indoor play pics

They actually BEG to wash dishes! Must find a way to keep this up for years to come.

Willa deep in concentration making a beaded necklace. Today was the first day she was able to get tiny beads onto her string. She was so proud of herself and worked on her necklace for almost half an hour.
Every time she puts on a necklace she says, "Princess me!" If she puts one on you she always says, "Princess you!"

Larkin drawing "beads" on her writing board. Notice the small dots for the holes in the beads!

Crafty girls!

butterflies

I'm sure we'll be visiting the emergency room sometime in the near future, but in the meantime the girls are having a great time jumping off furniture! Willa wants to do everything her acrobatic sister does, and now she can add jumping off couches to the list!

It was Willa's idea to put on the wings and "fly" off the futon. Sometimes she does miss her landing and you think for sure she'll be crying in pain, but she always jumps right up and says, "I'm okay, Mommy! I'm okay!! I hurt my butt but I'm okay! I do it again!"

babies, babies, and more babies

It's been in the 70's lately so yesterday we had a picnic snack in the front yard and then took the baby dolls for a walk. Willa got a new baby from Cat-mama and Papa and has become very attached to it (she often has to pry it from Larkin's hands though--we hear "THAT'S MY BABY!!!!!" a lot over here!). The baby is named Cara or Corelle, depending on who you ask!

When they're not playing with baby dolls, they're pretending that I am a baby and they are the mommies. I get put into a pretend crib, fed pretend food, and covered with blankets.

I snapped a few headshots of the girls while we were outside-they are growing and changing so fast!

Happy Birthday!

Willa is now two years old! Although if you ask her how old she is, she almost always says, "I'm three, not two, OH-KAY??!!" Definitely wants to be just like her big sister (who is 3!).

Cat-mama and Papa came over and we had lunch and then chocolate cake with raspberries. When it came time to sing happy birthday, Willa sang the whole song but inserted Larkin's name instead of her own!! Apparently she's been invited to way too many pretend birthdays for Larkin!

what we've been up to...

Well I took a break from the blog for a few weeks! Here's what we've been doing around here the past couple of weeks.

Larkin has started attending a preschool near our home twice a week. She's been on the waiting list there for over a year and finally a spot opened up-so we grabbed it! She goes on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9-1:30. Here's a pic of her on her first day. I begged her to come out on the grass so that we'd have a pretty background for her "first day" pic, but she refused to walk that far and said, "I just want to go to school Mommy! Hurry up and take my picture so we can go!!" When we got to the classroom I thought for sure she'd cling to my leg and beg me not to go, but instead she said, "Bye Mommy! Go home now!" Needless to say it's been a very easy transition!

Willa has enjoyed the one-on-one time, but definitely misses Larkin! The other day we were driving around running errands and she said, "No, don't go shopping. Go get Larkin. I talk to Larkin!" Whenever we drop off Larkin in her classroom, Willa always stands at the doorway waving and yelling, "Bye Larkin! I miss you!" but Larkin never even seems to notice-she's too busy playing!

Here's some pics of Willa doing some artwork without Larkin's interference, and a pic of her reading one of my books to her baby. Every babydoll likes to listen to a little John Grisham, right?

Uncle Ryan and soon-to-be Aunt Jaime sent the girls a tent. We keep it set up in the corner of our living room and the girls play there everyday. They like to hide in it and pretend that there are monsters/foxes/giants outside the tent, and they hide under the many pillows and blankets! Lately it's been really dry here and the static electricity in the tent is outta this world!! :) See hair pic below.