April Commotion brings May Chaos

I can hardly believe that the month of April is about over.  We've had a very busy month and May will have as many items on our 'to-do' list if not more.   Here are some pics from the past month of some of our fun!

Decorating Easter eggs at Aunt Patti and Uncle Hank's house:

 

 Indoor Bounce House play and ice slushies while on vacation in South Carolina:

Playground fun with cousins:

Indoor Water Park & Mall Fun on the trip back to NY:

Along with a few basketball tournaments the girls and I also spent some time at the theater this month.  Stella's Ballet & Tap in-class showing:

Our gymnastics teacher Luana's junior vocal recital:

And a trip to the Performing Arts Center at SUNY Potsdam to watch 'The Amazing Adventures of the Magnificent Monkey King' with the Britton's!

 We also fit in a few craft projects too, including some bath paints:

Stella's kindergarten screening this week will round out the month.  Time sure does fly by and we are so fortunate to be able to spend time together having family fun!

Spring Break 2015

Although we brought a cold front with us (some record low temps for this area even...) we are so happy to smell spring in the air and to have some sunshine!  Stella and Claire are absolutely loving to play with their cousins all day long, and we are anticipating some warm days ahead.  Randy's made one trip to the golf club down the street, but it sure won't be his last!

Pre-K, Dentist, & BFF's!

This week we took Claire to pre-k information night so she could meet her teacher and see the classroom.  While she really didn't want to go at first she had so much fun playing with all of the toys in the room and didn't want to leave!  Stella will go next month for her kindergarten screening.  We can't believe the girls will be off to school in the fall!

We also finally had the chance to catch up with our friends James and Madelyn.  We haven't seem them in months because the children have taken turns being sick and well, our schedules just haven't matched up!  The girls had fun having a mid-week pizza party with them!

We also brought Stella to her first dentist appointment this week.  She. Did. Awesome.  We were so proud of her!  It turns out I misunderstood our dental hygienist and our office really does want toddlers to go for their first visit at age 3, so we booked Claire an appointment right away and daddy will take her this coming week.  I don't expect she'll be quite as agreeable as Stella was but hopefully this first visit will help her become familiar with the concept of visiting the dentist.

While Stella was at dance class
Claire wrote her name for the first time!

Daddy worked at a basketball tournament nearly the entire weekend so us girls filled our schedules.  We had dance and gymnastics Saturday morning, and then had a really fun play date with Gianna and Cambria.  On Sunday they spent  a few hours with papa while Mommy went to an auxiliary tea with Grammie and Aunt MJ.  Afterward we stopped  by MJ's to see her new baby ducks!


On a side note, Friday I offered Claire a jelly sandwich for dinner because I didn't feel like cooking.  She promptly informed me that 'A jelly sandwich isn't for dinner mommy!  We need to have chicken and noodles!'










Friday afternoon we spent some time playing outside and here are a few pics!

Singing and Dancing Outside

Playground Fun!

Silly Face!

Cold and Flu Season

The  before and after of a rough few days!

We've had some sick kiddos this week and have taken turns staying home to try coaxing them to drink fluids and eat something, anything...  Stella was sick for 3 days, with no appetite or energy.  Claire-Bear seemed to fend whatever bug they caught off a little bit easier but certainly wasn't herself either.  She just found some bursts of energy to keep us on our toes!

Snuggling my girls at different points during the few days we weren't feeling well.  Poor things!  We are so glad Stella woke up Saturday and asked for food (for the first time in 3 days).  It was great to have them both back to themselves!





Some other random pics:

Tucked underneath our computer desk, watching the ipad

Making Silly Face Selfies with Daddy

A shot at RMHouse - Stella loves taking pictures!

Our Coach of the Year!

Joey's not just a fellow coach, he's our neighbor,
he's our friend, and he's Claire's God-Father!

This week we planned a school night date night so Mommy could go to the gym with Daddy.   I can assure you, I'm never really all that excited to go to the gym, but this week I wanted to be there and was grateful Randy helped make that happen.  It was really nice to have some time together and the girls had such a fun time playing with Micaela too!

