Swing Set Fun

Zoe takes after her Aunt Liz with her climbing skills! Sophie is always looking for new ways to play...

Founder's Day

This morning the girls and I headed out early to watch the Marana Founder's Day parade. I've never taken the girls to a parade and was curious to see their responses. Their favorite parts were the fancy floats and the horses. We ran into our neighbor Melissa and her daughter Ashlynn, so it was fun for me to have an adult to talk to during the parade too!

After the parade we headed over to the park to see where they had a kid zone set up with inflatables, arts and crafts, and a petting zoo - all for free!! The girls had fun decorating tiles at the Home Depot make and take craft tent. They also got free aprons! After some lunch in the shade (it was 86 degrees) we headed over to the petting zoo. The girls loved the bunnies, and Sophie spent a lot of time trying to catch a chicken. After about 10 minutes in the petting zoo, Zoe started saying, "stroller...stroller..." and I knew it was time to go.

Happy St. Patty's Day!

We hope everyone had as fun a day as we did. After dropping Sophie off at school, Zoe and I headed to the playground for her play group. It was a sea of toddlers in green shirts! After we picked up Sophie from school, we stopped for hair cuts and headed to a friend's house for our regular Tuesday night play date. The kids had fun pretending they were pirates (Zoe was more interested in some buckles she found), and after dinner we all headed out for a bike ride in the beautiful Tucson weather. Needless to say, the girls were ready for bed when we got home:)

Happy Birthday Ashlee!

Yesterday the girls went to their friend Ashlee's 3rd birthday party. It was a princess party complete with a princess pinata - a first for the girls! Sophie was the only little kid that hit the pinata hard enough to make some candy fall out of it. Zoe got help from Angie while I took as many pictures as possible. Other highlights from the party: a dinosaur-shaped climbing structure, a pirate ship with a red slide, swings, pizza, cake and presents. Sophie is developing her sense of humor. After the party I asked her what her favorite part was. Her answer? "The french fries"...sly smile followed by big belly laughs. There were no french fries there, and Zoe didn't quite understand what was so funny about french fries but laughed along with us. The rest of the day Zoe kept coming up to me and saying, "French fries!"

Word Wall

The other day the girls and I created a word wall in the play room. Sophie is constantly asking me how to spell different words and wondering what letter words start with, so of course the teacher in me couldn't resist the opportunity to bank on those teachable moments. Zoe has been getting really good with her letters too!

Fun Friday

Today the girls and I went to feed the ducks at Reid Park with Grandma Laura. Then Laura took the girls to her house for lunch and naps. After that they got to help pick up Uncle Josh at school and bring him to work before meeting mommy back at Daddy's work!

The Bubble Gum Song

This is a song that Sophie learned at school that she LOVES to sing all the time now.

Heat Wave

The temperatures have been unusually high here in Tucson, so today we broke out the swimsuits and the sprinklers. The girls were giggling and jumping around in the water, and after awhile they discovered the mud that was forming next to the patio. Sophie got right to digging and getting completely covered in mud. Zoe kept dipping her hand in the mud, then she would say, "I'm all dirty!" and run to the sprinkler to rinse it off. She must have repeated this 20 times! Eventually I realized that none of us were wearing sunscreen so we headed inside. During bath time I noticed that we were all a little darker, and Zoe has a nice farmer's tan going on. I guess it's time to get organized for summer and figure out where I put away the sunscreen and beach towels!

Stained "Glass"

Today's craft was inspired by all of the sunshine that has been pouring through our windows. I cut out the shapes in the black construction paper and the girls glued the tissue paper to the back. This craft is good for using up the black paper that comes in the pack - a color that the girls rarely choose for other projects.

They're Back!

Ann and Clark were here for a visit for about a week, then they headed out to California and Sedona for a week before coming back for the rest of their trip out west. During the first week of their visit, putting the swing set together took up most of their time. This last week that they were here they got to spend a lot more time playing with the girls (translate lots of down time for me!!!). Of course we did find some smaller projects around the house for Clark, which he always so graciously does for us:)

Anniversary

Andy and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary last week. We hadn't made any plans, so I was surprised when Andy called from work and said that we had reservations for dinner at a local resort, and to bring a change of clothes for massages afterwards. I thought it was weird that they would have massage therapists working so late, but I was really looking forward to some relaxation. I even made sure to not eat too much at dinner so I wouldn't be uncomfortable during the massage. Well, true to Andy's nature, the "massage" was just a ploy for me to pack some clothes because he had booked a room for us to spend the night. Thanks to Ann and Clark, Andy and I got to relive that brief period (3 months) of being married without children!

Andy didn't get home in time for us to get a picture together, so all we have is me (and Sophie acting like mommy) dressed up for dinner. Andy looked nice too, although I wouldn't have cared if he was in sweats - I was thrilled to have a night out with my honey!