Happy Birthday Elly!!

Yay!  One year!  I cannot believe she is this big!!  With two kids, time flies even faster than it did with just Peter around...and that was fast too!

I love my little girl.  She is a sweet little thing and has a lot of personality.  She is always making us laugh with her impish ways.

I have some video of her birthday that I will post soon, but it is going to take some time to figure out how to get onto the computer, as our computer doesn't seem to recognize it yet...hmm...

 

She received some books for her birthday (we are trying to get her to like books), and some fun nesting ball toys, in addition to a little xylophone.

I was a little bit intense about getting a good xylophone for the kids (Peter is playing it above).  I can't stand it when a kids toy is out of tune, which is, unfortunately, most of the time.  So, I found this on Amazon, and it is tuned to exactness.  I love it!  I wish it were more than one octave, but we can still play a few little songs on it.  Peter loves it, and is having a hard time understanding that it is Elly's toy, and not his.  He was also having a hard time understanding that it was Elly's birthday, and not his.  He very much wanted it to be his birthday.  Poor kid.  He did a pretty good job, all things considered.

Elly smiles very readily at Chris.  He is just good with kids, and our kids LOVE him to bits!

Also, I am a bit obsessed with hair things.  They have huge flowers for little girls these days, and I used to be opposed to them.  But now, for some reason, I think they're rather cute on her.  

 

Happy birthday, Elly girl!

Trip to Hershey

We decided to take a little trip to Hershey.  Peter loved our trip last year.  Chris and I realized that we went to Hershey exactly one year ago from this trip, right before I gave birth to Elly.  The kids loved it this year.  We went on Hershey's little chocolate ride, where they show you how they make their chocolate.  This ride wouldn't be complete without the singing cows.

It was hard to get pictures of them all within the chocolate bean we were all riding on.

They give you the current daily production rates as you go on the ride.  Kinda fun.

 

Fake little hershey's kisses.

Fun little place.  We ended up going on the ride 4 times.  They give you a free little mini candy bar at the end.  We estimate that Peter had the equivalent of a regular size Hershey bar.

I do have to add that we got sucked into going into a 4D movie experience because it was free.  However, it was advertised to us as a puppet show.  We thought, "Great!  Peter and Elly would love a puppet show!"  Not so much.  As it was, Chris took Elly out, and Peter ended up screaming during the movie because the villain stepped on a cute little robot.  sigh.

And as if a chocolate bar wasn't enough, we bought him Rocky Road on the way home.

Happy boy!

Growing Kids

Peter's growth caught me off-guard.  I think I was so concerned with Elly not going up to the next clothing size that I forgot to keep track of Peter.  Anyway, we had to go clothes shopping, and he was very excited to model one of his new outfits, complete with hat and sunglasses.  I think my kids will be clothes-horses.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

And a random picture of Peter "fixing" the deck.  He loves his tools and trucks and trains.  Such a boy!

Eleven Months

Sweet little eleven month old.  She finally graduated from 9-12 month clothes after 6 months of wearing them...

I love these little rompers.  Too cute on babies!  I will be sad when she is too old to wear them anymore.

She knows that there is a secret to this gate, but she can't quite figure out what it is. 

She will be walking soon, I think.  We'll see if she will be on par with Peter at 13 months. 

 

I can take quite a few pictures when Peter is having his "quiet time."  He has sort of given up on his afternoon naps lately.  But that doesn't stop me from giving him time alone.  It gives me a little time to be with just my Elly girl.  

I should mention that she is totally sleeping through the night now!  Hallelujah!  And she is starting to be a little taste-tester.  She loves to taste everything we are eating.  From crackers, to meat, to vegetables and fruit.  She wants it all!  But she won't eat a lot of anything yet.  

Painting; Farm Park

I was trying to figure out fun things for Peter to do.  Chris told me he enjoyed painting with pudding as a kid.  So I decided to let Peter try it.  I wasn't sure what he would do, because he hates to be dirty.  But as I showed him what to do, he really got into it.  It's also fun when you can eat the paint.  

I learned my lesson to just take off his clothes beforehand and move the tablecloth back.  What a mess!  But what fun, too!

Ahh...chocolate bliss!

[maniacal laughter as he eats his pudding...okay maybe not, but it sure looks that way]

I don't think he was actually closing his eyes and savoring the pudding, but I caught him blinking, and it just looks that way.

There is a great little farm park for kids a half hour away from us.  Peter loves to ride on these little tractors.  

 

Elly loves to be on Daddy's shoulders.

A few months ago we got to see little baby lambs.  So sweet!

Peter kept calling this the "momma" peacock, but we had to correct him and tell him that this was actually the "daddy"

10 months; Snow in March

Our ten month cutie.  She is really starting to be fun and happy with her mobility.  She is turning into a cheeky little madam too.  She loves to do things that I tell her not to do, like eat paper.  She puts it to her mouth, and when I tell her no, she giggles maniacally.  She also tries to escape during diaper changes as soon as I let her go to grab a wipe. 

My little imp!  She is starting to talk a little.  For a while she was saying, "p" sounds for "up."  But she kind of gave up on that in favor of "mamama."

We had a freak snowstorm during spring break.  Chris made a fun snowman, seen above.  DC called it "snowquester" because it was during discussion of sequestration for the Federal Government.  It was lovely that Chris got a day off, since he was very, very busy and needed a break.

Daddy and Peter having fun in the snow.  

Snowman with eyes and arms, admired from inside the nice warm house.