Touch a Truck!

Last weekend (the weekend before Memorial Day) we took a little trip into the city for Touch A Truck! We went last year, but forgot the camera, so obviously, it just might as well have not happened. Anyway, Touch A Truck is a fundraiser that the Junior League of Pittsburgh puts on every year; basically it's a giant parking lot filled with every type of truck, vehicle, and construction equipment you can imagine! The kids are free to climb over, in, and through most of the vehicles, and blow their horns. Makes for a rather loud event. Colin wasn't super pleased with the noise level, but he did have fun.

We have a lot more pictures of Colin than Gillian because Colin walked around with Daddy, who was holding the camera. I spent most of my time trying to keep up with Gillian. This girl. Oh, this girl. She just does not care where the rest of us are. If she sees something interesting, she's off like a rocket, on her own, no cares at all. Keeps us on our toes anyway.

The only picture we have of Gillian is this one. Hard hat and a dress. That's about right.


Colin, on the other hand, had a mini-photo-shoot!

C in a bucket truck (he really likes bucket trucks, one of his favorites to spot about town)


In the ambulance!


And his absolute favorite of the day. The big front end loader! He eyed it up when we first got there, but didn't want to drive it. When we worked our way around again, he got up his nerve and took his turn!


Look at that happy boy!


What a big digger!


We will definitely be going back to Touch A Truck for many more years! What neat event!

Boss

This is what Gillian bossing Colin looks like. It happens frequently. He handles it better than I do. Mostly, he ignores her. Or he screams at her and runs away. Either way.

A Few Good Men

Daddy was vacuuming the house on Sunday (yay!) and Colin decided to help with his little vacuum. He wouldn't get near the real vacuum, but when Daddy finished a room, Colin would go in and push his all over the carpet. He even mimicked Daddy's foot stomp on the vacuum head to make sure it's engaged with the carpet! Too funny! They were so cute together, I had to get a picture of my two helpful men!

More Fashion

We've added hats to our repertoire.

Thanks, Uncle Owl!

Last Thursday evening while I was making dinner and waiting for Daddy to get done at the dentist, I got a phone call from Daddy's work friend, Al. C&G call Al, Uncle Owl.

Don't ask.

Anyway, Uncle Owl was on his way home from work, saw that his neighbor had put a cute little plastic playhouse out for the garbage. Uncle Owl wanted to know if we wanted it. And since we're so classy, we said YES, PLEASE! It took Uncle Owl and Daddy a while to get it down and find a car to haul it home in, but we did manage to dumpster dive ourselves a little playhouse!

On Saturday, Daddy power-washed it (fun for the kids in its own right!) and set it up in the yard for us!

TA DA!!!

Looks pretty good for free!!!

The kiddos are certainly enjoying it! They like to serve ice cream out the windows and the other day they pretended it was a fish tank and fed the fish handfuls of grass.




Hmmm, I wonder if Uncle Owl could find, let's say, an iPad in the trash for us????

TEETH!

The kids are accompanying me to the dentist this week (yes, both of them with just me), so we'll see if these are healthy as well as cute!

More Hanging Out

Still working on the potty thing. Still hanging out at home. This time with Daddy. And the camera. That always leads to silliness. And food on the head.



OJ and asparagus. Yum.


TA DA!!!!


And, lots and lots of SMILES!!!



Thankfully, we are starting to get out and about some more! And we have fun weekend plans! More later!

Fashion Statement

Gillian will currently only wear dresses. That's actually kind of nice with all the potty-ing we've been doing. I snapped this picture of her wearing her dress, knee socks, rubber mud boots, and bike helmet. It was a statement, alright.

Hanging Out at Home

We've been pretty much stuck at home for about a week now doing some serious potty training. The kiddos are doing well; I'm not sure the concept has 100% clicked in their heads, but we're doing well enough to forge forward. One morning last week it stopped raining (briefly), but the yard was still too soggy to play, so we took our paints out on the deck for some fun.

I should note that it was not a good idea to dress Colin in a brand-new, first-time-wearing, white t-shirt to paint in. Brilliant, Mommy, brilliant. The shirt is STILL in the wash.


They got really into this activity and spent at least half an hour with the paint brushes.


Gillian likes to layer her paints and really lay the colors on thick!


You can see, Colin got some paint on himself!


This was our masterpiece!

Colin made that lovely vision by the red paint cup and told me it was a peacock. Gillian made the large green mass on the right of the picture. I'm don't think she told me what it was. Grass for sheep maybe?

Anyway, that's our potty training entertainment!

Giving Mother's Day Gifts

A few weeks before Mother's Day, I asked the kiddos what they wanted to get GraGra and Grammy for Mother's Day; I think we were in the car at the time. Gillian immediately, and without hesitation, said, "Balloons." Huh. Ok. Colin quickly agreed. I asked what kind of balloons, and I got "Kitty and puppy balloons." I decided to let the topic lie for a while.

