Summer Fun!

 The past week was rather eventful...Stella attended princess camp every morning, and had a wonderful time!  She made crafts, played dress up and got to meet four disney princesses.










This created some quality time for Daddy and Claire to spend together with lots of funny moments like the one below...

With the warm weather we try to find some different ways to stay cool.  A small pool has been very enjoyable; as well as a slip and slide! 

Stella is a Diva!

It is also a great time of year to spend time with friends.  The girls were able to play with the Britton girls on a couple of different occasions.  They seem to truly enjoy each others company and look forward to our girls growing up together.

Old McDonald's Farm

Pony Rides!

 This week was lots of fun!  Mom had a nice long weekend so we planned a day trip to Old McDonald's Farm.  The girls had a great time!

Here are some fun pics from the day as well as a few others from this week!

Stella thought the tractor was really cool!  Both girls picked out a
toy tractor to bring home with them too!

The bounce houses were LOTS of fun! 
Possibly the highlight of the farm...

                                          Feeding the goats was also a treat both girls enjoyed!

  This week we also enjoyed a cool ice cream treat at Stewarts down the street and bought a new pool to splash around in!

Playset Under Construction!

Both girls love to be pushed high and tell us so frequently!

The girls are so excited about their new swing set!  The slide has been together all week but they were able to enjoy the swings for the first time this weekend.  They just LOVE having this in the backyard and we do too!  Once the roof is on it will be complete!
 

Splashing around on a hot day!

Todd's in NY & Todd's in OH

This weekend half of our family traveled to Ohio to be with the Hooley's.  Stella and Daddy ventured off on a trip to help with their church's 'Believe in Belize' golf tournament to raise money toward a mission trip Dan will be going on with several youth group members this summer.  Based on a few phone conversations it sounds like the tournament went great and that Stella is having a fun time with her cousins!  Mommy and Claire stayed home this weekend and they had fun too - at Bella's birthday party on Saturday and dinner with Aunt MJ and Uncle Neil on Sunday.  It's definitely different having just one little girl toddling after you rather than two, but having time one-on-one with the girls has also been a special treat.  Everyone's looking forward to seeing each other again tomorrow night though!

Earlier this week going for a walk on campus after Mommy finished work

Happy Father's Day 2013

As we've heard Dora sing over and over again this week 'Feliz dia de los padres' today is Father's Day!  Our girls are so fortunate to have a 'new school' dad! (at least that's what we call it)  Millennial dad's are involved with their children's lives in very different ways than previous generations and our house is no exception.  Stella and Claire are blessed with a lot of quality time with their dad - all summer vacation, the commute to and from daycare most days, at school events, shopping trips with the whole family - even if it's just to the grocery store, golf lessons (yes, they've already started!), story time, and bedtime snuggles.  There's no parenting task I do that Randy won't and for that I'm very grateful.  I know our girls are going to really look up to and appreciate their dad when they are older and all of this time they have together now will bring back such fond memories for them!

We want to give a big shout out to all of the people who helped us out this Saturday.  Although I wasn't home most of the day it was really productive around our house!  Thank you to Adam Britton and the McCarthy family for helping Randy start the huge project of putting together the girls new swing set.  The rain put off any hope of continuing work on it today but we have a great start thanks to everyone's help.  Thank you to Aunt Mary Jane and 'Niece for looking after the girls while everyone was preoccupied.   And lastly but certainly not least, thank you to cousin Logan for putting together Claire's new dresser.   We are so blessed to have such great family and friends in our lives who continually support us!

Cousins!

Cousins, from left to right: Haley, Skye, Stella, Claire, Cailin, Dana, and Logan!

 
We had a terrific week spending time with all of our cousins.  We are so glad everyone was able to visit NY and that we could spend time with family and friends.  We finished off the week with a surprise celebration for papa's 60th birthday - great fun was had by all!

Parade Week

Claire-Bear snuggling with Papa before bed

This week the girls were able to enjoy not one but two parades!  Spending time with Grammie and Pa in Canton for both made them all the more fun!

