A trip to "Potato Head"

The girls and I drove to see Gigi and Grandpa today and we had the BEST visit! On the way the girls kept asking me where we were going and I would say we're going to Gigi and Grandpa's house in Hilton Head. Every time I said it they burst into giggles and I couldn't figure out why. Then, right before we pulled in, Reagan asked me if we were at "Potato Head" yet...like, Mr. Potato Head. I laughed so hard I thought I might need to pull over. They kept it up on the way home today too...not sure we'll ever talk them into believing that they live anywhere other than Potato Head.
The girls had so much fun with Gigi and Grandpa today (so did I...). Gigi had bought the girls their favorite snacks when we got there and even got them a couple of new books! She let them play on the piano for awhile, just like Laurie and I used to do when we would visit! They loved it! They got to play in their golf cart (which made me even more convinced that we need to invest in one sometime soon) and Gigi and Grandpa had ice cream cones for the girls after lunch. At lunch the girls both wanted to sit with Gigi and Grandpa. It made me smile so much. Gigi and Grandpa  thought of everything and made it such a special, special day. I made great memories and I know that the girls had a blast too!!!

It's a Wonderful Life

The girls and I spent the afternoon at the beach today and had the BEST time. We went at low tide so the beach seemed huge! And there were lots of little tidal pools that had been baking in the sun, so they felt like little mini jacuzzis. The girls spent over an hour just digging and playing and swimming in them and I felt like the luckiest mom in the world watching them have so much fun. Then we went up to the pool and they swam around with me for another hour (yes...they are fast asleep already) and it was just a fabulous day. (and I'll be asleep pretty soon too!). I just wished Matt could have been with us...but I took as many videos and pictures as I could to make him feel like he was. So...here are a few pictures and three different videos. The funniest part of the day was when I asked the girls what they were swimming in, assuming they'd say the ocean. Riley said "the LOTION!" and I couldn't stop laughing. I asked her about 10 more times in order to get it on video....still cracks me up! 

Short but sweet...

Nana and BopBop came for a super quick visit this weekend! They were here for less than 24 hours but it was so much fun!!!! I think that they were pretty impressed with how much the girls are talking. (they NEVER seem to stop!). We went out to dinner at one of our favorite spots, Poe's in Atlantic Beach. Right outside of the restaurant they have these turtle statutes and for some reason everyone wants to take pictures with them and Reagan and Riley just wanted to climb all over it so we got a couple of pictures too! After dinner we went home to walk Dozer (the girls call him DoDo) and we had an extra leash so the girls decided to start walking each other. They thought it was hilarious and did it again this morning before Nana and BopBop left. I put a video below which is really not very good, but you'll get the idea at least.  They fell in LOVE with Dozer (especially Reagan who spent a lot of time cuddling with him and kissing and petting him) and keep asking when he's coming back.  (NO, we're not getting a dog any time soon but we'll keep Dozer for Nana and BopBop whenever they want!!!!) This morning we went to the girl's absolute favorite restaurant...Bob Evans! They really love it so much which I think GiGi and Grandpa will LOVE! I'm raising them right!
It was a very quick trip but we were so thankful that they drove all this way to spend time with us and to see us for a bit...even if it was too short! We hope we'll see them again really soon!!!!

Our trip to Charlotte!

We just got back from a great few days up in Charlotte to visit Aunt Laurie "Laurlee", Uncle Nathan and most importantly, COOPER!!! The cousins all had so much fun together!!!! We did so many things and they all played so well together! Cooper took us to all of his favorite spots while we were there....he took us to the ChooChoo Park so that we could play on the playground there (you can see the big train which you can go inside behind the picture of the girls riding the frog!) and also to another park where R and R got to ride on a dinosaur! They loved it!!! (it was impossible to get pics of the three kids together...they are all SO busy!).