A week later I asked again, and immediately got "Balloons" again. By this point, I was down with the idea. Let's face it, GraGra and Grammy don't really NEED anything, and whatever Colin and Gillian come up, their grandmothers think is genius. Balloons it is! And I decided to let the kiddos have most of the control in this project.

We tried to search down the initial "Kitty and Puppy" idea, but unless we were going to give "Happy First Birthday" balloons, that wasn't going to happen. We headed over to our local dollar store, where they sell tons of baloons, and I explained that I couldn't find kitty and puppy balloons and they should pick something else. We wandered around and looked at all the FOUR WALLS of balloons and went home to think on it. When we came back, our decisions were made. Gillian picked out a HUGE, three foot tall Cinderella balloon (shocker) and she wanted a butterfly balloon. Luckily, they had a butterfly balloon that said "Happy Mother's Day" on it. Ordered.

Colin's turn was next. When we walked in they had a big bunch of baseball themed balloons ready for someone to pick up, full of baseballs, blue stars, and red stars. Colin really liked the blue stars, so he picked one of those. Then I helped him remember that Grammy and GraGra's favorite colors were purple and green. So he picked "favorite color" balloons. Ordered.

So, on Mother's Day, Daddy picked up the (very large, it turns out) bunches of balloons and stuffed them in the back of the car. I had the kids and GraGra in the other car and was following him over to Uncle D's house. GraGra spotted her balloons and she was LAUGHING so hard. When we got to Uncle D's house and Gillian and Colin saw the bunches, they were SO excited!!! And, man, that Cinderella was B-I-G.

We ended up with GraGra's balloons at our house for a few hours after lunch while we waited for Papa Greg to get back from the Pirate game. The kiddos were SO EXCITED. I was pretty sure they would cry when the balloons left, but they took it well. Colin did ask for the balloons on Monday morning though. I told them they were at GraGra's house. He told me, "Let's go to GraGra's HOUSE!!!"


So, I'm thinking that since we're starting some formal, serious-type potty training this week, we might use the balloons as some sort of reward. G has her eye on her own Cinderella and Colin wants a Thomas balloon. We can do that!!!

Mother's Day Wrap-up!

We had a lovely Mother's Day weekend, and we hope you did too! As usual, it was a busy weekend filled with family and food, but that's the way we like it.

Daddy and I kicked off the holiday with a night out! GraGra and Papa Greg decided to come down Saturday evening, so we ditched the kids and ran out the door! No, not really, but close! We had a nice time out with friends and the kids always have fun when we go out!

Sunday morning Daddy cooked us all bagels (Colin was very excited!) and we played around for a bit! I opened some nice cards and a new photo album for my purse and Daddy surprised me with The Pioneer Woman's cookbook (I LOVE cookbooks). It was all very sweet and very much appreciated.

We ran a few quick errands to pick up Grandma Presents (they were all ordered, just not ready until actual Mother's Day) and lunch items, then headed over to Uncle D and Aunt Cede's new house for a Mother's Day Picnic. We were pretty excited to have our first official celebration in the new house! Last time we were there, they hadn't moved their furniture in yet, so the kids could run and run and run everywhere. I think Colin and Gillian were a bit disappointed by the actual livability of the house! The rest of us were not disappointed though!

Gillian is a super-duper holiday lover. You tell her it's a holiday and she'll yell from the mountaintops to anyone nearby to wish them a "HAPPY WHATEVER!" It took her a bit to switch from Happy Easter to Happy Mother's Day on Sunday, but pretty soon she got it. The best was when she ran into the dining room and up to Papa Frank and yelled, "Happy Mother's Day FRANK!" Oh my.

She also likes cake. A lot.


Colin, on the other hand, passed on the cake. But, he helped Uncle D make some coffee.


We got some pictures with the Moms and the little ones too.






I'm not sure where they learned those hammy faces!

After lunch we headed home for a bit of nap and then off to the park to enjoy the beautiful day! We got some more bike time in - YAY!!! Then it was a quick dinner, bath, and bed. What a great day. I am so blessed to be able to celebrate it with my sweet kiddos and the other great moms in my life!

AJ's Back!

We've had our little friend AJ over a couple more times on Saturdays while his big bro and sis have some swim time! This last visit, Gillian took a bigger interest in him; she sang to him, talked to him, tickled him, and held his hand. Colin paid a little bit of attention to AJ, but not as much as Sissy did.

Look at how excited AJ is!


Colin did have to get in on the picture action! Cheese balls.

Catching Up with Old Friends

Last Thursday Colin had a recheck with his dermatologist WAY up north. Can I just say that the Pittsburgh area needs more than ONE pediatric dermatologist; it's really kind of ridiculous. Anyway, we always grab the earliest appointment that we can, so that we don't waste an entire day. This time it was especially nice because we made plans to meet up with my old friend, Miss Beth, and her two little cuties.

