Summer of staycation.

I am a homebody. If I could stay at home and have most of my things brought to me, I would very rarely leave.  However, having children means that I need to go outside of my comfort zone so they can experience new and different things.  We wanted to do a family vacation this year, but it was out of the budget when we sat and worked out the numbers. However, we still wanted to get out and do some different things with the girls, so we decided to explore our state as a family.  This summer we expect to visit Green Bay, Spring Green, Janesville, do some things around Madison, and go to Milwaukee.

Yesterday we took the girls on our first trip of the year. We went to Bay Beach in Green Bay, which is kind of like a combination carnival and little kid amusement park.

They had so much fun!  In spite of the heat, we were there for a few hours, went on the handful of rides and even went on the little train.  The trip was cut a little short because Joel wasn't feeling well due to an allergy flareup.  We intend to go back later this summer, and will spend the whole day there.  Their prices for the most part are still old timey, so it was very affordable for us.  Lilah really liked the train and Gabbie's favorite thing was the helicopters that went in the air.

On our way home, a friend asked us if we wanted to come join them for fireworks since they had a great spot. We decided to keep driving and went down for the girls' first fireworks display! Gabbie did really well and was very excited, even identifying many of the shapes, but Delilah was just a little too tired for the whole display, so we left a little early.

Today we got up and went down to Pecks in Spring Green before going to a family party and Highland.  It was a huge hit! They had baby goats, baby pigs, chickens, geese, potbellied pigs, and a variety of other animals as well as many many things to the kids to play on and around.  We stayed for about an hour before we had to go and I could tell we were going to have to return at a later date to finish this visit as well.

By the time we got home today, Gabbie was begging to just stay home for the day and not go anywhere until tomorrow. It turns out she's a bit of a homebody like her momma.  

I can't wait to see where our next journey will take us in a couple of weeks! I really really love spending this time with my family.

Bay Beach 

Fireworks 

Pecks 

Monkey see...

With the ladies being so close in age, a lot of things are copied between them.  It also means that Lilah is learning some things earlier than Gabs did.  

This weekend she recited about half of the alphabet and counted to 12.  Just last week she was counting to 3, then today from the backseat of the van, I hear "eight, nine, ten, eleven... Twelve!"

Um, what?  Kid, you aren't yet two years old.  Please slow down.  

A few gems....

Today when we were at Target, Gabbie was asking me a question about our cashier's necklace... On her teeth!  Our cashier had braces.  I realized she had never seen braces!  Our very sweet cashier explained that she was trying to make her teeth nice and straight.  It did still give me a chuckle.  

I was at home with the girls and I was doing Gabbie's hair to go to a picnic with our friends from church.  I was particularly frustrated because they have both been a little wound up this afternoon and doing their hair is always a challenge.  As I was putting Gabbie's in her ponytail, she looked up at me and said, "Momma, you are my best friend!", and gave me a hug and kiss!  Then she sang me a little song about being her best friend.  It was literally one of the sweetest moments of my entire life.  

A little boy at the picnic was being kind of rough with her, and I got to see my husband leap in to action in her defense. It was like a glimpse into my future of him defending his daughter against little boys.  

Then this evening we were at home and Joel was working on the van, Gabbie and Lilah were sitting in the front seat buckling and unbuckling themselves.  I was getting prepared for a day trip tomorrow when I heard the van start.  Gabbie started the van!  I thought Joel was going to freak - it really startled him!  

Just a small handful of the little moments I want to write down now, before they get lost in the shuffle of our fast-moving lives...

Today.

Today was a very rough day.  Gabbie was a little under the weather, so she slept by me all night, and was quite active and pretty demanding in her sleep talking.  I got up after a few broken hours of sleep and craved my shower to wake me up.  No hot water - some crap with the pilot light.  So, got ready and off to work, Starbucks in hand.  I had definitely already earned it today.

On and off all morning, my tot was fussy at daycare.  She was tired and kept telling Whitney that she thought her sister wanted to go home... Code for "Get me out of here.".  I am very light on staff at work, so I sent Joel.  He had no sooner gotten her, than she was acting 100% better.  If I hadn't know she had a fever, I would have sworn she was playing hooky...

