The 4th of July: Starring Janey Glenn & Tina Sparkle

If you get the movie references in the title of this post, you win 4,721 Dojo points and a slumber party. 

We went to Mimi & Grandbob's house for the long 4th of July weekend and had a lovely time with them!  We had fun walking around Leiper's Fork, eating tasty burgers in downtown Franklin, lunching with Gabby, dinner-ing (yes, i just invented a word) with The Porters and other fun stuff. 

As most of my extensive network of readers (read: approx. 5) know, I was all about dance for a majority of my formative years.  Ballet?  Beautiful.  Jazz?  Fabulous.  Tap?  I miss you.  So You Think You Can Dance?  Thank you for coming into my life 6 years ago. 

But I digress.  Because of the aforementioned love of dance and 11 or so years of performing - I have A LOT of dance costumes that my parents have thankfully saved despite the ginormous boxes they've had to keep for all these years.  It's starting to pay off, Mimi & Grandbob!  The girls found some sparkly leg warmers and were ALL.  ABOUT.  THEM.  Not just on their legs, but on their arms too.  Most of the costumes are still way too big for them, but these were a nice jumping off point for what I'm sure will be many more visits involving tulle, sequins and spandex.  And in-home recitals.  Warms a mother's heart.

I don't really think the pictures capture the hilarity of seeing them walking around with leg warmers, but I must post for posterity's sake.

First, we started with the fashionable "one leg" look.

Then we moved directly into both legs with a Dora backpack. 

Just found out she's going to be a regular on DTV.* 

Taking a break to read with Grandbob.

If you think she looks like Ronald McDonald, it's okay.  I do too.

Pooped from all the dancing, now it's snuggle time!

 

 

 

*Please excuse my frequent, sometimes obscure movie references.  I'm seeking help. 

Art!

The girls have recently added a fun new weekly activity to their repertoire - Art Wednesdays!

Wow - I really need to come up with a better name for that.  Especially since it's mostly been on Thursdays so far. 

Not only do they get to hang out with their cool friend, Campbell - they also get to make a mess.  Win/Win!  Unless you're Kate - and then maybe the mess part isn't the most appealing aspect of art.  I'd been wanting to start doing fun projects with them, but I am neither artsy nor crafty, so I've been dragging my heels on it.  So, when my friend Jessica suggested that our girls do weekly art projects together?  DONE.  I love having teachers as friends.  They're way more motivated than I am sometimes.  :)

So far, we've made fun Father's Day canvases for the daddies, written our names in glitter and glue and used tissue paper and water to make a fun watercolor-esque painting.  I, of course, forgot to take pictures at any of these fun events, but thank goodness for Jessica's iPhone, which captured the below pictures from our last project at our house. 

Sidenote:  the iPhone will be mine one day.  Oh yes.  It will be mine.

Campbell loves to get her art on and her project turned out the best as she was all about saturating the tissue paper.  Kate was more of a dabber/sucking the water off the paintbrush-er.  And Elle was very focused on her work until she was done and then she made like a tree and got out of there.

PS:  has anyone else heard of bleeding tissue paper?  Me either.  Thanks for the suggestion, Disney Family Fun website!

I'm looking forward to more fun art projects with the girls and will try to post some of their best works.  Their portfolios, if you will. 

What's that?  Are Elle & Kate still in their pajamas?  Yes.  Because that's how we roll. 

Kate & Campbell having a jolly old time, while Elle The Loner chills with me.

Toddler Art at it's finest.

Yep, Elle has Bieber hair.

The finished products!  A watercolor/Rorshach hybrid.  It's way existential.  Kate's on top, Elle's on the bottom.

Beating the Heat

Guys?  It's hot here in GA.  REALLY.  HOT.  So hot in fact, that Tyler recently proposed we move to Ireland where the average high in July is 67 degrees.  For reals?  The closest we'll get to Ireland in July is having a Guinness while watching Far and Away and blasting the AC.

So, what have we been doing lately to beat the heat?  Why, playing in the baby pool of course!

I can't tell you how much Kate loves being in the "poo".  I think she would stay in there all day so she can "tick" & "pash" (a.k.a. kick and splash).  Not that Elle doesn't love it too, but Kate seriously LOVES it.  And what makes playing in the pool even more fun?  Having friends come over to play with you!