Claire's Memorial Day T-Shirt

On Monday we watched the Memorial Day Parade.  Grammie was in the parade as usual and Stella thought seeing her march by was pretty neat!  Neither of the girls seemed bothered by the volleys of shots in memory and honor of our fallen soldiers.  The Boyscouts were handing out flags and the girls caught on to waiving the red white and blue pretty quickly.While the girls are a little young to truly understand the meaning of this important day we hope the parade will become an annual tradition for them just as it was for us when we were growing up.  For this year we made some fun t-shirts and just watched the groups pass by. 

Waiting on the street for the Memorial Day Parade

This weekend was the Dairy Princess Festival in Canton.  On Friday night Grammie and I took the girls to the park to see the Big Wheel Race.  Stella will be old enough for this next year so we thought it would fun for her to see it.  There was a lot of excitement in the park.  We had some dinner there and the girls played in the bounce house for the little kids.  Claire loved it so much it was hard to pull her away from it!  On Saturday Aunt Mary Jane and Grammie came along with us to the parade.  (I really enjoyed their company but I was also so very grateful for their help because Daddy's out of town coaching golf).

The girls completely wiped out after a fun day
at the Dairy Princess Parade.

Stella hanging out waiting for Claire
to come out of the van after a quick trip to the store.

The girls are getting really exited for another fun week.  The Perrin's will be visiting from Hawaii this week so we'll be spending more time at Grammie and Pa's house.  The Hooley's will be coming in for the weekend too so it should be lots of fun!

Happy Birthday Gigi!

This weekend the girls helped Gigi celebrate her 4th birthday.  It was lots of fun!  Claire was busy as ever running around the Britton's new house and stealing fairies off the birthday cake!  Unfortunately I didn't get any good pics of Claire-Bear but she really did enjoy herself.  She loved the cake, and even told us she wanted chocolate when we were given the choice, and she especially thought the pinata was super cool when Adam let her try to hit it!  We had some teachable moments with Stella when we allowed her to pick out Gigi's birthday presents - she chose markers, bubbles, and Dora pajamas, and when we explained that it was Gigi's special day so she couldn't wear a tiara at the party.  Hopefully we are getting through to her! 

Caring and Sharing

Stella tells us all the time that Gigi is her best friend.  When she tell us "I love you" she often says "do you know who else I love?  I love my sissy and I love Gigi too!".  So needless to say she was super excited to have Gigi and her sister Cambria over for a play date this weekend while their mommy and daddy started moving to their new house.  All the girls had fun but the growing pains of learning how to share was a challenge for Stella the whole day.  She does love Gigi, but not enough to share her dresses, shopping cart, and Princess castle, or to let her choose which show to watch at quiet time!  She got through the tears though and is already looking forward to next weekend when she'll get to see Gigi again.

The last few nights Stella has slept in her own room in her own bed but lately more often than not she asks to sleep in the play yard in the guest room.  She's really too big for it, but she goes to bed so well each night we just go with it! 

Claire is as busy as ever!  She's still getting into everything, trying to race around at church, and demanding our full attention at bed time.  She's a sweet little girl though who loves to cuddle, read books, eat, and go to the playground - she especially loves to swing!  Her curiosity could pay off in the potty training front - she's been asking to go 'potty' a lot lately and while we know at 19 months this probably won't turn into anything we humor her and let her try it out! 

A quick shout out to Aunt Mary Jane for cutting Stella's hair today - thanks so much!  We went with daddy to the salon yesterday, but it was just too long of a wait for everyone.  Turns out it didn't matter because Stella was happy to have MJ do it for her instead!

Mother's Day 2013

Thinking of special moments with Mom Todd

We had a fun weekend at home this week together as a family which hasn't happened in a while.  We took dinner over to Grammie and Pa's today to celebrate Mother's Day.  It was nice having some quiet to just enjoy each others company and not have a lot of plans for a change.

Other news: Randy had a lipoma removed from the back of his head this week.  The surgery went great but it has required that he rest for several days which is hard to do when you have little people to take care of!    Between Claire's fall last week and Randy's surgery half of our family has a head injury - now that's something we'll hopefully never say again!

As the month of May quickly passes us by we are looking forward to the Perrin's visit from Hawaii at the beginning of June.  It's going to be so great for the girls to be with all of their cousins!

