Weekend Wrap-Up

We attended Rob's cousin's wedding down state on Saturday. 

Congratulations, Meridith & Gary!!!

It was a beautiful wedding, but a long day for the girls as we drove into town that morning, made a quick pit stop at the hotel to get everyone changed, and then off to the ceremony and reception.  Between wrangling & chasing them down, doing damage control for the mini meltdowns & tantrums, and just generally keeping them enterained and happy... I was pooped and didn't even think to take any pictures.  I'm hoping Uncle Jay snapped a few that he can share with us. 

This one was the only picture I took -

my littles, exhausted on the way home Sunday morning. 

Yesterday afternoon, we had our friends Troy, Katie and their daughter Taylor over for dinner.  The girls had a great time playing with Taylor; and we learned just how territorial they are with their toys!  We need to work on our sharing. 

Here are the daddies & their girls

Videos:

Video of the girls telling us about their day.  We had just returned home after our outing and they were all sweaty and excited from eating ice cream:

 

And another of them being silly with daddy. 

Birthday Party, Father's Day, and General Weekend Catch-Up

We had a full weekend that started with celebrating our friend, Ms. Jessie's birthday on Saturday.  The girls had a blast hanging out with all the kids, enjoying the food, toys, baby pool and bounce house they had there. 

The Stinkers - C in Orange, O in Green

Here's a video of them going nuts in the Bounce House:

We spent the night with Papa Bede and Mama Diane after the party, so we could celebrate Father's Day all together. 

Happy Father's Day, Daddy!!!

 I thought this was so cute of Liv and her daddy.

 Silly Papa trying on Livi's bow. 

And here are a few from yesterday at the park.  C in purple, O in stripes.

 Liv, my little monkey

 And my sweet Liners

 Caroline's latest phrase is, "Wibbie, where are you??"

And she's been doing a lot of jibber-jabber too:

Evidence

Daddy was working late tonight so it was a good time for us to draw him a picture as part of the girls' Father Day gift.  I gave them each a crayon and paper while I started dinner, and when I looked over a few minutes later, Olivia's crayon was half the original size. 

Me: "Livi, what happened to your crayon?  Did you put it in your mouth like mommy said not to?"

Livi: "No no no"

Me: "Oh, Olivia!  Did you eat it??"

Livi [shaking head back and forth]: "No, mama!"

Hmmmm... given the evidence shown here, I had good reason for my accusation. 

Notice the blue tongue.

"What?  I didn't, I swear!"

"Okay, I give up!  I ate it, and it was YUCKY!"

20 Months [yesterday]

Our big girls are now 20 months old!  They impress us with new things they've learned every single day.
It's truly amazing to see. 

And like most kids, they LOVE watching their favorite shows.  They'll tell me, "Shows, mama!  Shows!!"  (Don't worry, we limit TV time to about 30 minutes in the morning, and 20 minutes before bedtime). 

Here are our little TV watchers, enthralled with last night's show.  Now, if these aren't the faces of some completely mesmerized toddlers, I don't know what is. 

Dora the Explorer is by far their favorite right now.  I'll have to get a video of them dancing to the opening song, it's hysterical.  If you're familiar with this children's show, you'll know that famous line by Swiper the Fox is "Oh, Man!" (as in, "awe, shucks") when he doesn't get his way.  So that's been their latest phrase of choice - "Oh MAAN!"  Here's a couple videos of them doing this. 

Olivia

Caroline

RibFest!

We spent the afternoon out at Ribfest enjoying the local bbq restaurants' finest. The girls chowed down on a few slabs of baby backs, as well as some roasted corn on the cob AND a pulled pork sandwhich. These kids are definitely carnivores, that's for sure. Now if I could only remember the last time they actually ate anything green... hmmm... Well, at least they're eating!

They had a great time running around and people watching. Of course they stayed in their stroller for the first 5 minutes before darting in opposite directions. So mommy & daddy were juggling plates of food, our beer cups (necessity), a double-wide stroller, and a diaper bag, all the while chasing them both down. Nonetheless, it was a good time.

 

Caroline in green, Olivia in brown

Caroline wearing rib sauce lipstick

Entertaining Two Toddlers = Full Time Job

I came home early from work yesterday to spend the afternoon with the kiddos.  Man oh man, are these girls a HAND FULL!  It was on the verge on raining all day, so we had to figure out what to do around the house to keep them entertained.  We colored in our coloring books, played dress up with all our accessories, rearranged mommy's tupperware cabinet, and played with our new water table out on the balcony.  By the time daddy came home, I was pooped!

Sunday Funday

Yesterday we got caught in the rain at the playground. The girls had fun playing in the water, which called for an impromptu afternoon bath.

Of course we couldn't pass up a stop at the Tastee Freeze again!
O
C

Couple Videos:

Ice Cream Again!??

“All Gone!”

And after all that activity, they were pooped and just wanted to lay together watching their shows while I got dinner together. So sweet!

Miss Grumpy-Pants-Messy-Hair

aka: Olivia after a nap

Kick off to Summer Festivals

One thing I love about living in Chicago is all the neighborhood festivals that fill up the summer weekends. Food, music, beer, sunshine, what more could you ask for? Rob and I have great memories of going to all the fests in years past, and this summer is the first year we're attempting these with toddlers in tow. Next weekend we're hoping to check out daddy's all time favorite: Rib Fest!

Today we headed out to Aunt Kari's & Uncle Jay's neighborhood. Aunt Kari is doing pretty well post-surgery, looked great and is really being such a trooper. To let her rest and keep Katie entertained, the rest of us headed down the street to enjoy the festival going on. All three girls had a good time, as it was a kid-friendly fest complete with ice cream, kid's music and balloons.

C&O excited to borrow Katie & James' stroller

Munching on some yummy Jumbo Pretzel

As the girls say, "TAY-teeeee"

Caroline and Katie being silly

Mommy & Liners

Daddy & his girls

and with Livi Lou

Caroline & Katie making sure we abide by all posted signage.