Here are some pics of our recent pool time!

Elle in the sprinkler

Kate is a happy camper

Fun times w/our friend, Campbell

Only when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars will 3 toddlers will look at the camera at the same time.  Fun w/Charlotte!

Not technically "pool time", but gotta love the sunglasses and red face.

More sprinkler action w/Elle

Beachy Fun

Hooray for the beach!  We were able to spend several days there with Mimi, Grandbob & my little bitty 25 year old brother at the beginning of May and we had a great time!  We were in Seagrove Beach, near Destin, and it is beautiful.  I mean, I love the beaches at Destin, but they were GORGEOUS in Seagrove.

Kate might not agree as she and the sand had a hate/hate relationship.  She tried to wipe it off her the entire time we were there, but had fun in the waves with her daddy and loved me carrying her around.  She also thoroughly enjoyed hanging out in the beach chairs nearby.  Elle?  Basically ran headfirst into the ocean - that one has no fear!  Oh future, I fear you.  She was so cute though - LOVED being out in the waves w/Daddy while Uncle P entertained her by diving all around her.

They both loved the pool and spent some quality time in it and running around it investigating the local foliage.  We had a great porch and grassy area that the grown ups had fun hanging out on and the girls had fun running around and wearing Mimi's hat and Grandbob's/Uncle P's sunglasses.

We had some delicious seafood while we were there and the girls were champs when we went out to eat.  Mama might have sweated a little too much, but they were super!  Tyler was able to play golf for the first time in probably a year (hooray!) with Dad & Pres, while Mimi & I strolled the girls around Seaside.  A successful stroll (minus a small "falling out of our seat at lunch" incident), complete with a new green bouncy ball compliments of Mimi (which they LOVE).

We all had a great time at the beach!  Thanks, Mimi, Grandbob & Uncle P for making a special fun time for us and our crazy, silly girls!

*PS - I'm going to start upping my game with pictures as I seem to have failed to get any family shots while at the beach.  Darn it!  With toddlers on the move and camera shy adults, it's a hard job!!

Elle at the pool.  She may or may not have a goldfish in her mouth.

Kate rocking her swim hat

Elle & Daddy discussing the importance of sunscreen

Kate the Gardener.  Or "Hortence", as we like to call her.

Mom, I have a grain of sand on my elbow.  Not. now.

P&E

Beach + Goldfish = Win/Win for Elle

Shade + Chair + Sand at safe distance = Win/Win/Win for Kate

Excuses & Easter

No more excuses.  I'm making it a priority to blog at least once a week from now on.  I get intimidated when I get behind and think there's no way I can catch up.  But for the sake of posterity and because this Mama is not a super-scrapbooker - I must press on so I have documentation of the little squirts growing up!  In the process of trying to catch up, I'm sure I will miss a few things.  Hopefully I'll hit all the biggies though.
 
 And now - Easter!  

The girls were so cute at our church's Easter egg hunt this year.  Though it was rainy and a little chilly, that did not stop them from picking up 3 eggs each in the approximately 3 minutes the actual "hunt" lasted.  Well done, girls!  Go get 'em!  Here are a few fun pics from the event (note: we did not approach the Easter bunny as we did not want a repeat of "Santa Meltdown 2010" to commence.  There's always next year.)

I see an egg and it will be mine.

But Mom, I don't WANT to take a picture with Kate.  Must. Lick. Egg.

Daddy w/his Mini-Me

I could not love this picture of Kate more.

Mama & Kate

Mama & Elle

Daddy's picture w/cool framing

Uh, guys?  Don't look now, but I'm pretty sure I just laid an egg.

Elle

The fam.  (Note: Super cute dresses provided by Nana.  Super cute buckets provided by Mimi & Grandbob)

And here are a few pics from Easter morning!

You can tell from her expression.  This one?  She's a stinker.

Sweet Kate LOVES balls.

Family pic at church.

Elle in action

Cuties w/their Easter baskets

Hi.

Open/Closed

Thanks to a fun game her Mimi played with her on their last visit, Elle likes to say "Open" and "Closed" a lot now.  She especially likes to do it with her sparkly red purse.  It's super cute and so of course,  I must share it! 

Wordless Wednesday