{non-stop...}

...that just about sums up our last week. Between work, play, trying to keep the house in some sort of order and running, I don’t think that I have had a chance to sit down all week until tonight when I finally got to catch up on some Olympics, upload pics and write this blog entry.

And because my brain is tired here are my random ramblings about our non-stop week accompanied by my weekly instagram download ...

I renewed my drivers license this week (Only a month late... apparently it expired on my birthday and I had no idea ... guess that is a side effect of our non-stop lives).  I was in and out of the BMV in less than 5 minutes ... small miracle.  It was another hot week so we spent our evenings indoors cooking and baking. This is one of the girls favorite things to do and a good alternative to being eaten alive by mosquitos. You know it’s bad when Kenzie says, “I need to go inside. Too many b bites!” Poor thing inherited my sweet blood.  The girls also enjoy "counting" the money in their piggy banks.  Lexi is saving for a "princess suitcase" whereas Kenzie has decided she is going to buy "pizza" with her savings : )

On Wednesday night we did venture out to the park for a bit after family dinner out.  The girls had fun playing hide and seek.  "I'm hiding behind the tree!"  They don't really get the full concept yet : )  Kenzie is obsessed with her backpack and will carry it everywhere - even if we are only going upstairs for a minute. K&L had a fun week with Sara doing their usual routine ... gymastics, pool, free matinee - Curious George this week, story time with friends. I had a fun work offsite at Star Lanes to celebrate the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics.

We had some great storms at the end of the week which thankfully brought with them some relief from the extreme heat and humidity for a day or so. Granny arrived in town on Friday to help while Sara is on vacation for a week. We had a fun weekend.

Family dinner at J. Alexander followed by bedtime stories with Granny. Great Saturday morning 9 miler (felt so much better without the humidity). Breakfast at Lookout Joe’s with Granny. Trip to Target where the girls got their first Barbie dolls … they keep feeding them their baby doll bottles, saying “Mommy, my baby has boobies.” Perhaps they are too young for Barbies :) Twilight trip to the pool.

Date night at A Tavola. Following our shadows to the farmers market. Breakfast at The Echo. Neighborhood party. I love our neighborhood and the fact that there are so many families with young kids that have become good friends. Reuniting with long-time friends visiting from Colorado.

It was so wonderful to see Laura after more than 2 years and such a joy to watch Kenzie & Lexi play with our good friends’ children. They of course love seeing Brooke & Gavin, but they also played so nicely with Gwen, Darcy & Beckett who they had only met once before when they were a few weeks old.

I can't believe how big all of our kids are ... sometimes I wish things would just slow down.  Hoping for another good week with some room to breathe.  Loving all of the fun that we are packing into our summer.  Non-stop ...

{the things she says...}

Lexi: Mommy, we are princesses and need to sit uppa high!

Naked princesses no less.  It was Kenzie's idea to grab the step stool so that they could climb up and down on their own.  Where do they come up with these things?

____________________________________________________________________________________

On our way to the farmers market on Sunday Randall realized that we didn’t have any cash, so he ran back
a block to go to the ATM.

Kenzie: Where did Daddy go?

Me: He had to go get money from the bank.

Kenzie: Lexi, Daddy went to go get money out of his piggy bank.

These girls crack me up :)

{from sick to "super fun"}

The week started out with Lexi running a fever and complaining that her mouth hurt. A trip to the doctor confirmed that she had painful blisters in her throat. Two days later I was back at the doctor with Kenzie who was running a high fever and complaining that her ears hurt. Turns out that she had the same thing. Two sick girls made for lots of whining and complaining (thanks Sara for your patience & care during the week). 

I was afraid that sickness would interfere with our fun plans for the weekend, but the girls woke up on Saturday morning fever free and in much better spirits. “Can we go to George’s birthday party?” was the first phrase out of Lexi’s mouth. And that we did.

We celebrated George’s 2nd Birthday Party at the Mt. Lookout Swim Club. It was the perfect party with plenty of room for the kids to play, eat and make a mess! The girls’ appetite had certainly returned and they consumed a ton of pizza, watermelon and an entire cupcake each!  They had a blast celebrating with their good friend George and we had a great time as well.

After all of that fun the girls were wiped out and took a nice long nap. Once they woke up we headed downtown to enjoy the beautiful evening near Great American Ballpark. We hadn’t been down there as a family since they opened up the new Smale Park and retail spaces and it was the perfect evening to explore. The Reds were playing and there was a great atmosphere around the ballpark. The girls played baseball on the lawn, ran through the fountains and enjoyed a yummy dinner followed by frozen yogurt. I am so excited to see such great things happening in our city … between Washington Park in Over the Rhine and the new Riverfront development the city has so much new life and energy … it has really come a long way since we lived downtown 8 years ago.  I love it!

