Lately...

Just a little of what we've been up to lately...

Sprinkler fun in our yard...the kids even made their own water slide as you can see!

Rare close-ups of Daniel (he doesn't let me take his picture much anymore)...

very "classic"-Daniel faces!

Annabel singing "Sticky Bubble Dum"...there's a video at the end of this post, too!! Super cute!

 Blowing up her bubble!

Still blowing the bubble up!

Annabel's many chalk-drawn attempts at making A's on our driveway...the one centered in the bottom of the picture is pretty dang good!!

 Fuzzy pic, but what a super cute little girl driving her cozy coupe!

Gymnastics Fun! Annabel still loves gymnastics. This is her "table," one of our exercises.

Annabel shows off her "V" exercise. The table and the "V" are new-ish skills for Annabel- she will show anybody who asks about these two things! She loves to do them!

Balance beam walking!

The bars are Annabel's fave!

Pushing the boat!

Running on the Air-Trak...another fave activity!

We always end class with parachute fun! Here the kids were asked to point to their favorite color with their toes. (This was how Annabel learned how to do the "V" a while back- she pointed with both toes one day and ever since she did it that day with the parachute, she can do it on her own, too!)

We spent a few hours at the Arboretum one day a couple weeks back (the same day Annabel turned 28 months old, the same day I took Daniel to the movies- all part of the grand scheme of my excuse for writing the monthly Minnie post late! Yes, I'm clearly still harping on myself!) and the kids had a great time. We started with our picnic lunch since it was lunch time anyway. Of course the kids wanted to go in the rock creek immediately after lunch. And then we did everything else, with the kids soaking wet- the hedge maze, the rest of the children's garden, etc. We changed into dry clothes before we headed home. 

**Side note- it was insanely busy that day. It wasn't super warm, a very nice day yes, but not hot hot, so my guess was between everybody squeezing things in before school started and it not really being hot enough for the pool (in my opinion anyway), everybody decided to go to the Arboretum! We had to park in "eeditional" (according to Daniel) parking!! A mini-hike away...that's how crazy it was, and they had cars parked in the grass, that's how crazy it was. I'm just glad it was still manageable and enjoyable for us- we had a great time!!

 Soccer started again!

Our good friend, Miss Connie (from waaay back in our nature classes and our other hikes since then) has a son on our team, Connor. Daniel and Annabel were both SO excited that they would be seeing Miss Connie on soccer nights! Annabel had quite the audience in Miss Connie- Annabel LOVES Miss Connie and Miss Connie just thinks Annabel is THE cutest, too- mutual love!!

GO, Red Bulls!! Daniel is on the white team this time, still all number 4's so don't go getting too excited for picking him out in our pics that way, just like last time!

Uncle Jason let Daddy borrow his gaming steering wheel for driving games on the computer. Ben is really enjoying this new "toy"... and the kids are quite curious about it! It drives them crazy (hah, get it- "drives" them crazy) that they can't just play with it. But Ben let Annabel help him drive one afternoon while Daniel was still sleeping. She was so excited and so super cute!

We played "Cars Museum" one day last week- Daniel's totally cute idea! It was fun to round up our collection of Cars movie stuff and display it around our family room...eye cars, books, puzzles, play sets, balls, etc. Then Daniel wandered around as a guest and asked me, "sir," lots of questions about everything, too- so cute. Check out our museum! (And I can guarantee that this isn't even everything we have that is Cars related! Our collection is steadily growing...and oh it's such fun to find new and unique cars for our collection, because of course, yes, they are still making new eye cars all the time and also we're starting with eye planes now as I mentioned before.)

 Silly Annabel sitting in the middle of this garage, quite pleased with herself I might add; she's so tiny she fits!

 Daniel had to sit in there, too!

Legos are huge in our house right now! We found a bin of our old Legos from when WE were kids and Daniel has just loved this bin! I love to see all the different things Daniel (and super clever Daddy) build every day!

Who knew colored pens could be this much fun?! I had to sign something somewhere recently and they offered me a pink!! pen to write with, and besides loving the pen in the first place- smoooooth writing (why is it that nice, good pens are so hard to find?! I think it's a personal thing anyway- everybody loves a different pen), I knew I had to find them for Annabel- so I took note of the brand and all and went right out to the store to get some! Plus I had reward bucks so they were free- double score!- happy kid, happy wallet! Annabel just LOVES these colored pens- you incur her wrath if you take pink without asking her though!

Still a lefty, yep! And she still likes to "trace" her hands, too!

