{wordless wednesday: lexi + kenzie giggles = pure joy}

family-fun day

We woke up to a beautiful day and decided that it was a perfect day for a trip to Findlay Market & the zoo. It was our first trip to Findlay market since the girls were little-bitty and they had such fun. They enjoyed dancing to the music, petting lots of friendly dogs, and checking out all of the colorful flowers, fruits & vegetables. They also enjoyed a belgian waffle with fresh strawberries & whipped cream for breakfast. Yumm!





Next we were off to the zoo. It is so fun to watch the girls at the zoo at this age. They get so excited to see the animals and love running from exhibit to exhibit. Their favorite things right now are Gibbon Island where they can watch the gibbon's swinging overhead and the polar bears. Today, they also enjoyed the gorillas and thought the one gorilla eating celery was pretty funny.







After the girls' nap, our family-fun day continued with a trip to Whole Foods to pick up food for dinner. We grilled out and ate dinner on the back porch, savoring the last drops of sunshine on this beautiful day!

{wordless wednesday: the apple of my eye & my perfect "modern day" princess}

artists at work

Our house is not large and with two very active toddlers and all of the toys and gear that accompanies them, it seems to be getting smaller every day :) We try to utilize every space to its fullest potential and I am so thankful to my amazingly talented father-in-law (Papa Gene) for helping us achieve this goal. In addition to the great toy box that he built for the girls' birthday, he also built us a super-functional and beautiful entertainment center which looks like a built in and has tons of room for toy storage, picture display, and even has a built in art table for the girls!



We finally made it out to Ikea to get 2 little chairs and on Sunday Kenzie & Lexi were able to try out their art table for the first time. Besides finding the table surface to be a better canvas than the paper, it was a huge success! I love watching my girls create their masterpieces. I love to watch them be creative whether it is through art, dancing or acting. Kenzie is currently more into drawing than Lexi is. Lexi is our little actress. She has the most expressive faces ... across the full spectrum ... and knows that she is entertaining us with them. Both girls love to dance, but have very different moves. Lexi has started to twirl in circles to the point of making herself dizzy. Kenzie is more of a hip-shaking girl. They both love to entertain, and we love to watch them :)



We love our little house and while we won't stay in it forever, we are making the most of it while we are here. There are lots of features that we love about our house ... the back porch and our master bathroom/bedroom being at the top of the list, but most importantly we love our street and our neighborhood. I am so happy that this is where the girls are getting to spend the first years of their lives, and I hope that they will have some memories of our happy home on Lambert Place... where they learned to draw and dance and perform!

Hiking + Biking

I love my little trailblazers! And they loved "hiking" in the woods this Saturday afternoon. Kenzie & Lexi would run ahead on the trail and pick up sticks and rocks along the way. What a fun little adventure!







Apparently that little pebble was of great interest to them both :)



We also went for a bike ride, but this wasn't quite as big of a hit with Lexi. The first few miles were smooth "riding" but then Lexi had had enough and we had a lot of whining and soon had to turn around and head back to the car.



Oh well, we still had a great afternoon and we'll try it again hopefully with more success.

Farmer's Fair

On Saturday we visited the Farmer's Fair in Covington, KY. It was basically a glorified farmer's market with a petting zoo and some speakers promoting the benefits of eating local food. We love a good farmer's market and it was a beautiful day so it worked for us :)



I love that my girls are such good eaters. They enjoyed some fresh watermellon and grilled corn on the cob at the fair...



... and some farm fresh apples on the car ride home!

happy 100th birthday ault park!

Ault Park is our favorite park in Cincinnati! We are lucky to live within walking distance and we spend a lot of time at this park. It is where we took some of our first walks with Tobi when he was a puppy. It is where we took our maternity pictures, and also several photo shoots of the girls already. It is where the girls had their first picnic and where we eat dinner frequently on nice summer evenings. We love the tree trails, the playground, the beautiful gardens surrounding the pavillion. The girls visit the playground almost daily. It is where they learned to swing, climb and slide. Ault Park is a place where we meet friends and enjoy time together as a family.



