Flower Girls

After lunch we walked over to one of the parks in our neighborhood to pick flowers (mostly likely weeds disguised as flowers). Both Nina and Lyla love picking flowers, and since Nina spent the entire summer last year blowing puffy dandelions in the back yard, hence producing a crop of dandelions this year that will drive Mark nuts in his efforts to cultivate a nice yard, we decided to manufacture weeds in another section of the neighborhood. It's cute to see Lyla learning from Nina. She picks flowers too (always the yellow dandelions for herself), and will also give Nina some of the others she's picked.

Feeling Hot, Hot, Hot!

In a day, it seems like spring jumped from trying to emerge to full out summer time. I don't think this heat is here to stay, and hopefully we'll get to enjoy the spring season, but it was in the 90s here today, and our AC isn't blowing cold air. We're feeling HOT! Mark is on a trip, so the girls and I tried out a new park today in Ashburn, the Dinosaur Park. It was great, and Nina and Lyla had a good time until they were too hot to have fun anymore.

After we got home, I filled the pool with some cold water from the hose, and Nina had fun sliding down the slide into the pool of cold water. I don't know why she needed to wear her goggles in 4" of water, but she really felt she needed to!

Sister Update

It's been awhile since I've done a sister update, and I think the last one I did was more about how the girls were different. They are, however, proving to be similar in more ways now too (aside from looking nothing like each other)! They both love to be active and love the outdoors and are usually quite upset when we have to come inside, even when the weather is rainy or cold. They also love dogs. Lyla will take off down the sidewalk or across the park to try to get closer to one she sees. They also both love their blankies, and it will be a very sad day if we ever lose one! They also are both shoe girls. Nina always was a shoe lover, and now Lyla has joined the ranks too. She loves shoes for herself, and she will also offer you your own shoes persistantly - whether you want them or not. While they both have their moments (yes, our sweet spirited Lyla does have a temper), they are both loving, sweet, funny little girls, and we're enjoying seeing their relationship with each other develop more also.

Dancing

Because it was rainy and dreary the past two days, we haven't gotten outside to play. Instead, the girls got out a little energy to Madagascar's Move It Move It. Lyla still needs to work on her dance moves. She's only got down the bouncing move, but Nina is definitely starting to pick up some new moves since the Hampster Dance of last summer.

A Little Help

Mark got a little help today when washing his car. Nina was really into it, but Lyla preferred the stream of soap bubbles that collected at the end of the driveway!

Don't You Hate a Dead Battery!

Today was a beautifully sunny and pleasantly warm day, so I decided to take the girls to Frying Pan Park where I visited many times with Nina before Lyla was born. I brought my camera, ready to take pictures of the girls and the many newly born animals on the farm, but I took one picture (this one here), and my camera battery was dead. I had not paid attention to the battery bar indicator the last time I took pictures, so I missed tons of great opportunities for photos today. In the only picture I did get, Nina is covering her nose because we were by the pig pen, and she was bothered because they were stinky. I'm bummed that I don't have pictures to prove it, but we had a great time today.

Cute

On most mornings, the girls are up right around 7 a.m., but lately Nina has been sleeping later than Lyla since she isn't napping during the day. In the time before Nina wakes up, normally Lyla and I sit in her room and read books while Mark gets ready for work. Lately, she has been a little obsessed with Brown Bear, Brown Bear. After reading it several times, I'll pick up another book from the bookshelf and try that, but today she just kept going back to the stack of books and handing me Brown Bear. When Nina got up, I put all her books back in the bookshelf, and we went in Nina's room. Mark hadn't left yet, so he was in there with the girls also when I went down to the kitchen to get Nina's milk. When I came back up, this is how I found them (so I ran back down and got my camera). Mark said that after I left the room, Lyla went back to her room, and must have found the Brown Bear book in her bookshelf because she walked in holding it up to Mark to read. I guess she must really like this book!

Happy Easter

Happy Easter Everyone! Today, the girls and I went to my parents' house after church for an Easter egg hunt and lunch. Mark won't be home from the team's away game trip until this evening, so it was nice to have the egg hunt and lunch out at Haymarket. Even Cobi got in the spirit (not really) with bunny ears.

With the help of Uncle Bo, Lyla gathered about five eggs, and Nina managed to find the rest of them.

Beautiful Day

We had a gorgeous spring day here on Friday, so we were outside as much as possible to take advantage of it. There is a tree in our backyard with such beautiful blooms. As the wind was picking up, the blooms were blowing all over the yard and proving some entertainment for Nina and Lyla.

Advice From Nina

My mom taught us kids this song when we were little, and I know Shen taught it to her girls and the same for me...kind of funny how these things stick. Anyway, here are the words in case you can't understand.

Have patience, have patience. Don't be in such a hurry. When you get impatient, you only start to worry. Remember, remember, that God is patient too, so think of all the times when others had to wait on you.

Nina and Caz

Here are the pictures of Nina and Casimir that Teresa took yesterday evening at their house. Both kids will turn three in May and are great buddies!

Is this a little prelude of what's to come 10+ years from now? :)

Our Weekend

Yesterday, our community had their annual Easter Eggstravaganza. Last year, Lyla was only a week old (and Mark was on a trip), so with the help of my mom, it was my first real "outing" with the girls. This year was quite a different scenario. The weather was the same - sunny, cool, and windy, but Nina needed zero assistance or prompting this year when it came to the big egg hunt, and Lyla even participated in the egg hunt somewhat. Here's our little bunny after collecting a basket full of eggs.

They had a special treat this year of a little petting zoo. Nina (with Mark) did get in the pen with the sheep, goats, and llamas, but her favorite BY FAR were the baby bunnies. The nice gentleman in charge of the bunnies made an exception to allow her to hold one when he saw how much she liked them. He let her hold the baby bunny in her jacket like Fern does with Wilbur in Charlotte's Web. Nina likes that movie, and often imitates that action with her stuffed animals, so this was a big treat to hold a real bunny in her jacket!
She was happy again to see an Easter Bunny!

Lyla wasn't too sure about all the people, noises, activity, etc., so she preferred to hang on the outside of the action or hang right next to mom or dad, but she still seemed to enjoy herself.

Nina even got to have some peek-a-boo fun with the Caribou Coffee caribou who was on hand for the occasion. After a busy morning, the girls had a little down time then we all went to DC United's game that evening. The team won, and there was no leaving early with crying kids, so I guess that means it was a success!Much of today was spent outdoors in the back yard. We finally got sand in the sand box, and the girls played a lot outside while Mark cleared out a section of grass and built us a garden where we'll hopefully be growing some tasty fruits and vegetables this summer!

In the evening we went over to our friends' house in the neighborhood for dinner and hang time. Teresa took some cute pictures of Caz and Nina together, so I'll get those from her and update this post a little later. We are all pretty wiped out from the activities, but we had a great weekend!

Easter Bunnies

They're getting themselves ready for Easter!

One Year Check-Up

Like I posted before when Nina was a mess at the table, I hesitated to get out the camera, but I figured Lyla needed a messy food post also! Most of the pears had fallen off her head by now, but she was placing the diced pears from her food tray on the top of her head. Little kids think of interesting stuff for attention! So, we just had Lyla's one year check-up yesterday, and she is doing great. She gave the doctor a really hard time during the exam, and the nurse an even harder time when it came to the shots, but she's developing very well and we're so thankful to have two healthy little girls. She's still at the low end on the weight chart, but she's at the very top on the height chart (every girl's dream), and we still think she looks like a baby sometimes, but our little girls are growing up, and we've realized it's all happening quite rapidly!