And Cooper took us to the Nature Center which was SO cool. The girls had a blast. Inside of the nature center they got to see different animals, fish, snakes, a butterfly garden etc...they loved it. Then, outside there is this play area with wheelbarrows, huge instruments and lots of other amazing stuff that is just for the kids to explore. I think they all could have spent hours there (the mommys got too hot!). Here are a few videos we took of the kids in action! It was so much fun!

A little of this, A little of that....

Here are a few more pictures from our visit to Charlotte to see Cooper and Aunt Laurie ("Laurlee") and Uncle Nathan.... As you can see, it was a SUPER fun and SUPER busy trip! Miss them already!

They include...
Mommy and her girls out to dinner at Mama Ricottas

Bathtime FUN with Cooper...(they will kill me some day for putting this on here!)

Reagan getting her first haircut in an actual Kid's Haircut place...and yes, we got Riley one too (a pretend one, but we couldn't leave her out!!!). It was so cute and there were no tears! I think it helped to have Cooper and Aunt Laurlee there!  They got to choose which car/plane/truck they wanted to sit in and got lollipops after they were all done! (wish we had a place like this in Jacksonville!!!).

Trying their very first ever Dunkin Donuts....a HUGE hit! Think we'll have to go back again sometime soon!

And finally, the cousins all waving goodbye to Uncle Nathan as he left for work...just like we do with our Daddy at home! SO cute!

Corn on the cob!

Reagan and Riley are NOT very good about eating veggies. I've tried just about every vegetable out there and they see through all of my attempts at covering them up with butter, or olive oil or other yummy goodness...they just won't have any of it! However, they tried their first corn on the cob last weekend (yes, they've had corn before, I guess it's just a lot more exciting on the cob!) and loved it! At least we've got one veggie they'll eat!

Happy Father's Day!!!!!

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there...to our dads, our brother in laws, our grandpas, our uncles, cousins and friends!!!! We've had a wonderful day celebrating here...the girls brought Matt a special breakfast in bed this morning (and then helped him to eat it!) and we gave him some new tennis clothes! Then we headed to the beach! The girls played with Matt in the sand and we swam and swam and swam. They are really turning into little fishies! We almost couldn't talk them into going down to the beach because they wanted to keep swimming in the pool! It's been an absolutely perfect day and Matt has been smiling all day because he's able to spend his Father's Day with his girls at the beach....who could ask for more?!!???

Bakery!

The girls and I took a field trip to a bakery this afternoon! It was purely selfish, as I'd tasted the cookies they make there from a friend and couldn't wait to bring some home! The girls loved it...they got to see them making bread and some different kinds of cakes and even packaging up some cookies for a baby shower. Then I let them each pick out a cookie (it was a REALLY tough choice! but the purple Minnie Mouse cookie was the big winner!) and they got to eat it there at the bakery. I found out that this particular bakery (Cinottis) was founded in CLEVELAND! I'll have to ask Grandpa David if he ever went there as a kid...or if he knows the last name at least! I guess they moved here to Jacksonville a long time ago, so it's a longshot, but a fun connection anyways!
Here are some cute pictures from the trip and even a little video while the girls were eating. Yes, Riley put pepper on her cookie. You can see it sitting on the table in the pictures. I didn't see it when I was sitting there.  Oops.

