{picture a cutie} February 21-25

the rest of our week in Florida largely looked like this:

 

{2.21.12}

 

Grammy + Cutie Pie

sweet bonding with the oldest and youngest in the fam

{2.22.12}

 Here, Papa.

Have a chip

{2.23.12}

 Elvis?

 

{2.24.12}

 

finally, Cutie Pie 

is NOT

screaming in the pool

{2.25.12}

 waterbaby

we couldn't get her out of the water from morning to night!

Falling Water Baby

We're here

That phrase may seem like a small, inconsequential thing to you but to 2 tired twins, each mommies to 2 (very) tired girls aged 2 and under, it is HUGE

3 (or was it 4?) stops and 12 hours later (in what usually is a 9-hour car ride) we arrived, sweaty, exhausted, and smelling like pee (well, not us but one daughter...ahem...Cutie Face...and the whole van).

We were thrilled! 

We cannot praise God enough for His hedge of protection, safety and saneness around us.

To celebrate, we went swimming twice...

and Cutie Cakes seemed to love it the most. 

Side Note: When Big C was 6-months old (February '09) she went to Florida with us and we taught her how to "jump" in:

so we couldn't deny Cutie Cakes

She was an instant pro and wiggled her little bum right off the side into my waiting arms.

the twin captured it all on video after she'd been at it for 5 minutes or so. 

priceless! Hopefully we'll get some better close-ups of her HUGE grin tomorrow!

f-a-m-i-l-y

living in the ATL certainly has many perks. For starters, (and this is just running from stream of consciousness, not from order of importance) I can run year round with the cuties in the jogger--crucial for me when training for races while J is away. 

More importantly, though, as the tile of this post attests, we are very near family. When J is away, it is so nice to be able to scoot over to Mimi & Poppy's house and hang with them and the cousins. (*disclaimer!* Of course we wish we could be near all our family but since the greatest concentration lives in Atlanta, it can't be beat--we love you everyone!)

Anyway, this week was one of those J's-home-for-36-hours weeks so the Cuties and I headed North for a few nights. 

Night 1:

Indoor picnic with the fam

the Cakester thinks...when will my mom ever start me on solids?

(soon enough dearie...

it's just a bit more than mommy can handle at the moment)

in the meantime, play with your fun cuz

don't worry--you'll be best buds soon!

...Sweet Pea's really not as tough as she looks!

Day 2:

the ritual--Starbucks run with Mimi & Poppy

always means green juice & a bagel

this time Cutie Cakes and I got to tag along, too!

we headed back home to take the big cousins swimming

but it was all hands on deck so no pictures were taken. 

alas

they are GREAT swimmers these days, though--jumping off, no hands, and kick kick kicking around (while wearing their swim school vests, of course)!

the girls somehow still had enough energy to not sit still long enough for a decent picture. boo. they're still cute, though :)

Lil Miss was a sweetie and posed quickly for me 

(ie "Turn around, Lil Miss!"...SNAP!)

Cutie Cakes also posed nicely for me

always content with a thumb!

It rained like crazy on Monday night so, in lieu of running in the deluge, I ran out and bought a pizza special. I hadn't packed enough yummy veg for the kid but i figured she could try a slice.

Try = understatement

Eat = yes

She ate TWO slices by herself. And Lil' Miss ate one! 

needless to say i was impressed! all this just days after being confused by what a sandwich was! Way to make huge strides in eating "normal" people food!

Tuesday we hung out with the gang before heading back home for an afternoon at the natural history museum...post about that to come!

BIG weekly recap

We hit the ground running when we got home and life has been consumed by catching up with Bible Studies, playgroup friends, unfinished sewing projects, laundry (!), and the like.

Since this blog serves primarily as a place for us to archive our daily memories (and keep family and friends entertained with our daughters' antics), I'm about to bore you with 7 days of catchup. Get excited because here goes!

Monday

We arrived home and were in bed by 2 AM on Monday morning. Poor J had to immediately turn around and leave for a business trip at 7 AM.

Not, however, before he could check out our garden. Upon finding a cucumber, Cutie Face instantly snatched it from him and bit right into it. Oh my. Guess she really is cooler than a cuke!