My sweet boy...after a rough week last week for Daniel, I needed this special moment in time, with Daniel sitting and focusing so intently on these gears with the sunlight highlighting just him...this just brought me peace.

Soccer night again! 

Waiting for practice to start...

Keeping herself occupied while Daniel plays soccer...and clearly making herself comfortable with shoes off!

Go, Daniel!

The cutest renditions of the "Sticky Bubble Gum" sung by Annabel- and I'm SO glad I got these on video when I did, because she was saying "bubble dum" and it was so super cute...but alas, she's corrected that and it's "gum" now. Sigh. And yes, there are two videos because she's just a hoot and I couldn't pick one of course!

Here's Annabel counting oh-so-cutely! She can count to 11! Sure, she skips a few numbers, but I'm impressed she can count past 10!! She's definitely got 8 through 11 down- she counts like that all day long these days! Go figure- 8-11?! What's that about?! Anyway, such cute counting, this was just a spontaneous attempt, I'll be sure to get some more videos of that again some day.

In Theaters Now: Planes!

We had been waiting and waiting, and the day finally came...Disney's Planes movie arrived in theaters! It was the perfect movie to take Daniel to for a Mommy/Daniel date, Daniel's 2nd movie ever in a theater (his first was Cars 2, back in 2011). We are very lucky to have Uncle Brian be able to get us in for free, too- Thank you, Uncle Brian!! Brian was also able to score part of the Planes movie theater display for us, which the kids just love (pics below!)- it sits in our family room and keeps us company! Brian also managed to find a Planes movie poster, which he gave us while we were seeing the movie; Daniel thought it was pretty cool that he got to see the movie and walk out with a poster. We found a large movie poster frame this weekend and plan to get it hung up somewhere in Daniel's room.

Anyway, we had a great time at the movies. We went the night Annabel turned 28 months (another reason for my delayed but pretend-on-time monthly Minnie picture and post, ahem)- so about a couple weeks ago, not even one week after the movie was released. The theater was not busy at all, which was really nice- maybe 10 families total, so no complaints. Daniel had to sit on the edge of his seat, because he weighs so little the seat would pop up if he scooted back (my parents always said I was the same way when I saw movies in theaters at a young age!). But he was fine this way and sat and intently watched like this for most of the movie. Of course he enjoyed some popcorn! The previews were a little long- after about 20 minutes of previews (one of which made Daniel really belly laugh- super cute, I love his laugh! It was the trailer for Frozen), Daniel asked when the movie would start. I didn't blame him- I was wondering the same thing! When the movie finally started, the intro was a dizzying "dream" of Dusty Crophopper's (the main character) where he was flying and tilting this way and that way- I was watching Daniel and he was literally tilting his body this way and that way as if he was the one flying the plane, I thought this was so cute! There were only about five minutes in the middle of the movie where Daniel's attention really started to roam, but mostly, he did really watch it and he did enjoy the movie. He sat in my lap for the last half hour of the movie, which I loved. A good snuggle while watching a movie- made my day! And I think I made his day taking him out to a movie before bedtime! He loved that it was just the two of us, too! That was super special to him. He told me immediately afterward that he wants to see the movie in that theater again and again! So clearly, it was a hit with him!

And now of course we're collecting "eye planes" from the Planes movie just as much as we're still collecting "eye cars" from the Cars movie!! Daniel still plays with all his eye cars (Cars movie cars have eyes, as opposed to Hot Wheels/Matchbox cars which don't) just about every day. We've loved finding more and more unique eye cars to add to his collection, since they are still making new ones. And yes, Daniel still calls them "eye cars"- he has since he could talk pretty much! I love it.

Annabel is 28 Months Old!

Creeping closer and closer to 2 1/2 years old...Annabel is 28 months old now!

And boy is she a very chatty little girl! Annabel's vocabulary continues to just explode, almost daily. And her sentences have really exploded in the last three weeks or so, too! She's really picking up on EVERYthing. Nothing gets by her! We love hearing her little voice, talking, singing songs, yakking away all day long. Super cute!

Here are some cute things we've heard lately:
"I meet you!"- This is how Annabel says, "I beat you!" whenever there is a race or competition of some sort; of course you can thank her brother for making everything a competition. So I'm maybe not loving the competition everything has become, but "meet you" just has to be the cutest misspeaking of that "I beat you!"

"Silly Mommy"- if I make a mistake or forget something, it's "silly Mommy!"

