Auntie Carrie's visit

Joel's sister Carrie lives in Big Sky, MT and came to visit us last week! We haven't seen her since Larkin was maybe a year old. We always try to coordinate our Wisconsin visits with her schedule but haven't had much luck with that these past few times!! Her busy season for work is always the time when we like to go to Wisco in the summer.

The girls were so excited to meet her, and Larkin kept saying, "Oh I just love Auntie Carrie so much! But you know, I don't remember her."

The girls warmed up quickly to her though and were in her room at 7am everyday for her wake up call--complete with lots of snuggling and kisses!

Of course they dove right into her makeup bag:

Larkin's first (and last) time applying her own eyeshadow-
We were pretty busy while she was here-did some shopping, saw the bats (well 3 of them--the rest would not come out!), and took her out for some BBQ, Indian food, and TexMex. One afternoon we packed a picnic dinner and went to Lake Travis.



We all had a great time catching up with her and can't wait to see her again in a couple of months at Uncle Ryan's wedding!

Princess

Today we went to a resale shop and bought some princess outfits-complete with heels, boas, a tiara and a magic wand. They were so excited and couldn't wait to put them on. Willa started crying when she realized that we were driving to our house and yelled, "NO!! Don't go home!! I want to go to the ball!! Turn around!!"



Here's a pic of Larkin saying, "I'm a princess!"
Willa (crying): "No, I'M A PRINCESS!!"
Larkin: "No, I'M A PRINCESS TOO!! We are BOTH princesses."
Willa: "No! You Cinderella! I'm a princess!!"

San Antonio Zoo

Here's some pics from our trip on Sunday to the San Antonio Zoo. We checked out their butterfly exhibit since the girls have been so interested in butterflies lately. Here they are trying to get one to land on them.
If you look closely, you can see one on Joel's shorts. The girls REALLY wanted one to land on them, but no luck! Joel and I both had one land on us. They had over 30 different varieties of butterflies there in the enclosure, and a bench where you could just sit and watch them all around you. It was really neat!

Checking out some hippo bum bums.
They have another exhibit where you can feed Lories. We brought Larkin here when she was 18 months old and she had one land on her arm and she loved it. Joel was the only one who was able to get one to land on him this time.



This Lorie loved to nibble on Joel's head. He also peed on Joel's shirt, and the girls won't stop talking about it!
Willa's favorite part of the zoo were the "pink mingos." They have the flamingos in a couple of different places throughout the zoo, and every time we saw another one Willa would yell, "I found the pink mingos! Yea Willa!"

Larkin's grocery list

Larkin has been very interested in writing lately. This morning I was finishing my grocery list and she wanted to write one too. She said, "Mommy, if it's on the list, then we have to get it. How do I write candy and hot chocolate?" The "Buddy Buck" (BD BK) is another sneaky one--I hardly ever let her get one of those--it' a fake dollar they give kids at the checkout, and you can put in a machine to get a sticker.

She can write almost all the letters, and is getting better at writing them next to each other and in the right order. Some letters turn out as mirror images or upside down, which can make deciphering them tricky! I wrote in red marker the words that I could identify. She is getting good at hearing all the sounds in words--like watermelon was spelled "WTRMN. " Sometimes she sounds out the words herself and writes the sounds she hears, and other times she just wants me to spell it for her so she can write it.

Lately she's been mailing letters to friends and relatives, and I just write down exactly what she tells me to write--which makes for some funny letters!! If you'd like to have a penpal, just write to Larkin and she will be sure to write you back!

our moth, Cara Sara

The girls found a caterpillar a few weeks ago and we put him into a container to hopefully see him change into a moth or butterfly. They were so excited to "make him a home" and got him grass for a bed, rocks and sticks to climb on, food to eat, and rose petals so his home "looks pretty."

He built a little cocoon in our tupperware container, and we read lots of butterfly and moth books while we waited for him to make his winged appearance. Two loooooooong weeks later, he emerged as a moth!


Here's Larkin singing and dancing--"It's a moth! He's here! It's a moth! Yea!" Willa was really quite confused about the whole thing--she kept saying, "But where my caterpillar go?"


One afternoon we went to a local gardening store (Natural Gardener) and found the coolest butterfly nets and Texas butterfly identification book! We bought them and then stayed at the nursery for over an hour catching butterflies in their butterfly garden. Larkin is very good at sneaking up and catching them, and then always runs right to the identification book to see what she caught. Willa was the first to put the net over her head and yell, "LOOK! I caught Willa!" and now they both do that all the time.



