Family, Birthday Season Starts, and Curious George

Friday night, Kelly and Steve arrived in Orlando for a five day vacation.  Since accommodation are certainly more comfortable at David and Yully's, they stayed over there Friday night but then we hooked up with them all at church.  After Sabbath School, we went to David and Yully's where Yully had prepared a wonderful meal featuring Eggplant Parmesan and Peach Cobbler for dessert.  Things always taste so much better when someone else makes them but this meal seemed to be especially delicious and we all stuffed ourselves.  Duncan was barely able to move but I told him he was in charge that afternoon of getting Calleigh to take a nap so it would bode well for himself if he wore her out.  So he pulled himself together and they went out in the hall (their place has an inside corridor) and ran laps.  Between that, and horsing around with Steve, she thankfully took a nap and so did yours truly.  After naps, Kelly, Steve, David, Yully, and Tiffany came over for supper at our place.  We did manage to find some room to stuff in brownie delight (I was able to debut my new KitchenAid Mixer for the whip cream and it was SO nice not to use the hand mixer).

Told you the Eggplant was good.

Doing an iPhone chat with baby Zasha.

The beater on the KithenAid is much bigger than the beaters on the hand mixer much to Calleigh's delight.

Duncan put them to work on picking out some boy names.

Sunday we mixed things up a little bit NOT going to First Watch if you can believe it.  I don't think we've missed a week in who knows how long (when we're in town, of course).  But it was a very worthy miss.  Elaine made a French toast and berry recipe that I've been wanting to make for years and so we ended up eating breakfast on their back deck.  It was SO good and Calleigh had at least four helpings of it.  It was a lovely morning and we enjoyed just relaxing and having a cup of tea after stuffing ourselves.  Boy, now that I mention all this, I feel like eating French toast.  Quick, get my mind on something else.

This was sortof a strange morning in that both the girls woke up at about 6:15 which is an hour (at least) earlier than normal.  I attempted to put them both in our bed hoping they'd go back to sleep but it wasn't to be.  So as we're on the way home from Target (where we headed after Ron & Elaine's), Aubree started saying she was tired and wanted her binky.  As it turned out, it worked out perfectly.  We had a birthday party at 1:00 and I was thinking that she would only stay for the first part and then go home with Duncan (the last time she missed a nap, she cried for two straight hours and I didn't want to deal with that).  We got home and even though it was only 11:00, down she went and was sawing logs in no time.

Calleigh and I took that opportunity to run over to CVS to grab a few of the weekly deals.  I mentioned to Calleigh how it was neat that it was just the two of us. She was pretty tickled about it and kept talking about how it was just the two of us and how much she liked it.  And boy, is it ever so much easier to shop with just her rather than the two of them.  Anyway, the concept of "just the two of us" hasn't left her mind because after Aubree went into her crib tonight, I read Calleigh a story (Duncan put them to bed tonight and I snuck in after to read her a story) and she pointed out that it was the two of us again and gave me a big hug.  I think I need to make more of a point of doing things with them each separately.

The birthday party was for our friends Lindsey (turning 5) and Ethan (turning 2).  They're also due to get a little sister on June 27 so their mother, Leslie, and I are in similar stages of pregnancy with our third child.   The party was at RDV Sportsplex and started off with an hour in the indoor pool.  Calleigh went right in and had a blast.  She had her life jacket on and was very independent the whole time.  She put her head under water so I was glad to see that she hasn't lost her nerve with that over the last few months with no swimming.  Aubree, on the other hand, just sat on the edge of the pool and watched everything.  She didn't want to go in any farther.  I don't know if this all means that she's just not going to like swimming or what.  Hopefully as swimming season picks up, she'll get more into it.  After swimming, we went to the gym portion where they had some people that facilitated games for the kids and then we also had snacks which Aubree quite enjoyed as she spent probably at least half the two hours sitting at the kid table eating.  Obviously she's a little younger than most of the other kids who ranged from 3 - 5 so the activities were a little beyond her although she did participate a little with Duncan's help.  I, meanwhile, had a lovely time letting Duncan keep a watch over the girls while I chitchatted about this and that with the other moms.

Aubree's pool perch.  She sat here pretty much the whole hour just watching.

The birthday boy, Ethan, trying on Calleigh's shoes.  Hopefully a passing phase.

Tangie and the twins.  They're both crawling these days, at 10 months old, although Maddy is much more proficient at it.

Doesn't she look so tall here?

Aubree watching, once again, from the sidelines.

Aubree is the last person at the table. She had to finsh that whole plate of chocolate cake and ice cream.

I thought Calleigh would conk out on the way home but she was so excited with her goodie bag, that she stayed awake the whole time.  But soon after getting home, she found me sitting in the lounger and the next thing I knew, she was lying on me (avoiding the belly) and asleep in a half a second.  I let her stay there about 25 minutes and then I tried to wake her up which proved to be a hard task but we knew we would be in for it later on if we let it continue too long (it was 5:45 by this time).  We finally got her awake and decided to go to Panera Bread for supper since we hadn't eaten out that morning.  So that was a little treat for the four of us.

 
Yesterday we finally made it to the Science Center to see the new Curious George exhibit.  It was actually the same exhibit they had at the Children's Museum in Boston so I assume it travels around the country.  The girls each had their favorite part.  Aubree went up and down the slide like 15 times and Calleigh loved playing with the food and cash register.  We did all the other usual exhibits as well but it didn't matter.  Calleigh through a massive tantrum when we left.

 Both girls contributing to orange production.

This morning we went to storytime and got our new supply of books.  Usually we self check our books out but one of the books had an issue so we to actually talk to a librarian.  She then asked if we wanted to pick up the books we had on hold. I had put several of the Fancy Nancy books on hold (by the way, how great is that process?  If I don't feel like finding a book on the shelf or if it's out, you just reserve it and then pick it up at the front).  I was wondering why I hadn't been notified that the books were there and she said, "Oh, we did contact you.  Is your email address CoreyBrace @ blah, blah, blah?  It's so weird to hear your former name some eight years later!  I was wondering why I had never gotten notified of a book I had held last year so that would explain it.  Anyway, Calleigh is really enjoying these Fancy Nancy books especially and even more so because I got her some new shoes on eBay yesterday and one pair in particular is very fancy (they're loafers but they're all decorated with flowers and beads.  Not the main draw of the lot of shoes I purchased but it came with the sandals and they've turned out to be a big hit).  

After we got back home, Kelly and Steve arrived for a brief visit since they're leaving in the morning.  Kelly got roped into reading a few of the books and Steve went off to the tool store.  We'll be seeing them in about 4 weeks again when we have a bit of a family reunion up in Maine.

As far as activities go, that's about it.  Calleigh and Aubree had an interesting conversation over breakfast this morning.  Of course, my missing tooth is still a daily conversation and this morning was no exception.  Aubree said something about Calleigh missing a tooth and Calleigh very firmly told Aubree "No Aubree.  I will not lose any of my teeth until I'm 6 and then my baby teeth fall out and I get my adult teeth."  She says "adult" so cute.  As for Aubree, I almost feel mean because I keep having her repeat things over and over again.  Do you notice that little kids pronounce things or say things the cutest way?  Well, Aubree has a couple of them.  The first is how she says "Fancy Nancy."  I can't even write how she says it but I just love it.  And now she likes to say her name so I'll ask her repeatedly, "What your name?" just so I can hear her say "Aubree Lynn!"

Have a great rest of the week.