"I tease you!"- Annabel was so proud to finally find a way- and quite correctly too!- to use this phrase one morning a couple weeks ago. I was asking her if she wanted to come in the bathroom with me and she said no, so I asked if she wanted to stand outside the door while I went in and she said no, and then quickly said- "I tease you! (pointing her finger at me) In bafroom!" She was so proud of herself for "tricking" me. Again, thanks to Daniel, who teases Annabel quite mercilessly these days, "Annabel, I'm just teasing you." Of course Annabel is right there teasing him back...and boy can she!

We love "oopsie-daisy" and "uh-oh-gettios!" which she says every single time something is dropped or forgotten and such.

And oh my goodness the bargaining stage has begun- I'll say, "first we're going to do x, then we'll do y," and Annabel quickly turns that around- "First y, then x!" Diaper changing is a great example of a time she wants to switch my plan around! And even sometimes when we're shopping and I list the stores we need to go to, she'll figure out the fun ones and bargain for those first! She's good.

Annabel is also getting some more complex, but still basic, words down, too- am ("me am", today she did say "I" for the first time though!), your (in fact she even did this with a switch in perspective based on who she was talking to- to Daddy it was "Mommy's" and then she turned to me and said "your"- impressed me!), our ("our house"), had ("Daniel had"), too ("me, too" or "pasta, too"), and we also like "red, stop; green, go!"- she's got that basic concept down!

My favorite word of Annabel's is "ever!" because she says it so cutely. This word comes up all the time, mostly because she wants "big EVER!" (the biggest ever, today she gave me the "big ever hug ever day") or she wants something all the time or for a long time and such in which case she uses ever in her sentence. It's really cute to see her working out how all the words can go together. She is very deliberate in her speaking and making sentences and you can literally see her thinking what to say next. I love it! I still can't get her to say her name, though- usually she just says "me!" when you ask her what her name is! She can say the "bel" part but the "Anna" just isn't happening (closest has been "mah-bel"), although I did try Annie the other day and she got that just fine! Go figure. And though I do like that nickname (it was one of the things we liked about the name Annabel), I still want her to be and say Annabel for now!! She's still my little Annabel! And I really can't picture any other name/nickname for her, or for Daniel for that matter- nicknames were never my thing anyway.

Annabel is getting a lot of concepts down, too- starting to count a little more (working toward ten, but still skipping a few numbers or mixing them up) and even say what number comes next sometimes, holding up 1, 2, 3, or 5 fingers, starting to say lots of letter names (just repeating so far, not identifying, although thanks to her favorite library book of the month, "A is for Annabelle," she can sometimes tell what letter is next for a few of the letters- pretty impressive! and I have to say, after just now looking for a link for this book, all of the Tasha Tudor books look just darling- must put some more on our library list!), drawing circles and x's, and trying to draw other pictures and shapes (she names all of her pictures these days). Annabel is also LOVING trying to write the letter A ("A, me!!")- she tries so hard and can actually do pretty well sometimes, though it can look like an H, she does get pretty close, and like I said, she just loves trying and knowing she can do it. She also likes to try D's, too, for Daniel. She is always so thoughtful and thinking of Daniel.

In fact, when we went shopping one day, she was thinking about Daniel the whole time, "Daniel birthday, Daniel birthday, me birthday, Daniel birthday, me birthday" and so on. She's so cute and just loves her brother, even though they tease each other quite a bit. They love to sit outside and eat lunch together. And they often get along best when I'm not around- like when they're outside playing and I'm cleaning up inside, they're doing great, and then the minute I step outside and they see me, they start the show of bickering! Can't win. Still, they do love each other so much and they have a lot of fun together.  We have to read in Daniel's room every night before going to Annabel's room- it's our routine now and she loves that extra Daniel time.

Annabel still loves to draw, do puzzles, play games, and read books- those are by far her most frequent choices of activities. Her attention span is still pretty short, as in she still doesn't really watch much TV (which is totally fine with me) because she just doesn't want to sit and do that, that's just not interesting to her and not something she wants to sit and do. She'll watch bits and pieces here and there- Mickey, Curious George, and lately she discovered Dora at the library and loves our latest DVD rental with Dora in it, but beyond a few minutes here and there of those favorites, she really could care less about watching TV. She's the same way on the computer or tablet- she wants to watch things, she gets excited, but she doesn't stick with anything on there- thus her choosiness and short attention span. But, give her crayons and paper, or a dry erase marker and marker book, her water pen books, a pile of puzzles, or a pile of books and she'll do them "ever"! In fact, one of my favorites times of the day is in the morning when Annabel will sit in our bathroom and just read and read and read while I shower- it's so sweet to just watch her, I could just stare at her all day.

