story time, smoothies & singing happy birthday

Saturday was a fun filled day. The heat and humidity are still lingering so in the morning we found ways to stay cool inside. We went to the Blue Manatee for story time. The girls are too cute sitting in the little chairs listening to the story and "participating" in the songs. Their favorite songs are 'the wheels on the bus' and 'the itsy bitsy spider' because they like to mimic the hand gestures. Lexi is usually pretty good at sitting and listening to the story. Kenzie is a bit more easily distracted, and today she was more interested in the little boy who was sitting behind her :)



After story time we got strawberry smoothies from the cafe and the girls played with some of the other kids in the bookstore. Sara introduced the girls to smoothies earlier in the week and they love them. A perfect breakfast/snack on a hot summer day! We stayed long enough that we were still there for French story time. However, after one song and halfway through the first book, the girls' attention span had worn out and they started wandering and grabbing books off the shelves so it was soon time to go :)



In the afternoon we went up to Ault Park to celebrate George's 1st birthday!



Thankfully they had arranged for the Mr Softee truck to come to the party so we were able to cool off with some ice cream and slushees ... such a great party idea! Despite the fact that they were dripping sweat, the girls enjoyed hanging out with the other kids, playing on the playground and singing happy birthday (lots of clapping & excitement)!



The best treat of the day was that Daddy returned from Asia! He met us up at the park and the girls were so excited to see him!

k&l at work

Today was Take Your Child to Work Day at my office. K&L were technically too young to participate in the structured activities that were planned for the day, but I did have Sara bring them in for lunch. They did really well and enjoyed watching all of the older kids and even behaved reasonably well during the Olympic presentation. I loved having my girls at work with me :)



I was surprisingly emotional today about the whole experience. As I came into the office this morning and saw so many people coming into work with their children .. their mini-me's in many cases, I almost became teary. I never had this reaction when seeing my co-workers with their kids before I had children of my own, but today as I saw them through the eyes of a mother I had all of these thoughts and emotions running through me. To these people, their children are their "Kenzie & Lexi", their pride and joy. The reason they go to work is to be able to support and provide the best for these children. I loved watching the bond between my co-workers and their children and grandchildren.
It also made me think about what Kenzie & Lexi will "want to be when they grow up." Will they want to go into finance or marketing like their Mommy and Daddy? Will they want to be a doctor or an artist or a lawyer or join the Peace Corp? Will they want to be a veteranarian or an architect or a ballerina or a firefighter or an astronout (will they even know what that is, or is that career now extinct?)? Maybe they will want to be full-time mommies or maybe they will want to run off and join the circus. Kenzie & Lexi - I want you to be whatever you want to be. I want you to be successful, but I will measure your success by your happiness. I hope that you pursue your dreams, whatever they may be! As long as those dreams don't include being a tattoo artist or a motorcycle racer I think Daddy will be ok with this as well :)

good morning daddy, good night girls

Daddy is on the other side of the globe this week, but thanks to video chat the girls have been able to say good morning to their daddy, and he has been able to give them virtual good night kisses :)



I wasn't sure how this would go over. I was a bit worried that they would freak out when they saw Randall on the screen but then he wasn't really "here." But it has actually been good. The girls like waving hi to their daddy, and Randall enjoys being able to see his ladies while he is away. (Post edit: On the 3rd night of Randall being away, when we went upstairs that evening the girls both ran into the office right away. Kenzie started pulling up on the desk chair and Lexi was pointing at the computer saying "Daddy? Daddy?" Thakfully I was able to text Randall and we were quickly able to set up a video chat so that the girls could see their Daddy. Too cute!)





It has been crazy hot this week. Sara has been keeping the girls entertained with indoor activities and trips the bookstore for story time and the indoor playground at Crossroads. In the evenings after dinner when it has "cooled off" a bit I have taken the girls for a walk to the playground. They are LOVING the playground these days! It is amazing how much more they can actually do at the playground within the last few weeks. Not only do they go down the slide with no fear, they have also become experts of walking up the slide. They climb up and down the jungle gym and are fast ... can't take your eyes off them for a second!



