Road trip!

We took an unexpected car trip last week - Stranger's grandmother had been sick for almost 3 years and passed away last week. We spent 4 days in the car (2 days there and 2 days back home) and only had 3 meltdowns - 2 baby meltdowns and 1 toddler meltdown. Unfortunately the toddler meltdown and the baby meltdown occured at the same time. That makes for one loud car!!!

Here is how we spent the drive through Mississippi:

The family that dances together.....

Every night after dinner, while Stranger and I clean up the kitchen, the girls dance in the living room. The living room has been divided into an "on stage" area and a "backstage" area. TinyDancer serves as director, narrator, choreographer, and lead dancer. EasternStar usually runs back and forth from "on stage" to "backstage" and twirls and falls down.

If you can hold out to the end, even RainbowBaby makes an appearance! 8 )

Just in case you can't hear the music over the giggling, they are bustin' down to 'I like to move it, move it' circa 1996.

Grins and Giggles

Here is some video of RainbowBaby - she just started "talking" last week. 8 )

200 posts!

Yay! We made it to 200 posts! 8 )

My brains awake!

A few mornings ago, Stranger, TinyDancer and I were eating breakfast. Suddenly, TinyDancer looked at me and said excitedly "I think my brain just switched on!"

Really? Mine hasn't yet! 8 )

Vacation photos

Whew! We have been busy!

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Here are some photos from our vacation at the beginning of July. We didn't have much time (or money for that matter!) but we wanted to start doing a family vacation every summer. This year we decided on 4 days (3 nights) at an RV park about 3 hours near our home. The park is close to an amusement park, which honestly is why we chose it, but we would have had a great time just haning out at the RV park. We stayed in a 2 bedroom cottage that had a kitchen and it was perfect. It was *just* big enough. Seriously - the girls bedroom was just big enough for their twin bunk bed and a chair. Our bedroom was just big enough for our double bed (with a bunked twin bed) and a chair.

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The RV park had a swimming pool, a jumping pillow, a playground and a lake. We didn't have room for our fishing gear (shucks!) but we did do some swimming and a lot of jumping and swinging!

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For as much as she loves to jump on the trampoline, EasternStar did not like the jumping pillow. TinyDancer, however, loved it!

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We had a campfire each night thanks to Stranger!

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We didn't have enough room to pack EasternStar's pack 'n play in the car so she got to sleep in a big girl bed. She also got to fall out of a big girl bed! The first night we didn't hear her fall and she was so tired that she didn't make a sound. We found her in the morning on the floor, using a pair of dirty socks for a pillow. We won't be sending this one to Russia with our 12 month report!

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RainbowBaby pondering 'What kind of parents take a 3 month old

to an amusement park on a 99 degree day???'

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EasternStar wasn't too sure about this ride at first. Once it got going, she had a blast!

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EasternStar's first amusement park ride.
She cried and shouted "GO!!" after each ride stopped.

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They loved these rides!

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TinyDancer and EasternStar really wanted to ride this ride. EasternStar wasn't tall enough to go on her own, she needed a "responsible adult". I drew the short straw. 8 )

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4th of July

Happy 4th of July - a few days late!

We just returned from our first vacation as a family of 5. We went "camping" at an RV park a few hours away. I say "camping" because we stayed in a 2 bedroom cottage that had a kitchen. More on that later.


Here are some photos of our 4th:

The girls started the day at the playground at the park. EasternStar wasn't too sure about the jumping pillow, but TinyDancer was all over it! Luckily there were swings so EasternStar was happy. She'd swing all day if we let her!



TinyDancer and I made tulle skirts for the girls to wear. Their matching shirts are from Granny and Paw Paw.

Stop growing up so fast TinyDancer!

The ramp to our cottage that EasternStar liked to walk up and down.

RainbowBaby didn't enjoy the heat on the 4th. Neither did I!

Me with the girls.

We took one photo too many for RainbowBaby's liking!

Stranger with the girls.

Have you seen my shoes?

While the girls were at tumbling class this morning, someone "stole" TinyDancer's sandals!

The kids put their things in open cubbies outside of the gym while they are in class. Stranger and I don't think it was malicious - whoever took the our shoes left their shoes a few cubbies over from ours and they looked almost identical. Sadly, the shoes were two sizes too small for TinyDancer's feet so we had to make an emergency stop at the shoe store this morning before we headed to the mall to buy birthday presents for a party this afternoon.

Since the shoes looked so similar I understand how this could have happened, but I still have to ask - How can you not realize that you are wearing someone else's shoes? 8 )

Strawberry picking

At the beginning of June, Stranger, Grandma, and I took the girls strawberry picking. I'm just now having time to post the pictures. I had hoped that if EasternStar got to pick some strawberries that she might have some interest in eating them. No such luck. But, she had fun anyway!

EasternStar with her bowl of berries

Even RainbowBaby had fun!

TinyDancer with one of her treasures

3 generations of strawberry pickers

Father's Day

Nothing says "Happy Father's Day" like a picture of your children hitting each other, right? 8 )

The girls and I made this banner for Stranger for Father's Day. As much as I wanted to use the above picture, we settled on this one:

Home!

After many delays - Stranger's plane left 2 hours late and we had to find an alternate way to get on the highway as a train had hit something and was stopped on the train tracks - we all made it home around 10 o'clock last night.

YAY!!!

Stranger come home!!

Stranger is in Canada for the week. Everyone with me now... BOO HISS!! He is taking some super exciting and interesting class ha ha for work. Thankfully, I got all of my bitching and moaning out of the way before he left. Sadly, he did not. Apparently he is not having fun. There is much bitching and moaning occuring in Canada - A!

Double thankfully, one of my aunt's was nice enough to fly in for the week to help occupy the girls. My aunt and my mom have been over every day to help with dinner and bedtime. By "help", I mean, they make dinner, clean up from dinner, bathe the big girls, and then put the big girls to bed. How awesome is that! I am very lucky!!

Despite the fun that the girls are having - on Sunday and Monday we went swimming, on Tuesday we went to a water playground at a nearby park - the girls miss daddy. When Stranger left, the girls looked like this:

However, today, they look like this:

8 )

House of parties

We have a lot of parties in our house. Tea parties, birthday parties, baby parties, and of course, pony parties are just a few of the reasons we party. This morning as I cleaned up from breakfast, TinyDancer got the basement set up for a pony party. In order to attend, everyone had to dress up in their fanciest clothes:

TinyDancer wore her new pink feather boa.

EasternStar selected her fairy wings and skirt. She wasn't very interested in her boa. 8 )

RainbowBaby attended the party, and she was non to pleased that we didn't have anything small enough for her:

After I finished my work, I was allowed to attend:

I shared my boa with RainbowBaby and then she was happy.

And here is the birthday pony:

Group recital

A few weeks ago, TinyDancer had her final group recital of the year. The recital starts with the "big kids" and the music that they can play. Then they slowly play easier songs and add in the lower classes. TinyDancer is in the begining class (Book 1) so she didn't get up to play until the end. Don't worry, we didn't video the entire recital! These three videos are the pieces that her class did.

May song

Long Long Ago

The finale-

Folk Songs

Allegro

At the beginning of May, TinyDancer had another solo recital. She has worked so hard this year! I can't believe how far she has come in just one year.

Here she is playing her new favorite song, Allegro. The students were allowed to wear whatever they wanted and she chose to wear one of her princess dresses. 8 ) She has moved on to the next song in her book called Perpetual Motion (I think that song is named after EasternStar).

Enjoy!