I left early to take over for him, so he could go back to work (there's no rest for the self-employed...).  She and I hung at home, then we went to get her sister and grab dinner.

For over an hour, they alternately fought with each other and the dog.  Dinner, dessert, toys... Everything was a battle.  I recruited them to help me move more of their toys to the new playroom, and it was time for Lilah to go to bed.  I check in with Joel, and he will be at work for like 3 more hours.  Um, what?!  Like I said, no rest.  

Got Gabs settled into bed an hour later, and am so thankful she immediately passed out.  Momma needs a little break this evening.  

Then, just as I was about to leave the room, I looked at my babies, asleep in their beds.  (They are really the most beautiful when they sleep.).  For a minute, nothing else from the day mattered.  I didn't care that my hair looked awful all day, that I am tired and so so sore, that my house is an absolute wreck from the room-shifting and lack of time to do anything this week, or that I spent the better part of the night taking role-call (yelling for whichever child isn't within my line of sight as we moved the toys).  All that mattered was their cherubic faces.  They were safe in their beds, each holding a stuffed animal, dreaming of whatever an almost 2 year old and 3.5 year old dream of.  

And that's how I knew the day was a success.  

Sweet-taking dawdler.

Well, Miss Delilah didn't want to go to bed tonight. I went in to put Gabbie down and Delilah was still awake and asked for me right away. I took her out and snuggled her for a few minutes, since she never really wants to snuggle, and I went to put her back in. That is when the fit started.

I sent Gabbie back down, so Lilah could have a few minutes of snuggling on her own. So we snuggled together, and we talked and we played a little bit in the rocker and she started to play with my hair.  She touched my hair and said "pretty!", twice.  Man, this kid knows how to get me.  A rare snuggle and a compliment, all at once.  

After a few more minutes of this I had to call Joel in for reinforcements.

Since we moved all three of the bedrooms around, the house is in quite a bit of disarray right now and I have a very big to do list, but getting the snuggles tonight made the delay all worth it.

(A picture of the silliness before the charm kicked in.). 

Old enough.

When the girls are naughty, they go into a corner where we have a little time out stepstool they have to sit on there on the timeout.  Once they are allowed out of the corner, they have to give a hug to apologize to whomever they wronged.  This is Delilah's first time in the timeout corner.  She hit me when I was trying to help her brush her teeth.  

Ahhhh... First haircut, first timeout... These milestones come so quickly.  

Momma's Birthday

So today is my birthday, I am 35 years old. Most people think that once you're out of your 20s you don't care about your birthday as much and it becomes just another day: especially when you have children. I look at birthdays and aging a little bit differently (just within the last year or two).  

I feel like (while it's very sad to say) it's a fact that a lot of people pass away young and they don't have the opportunity to age.  They don't have the opportunity get wrinkles, or have their hair lighten with age.  

While I may change my mind as I do get older and start to see these things happen, I feel like getting older and having it show is kind of a badge of honor. It shows that I have survived a lot of things and I'm still up and kicking.  I could imagine being proud of my laugh lines because they show that I had a lot to laugh about.  It's kind of like the scars I have from my C-sections; they show something that was very important in my life.

Please, be proud to get older; not everyone gets to.  

I love that I get to celebrate another 365 days around the sun with my family, and it doesn't hurt that there's usually cake and presents involved.  :)

This fit...

This fit is brought to you by Gabbie's terrible daddy.  He had the NERVE to turn on her current favorite show when she asked for it.  Can you believe how awful he is?!  

(She gets even more mad when I take the picture.  Then she gets really upset that her cheeks are wet from the tears.)

Boo hoo.

Gabrielle and I were cuddling watching one of her TV shows tonight, and she realized that the characters on her TV shows weren't cuddling. So, she backed away from me and said they're not cuddling either.  

:( 

My girl.

So, we were reading before bed, and Gabbie turns to me and says, "I'm your girl.  My sister is Daddy's girl."  

Ok.  If you say so.