The girls have also started to want to hold Tobi's leash when he is on a walk with us. Tobi can be a bit of a "puller" when on his leash, but as soon as he realizes that one of his sisters is holding the leash he slows down and is very gentle. Such a sweet boy.



We miss Daddy lots, but are staying busy to pass the time quickly. The girls are being very good for their Mommy this week. Love them!

happy birthday granny!

wishing you a fabulous birthday! love, kenzie, lexi, ethan & brittany









When Danielle, Ethan & Brittany were in town a few weeks ago Sara took these great pictures of the 4 grandkids together. LOVE!

sisters

A sister can be seen as someone who is both ourselves and very much not ourselves - a special kind of double. ~Toni Morrison



I love watching my girls together when they don't know they are being watched. I love how they interact and talk to each other in their own little language. At 16 months they are definitely best friends but can also be each other’s fiercest rival. They make one another giggle like no other, but they also torment each other. The twin sister induced tantrum has started, and it is quite a sight. But then, the next minute they are hugging and kissing one another. The power of forgiveness and the twin sister bond is amazing.



Siblings are the people we practice on, the people who teach us about fairness and cooperation and kindness and caring - quite often the hard way. ~Pamela Dugdale



Sisters don't need words. They have perfected a language of snarls and smiles and frowns and winks - expressions of shocked surprise and incredulity and disbelief. ~Pam Brown





She is your mirror, shining back at you with a world of possibilities. She is your witness, who sees you at your worst and best, and loves you anyway. She is your partner in crime, your midnight companion, someone who knows when you are smiling, even in the dark. ~Barbara Alpert



Sisters are different flowers from the same garden. ~Author Unknown

I love how my girls are so close, but yet still so unique. I love to watch their relationship grow and evolve.

How do people make it through life without a sister? ~Sara Corpening

friends

One of my favorite things is to see my friends with their children. I especially love to see my daughters beginning to develop friendships with our friends' children. This weekend we had two opportunities to spend time with good friends and their kids. I love sharing the adventure of parenthood with my friends!



On Friday evening, Tara, Kevin, Brooke and Gavin met us at the pool for happy hour. It was a bit crazy, but it was so fun to see the kids interact and to catch up with Tara and Kevin. We are so thrilled that they are moving back to Cincinnati and I am excited to watch the relationship between our children grow. I am especially excited to be a bigger part of Gavin’s life as he is our godson and they moved to Seattle when he was only ~ 2 months old. I feel fortunate to have been able to watch him grow into the boy that he is through the lens of Tara’s blog, but am looking forward to witnessing it first-hand. Look at Lexi already making eyes at Gavin. Kenzie and Gavin, on the other hand already had a few spats over buckets and shovels in the splash zone :)



On Sunday, Kenzie & Lexi attended their first Geneva dinner club. Oh how our dinner clubs have changed :) We had 6 children ranging from 11 weeks to 5 years in attendance and it was so fun to see them playing together despite the age differences. We missed having the DeLacy’s and Dujans there as they would have increased the child count to 9 (or 10 if you count the bun in the oven :)). While it was great fun to watch the girls play with the other kids, I did have to comment that dinner clubs without kids should not become extinct as having to keep an eye on two 16 month olds did not make for quite as relaxing of a time … especially since Daddy wasn’t there to help. Randall left for a week in Asia yesterday. We miss him already!

Makes me wish that all of my good friends with kids lived in the same place, so that we could all get together more often and let the kiddos bond!

our tobi boy

I haven't written about our first born, four-legged son in some time. Our sweet Tobi boy! Tobi has been with us since before we were married. Tobi has trained for marathons with us and was our mountain biking companion. He moved to Geneva with us and has more stamps in his passport than most people do. He was our "baby" for 8 years before Kenzie & Lexi were born. He was there to comfort me through the many months that we struggled with infertility and he was there to welcome his sisters home from the hosiptal. Tobi is a huge part of our family!