The fun continued on Sunday with a much anticipated visit with Maddie & Moose. We told the girls 2 weeks ago that the Schlegels would be coming up for a visit and that we were going to meet them at the Farmers Market. I think they must have asked about it a 100 times in those 2 weeks. While it was a quick visit it was so great to see them all and to watch Kenzie & Lexi’s excitement to see Maddie & Moose again. They had fun jamming to the band, playing in the fountain and eating some yummy waffles together! Looking forward to a longer visit in the coming months…

Our afternoon was spent how we have been spending most of our Sundays as of late … poolside. It was another hot one and it felt great to cool off at the pool. The girls are continuing to advance in their “swimming” abilities. They now rarely even ask to go to the baby pool or splash pad and prefer to swim in the big pool with their floaties. While they can’t swim on their own they certainly know how to motor around by kicking their legs and paddling their arms and have no fear whatsoever of putting their heads under the water. So fun to watch! We finished off the evening with dinner at El Jinete.

As we were putting the girls to bed on Sunday night I said, “I am so glad you girls are feeling better and that we got to have such a fun weekend together.” To which Lexi replied, “Super fun mommy!” That about sums it up.

Now for the Instagram recap ...

{busy summer days}

We are staying busy this summer and are packing our days with lots of fun.  Our weekday evenings are spent cooking dinners together, taking walks in the neighborhood to "say night night to the cats", playing in our yard - when we aren't being eaten alive by mosquitoes, or playing silly games indoors when we are.  Our Friday night ritual is Happy Hour at the pool.  Sara is also keeping the girls busy while we are at work with frequent trips to the pool, gymanstics, story time, play dates with friends and they even took their first trip to the movies this past Wednesday.

They went to the Wednesday free matinee in Mariemont and saw The Land Before Time with their friend Emma.  Lexi was very much into the movie, whereas Kenzie said she was read to go home about 10 minutes in (she snuggled with Sara and played in the aisle for the rest of the movie).  They both enjoyed the popcorn.  When I got home Lexi told me "I went to the "boobies" and saw a show about dinosaurs and one was named Sarah." :)

This past weekend was another hot one.  I ran 7.5 miles before 7:30am on Saturday morning, then Randall rode his bike with the neighborhood guys for 30+ miles, before we all headed down to the new Washington Park for The City Flea.  We were so impressed by the new park - it has an awesome playground, tons of water features for kids to play in (we did not know this so didn't come equipped with swimsuits, which is why the girls dresses ended up gettimg soaked), and a fabulous view of beautiful Music Hall.  The City Flea was also fun - lots of great artists selling their crafts and other unique goods.  The girls picked out gorgeous handmade dolls - which they love and want to take everywhere with them.

Randall and I had a rare date night on Saturday night.  We enjoyed a fabulous dinner at La Poste.  It is always good to get out just the two of us.  Sunday was spent with various activities all in attempt to stay cool - we played at the book store in the morning, went shoe shopping at Nordstrom, and spent time at the pool.

The girls love being at the pool and their confidence continues to grow.  They now prefer the big pool over the baby pool - although when it comes time to leave they always beg "go to the baby pool for just 5 minutes?"  They know how to manipulate us :) 

The weekend wrapped up with some homemade pizza for dinner.  The girls had a blast rolling the dough and sprinkling on all of the different toppings.  So much fun.  Too bad the weekends always go by so quickly ...



{hot summer days}

I can't remember a week that has been quite as hot and humid as this past week was.  As luck would have it, it was also the week that I started my official 18 week marathon training program.  I survived by running early in the mornings ... so early that my only companions were this sweet family of deer that I saw on a daily basis.  The heat did not stop the girls from having fun this week.   Here is a weekly recap instagram style ...

A trip to the zoo with Sara and her family, 4th of July fun ...

Trips to the pool (including Friday night Happy Hour), backyard fun and some time playing inside to cool off ...

More pool time fun, followed by ice cream in PJ's, a family walk to Coffee Emporium for yummy waffles ...

Building towers out of mulch, healthy lunch at Whole Foods, a trip to the pool spoiled by lightning ... but made up for by getting to go pick up carry out with Daddy. 

Another busy, fun filled and exhausting week!  Hoping for some relief from the heat this upcoming week ...

