the butterfly on Brynnie, Piper wanted one too. Umm, can't take them home sweetie.
We finally were able to drag the girls from the butterfly house with the promise of a visit to the gift shop.  $7.00 later, we went to the "Gem House" where the moms oohed and ahhed and the girls played with the $7 toy from the gift shop. 

We finally decided to pack it up after the gems, Piper and I had a train to catch back to the zoo where we parked and then we had a 45minute drive in rush hour.  It was definitely a fun day trip!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

July in Rewind

I know it seems I've dropped off the face of the blogging world, but if you take a look at my calendar for July you'll see that everyday was jam packed with activities and engagements and blogging had to take a back seat. And to top it off,  I'm terrible about taking pictures.  I always forget my camera, but I did manage to snap a few pics of our busy July.

 Most of July was spent at the pool- surprise, surprise- the single most valuable investment this summer was buying the pool pass.  We signed up for swim classes through the Rec Center.  Our first class was a "Mommy/Daddy and Me" infant class.  Both girls participated and it helped Piper develop a good relationship with water.  We also discovered that Brynn is a FISH.  Baby girl LOVES the water.  After the preschool class, I signed Piper up for the preschool level class and Brynn and I took a "Mommy and Me"  resistance class.  Once that class was over, I signed Piper up for a second round of it at another pool.  Some of the instructors got to know Piper and Brynn very well and we even scored a babysitter from it.  While Piper was in class, Brynn and I would play together and swim in the baby pool.  Piper did such a wonderful job and her confidence level soared.  She loves going underwater and will play in the "deep" end of the pool. 
Baby girl can't get enough of the pool

Pausing long enough to get a picture 


We spend about 2-21/2 hours at the pool, so we always bring food.  Bobby joked that I pack a 3 course meal.  I like variety.  You never know what the kids will want to eat.
 

Swimming Certificate!
 In the middle of all our swim classes, we finally got our living room furniture!  I waited 3 months for it and once it came we went nuts with decorating projects.  One such project was a magnetic chalkboard for the gameroom.  It's not magnetic- the paint doesn't work, but the chalkboard was a huge hit.  Piper drew flowers, shapes, and letters all over the board.


Piper has been really into drawing pictures and then mailing them off to the family members.  This is a birthday invitation- see the cake and candles at the bottom and then Piper wrote her name all by herself!  Usually, I have to help her with the "E" and "R.  I didn't even know she had done that- she just handed me the paper all folded up and I didn't unfold it until later that evening.  I wish that I had looked at when she handed it to me so I could've praised her right then and there. 


Someone else is very into art as well.  Brynn likes to try her hand at coloring the inside of her mouth with blue markers! 

 At the local Chick-Fil-A, they were having a "Sweet and Sassy" party.  I met up with some friends and their little divas.  Piper loved being treated like a princess. 



The Divas
 July was surprisingly rainy, we had some serious storms blow through and those storms kept us indoors for almost 2 weeks!  A house full of kids and 2 silly parents, made for lots of giggle fests.
 One thing we did was our own version of the "3 Little Pigs" except it was "The 3 Little Nemos and the Big Bad Shark"  Piper made up the story and used her tent as the anemone, Bobby was the shark and he got to wear the shark hat (no pictures of him though) and Piper, Brynn, and I were the 3 little Nemos.  Hilarious!  I took a video of it and I laughed through the entire play.  After we saw how much fun daddy had wearing the shark hat, we all wanted to wear the hat!


Brynn was the biggest, baddest shark.  She destroyed the anemone!


Piper played with her stuffed animals- tea parties, shopping trips, and puppet shows

Making silly faces for the camera

I can't open the dishwasher without Brynn trying to climb in it

After having so much fun, Brynn would just pass out on the shag rug 
July wasn't all fun and games, I worked my butt off...literally!  My legs look fantastic.  I'm at a great weight with only 5lbs to lose (10 if I feel ambitious).  My friend and I run 4 times a week, we average a 10min or less mile, and we run between 4-5 miles.  Our runs are challenging.  We run hills like crazy people.  I really need to take a picture of one of our "favorite" runs.  I'm really getting into running and finding it surprisingly...fun!

I know this entry made you tired just reading it, I'm tired after typing it.  It's amazing how much you can cram into 1 month.  As for August, we've been taking it easy.  In fact, the entire first week of August was spent at the pool- you should see our tans!