St. Nick of Garbage Day?!

A&O love Wednesday because it is Garbage Day. For at least the past 1.5 years they have run to the sun porch at the first sound of the big blue truck making its way down our street.

There is one particular "Sanitation Worker" who has had our route for years and he goes out of his way to entertain the girls. First, he has the driver blow the horn several times and everyone waves. In warm weather there are quick games of peek-a-boo from behind various trees and during the winter months snowballs are carefully thrown toward the house and the girls looking out the window.

One Garbage day around Christmas the girls yelled to me that the Garbage Man was coming up our driveway. I answered the bell to officially meet "Nick" and he had a gift for the girls: cute felt snowman pouches filled with Godiva chocolate covered baby pretzels! In February the bell rang and the girls were presented with Godiva Teddy Bears by Gund. Today the bell rang and Nick had two lovely Godiva chocolate flower shaped lollipops. Apparently Nick's wife works at a local Godiva store and buys the treats for Nick to give "his girls" (how he refers to A&O).

I have the feeling that Nick and Wednesday Garbage Day will be one of those childhood "remember when..." memories that A&O will talk about for years to come!

Wishin' and Hopin'... for Spring to come!

Okay Mother Nature! March is here. Could you spare a couple of warm days and send them our way? We're doing what we can to keep busy and happy indoors until we can run and play outside in the sunshine.

Despite the continued cold weather and cold bug (it just won't leave poor A alone!) we've had a decent week so far. Kevin's Mom visited Monday and played with the girls while I showered and got a few things done. We had to cancel a play date on Tuesday because A wasn't feeling very well. This cold has a terrible cough associated with it that keeps waking her (and me!) up each night. Wednesday we tackled Art Class and it went well (the coughing fits held off). Painting with big paper and big brushes impressed my budding Picasso's! Wednesday afternoon we went to the Dr. just to be sure that A didn't have a serious respiratory illness that required meds~ fortunately she doesn't. Today we played and I tried to tire the girls out. The first two nights after the Daylight Savings time change were great but we've gone downhill from there. A morning of active play and an afternoon visit to the warm Rain Forest at our zoo did the trick! A&O were sleeping not long after hitting their pillows. Now I'm wishin' and hopin' for a full night's sleep!

Art Anyone?

A&O attended their first 'Creative Play Date' art class at a local gallery this week. They love coloring, painting, cutting with scissors, etc. so I hoped they would like it and they did! I especially like that the small class ventures out of the studio and into the gallery to look at and talk about (very basic things!) the artwork. We are looking forward to next week's class!

Oooooo....glue is sticky!

Our art!

Let's try this again!

This past Saturday was the actual day for Kevin & my big Sesame Street surprise for A&O. Unfortunately our preparation for going out this time involved a lot of nose blowing, giving each girl honey to try to calm coughs, and packing our favorite organic lollipops into my bag to whip out if coughing attacks started.

As we got the girls out of the van at the theatre (with baby Elmos in their hands) there was a large tractor trailer with all of the Sesame Street characters plastered all over it, larger than life. With their excitement seeing the trailer we announced our surprise and they were thrilled.

The theatre itself was a visually stimulating adventure: large foyer with huge chandeliers, grand staircases, mirrored walls, velvet curtains, etc. We made our way to our seats and they couldn't have been more perfect (no seats in front of us, just a rail, so lots of room for standing and dancing and no worrying about one of us coughing on anyone in front of us). As the music started and Big Bird, Elmo, and friends took the stage I was surprised to find myself teary eyed. The awe on A&O's faces and the way they bopped and swayed to the music was priceless! We all enjoyed it so much.

Oh bug, bug, bugger!

Well, we've got a bug. It hit me and O first and now A has it, too. The girls' 3 year well visit at the pediatrician this week turned into a sick visit. On top of this major cold with fever, coughing and sneezing, O has a double ear infection. Kevin had to go out of town for business so the three of us girls just cuddled. A bonus to being sick: having your paci with you when you're not going to sleep*!

*Starting the day after A&O's third birthday pacifiers are only allowed for nap time and night time sleeping. Not sure how we get rid of them all together though! Any suggestions?

Dress Rehearsal

Kevin and I had a surprise for A&O today: we got tickets to go see Sesame Street Live! I woke up, got my shower and rushed to do my regularly scheduled Saturday morning grocery shopping (we were completely out of too many things to delay it) so I'd be home with just enough time to get the girls ready to leave for the theatre. Still without telling the girls that we had actual plans, we got into the car and drove, chatting along the way about various buildings we passed. One was a theatre and A&O thought they might like to go to one some day (big smile on Mommy and Daddy's faces at that point!). Before parking I hopped out of the car to check to see if rear door of the theatre (one we use often) was unlocked. It wasn't. As I turned to walk back to the car where Kevin and the girls were waiting a light bulb must have gone off in Kevin and my head at the same time: what is the date on our tickets?? Answer: it wasn't today!

After a good laugh was had by Mommy & Daddy the girls thought we should go do something (thankfully they still didn't know our original plan so they weren't disappointed). We headed to our local Science Museum for A&O's first visit. Right as we walked in we learned there was a 'story time' about to start.

We learned all about the first visit to the moon and A&O even got to eat dried ice cream or, as A calls it, "Moon Food".

We had a great time going through the museum and the girls can't wait to go back. But, I think they'll really LOVE seeing Sesame Street Live! Shhhh... its still a secret!

Vacation!

Sorry for not posting anything new in a while. We were on vacation in Florida and now I'm playing catch up. Will post soon!