Zoo in March

Our time with daddy is about at its end.....he starts his new job TOMORROW 3/19!!!!

Where did our 2 weeks of vacation go??? NO SERIOUSLY!!!! Where did it go? 

Lets recap......Day one of said vacation....Maddy gets pink eye, Abby gets pink eye the next day.

Then mommy gets pink eye.......Abby already had an ear infection, then we make it to our waterpark overnight, mommy has a sinus infection, the 2nd week of vacation both girls have ear infections.....

Now the weather perks up for early Spring, and we are all feeling normal again. 

Luckily Mike kept sanitized and healthy and avoided it all!! Good thing because he had a lot on his honey-do list the last few weeks as he prepares to leave.

So this past Friday while Abby was at school, we took Maddy to the zoo by herself......a 1st! No big sister telling her what to see and pulling her here and there.

 All the animals were out and about, and very active

 So was this CUTE little otter

 Special time with her dad

 Shhhh.....we told her not to tell Abby we paid extra to take her on the train ride!!!

Brush Brush!!

 Maddy is a diligent tooth brusher! Of course she hates when we say its time to go to bed, but she patiently makes it through her dutiful chore of brushing. Now she has realized that if she stands on her tippy-toes, she can see herself brushing in the mirror. Love this age of learning and exploring.

Dress Up Fun

Dress up time NEVER ends in our house. With or without friends over, they love to get creative.

Abby at the park

 Abby at the park the other day while my friend Danielle had her camera!

Toes!!!

Maddy caught me painting my toes the other day, so of course she insisted on having hers done too!

Her FIRST time ever with painted toes!!! She sat so still and loved it!

Great Wolf Lodge....AGAIN!!!

Well, we did it again! We took advantage of Mike's 2 weeks off between jobs and spent another 2 GREAT days at the waterpark lodge in Williamsburg.

I don't need to re-explain how much the kids LOVE it there. Enough said.......upon leaving yesterday at 7pm, after swimming/sliding/tubing for 10 hours straight, on day two......Abby got frustrated and told us she really wanted to stay for 4 days......Uhhhh sorry kid, this place costs too much to stay for 4 days, PLUS she would no longer have any fingers if we did! The kid was one big fat prune after 2 days!!

Mike and the girls right after we arrived and got ready to swim!

Of course we brought along our new waterproof camera, which was put to the test, and failed :( (lucky for Costco, its going back and being upgraded soon!!)

We did get a few good shots, and action videos.....to be shared in the next posting

 Cool shot from the kids area, of the BIG bucket tipping over....which happens every 4 minutes or so

 Mike and Maddy tubing down the lazy river

 Narrowly avoided the dumping buckets!!

 Abby floating down the lazy river on a double tube with me

 Abby exiting the slide

 The pathway to the slides...you climb up the structure, through a tunnel.....as if you were the size of a 4 year old :) Oh, while water is pouring/spraying everywhere!!

 Abby LOVED spending a lot of time in the wave pool this visit.

 Underwater shot!! Good thing he looks better on dry land!!

 Maddy tinkering in the toddler zone

 And doing what she does best.....dipping fries in anything dippable, and making a mess.

 The toddler area view (shot came out dark.....silly camera)

 BIG Bucket SPLASH! (Mike and Abby in the shot.....random girl in the middle)

 Abby and mommy hanging out! Abby mid-way through the wall of water

 Good Bye Waterpark!!!! See you next winter when we have a good reason to swim indoors!!

Our itinerary for the last 2 days (in case you want to know how it all goes down):

1:00pm- Arrived at Lodge to check into our room

1:30pm- Made our way down to the waterpark on the lower level, grabbed a table to store our stuff

4:30pm- Decided it was time for dinner, dried off, went upstairs

6pm- Went out to dinner in Williamsburg

7:30pm- Back to the hotel room- Mike takes the girls down for the storytime puppet show on the main level

8:30pm- Mike and the kids return, he drops off Maddy, and they head out in their swimsuits for another 30 minutes of swimming to finish off the night!!

9:30pm- Everyone is in bed and lights out!

NEXT DAY

7:30am- Everyone is awake, Mike goes to pickup breakfast

9:30am- We are down at the waterpark for the day..........

Noon- Still swimming........stopped to eat for 30 minutes!!

2pm- Swimming, sliding, tubing.....swimming sliding, tubing.......

4pm-.......should we leave??? Nah!!!! Still swimming

5:20pm- Maddy falls asleep on me at our table, sleeps for an hour on my chest (poor kid didn't nap either day, she pushes through just fine and then crashes in my arms)

6:45pm- We decide to pack it up and call it a day!!!! = Abby still frustrated we aren't staying longer

8:15pm....HOME & Exhausted.....but soooo glad we went. Thank goodness our kids LOVE the water

I think I know where we want gift cards to for future birthdays, holidays......etc........But I guess that only works if we end up living around here more than another year or so :)

Lorax 3D!!

Mike started his 2 weeks of vacation yesterday.......so it is a good excuse to start squeezing in some quality time with dad before starting his new job March 19th!!

Mike took Abby to see the new Dr. Seuss's "The Lorax" movie today!

Abby's first 3D movie.....they had a nice lunch/movie date on this very rainy day!!

(meanwhile I was at the Dr's office with Maddy to resolve the pinkeye she woke up with this morning......lucky me)

 

 

Maddy and her "friends"

 Maddy is really getting into entertaining her "friends"!

Found her setup all by herself recently at the computer so they would be entertained too.

Nature Girl

Mike took Abby for a ride to a potential fishing hole....they apparently spotted some water fowl as well!

Hair Stylist.....

I LOVE when I catch the girls being kind to each other, so I ran for the camera.

Often our days are filled with "NO" and "MINE" and someone cries, getting along unsupervised is priceless.

Last night after bathing Maddy, I found her in the corner playing with princesses, and Abby behind her brushing her hair!

Maddy very much dislikes when I brush her hair after bath time, or anytime.....Really she just wants everything to be in her control. But for some reason she let Abby sit and brush her hair for a good 10 minutes! So sweet.

Colorful Hands

 The girls had fun painting for some craft time last weekend.

I agreed to Abby doing some finger painting, and it turned into hand prints!!

School Pictures

 Abby had school pictures last week......I never actually buy them because they are WAY overpriced, but I snapped a few quick pics of what she looked like! She actually picked out the jacket to wear, and let me do her hair! And posed of course!!

 Then the other night the girls were going crazy with dress-up (aka littering our house with toys and tutus!!) and she came into the kitchen dressed quite diva-like! I called her Paris Hilton since she had the dog in her hand!

Daddy's Girl

Mike came home with flowers one night last week......logically of course, Abby assumed they were for her.....Great now I have to battle for flowers :)

Socks!!!

 

So I know this is an odd photo, its the best I could do to capture the underneath of Maddy's bed.

On a regular basis, whenever you put her to bed/nap with socks on, at some point she takes them off and drops them down the back side of the bed (crib) against the wall. Never are they tossed around the room, only dropped behind the bed. Clever little kid. Took me a while to figure out where are these missing socks were!!  

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day 2012!!

Sending our love from Virginia!!