Ault Park is celebrating its 100th year and tonight the girls and I walked up for the 'Big Birthday Bash'. We had such a great time! There were games, there was a band and dancing, there were people dressed in period costume and old fashioned Reds uniforms, there was cake and ice cream. Kenzie & Lexi had a great time dancing and playing with all the other kids. We met up with friends and neighbors and had such an enjoyable night. We just wish that Daddy could have joined us, but sadly he is out of town. I'm sure we'll be back at the park together as a complete family again this weekend :)

a perfect weekend

Friday was a beautiful day and a spontaneous neighborhood happy-hour was the perfect way to kick off the weekend. The girls had so much fun playing with all of the kids on our street. I love that there are so many kids so close in age. They loved playing together on the slide and both Kenzie & Lexi fell in love with Ayla's baby doll stroller.



On Saturday while the girls were napping I went out and bought them each a doll stroller. When they spotted them out on the back porch they were sooo excited! We immediately had to take their baby dolls for a walk.



On Saturday evening Audra, Kyle and Maddie came over for dinner. The girls love "babies" right now and they were very smitten with Maddie. Kenzie tried to share her goldfish with Maddie ... now that's love :) We had such a fun evening with the Schlegel's!



On Sunday morning we took a trip to the Farmer's Market and of course the girls insisted on bringing their baby dolls and strollers along. They are such good "mommies". Lexi is gentle with her baby and stroller, while Kenzie is a bit rough. She will pick up the whole stroller and correct her course, at times inadvertently losing baby in the process. They were quite the hit at the market :)





On Sunday evening we took a family walk up to Ault Park and met up with some friends at the playground. The girls have graduated to the "big kid" side of the playground ... wanting to keep up with their older friends. They went down the tunnel slide for the first time on their own... they seem to have no fear!



I am so happy that the girls are finally feeling better and that we were able to have such a wonderful weekend together as a family. Life is good.

"hot" in pictures

The girls were feeling a bit better this weekend so on Sunday we took a family trip to the park. The girls had so much fun running around on the soccer field, but were quickly soaked in sweat. You can literally "see" them get hot & sweaty through these pictures ...
















All tuckered out and ready for some A/C!



The girls were so happy that Daddy came home from Panama on Friday night (a day early ... yay!) and enjoyed some Daddy-daughter time this weekend. I love these moments between them that I was able to capture on film.

playing dress up, pigtails, potties and other random tidbits ...

It has been so hot recently, so between the heat and illness we have been spending a lot of time inside trying to stay cool & get healthy. Here are some pictures from our indoor adventures over the course of the past week.

The girls love reading ... this remains one of their favorite activities and they can entertain themselves quite well. Love Kenzie's pose :)



Tobi hasn't been feeling very well lately and the girls have been especially sweet to their brother. They both snuggle up to him and give him hugs and kisses when he's down. Lexi has also started to help feed Tobi. When she notices that his food bowl is empty she will pick it up and carry it over to the door where his food is. After we fill it up she puts it back where it belongs, beaming with pride :)



The girls have started to enjoy playing dress up. They love putting on hats, tutus, capes and most recently have discovered my high heels. Loving Lexi's little pigtails :)



The girls aren't talking much yet, but they are starting to expand their vocabulary a bit. Lexi has more real words than Kenzie, but Kenzie will babble so adamantly that you swear she is saying something profoundly important ... " a wheee a wheee a whaa?!" Lexi's favorite words beyond dadda and momma are cheese and shoes. Girl knows what she likes :)



We picked up a potty at the Target the other day, just to start exposing the girls to the idea. Apparently I potty trained myself in 1 day at the age of 18 months after watching my slightly older friend use the potty. Not that I am expecting my daughters to do the same, but a girl can dream right? :) So far they really enjoy sitting on the potty but nothing beyond that has happened.



Kenzie and Lexi are interacting with one another more and more each day. A common part of their daily routine now includes "sister wrestling", which starts with hugs and kisses, then transitions into full on body tackles and lots of giggles, and often ends with kenzie crying as lexi is the more aggressive one when it comes to this sport. While i don't like it when it ends in tears, it sure is cute to watch the giggle stage :) Love my girls more and more each day!