Our little Picassos

Reagan and Riley have asked me almost every day for the past couple of weeks if they could paint. Reagan pretends to paint all of the time...she'll take a french fry and dip it in her ketchup and "paint" her plate, or if she spills water or juice or something, she'll "paint" the mess up with her finger. They painted a lot at their little school and I honestly think they miss it a lot! I've not been great about painting with them at the house...it's a lot of setup and clean up and I always seem to find an excuse why not to do it. I won't do that anymore after today. Matt got a painting drop cloth from the painting store and we let the girls use the finger paint that Aunt Laurie gave them at Christmas on their easel outside.  They had the BEST time. Matt and I both agreed that we have NEVER seen Riley so into an activity that we've done here. She painted, and painted and painted and honestly didn't want to stop. She even painted her face and her hair on accident and wanted to just keep right on going. Reagan did not like the finger paint, which wasn't a surprise to me. She does NOT like to get dirty. Matt got some brushes for her and then she had a blast. Riley painted a monkey, a dinosaur, some fish and a shark (you can tell, right?!?) and Reagan painted a giraffe and a dinosaur. They were so happy and I will attempt to make this a more routine activity around here...thank GOD for the screened in porch (and the bathtub). Here are some pictures of the girls in action and a picture of them next to one of their finished products. The video was taken after Reagan finished her painting for the day...Riley was still going strong so Reagan wanted to help her! I love it when they talk to each other...it's happening a lot more these days and just makes me smile!

Post Painting Fun!

As a result of the fun that the girls had painting this afternoon, they had to have their second bath of the day before dinner time! (We rode bikes to the pool earlier this morning and they took a bath after that when we got home!) Yes...we've had a BIG day! I recently started letting them take their baths in my tub in our bathroom. They have a blast in there and they seem to want to play a lot longer in there than in the tub in their room...so as long as we don't have a reason to hurry up, I love watching them play together in the big tub! It reminds me of when Laurie and I were little and we used to play in the big jacuzzi tub at Grandma and Grandpa Zellar's condo in North Carolina! They have started "swimming" in the tub a bit...I let a lot of the water out and they flip over on their tummies and just hang out together. Here is a picture and a video from our after painting tub time!!! So fun!

Quack, Quack!

There is a little pond down the street from our house and there are a whole bunch of ducks that live there. We go to visit them almost every day and the girls talk about them all of the time. We take bread down and feed them every once and awhile, but it never fails that the times I remember to grab bread on our walks, the ducks aren't there and then I end up carrying around slices of bread for our whole walk. So...most of the time we just go and say hi!
The ducks must have been missing us because I walked by our front window after dinner tonight and noticed two of them in the driveway! The girls thought it was hilarious. We went out to see them and Reagan kept wanting to give them hugs and kisses (no... I didn't let her!!!). Here is a picture of them looking out the window at the ducks and then a quick video of Reagan in the front yard with them! (Riley was fine just looking at them from a distance!).

These little piggies are PINK!

The girls have been asking for me to paint their toes for awhile now...they see me with mine painted and are always touching them and talking about my red toes! So...for the first time today, I painted my sweet little girl's toes. It was so fun...they giggled the whole time and were SO good. They sat perfectly still while I did it (and I did NOT do a very good job...but they don't seem to know!) and sat with me on the floor while they dried. (I bought the quick drying stuff...dry in 60 seconds!). It was the first of MANY, MANY times that I assume we'll do this together...and I loved every second of it. Check out the finished product...

Splash!

I ordered some sweet ladybug rainboots for the girls about a month or so ago. When they came the girls both hated them (I think they didn't like how they felt or something...not really sure but they definitely didn't like them). We've started the typical Florida summer weather where it's beautiful all morning and then we have some crazy storms in the afternoon and then it clears up and just gets steamy! After dinner tonight we told the girls they could put their rainboots on and go splash in the puddles and they were super excited about it! Guess they just needed some time to process the idea of rainboots!?! Here are a couple of videos we took of them splashing around the streets near our house! Reagan would go back and forth and take her time splashing around...Riley would just do one huge STOMP and then look for the next puddle!

We miss her already!!!

The girl's amazing, wonderful, fantastic, creative and perfect babysitter is moving to Boston next week. (picture our whole family with a super sad face). We are so excited for her and for her next adventure but we are going to miss her like crazy. She's become a part of our family over the last year and we were so blessed to have her as such a big part of the girl's lives. She has promised to keep in touch and we hope that she'll come and visit us the next time she's back in Jacksonville. She came today and made picture frames with the girls so that we could put some pictures in them of her with the girls. So special...here are a few of the pictures we took!