Annabel has also really started to pretend a ton more lately, too. This helps with playing with Daniel, too. He really likes this advance in playing with Annabel, I can tell. She's so cute about pretending, too- she pretends to have a picnic with pretend Delilah and Asher, pulling food out from her pretend backpack which is still on her back, and just watching her explain and talk and pulling things out and putting pretend things down and so on is so cute. She also loves to pretend to shop!! I love this, too!

The cutest thing Annabel pretends is literally having conversations on her toy phone- and I do mean conversations. She will just chat away and you can hear her making plans, asking questions, waiting for responses, and so on- it really is quite complex and super cute! I haven't been able to catch a video of it because of course the minute she sees me and/or the camera she stops. One time Annabel called the toy store and told them she wanted "all pink toys"- she's too funny!

(Oh- and speaking of pretending, we're going to pretend this post was on time (I'm NEVER late with these monthly posts, and I'm even going to redo the date so it looks on time, that's how neurotic I am!). Wednesday was just a super busy day, as was the rest of the week for that matter (it is Saturday now!) and I didn't even have time to do her Minnie picture that day, so Ben did it for me that night after dinner (and yes, my OCD tendencies almost made me retake this picture because Minnie is on the wrong side of Annabel! Gah! I'm sure you totally noticed, too! But hey, this is the real us and Ben did get a cute picture!). So just pretend with me.)

Anyway, Annabel is just such a sweet little girl, always hugging us, giving us kisses, and wanting snuggles. She is always so thoughtful and thinking about others and always wanting to help. These days she has a very strong attachment to me, she doesn't let Daddy do a whole lot for her, though she does love her Daddy a ton of course, it's just mostly Mommy's snuggles, Mommy reads, Mommy gets her out of bed not Daddy, Mommy gets her juice, help Mommy with everything, and so on. We're rolling with it. She is two after all and quite within her rights to be stubborn and choosy and change her mind every two seconds. And of course she's got her upper molars coming in now, making her even more choosy, clingy, and easy to tears...all understandable of course! But really, Annabel is such a doll and she really shines! That smile...those eyes...melt my heart every minute of the day!

A Whirlwind Vacation!

Here are some cute pictures from our whirlwind vacation to Tahiti! It was quite the trip! Oh the weather, the sand, the surf...so awesome and breathtaking! And sitting there in our own private hut, hovering above the turquoise waters of the ocean...so relaxing. We saw a whale and even a shark! Now that's an awesome memory! We also considered standing in the middle of a highway, watching some construction, and even a trip to the moon (Ben was really hoping to visit the Death Star, but that trip wasn't available this time), but I really pushed for Tahiti and of course Daniel was excited about seeing whales on our trip so Tahiti it was, and the shark was just icing on the cake, so it all worked out great!

"Project Store" Fun!

Last summer we discovered a local toy store that did free craft projects every week all summer long and we made sure to go back and continue the fun this summer, too! Daniel quickly named this store the "project store" last year; that name stuck and now even Annabel talks about the project store, too! This summer, Annabel got to do all the same projects as Daniel, and she just loved being able to participate and make the same thing. It was cute to see how different their projects turned out. It was also fun to see what things they liked adding to their project- for example, Annabel was obsessed with the feathers. She also LOVED using the glue and did pretty well with it actually. The kids both liked the glitter glues, although their bottles were never very easy to use because they were always pretty empty and then it's just hard to get what's left out. (I found an awesome brand of glitter glue for us at home, it's not cheap, but wow is it just super bright and eye-catching glitter glue! We love our glitter glue! Definitely a treat. We'll see how it lasts, though.) The dot markers were always fun, too- I think I may have to break down and get some of those sometime. (I say breakdown because I know they can splatter and that drives me nuts- Daniel used to use them in his Wiggles & Giggles classes, so I know about this splattering...but I also know the kids are older now and more responsible about things, too, so they should get a chance to try them out more.) And of course painting was always fun, too- you know how much my kids love painting. It was always interesting trying to juggle wet projects out the door and into the car! Usually we stayed and played with the train table and shopped a bit while letting things dry a little.

We made lots of different projects throughout this summer- cardboard birdhouses (probably the most fun project for the kids, they worked at this one for the longest time), suncatchers (with actual glass paint, not the tissue paper kind!), painter's hats (just cheap plain white hats), stuffed sea animals, cardboard treasure boxes, and canvas bags. I think we only missed a couple projects, because of other things that came up, but the projects were marked on my calendar and I made sure we went every week we could. We had a lot of fun and we're so sad that those are done now...just another sign that summer is almost over. Here are some pictures of our crafting fun! We'll be back next year, I'm sure!