Bumps and Bruises

Poor little Claire-Bear fell on Saturday and hit her head.  We had to take her to the ER so they could glue the cut shut.  She was a little trooper nearly the entire time but it was sad to see how easily she can get hurt.  She challenges us in different ways than Stella does and is sometimes hard to keep up with.

Claire resting on daddy after seeing the ER Doc

A huge thanks to Aunt Mary Jane for coming over to get Stella.  A 4-hour ER trip wouldn't have been enjoyable for her and we are so grateful to MJ for dropping what she was doing and helping us out! 

Other news: Claire has learned how to count to ten and tries to sing along to both Twinkle-Twinkle and the ABC's.  We recently ordered a swing set for the girls and are looking forward to when it arrives so we can have lots of fun outdoors this summer!  Both girls visited the golf course with their dad on Friday afternoon and they had a great time - Stella especially loved the golf cart!

A Fun Table!

Playing with their Sand/Water Table in the morning sunshine!

We recently purchased a sand/water table for the girls and the weather was so beautiful this weekend we put it together and brought it outside for some fun.  We used some special purple sand and the girls really loved it.  In another month we'll put some water in one side and we're guessing this will provide lots of entertainment!

This weekend was Stella's last gymnastics class of the semester.  Thank you to Aunt Mary Jane for offering to take Claire for the morning for family day.  Daddy was busy with basketball this weekend so it made it much easier for Mommy to take pictures and video!  After gymnastics we had lunch with Gigi and her mom and sister and Stella thought that was pretty neat!

This weekend we discovered Claire really loves sauteed shrimp!

Spring Time

We are so excited to finally be enjoying some warmer weather.  Dinner and bedtime have been later and later this week from playing outside.  We had the chance to visit a bigger playground than usual today as a whole family (in Massena) and both girls had so much fun!

Claire had her 18 month check up this past week and is doing great!  She is growing well and now weighs 23lbs. 11 oz. and is 32" long.  She loves to look at books and as Stella always points out
'Sissy is is trying to talk'.  Here's a short clip of Claire reading before bed.

Potty Progress!

Fun Hats!

The only news we have to share this week is that Stella is doing a great job with potty training.  While we wouldn't necessarily say she's completely finished, she hasn't worn a pull-up during the day all week and we feel like she's really getting the hang of it now!

Claire is learning new things every day.  She knows a few colors now and is starting to learn parts of the face.  This week she visits the pediatrician for her 18-month check up.

Spring Break 2013!

The last two week have flown by and taken spring break with them!  We had a really great vacation which included 6 days away from home for a visit with the Hooley's near Columbus, Ohio.  It's been a long time since we've had an extended vacation and it was wonderful having family time without distractions from work or other responsibilities.  (Mom didn't even bring her computer this trip!)

Claire was a bit under the weather for part of our vacation but it gave us the opportunity to take some naps with her and have lots of extra snuggle time.  Fortunately the rest of us didn't catch it, although Cailin may not have been so lucky since she didn't feel so great the day after we left.  Mom kept Claire home on Easter Sunday after church while the rest of the girls went to the community-wide Easter Egg Hunt.  They all had fun, sat with the Easter Bunny, and brought home plenty of treats to eat!

Since the trip to Ohio is a long one we tried to find some fun things to do to break up our travel.  On the way out we spent some time at a McDonald's Play Place and they absolutely loved it!  Claire was too little for most of the play areas but she still climbed on what she could!






The girls enjoyed the Play Place so much on Monday, when Melissa and Dan headed back to work and Dana off to school, we decided to take them to one of the malls nearby that also has a play area.  We brought Cailin too and it was great fun.  We are definitely learning that at this age it's the small (and often inexpensive) things that matter!

On the way back we spent the night in Erie, which is just about the half-way mark.  The girls absolutely loved the pool!  We bought them new life jackets and everybody was happy!  We feel so fortunate that we were able to spend time with family and be able to travel with our girls this past week!

Oreo Smiles!

 As we wait patiently for spring weather we  passed some time today enjoying oreo cookies!  When Stella was caught eating some of Claire's broken cookie she said they were 'sharing'.

