Florida!

We are back from our trip to Florida and we ALL had a fabulous time! Prior to the trip, things were a little hectic and stressful, as we had to change our plans around several times! We were originally scheduled to go visit my grandmother at her house; however, she took a fall a few weeks prior to our arrival and wasn't up for visitors. After some quick planning from Grammy (Cindy), we were booked at a wonderful resort in Tampa instead!

Just as we started looking forward to a relaxing vacation, Brian had some meetings come up at work that almost forced him to stay home. After some careful thought and planning, we decided that the girls and I would fly out to FL alone and that Brian would stay home to finish up his work obligations and then join us the following day. I can tell you that flying ALONE with two toddlers, 2 large carseats, carry-on bags, and 3 large suitcases, was rather challenging....not to mention renting a car alone once we arrived in FL! But, we made it there relatively hassle free and we were thrilled to meet Grammy and Grandpa Chuck at the resort!! I felt very accomplished once we arrived and like all of my efforts had paid off, since the resort and weather were wonderful!!

The girls couldn't have been more perfect for me on the airplane!
Quietly watching a movie during the whole flight!
The following day, Daddy arrived and what can you guess was his first activity? Heading to the golf course, of course! So the girls and I headed to the pool for some sun and swimming!

The girls basically lived in the pool for the next several day and are both total fish! They have never been happier than they were just floating around the pool with their water wings on!


Macy, who wasn't previously a water lover, really came into her own this trip and did a fabulous job in the water. She loved figuring out how to move in the pool and spent her days doing twists, turns and spins using her legs! It was so fun to watch her figure it all out!!



And my little water bug, Sadie, loved being thrown and splashing into the water!


After hours at the pool each day, the girls cuddled up in their towels with their favorite people!



We took a fabulous bike ride on this bike-mobile which seated 4 adults (who all peddled) and had a basket seat for two kids up front!
The girls also loved pointing out golf carts and trying them out too!
One of the highlights of our trip was getting a little break for some adult time! Brian and I left the girls with Grammy (or "Maney" as Sadie calls her) and Grampa Chuck (Guck as the girls call him) and headed to visit some of our very best friends, who just moved to St. Petersburg! We had a wonderful time going to a party at a friends apartment, which overlooked the Indy car races that weekend and had an amazing view!

Thank you to Mike and Neysa for inviting us to join them for such a great time and to Neysa and Hillary for some great laughs!!
We sadly returned home to Ohio and 40 degree weather, but look forward to Spring weather arriving very soon and for the pool to open, so that the girls can continue working on their swimming skills! Thanks to Grammy for making our trip so incredibly wonderful!!

A Taste of Spring

On Friday, we had a little taste of spring, unfortunately it didn't last long, since the snow arrived again on Saturday! But, we took full advantage of the beautiful day while it lasted and took a walk to the playground. The girls were so happy to be playing outside and had a blast! I can't wait for winter to be over so we can get back to enjoying outdoor activities again!!!

My Little Ham!

I've been trying to take a lot of pictures of the girls recently to practice my newly learned skills (I still have a long way to go!); however, only Macy seems willing to put up with having the camera in her face all of the time. She even seems to be enjoying it a little bit and has been smiling and hamming it up...

Fun playgroup at COSI

Today the girls and I went down to COSI, the science museum here in Columbus. We went with our Thursday, twins playgroup and we had an absolute blast. The girls had been once before, but they weren't old enough to fully enjoy the Kidspace play area. However, today, they were at the perfect age to take advantage of every activity and they loved it!

Of course, the water table was the biggest hit, despite my best efforts to keep them away from discovering it! Thank goodness I brought a change of clothes, because they were soaked! The museum provides cute raincoats for kids to wear, but that doesn't protect their pants and shoes from the buckets of water that get dumped everywhere!
And finally, we ended our adventure by going down to the food court to eat lunch with all of our friends! We were quite the sight, 4 Mom's and 8 kids!

Growing Up

It continues to amaze me how much the girls are changing and growing up recently. They are talking away, repeating everything, understanding so much and quickly turning into little girls! On a whim the other day, I decided to ditch our high chairs for lunch time, in order to try out a meal at "the big girl table." The girls shocked me when they actually stayed seated, kept their food on their plates and ate like big kids! Now, we're not ready to eat here all of the time, but it's quickly becoming a fun treat a few times per week!

We've been going a little crazy at our house, being cooped up in doors with the recent ice storm (pictures coming soon). But, it's allowed me to focus a lot on party planning! Can you believe that in 3.5 months, the girls will be 2 years old?!? It's sure to be another amazing bash again this year and I'm already having so much fun planning away!

Snow Day!

We had another few inches of snow yesterday and so the girls and I went out for an afternoon of play! I decided to bring out my camera and practice using some of the settings that I learned on my first day of photography class. It was fun to finally take my camera off of the "auto" setting. I'm looking forward to learning a lot more at my upcoming classes, but for now, here are our snow pictures!






We are continuing to have a busy winter. We're "scheduled" like crazy. If you are wondering what we are up to...

Monday - We go to Open Gym at the Rec Center. This is one of the girls favorite activities. They open a huge gym to toddlers and put out an insane amount of wonderfully age appropriate toys. It's a free for all and a little crazy, but so much fun! We also sometimes have an afternoon playgroup on Mondays!
Tuesday - We go to our Whirlygig music class. This class is great and the girls are loving learning new songs and playing with all sorts of cool instruments.
Wednesday - We alternate between Storytime at the library and Toddler Theater. Storytime is fun, but a little more laid back, whereas Toddler Theater is a crazy, toddler dancing, music playing, great time.
Thursday - We have our toddler twins playgroup. This is one of my favorite days of the week, because I love getting time to relax with my other twin mom friends and the girls enjoy playing at a different house and with other twin friends!
Friday - For the next few weeks, the girls are going to Grandma Heidi's house in the mornings, while I get some much needed "me time" at photography class. I'm absolutely loving learning more about how to actually use my camera that I've had for a year now. And it's great to learn, socialize and meet other adults, without listening to yelling children!

So, as you can see we're busy with our packed schedule, in addition our regular day-to-day activities, but we're loving every second (or almost every second)!

More Dancing!

You saw a quick clip of Macy's new favorite activity in my last post, but here's an even better one! This shows her true talents! It's hilarious to watch both girls, but especially Macy get really into dancing.

A quick side track, but one of my favorite new purchases is a video baby monitor. I've wanted one since the girls were born, but Brian was totally against the idea and thought they were totally unnecessary. Once we discovered that Sadie was attempting an escape from her crib, we decided it was time to do a little bit more monitoring of what goes on at bedtime/naptime. I'm so happy that I waited, because I was able to get a fantastic, touch screen, video monitor that just came on the market...it even holds up to 4 cameras! I'm totally in love with this thing! But, back to dancing. So, while watching the girls in their cribs, we noticed that not only does Macy dance with us, but she also does her fair share of dancing in her crib too! It's hilarious!

So, here they are...my dancing girls (and Daddy too!)