Eagles Nest Pics

Jumping...

... and sliding! Abby above and Claire below.

Snippets of January

January has been quite the exciting month! We started it off with a trip to the MN History Center. It was the History of Chocolate exhibit that we went for, but once we got there, I was reminded how incredibly much there is for kids there. Abby loved driving the classic Greyhound bus...

... and Claire had a blast in the Grainland play area.

Grandma Sharon and Granpda Wayne came for a visit the first weekend in January and we had our Christmas celebration with them. Abby and Claire were spoiled with there very own recliner chairs! Here's Abby testing hers out...

... and Claire snuggling in hers!

Thanks Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Wayne!

Two weekends later we had more visitors from Wisconsin - Amanda, Atticus and Sampson! Amanda's dogs came along too so we had 4 dogs, 4 kids (age 3 and under) and 3 adults in our small house. A little chaotic but so so so so much fun!

One highlight was a trip to the Transportation Museum in St Paul. They had model trains running plus a bunch of train tables for kids to play with (Atticus, above). We got to walk through trains that were over 100 years old and take a short ride on a more recent model.

All aboard!

Other than that we just played and played and had lots of fun - so much fun in fact that Abby fell asleep on the couch watching Toy Story.

That Sunday, the 23rd, was another exciting event - a 3rd Birthday Party with all our family for Claire...

Abby...

and Lily...

...complete with princess decorations and...

...a princess cake!

The spoiling continued with lots of very nice gifts for the three bday girls. I almost died when I saw one of the gifts my sister got my girls - a dress up Barbie lab coat! So perfect, considering my last post. Abby put hers on immediately and jumped up and down with excitement.

All three girls also got these cute dolls from Aunt Pat. The dolls have their names on them AND came with clothes homemade by Aunt Pat. So nice! Add to that the clothes, toys, personalized bags, robes, puzzles, and BIKES (from Papa Mike & Grandma Maggie) that they got from everyone, these were 3 very lucky princesses.

On our actual birthday this past Friday, the girls were treated to a bday lunch at Fridays, complete with singing and ice cream sundaes! Abby fluctuated between happy...

... and confused...

... while Claire just enjoyed the ice cream!

(We also went to the Eagle's Ridge indoor playground in the morning, but the pictures aren't posting right. I'll try a new post with them.)

With all this running around, I think we are all ready for a spa vacation. I mean, come one, we already have the robes for it and everything.

Hope your 2011 has also been so far full of fun!

Barbie 1, Feminism 0

Happy 2011 everyone! We had a GREAT new years celebration with both of our cousins (Lily and Alex) over to celebrate at the same time. Talk about fun! We even got to do a 9:00 New Years toast with sparkling grape juice where we ran around clinking plastic glasses and saying "Happy Ew Ear!" (My girls version of Happy New Year).

So, as most of you know, my girls absolutely love "pretty dresses." Every day I hear, "Mama, I wear pretty dress?" When they do get to wear a pretty dress, they start twirling around and showing it off the instant their arms are through the sleeves. See how happy they are in pretty dresses?? (Oh, and for those of you who didn't know, backpacks with pretty dresses are the latest in thing. So stylish!)

Also, they love Barbies. They got some for Christmas (mostly the ones that are like Disney Princesses, such as the Tangled doll below). They usually pretend the Barbies are talking to one another and more often than not the first question out of Barbie's mouth is "You like my pretty dress?"

Now, even though I'm a little concerned about the ideal Barbie portrays, it's not that I think Barbie is pure evil. Plus, the girls like to play with them which means I get some quiet time - that alone makes me love Barbie all the more. But I do want them, even at 2 1/2, to realize that there's more to life than pretty dresses. So when I am playing Barbie with them, I like to answer the pretty dress question with things like, "Yes, it's a very pretty dress, Barbie, but will anyone even see it under your lab coat?" or "I bet the judge liked your lawyering skills even more than that pretty dress!"

I can't tell yet if I'm having any impact with this yet, but if these two grow up to be doctors or lawyers, I think we'll know who to thank.