 

 

Sleepy Girl!

Often times on the weekend Stella likes to stay up with mommy during nap time, which she did today.  Tonight at story time she was extra tired though and couldn't make it to our routine of rocking, prayers, and songs.

We have a busy week ahead but are looking forward to spring break and a visit with the Hooley's over Easter weekend!

Basketball States

This weekend we traveled to Glens Falls with a BMC crew for Basketball States.  Going to the tournament has become a tradition for Randy over the past few years and this time we decided to make it a family trip.  We weren't good about taking pics but here are a few of Claire fooling around in the hotel room.  She thought being under the end table was just hilarious!

Saturday morning we took the girls to the swimming pool.  It was eventful so it's probably best that we forgot to bring the camera...           We thought Claire would enjoy the pool but never dreamed how fearless she would be around the water.  She loved splashing around and didn't mind being on her tummy or going under.

Tonight as we were getting settled into bed we asked Stella what her favorite part of the trip was and she said 'playing with Gigi' - no surprises there! 

 

Dull Days of Winter

As winter starts to pass and we see signs of spring we'll likely start to have more news to share but things have been mostly routine for us lately.  Claire continues to learn more words and while she still isn't talking a great deal she definitely comprehends the things we say to her.  Stella shows us she's a big girl more and more every day.  We are looking forward to some fun this coming weekend as we head to Glens Falls for the NYS high school basketball championships with lots of our BMC friends.  Our teams won't be playing but this trip has become sort of a tradition for daddy and this year we decided to all make the trip.  We'll try to capture some of the fun for our next post.

Winter Break 2013

The girls had a quiet week at home with their dad during winter break.  Stella had her first visit to the dentist to see mommy have her teeth cleaned and did a great job watching!  She also had a great week trying out big girl panties.  Her interest and progress have been very welcomed!  Claire is starting to try to say more words and is taking more of an interest in Stella's favorite show Dora.

We ended break with a date night on Saturday so the girls got to enjoy a sleepover with their Grammie & Pa who came over to be with them.  Then mom had a small facial party Sunday so the girls had their first peek at makeup (not sure if that's good or bad).

Regular season basketball has ended for BMC so for a little while they'll have their dad all to themselves which makes mom really happy!

Parade, Pasta & Parents!

The husbands were hard at work rolling out sheets of homemade pasta!

We had a really busy weekend!  On Friday night we went to daddy's basketball game.  Then on Saturday we headed out to the Tri-Town Winter Carnival Parade.  It was really cold but the parade was short and both girls loved it.  Stella had fun picking up candy and Claire just sat and watched and took it all in!

I took over at the cutting station at the very end.

Later in the day we headed over to a pasta party with friends where we made homemade ravioli.  I only helped for a few minutes but Randy was part of the assembly line with many others - it took a lot of people to put everything together and in the end there were over 300 pieces!  It was delicious!  The kids weren't really all that interested in helping make the dinner but they had fun playing.

On Sunday we had a family shopping outing to get groceries and then went to grammie and pa's for dinner.  Stella and Claire got to stay home with both of their parents today since it's mid-winter recess for the public schools!  It was great to have an extra day to relax at home after such a busy weekend!

Hannah helped occupy the girls with a 'picnic'!

Mid Winter

Football Dinner on Super Bowl Sunday!

Sledding in the front yard - so much fun!

This is fun!

Brrr... I want to go inside...

We missed a blog post so we have some catching up to do!  We were lucky to spend time with family last weekend when the Hooley's visited from Ohio.  It was a short visit but the girls really enjoyed playing together and the sleepover at Grammie and Pa's was eventful to say the least.  All four girls were still up around midnight - it was crazy but fortunately we went right back to our usual routine the next day - thank goodness!  Superbowl Sunday was fun at our house - we dragged the picnic table into the living room and all watched the first quarter together.  I'm sure this will become an annual tradition at our house!  These past two weeks we've had some fun in the snow and even had our first tea party with real tea.  Claire wasn't quite ready - she loved the cookies though!  Stella loved the princess cups and pouring the tea.