Whirlwind trip

The girls and I traveled for ten days last week and visited four different cities. Yep, that is a lot of switching beds and packing. The girls did amazingly well with all the transition. As you scroll through all the photos that show the fun we had you will see why we had a blast!

 

Easter Celebration: first piece of business, dying eggs.

The Easter brought lots of goodies and hid all the dyed eggs plus some eggs with playdoh inside.

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All the DeWees crew got together for Brunch at the one of the girls’ favorite restaurants: IHOP. Like the pun?

Then off to shop at Kroger. Brady remembered about the kid sized carts and requested to shop here when she found out about our trip to NC. There was the added bonus of self check out.

Next, to Aunite Andi and Uncle Danny’s place to make pizzas. Yep, we are still in the first 24 hours….

Celebrated Jason’s birthday with a cake made by the girls. Like the giant oreo?

Uncle Danny REALLY wanted to do this, so I said OK and he wasn’t let down by the response.

After the birthday celebration, time to Rock Band and shoot off fireworks.

Grandma got in cuddle time with both girls.

Before we headed to VA, we stopped by to see my good college buddies and all their kids. I got to meet Kathy’s little girl for the first time and she is a CUTIE!

Then

One thing I did notice was Brady’s love for little babies. She loved interacting with all the one year olds.

Now in Williamsburg, VA to do one of our favorite things. SMELL CANDLES!

and play in pretend snow at the Yankee Candle store

One on One time with GP

Planted flowers, this activity lead to the exciting tick in the belly button incident. 

Brady and Reese frolicking in the newly and beautifully landscaped backyard.

Paint your own pottery: The girls painted their initial and a hand print plate.

Back in NC, and off the Chuck E Cheese

Another day another fun packed activity: MONKY JOE’S

Flying the kites Beppa gave the girls

dipping toes in the creek after all that hard work

Brady took class at my old dance studio. She loves ballet.

Caddie bought the girls a golf bag. He said he is investing in their future. Brady would hit the ball and then run the bases.

Brady’s collection of flowers she claimed to be her wedding flowers.

Just a cute shot of Reese

Caddie showing us his Koi fish.

And of course we hit up the playground.

This picture is proof that crayola needs to rethink its colored bubbles.

Mommy Tricks

One thing I covet about knowing so many other moms is learning all the tricks of the trades. Like, last year someone told me to rub baby powder on sandy (dry) feet. Was I AMAZED how the sand just fell right off. We now keep a bottle of baby powder in the van for post playground clean up. And yes, it is baby powder that was given to me when I was pregnant with Brady. Never heard of this trick? Try it and then pass it on…

 

So here are some of my tricks that I have that have made our life easier in one way or another.

 

THE BOO BOO SOCK

My girls have never let me put ice on their bumps and bruises, until now. I think ice packs were always too cold, but then by the time I wrapped it in a cloth you couldn’t feel any chill at all. Family Fun magazine offered this trick. Feel an old baby sock (I bought new ones since ours are already packed away) with rice. Hot glue or sew it closed. Use the other matching sock as a cover. Place it in the freezer.

Advantages of this boo boo sock over ice packs: 1. It is cold but not too cold for little hands to hold. 2. It has a cover to wash. 3. It is free because you have socks and rice at your house! (or I paid $1 for a new pair) you can’t beat that.

 

CHILD SIZE CLOSET

Both of my girls take huge pride in not only dressing themselves but also picking out their clothes. We only had Reese’s PJs at her level initally. Well then I was fighting a battle every morning because she wanted to wear PJs. I even tried picking her up to let her choose, apparently not the same. I ordered her a rack like Brady’s on amazon and we have had a happy Reese since then.

 

Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Neu-Home-1346-Closet-Doubler/dp/B000KFZE7Y/ref=sr_1_1?s=home-garden&ie=UTF8&qid=1303484715&sr=1-1

As you probably can guess independence is huge in our house. Well Brady wants to fold clothes when I do laundry. But she wants to do it as well as mommy. So I bring you the…

FLIPFOLD

This originally was a gag Christmas present for Karl. On our favorite sitcom Big Bang Theory, Sheldon who is socially awkard and highly OCD uses one to fold all his shirts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kZUWkB7eZE

 

Well it turned out to work perfectly for a 3 year old who wants to independently fold a shirt like mommy.