We lucked into a very pretty day; our first dry day in a long, long while, so we met up at a playground and let the kiddos run wild! Beth's little girl, Natalie, is about 3 1/2 and was very interested in trying to get C&G to play with her. And, in true 2 year old style, Colin and Gillian really didn't notice. I think Gillian and Natalie ended up playing in the sandbox together for a while, though. I spent most of my morning getting to know Jackson, Miss Beth's 5 month old little guy, who I hadn't met yet (so glad we could remedy that)! He is just the sweetest, happiest little guy and I snuggled him up!

When I tried to get a picture of all the kiddos, things got crazy. My two just said NO and ran away. Jackson was sleeping. So, I got the beautiful Miss Natalie all by herself!


I miss seeing my Miss Beth all the time (we used to work together, pre-kids) and it was nice to (try to) catch up a bit! Hope we get to do more of it this summer!

Nap Time.

I found it funny one day last week that while the kiddos were upstairs napping like rock stars, my feline companions took the calm, quiet opportunity to nap downstairs (like rock stars).

I love WeeWee snuggled up in the Cinderella dress and MoMo SQUEEZING himself into the kids' reading chair! Tight fit. A bit.

Tent!

The kids have been into playing tent the past week or so. I have them convinced they have to wait for Daddy to play though. They do many things in their tent. It's been a rocket and it's been painted with paint brushes. Tonight it was a bus. Good times.



Another related game is to take the couch cushions and make a sandwich out of the members of our family! So, a Colin Sandwich is ordered, we squish The Boy between the cushions, add mustard and extra tickles. Guarantees giggles.

Weasel Success

Weasel finally fit into her birthday box one day last week. She was squeezed pretty tight and may not have been able to breath, but she did it!

Bye Bye, Miss Thelma

Our favorite indoor play space closed on April 30th. The season only runs October through April every year. The kids and I really enjoyed ourselves at The See Saw Center this winter; I know I've written about it a couple of times. One of the biggest perks, though, was the super nice lady who works there. Miss Thelma is just about the sweetest woman on the planet; she just lights up when "her kids" come in the door to play. Colin and Gillian think she's pretty awesome too! Colin has been known to tell us "I love Miss Thelma" (sigh). So, we were sad to say goodbye last week and not see her until October! We did have to get a picture though!

Look What We Can Do When it Doesn't Rain.

I think it has rained for the past 1,972 days. Except Saturday. Saturday was nice. Then it started raining again. Good thing we had fun while we could.

First order of business was getting those new bikes out for a spin.


Please admire the helmets; Daddy almost had a stroke getting them adjusted correctly.

As you can see, not a whole lot of actual pedaling was going on. Colin's legs are just a bit short for his bike; we need to get him some pedal blocks. Gillian can reach her pedals, and she actually did try to pedal bit, but I think it was still harder than just pushing with her feet. They had a ball anyway.



They still got a little Mommy/Daddy help too!


After a good bit of biking, we packed the trikes up in the car and walked over to Colin's favorite "Shaky Bridge" playground.



Then we took off down the hill to check out a big tree stump. A winter storm must have done in a big, old tree and the park service cut it down this spring. We enjoyed the stump; Michael counted the rings and we estimate it was about 100 years old. Very impressive.

They liked stuffing a hole in the middle of the stump with sticks and telling us it "was for the birdies." No idea what that means.



(Note to self: Shower on mornings Daddy brings the camera to the park)

We checked out the nearby stream, dog park, and bridge too. We got a lot done on our ONE nice day. Please, please, please STOP RAINING.

Bedtime Funnies

The kids have been ON FIRE at bedtime this week. Daddy and I have been totally cracking up all week.

Sunday Night

Gillian (to Colin): I love you.
Colin: Thank you.

30 minutes later

Gillian (to Colin): I love you.
Colin: I love BlueBlue (his teddy bear).

He still won't really tell her "I love you." But he will sometimes say, "I love you, Mommy, Daddy, and Sissy."


Monday night

Colin was looking at the diaper box in his room while getting his PJs on. He's been really into pointing out and labeling print lately, so he starts, "H...U...G...G...I...E...S....KISSIES!!!" Umm, almost, but really cute.


Tuesday Night

As Daddy was drying Colin off after bath Colin told him, "Tree bend. Then fall down. Then you can never fix it. And it make the tree sad." We have no idea where that came from. He's been really into trees lately too, and we talk about them a lot, but I don't think we'd ever had that conversation before.

Can't wait to see what tomorrow night brings us.

I'm a Model

I realized late on Easter Sunday that I didn't really have a nice picture of Gillian in her Easter dress. She really did look pretty, and she loved the dress (she has a small dress obsession right now). She was happy to pose for me in it. These aren't great photos, but they are kind cute.