Tobi has been through some rough patches in the last few months. He had a cancerous growth in his back leg, which was successfully removed. He has also been having some issues with his back legs which we think may be related to the spinal stroke he had a few years ago and he is having trouble going up and down the stairs, which the doctor thinks is due to some occular degeneration which is causing him to have poor depth perception.... which means that many nights Tobi ends up sleeping downstairs as opposed to in our bed as he has for the past 8+years. Our boy will be 9 years old in August and he is starting to show his age.

But through it all he is still our sweet sweet boy. He could not be more loving and patient with his sisters ... who while always loving, are not always as gentle with him. The girls adore their brother. I think he receives more hugs and kisses from the girls than anyone else :) Tobi lets the girls sit on him, pull his ears, steal his toys without a single complaint. He does receive a lot of treats in return from his sisters. The girls love to give Tobi his treats, and they have also started "accidentally" dropping certain foods onto the floor for him :)




While Tobi is not as strong as he once was, we still like to include him in family activities as much as we can. On Sunday morning he came along for a family outing to breakfast & the park. We walked down to the Coffee Emporium and sat out on the patio and shared a waffle and breakfast burrito. We then went to the park and the girls had a blast exploring a new playground, while Tobi entertained the other kids at the park. He is so sweet and patient with kids when they come up and want to pet him. I love when Tobi gets excited and gets that bounce back into his step when we are out together as a family. He suddenly frolics like he did when he was a puppy, enjoying life and family time!


This weekend we also spent time at the pool and got some new bicycle seats for the girls. Looking forward to many family bicycle outings in the future!

girls day!

Today was a special day for me. I got to spend the whole day with just my girls! Sara is on vacation for 3 days, so Randall spent the day with the girls yesterday and I was home with them today, and we will split the day tomorrow. It has been a while since I spent a full day alone with just Kenzie & Lexi and we had a blast. I love my girls so much and love our mother-daughter time!



We made pancakes together for breakfast. The girls have played with pots and pans many times, but today was the first time that I let them mix their own ingredients (water & flour). They loved it ... they made a huge mess but it was worth it!



After breakfast we went for a walk and then played in the driveway. It was sweltering today but K&L (& mommy) had fun drawing with chalk in the shade.



In the afternoon we drove out to Indian Hill to Turner Farm. We went, because online it said that you could pick your own flowers and I thought the girls would really enjoy this as they love picking flowers in our yard. Unfortunately, they didn't have any flowers for picking, but we still had a great time visiting the chickens, sheep, pigs and horses. Lexi loves saying "baa, baa" when we see sheep and both Kenzie & Lexi learned how to imitate the horses "mbrrrrrr, mbrrrrr" noises :) We also picked up some farm fresh eggs and organic produce while we were there.









We also did lots of reading and snuggling today! Can't beat that! Such a fun girls day!

Happy Fourth!

Red, white & blue, a neighborhood parade, hot dogs & hamburgers, popsicles & cupcakes, sparklers & fireworks! We had it all today and it made for a great 4th of July!

We started the day with a patriotric breakfast.


Our good friends invited us to join them for the Hayward 4th of July street party. This has been a street tradition for over 20 years and they know how to do it right! The festivities kicked off with a bike/wagon parade led by a police escort. It was so cute to see all of the decorated bikes and the kids having such a great time. Kenzie & Lexi enjoyed riding in their wagon and the people watching. They had a blast playing with all of the kids on the street, enjoyed their first hot dog and even participated in the candy hunt. After all that fun they were ready for a good nap.



















This evening Daddy made a delicious grilled vegetable and smoked mozarella pizza for dinner which they girls LOVED! We topped it off with watermelon for dessert ... YUM! The girls were in bed before the Ault Park fireworks started at 10pm, so Randall and I caught a glimpse of them from our porch... thankfully the girls seem to have slept through them somehow :)

Popsicles & Pool Time

This week has been hot hot hot! So we have been spending our time eating popsicles and cooling off at the pool.











Not a bad way to spend our time :)