The girls have finally decided that they are okay with wearing helmets, so we've been doing lots of biking outside on the sidewalk and at the park!

speech, oil, and fairy godmothers

Larkin has been dismissed from her speech class! They reevaluated her and her speech skills are now in the normal range for her age. Her intelligibility is great and she's talking up a storm! She's proud that she "graduated" but does miss her teachers. They made her a graduation book that has pictures of her two teachers in it and as Larkin says, "Then when I get sad and miss them, I can look at their picture and not forget them!"

Currently she's really interested in the Gulf oil spill and loves to talk about it with anyone who will listen (even with kids whose moms may not want their kids to know about the spill yet--sorry Robin and Clay!!). Usually it goes something like this: "Mommy, does X know about the oil spill yet? I'm gonna tell 'em! They need to know!" Then she'll say, "Did you know that oil spilled in the ocean and it's going to get all over the fish and birds, and they might die? I'm so sad I could cry." Every morning when she wakes up she asks to look at pictures on the internet so she can find out how the spill cleanup is going!

Willa is excited to have Larkin around more now that speech is over. I think it's safe to say that Willa takes after Joel 110%...she is always finding ways to get herself into trouble and has a great sense of humor.

Some of Willa's recent quotes/activities:

"Mommy, don't look at me, don't listen to me." --when she says this, I know she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing!!

"This will be perfect for my centerpiece." I think she started saying this a few months ago while we were picking flowers and talking about how the flowers could be our centerpiece. Now everything is "perfect for my centerpiece"--she says this when she sits down to a good snack, tells Harley he would be a perfect centerpiece, etc. Obviously she has no idea what it means, but likes the way it sounds!

Whenever I catch her doing something "bad" (like coloring her arms with markers instead of the paper, painting her face with watercolors, putting all the marker caps on her fingers, stacking ALL of her books in her bed when she's supposed to be sleeping, etc.) she always answers with, "I do this cause I want Daddy" or "My Godmother said it was okay."
Larkin is always talking about her own imaginary fairy Godmother, and Willa has picked it up too. Unfortunately Larkin does not like Willa having a Godmother, and usually when Willa talks about hers Larkin will interrupt and say, "You don't have a Godmother! Only I do!!" Then there's a "YES I DO!" and "NO YOU DON'T!" and "YES I DO!" followed by tears.

Lisa's visit

Auntie Lisa came down to visit for a week, and we kept her on her toes! She was kept busy with lots of role playing with my little ponies, hog hunting, reorganizing my kitchen, bath, and closet (she loves to organize!), and getting woken up at 7am EVERYDAY by our two peas! We also celebrated her birthday since we won't be able to see her in May.


Both girls got very attached to Lisa. Larkin had a hard time saying goodbye at the airport. We walked Lisa inside and Larkin snuggled up to her and gave her the sweetest kisses, and then we waved goodbye to her as she was in the security line. Suddenly I could tell that Larkin was about to have a five star meltdown, and sure enough she started panicking and saying that she wanted Lisa. I carried her and high tailed it out of the airport. Larkin bawled as soon as we walked out of the doors. She wailed, "But wait!!!! I don't remember Lisa!! I don't remember what she looks like!!!!!" A couple of days before Lisa left Larkin told her, "Auntie Lisa, you need to take a picture of me kissing you so that I remember you. I want to put it by my bed." I reassured her that I had a picture of her and that we would frame it when we got home. She literally cried the entire way home from the airport (a 30 minute drive!) and kept repeating and yelling, "LISA! I want LISA." When we got home she refused to get out of her carseat, and told me to drive back to the airport so that she could get on an airplane. I felt sorry for her and proud of her all at the same time, and almost cried myself!

Willa handled the separation much better and just said, "Lisa go home to see Boat-mama. She come back soon. Larkin miss Lisa a lot."

On May 1st Joel and I were talking and said that we couldn't believe it was May already. Larkin overheard us and said, "Wait, it's MAY? But I want to go to Three Lakes in May. I TOLD YOU THAT!!! I want to go see Auntie Lisa for her birthday!!"

Thanks for taking the time to connect with our girls, Lisa--they sure do love you!!