We went to the gym for the Section X Boys Basketball Awards Ceremony because Randy was nominated as Co-Coach of the Year for the Central Division.  It was also a surprise that both he and Justin were recognized for reaching the 100th career wins milestone.  While this happened for Randy during last year's season, some folks thought Randy and Justin were brothers so it was a neat way of highlighting this uniqueness of the Section X Boys Basketball Coaching Staff.  Since they are cousins not brothers it was a little humorous, but worth celebrating all the same!

Fellow Coaches and Friends of ours Adam and Tim

It has been a strange season this year so here's a little shout out to all of our family and friends who have lent us support.  We are so appreciate for all of you, and since there are simply too many to name, we'll just say thank you everyone!

I also want to mention that Randy's not Coach of the Year to us for his W/L record, for helping instill in his athletes both a love for the game and compassion for human kind, or even for tolerating what I'll just call a season that won't soon be forgotten.  He's Coach of the Year to us because through this season, through those before and those yet to come, he's balancing being a daddy, a husband, a working professional, and a coach.  Anyone who says that it's easy, well frankly, they must not have tried it yet.  I observe that at times it's exhausting, it's challenging, and it's rewarding but it's not easy.  We love you for giving so much of yourself and for taking care of us through it all!  Congratulations Daddy/Randy - you deserve this accolade more than you know!

This week we took the tickets to Frozen on Ice Santa gave us and headed out on a road trip to Montreal.  The girls had such a fun time (and so did we)!  We had a fabulous dinner and stayed at a hotel with a splash pad the night before.  Then afterward, we headed to Burlington to spend a weekend volunteering at the Ronald McDonald House.  We met an Amish family who live nearby and ended up giving some of their family a ride back to NY.  The girls really didn't think much of our vanmates but hopefully as the years go by they will begin to understand the importance of this special organization and the value of paying it forward.

Arcade Fun

Using her jacket as a 'red carpet'

The girls absolutely love to play dress-up and to have dance shows.  Here are just a few different days we've been blessed with their beauty and talents!

Using Mommy's clothes
for dress up!

Papa's Hat!

Winter Break

We've had a fun week at home despite some cold weather.  Daddy had the entire week at home with the girls and Mommy only worked part of the week so we had some fun family time!  On Monday, since it was a little chilly for outdoor play, we headed over to Canada and splashed around at an indoor aquatic center with a really awesome splash pad area for toddlers.  We then stopped by the McDonald's play place for more recreation and fun!  It was so fun to get moving and run around a bit!  Other fun things we did this week were arts and crafts, making cookie-brownies, which we all really like, and playing dress-up.  This weekend we finally had some warmer weather so daddy used the snow thrower to make some trails in our yard and we did some running around and sledding at home. 

Having a Royal Ball with their figurines.  Claire dressed up
as Rapunzel but was camera shy...

Last weekend Mom and Dad visited Syracuse for the night with some friends for dinner, drinks, and Duke vs. SU on a big screen.  The girls had a sleepover with Grammie and Pa and on Saturday they took a day trip to Saranac Lake with some friends to visit the Ice Castle!  Unfortunately it was simply too cold to stay for their Winter Carnival Parade but the girls had a great time just the same!

Bff's!  Stella and Maddy

Brrr. Baby it's cold outside!

Date Night!

These two monkeys figured out how to slide down
the stairs on their belly's when Mommy was folding laundry!
Rug burns put an end to that play time!

Claire wouldn't take a pic with her craft so
Stella helped capture the fun, and Lily too!

Mid-Winter Blues

Super Bowl Dinner

The last two weeks we've kept busy as we get through this long winter season.  We went to not one but two birthday parties this weekend so that helped us get out of the house and have some fun!

The girls both started gymnastics again yesterday and as usual they really had a fun time.  Last weekend Claire convinced Mommy she wanted to participate in dance class so we let her go and try it again and she did great!  She danced the entire time and said class was fun.  This weekend she would not entertain the idea at all though.  She's a tricky little toddler!

This year the girls are still not very interested in watching Basketball so we've only went to a few games and they've done pretty well.  A few more weeks to go and we can start looking forward to spring!

Yum - Mommy always shares her Big Mac

Lily snuggling with daddy

Someone @ Daddy's school lending
a gesture of support