{big girl beds}

Given our busy month of June, I don’t think I even mentioned that we transitioned the girls to their toddler beds back over Memorial Day weekend. They have done very well with the transition. On the first night in their new beds, about an hour after they went to sleep Randall and I heard a big thud while we were watching TV. I quickly looked at the video monitor and realized that Kenzie had fallen out of bed. I was about to sprint up the steps to console my sweet girl, but she nonchalantly climbed back into bed herself and went right back to sleep. Randall and I commented that it was a good thing it happened to Kenzie, as Lexi would not have handled it so well. We were wrong. A few hours later there was another thud, this time Lexi, and she did the same thing as her sister without even a whimper. And here is the clincher … they both slept until 9am the next morning. And even when they awoke they stayed in their beds and called for us to come get them.

Now, the sleeping in until 9am part and the staying in bed at all times has not continued, but overall the transition has been very smooth. We did have one week where anytime that Lexi woke up she would walk over and crawl into Kenzie’s bed … this was cute at first … but started to annoy Kenzie when she wanted to sleep. We told Lexi that she needs to stay in her own bed and now she gives herself a peptalk every evening as we are tucking her in … “No cry. No get in sissy’s bed. Stay in my bed.” And she does for the most part, except in the morning when it's snuggle time.

What typically happens on any given morning is that Kenzie will walk over to Lexi’s bed and tell her to “come with.” They then both crawl into Kenzie’s bed … sometimes they go back to sleep, sometimes they tell each other stories, sometimes they bring the basket of books that sit next to Kenzie’s bed into bed with them and read, sometimes it turns into a tickle/giggle fest or the bed becomes a trampoline. Whatever they choose to do, they are happy and bonding. One of my new favorite pastimes is watching them in bed together on the video monitor (sometimes I feel like I am spying on them). I love how close they are and that they have this special morning time together. They will spend anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes doing this, until Lexi usually yells, “Mommy, I want to get out!”

Such a special twin sister bond.  Here is a video taken of the video monitor capturing a morning giggle fest ...

{happy birthday america!}

Happy 4th of July!  It was a hot one but a good one.  We had a great time at the Hayward street party once again this year.  From the parade (featuring the orginal batmobile), to bouncy house fun, to hamburgers and hot dogs, to fun with friends ... it was a classic fourth of July celebration!



{we had a BLAST this weekend}

It was one of my favorite weekends of the year in Cincinnati ... the Hyde Park Blast!

The girls ran in the kids race on Saturday morning.  Cutest thing ever!  Here they are at the starting line discussing their race strategy with George. 

While they were excited to "go to my race"  all morning, once the race actually started they were a bit overwhelmed and started crying.  So I ended up running while carrying both of them ... Randall was riding his bike so unfortunately I don't have any photos to capture this, but I'm sure it was quite a sight :)

The sweet taste of the finish line ... enjoying some post race water and cookies while proudly displaying their finisher medals :)

Then we were off to the fountain to soak some weary feet...

It was a hot weekend so we spent the afternoon at the pool before returning back to the square for the evening bike races, elite runners race and block party.  Such a fun and busy day!

Twelve hours later we were back at the square for the Sunday morning Farmers Market.  We met up with the Stealeys and enjoyed a nice breakfast together and then the kids had a blast dancing and playing in the square.

We stopped at the park on our way home and by the time we left we were all soaked in sweat ... it was hot hot hot.  We headed back to the pool after nap time for some needed relief from the heat.  Such an active weekend ... I think we will all sleep well tonight!

{i love my family}

The fun continued on Sunday evening (we returned from the beach late Saturday night, celebrated Fathers Day on Sunday morning) when Omi, Aunt Inken, Uncle Andy and cousin Grady arrived from California (via NY/CT for Hollen & Adam’s wedding) for a visit! 

We had such a fun week together ... watching the cousins play together, celebrating mom's 60th birthday, having Omi & Aunt Inken accompany the girls to gym"nastics" ... 

... Grady's first trip to the pool, a play date with Maddie, swinging "uppa high" with Uncle Andy on the back porch, a trip to Beech Acres to meet up with the Stealeys, blowing bubbles ...

 .... a visit to the aquarium, trips to Ault Park, yummy celebration dinner at Boca, bouncy house fun, family birthday dinner & Grady's first dinner out at A Tavola, family game nights ...

 ... fun in the backyard pool, a trip to the zoo, and the Lambert Place Street party!

 It was so wonderful to spend a whole week with my family.  To watch the cousins play so nicely together.  Although they are 18 months apart Grady truly did keep up with his older cousins .. whether chasing them around the living room, jumping with them in the bouncy house or playing in the pool ... he was always in on the fun.  It was so great to get to celebrate both my mom's and my birthday together with family.  It was a great week, but also made me wish that we lived closer to family, so that we could spend quality time together on a regular basis vs. on special occasions only.  Maybe someday ... but for now I will savor the memories from this wonderful week together.  I love my family so!

Now for some funny "outtakes" from the cousin photo shoot ... thanks for your patience Sara and for capturing some great shots amongst the craziness :)