The Cuties and I immediately realized we'd been hit by an extreme HEAT wave. After enjoying highs in the 70s with ample breeze, the 90s and humidity were a bit stifling. So, of course, we water babes got to work filling up our pool (which, by the way, now looks drastically smaller than the one we bought in Michigan!)

we interrupt this recap for a brief

***PSA from Cutie Face***

Cutie Face would like to remind everyone to wear sunscreen.

Here! Would you like some of mine?

thank you. 

Back to regular scheduled programming...

Cutie Face checked on Cutie Cakes' monitor and determined she was up and waiting to go into the pool. I, however, thought it was the perfect time to go grab the new "beep beep" that we were buying from our neighbor...it clearly was a lot of fun:

(bored there, Cutie Face?)

what...you don't drive like this?

Cutie Cakes took a turn at the wheel but played it safe

We rounded out our photos by taking a quick family (of 3) portrait

at least one person was cooperating:

And that, my friends, is where the pictures end for Monday

Tuesday

aka FAILday

Tuesday was another scorcher so we made big plans to run to the Centennial Olympic Park fountains. Failure #1 would be that our jogging stroller was out of commission--all the wheels were flat. Failure #2 would be that, once we finally did reach the fountains, we were saddened to learn that they were under repair. UGH 

So, we decided to do something very illegal. Anyone in my family knows that i am a rules-oriented person. I love boundaries, clear choices in black & white (abhor the murk gray middle), and, of course, rules.  So you can imagine how desperate I was to fulfill my promise to Cutie Face and cool myself down if I was willing to break the rules.

if you look closely at that sign, it forbids you from wading in the "stone pond" (as Cutie Face came to call it). I chose to ignore that sign and join two other families with kids in a small pool perfect for wading.  Once i took the obligatory posed picture (that was failure #3 because it's awful!)

she was THRILLED to go wading err walking err running in the stone pond

Much like the Coca Cola Museum across the street can claim, it was refreshing!

as the rule-follower that I am, i had trouble staying in the illegal pool so off we went to the playground

Cutie Cakes and I hung out with other baby-lugging moms

while Cutie Face explored

finally we headed back. 

By the time we arrived home, all was quiet inside the stroller and i wondered...

had they fallen asleep?

lift up the shade cover to see...

two sleeping babes!

Wednesday

I am SO blessed to participate in a summer Bible study with incredible women. We're going through Paul's life (a Beth Moore study) and this week was my first week. 

We meet at my friend's house and the kiddos get to play in the playroom while we study the Word. I was a little worried that Cutie Face would throw a fit when i left her (because she seems to have a *slight* separation anxiety). Happily, though, she played with dollies for 1.5 hours and had a great time! YAY!

Since we were halfway to my parent's house we kept driving for a little cousin/Mimi/Poppy/sleepover time. 

While we waited for the wee babes to wake up, the twin and I kept the big girls entertained in the backyard with a hose.

finally the babes woke up and we headed to the neighborhood pool

I had the privilege of playing with Lil Miss & Cutie Face in the pool

While the twin watched the bambinos and photo-documented our adventure

we rounded out the day by letting Cutie Cakes practice her walking skills

Thursday

to Cutie Face's delight, we had more pool time at our neighbor's house. What a GORGEOUS pool they have! 

While the littles were rocked by Miss Sonni

we played and played in her pool

the girls had so much fun!

Friday

One word: BASEBALL! 

While it was Cutie Cakes first time to a ballpark, it seemed like it was Cutie Face's, too. Technically, it was her third but she'd never been so excited to be at a baseball game before! 

It could be because she got to eat corn dogs, play with a giveaway bulldog (no relation to the Braves so we're not sure why he was a handout...?), and stay up late...

J tried to get Cutie Cakes to go to sleep in the Phil & Ted's but it didn't really work...she was very curious about all the noise and excitement and kept popping her head up above the stroller's bassinet:

WEEKEND

ahh the weekend: J is home, the girls are happy, and the soccer games are playing.

sadly, as we all know, the USA lost. Bummer = sad parents

But, we still had happy girls!

(and lots of outtakes!)

flower girl!

make that flower girlS

(of course we don't want to forget you Sweet Pea!)

Sunday was...a Sunday--church, family time, and just resting

or...getting messy!

Cutie Cakes tried out her future feeding seat...

this seat kept Cutie Face entertained for many minutes and i hope it does the same for the Cakester

While in her seat, she also tried a miniscule bite of peas

thankfully, that bite told me we are NOT ready for solids yet

and PHEW that was our recap for June 21-27