 

Where to get it: http://www.amazon.com/Dial-Flip-Fold-Blue/dp/B000ILFRI6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1303485177&sr=8-1

 

Okay, your turn to share….

Wordless Wednesday: The Result of an Unsupervised Child

Easter Fun with Daddy

The girls and I are traveling to NC and VA this weekend and will miss spending the Easter holiday with Karl; therefore we decided to go to some of the festivities in town this past Saturday. We had a blast, as always. We just love our family outings.

 

We went to our local Chick-fil-a’s Egg Hunt. The coolest thing about this event was they sodded a third of their parking lot so they could have a lawn to play on!!!! We started off at the face paint table. One ‘worker’ with 6 paint sets equated to me doing something quick on my girls’ cheeks. Nothing special but it made them happy.

These next two pictures mark a huge moment, the first time Brady EVER willing went up to a dressed up character. And she did it twice. I think she is showing she is ready for Disney this fall!

There was also moon bounce house, Jesus stories, craft table and baby lamb!

Now for the so called Egg Hunt they just dumped a bunch of eggs on the sodded parking lot. Then said go, which created a mass of kids in the center. It was funny because Reese had to open each one and then dump it in her basket before picking up another egg. Therefore she got like 5 eggs when every other little kid got like 20. Look at all the other baskets in the pictures compared to hers…it cracked me up. So methodical

We also went to Toys R Us for their event. I am only blogging about this because I want to remind myself to NEVER go to it again. Not that great and the the girls didn’t enjoy it that much.

Wordless Wednesday: Movie on the Lawn (for free)!!!

Tuesday Tidbits

I just wanted to share this sweet picture of my Brady BOO. I think she is such a fashionista, it cracks me up! By the way she picked this dress out for herself from TJ Maxx, but note that it is Guess brand. Told you she is a fashionista!

Speaking of fashion, this is the picture Brady drew of me. I was at Zumba when she drew it. She today Karl that I was wearing high heels and earrings. I guess this is the way she wishes I dressed, because I don’t know that she has EVER seen me in high heels!

 

We have two large teddy bears, Tuku and Blue. We dressed them in the girls Taylor Swift shirts the other day and the girls got a kick out if it.

Reese is waiting for gymnastics to start here. I think she is just a cutie pie!

Dewy’s trip to the vet for a recheck!

Still The One…

Yep, Dewy is still the one, number one that is!

 

Saturday at 12:40 the family is sitting down to lunch. Karl is reading the paper and I ask him to hand me the page about the deal reached to avoid the government shutdown. I read the article and then turn it over to the calendar of events for the day. At 1:00 is the local wiener dog races. We had a blast last year and had been waiting for the signs to be put out with info like last year.

 

Well those of you who know Karl well, know to be told at 12:40 about a event that starts at 1:00 is very unsettling. However, we had such a blast last year we couldn’t skip out. So in 20 minutes we let the dogs out, packed snacks for all, got the girls on the potty, shoes on, out the door and to the event by 1:00! WOW, we did leave Pace at the house this year because he didn’t enjoy himself last year.

 

We are glad we got there. Dewy was in the weight class, 10-15 pounds, with the most participants again.

This board only shows some of the racers. There were about nine initial heats in Dewy’s weight class. I thought you would enjoy seeing some of the names of Dachshunds. While we waited out turn to race, Brady enjoyed photographing the event, while Reese walked about and observed her surroundings.

Dewy smoked all the dogs in the first heat coming out on top. Here he is with the winnings from the first heat.

While we waited for the race against the other heat winners we enjoyed some snow cones.

Also I enjoyed seeing this dog race that is paralyzed in the back half (common problem in Dachshunds). He has a custom made wheel chair. He is five years old and full of life!

Well it was finally our turn and guess who is the Pensacola Weiner Dog Race Champion (in the 10-15 weight class) for the second year in a row

DEWY!

You gotta love Dewy trying to give out kisses even in his championship snapshot