Summertime, My Birthday and BatMan!

In the good old summertime, in the good old summertime...C'mon, sing it with me! The kids have been enjoying the nice warm days. It's been pleasant to be more outdoors. Here's just a photo log of recent play..

Lovely walk around Centennial Lake- over the river and through the woods...

Elena's helping with yard work.

Flora and Fauna in the yard...

I had a birthday back on June 12th and my co-workers decorated my desk with confetti and streamers and balloons. Then even wrapped streamers around my chair and made it into a sort of throne. It was a nice surprise!

Na-na-na-na Na-na-na-na Bat maaaaaan!

And Bat Girl.

He didn't want to take it off!

On Again, Off Again

I am under the impression that we are not alone in the fickle spring weather. We have had so much rain that we could probably dig a large moat around our home and do some water skiing. But we live on a hill, so probably not. The rain has been ever so abundant.
We have had a few good days of warm sunshine lately, so we have been appreciating them as much as possible. We drew a picture in the driveway to welcome the sun...

And we played in our new pool that we got through freecycle...


Aaron's got his sisters sunglasses on...



And then on the rainy days we walk around the mall and maybe even get a ride!


Choo-Choo! and Vrrrroooooom!

Here's to a green summer!

Homemade Frozen Yogurt Pops!

These are so very easy and healthy and yummy! We used plain yogurt and chopped up a bunch of strawberries. (I mixed in a little splenda too for a bit more sweetness.) Then you divvy it up into some awesome tupperware popsicle containers, then you stick some sturdy pretzel sticks in the top and pop 'em in the freezer!


I let them freeze overnight and the next day we just ran some hot water over the plastic part to get the yummy pop to slide out...and Voila!



Healthy pop comin' right up! Laney and Aaron seemed to enjoy them a great deal. And I was just glad they liked it because it wasn't cookies.!



I guess boys start on the pretzel end first...



Whereas girls do it the right way! :)

Apparently I never brush their hair or clothe them...it's summer! Why should I?

Foot note:
The pretzels still break off pretty easily, so we figured out that holding them around the bottom with a paper towel was less messy. Also, if you don't have the molds, you can shape the pops in foil too! (I have seen similar molds for sale at Target recently.)

The Diaper Ointment Incident and Spring Growth

First: The Diaper Ointment Incident.

I don't know why they like it so much- but it sure is fun to get into! I wasn't paying any attention as they were playing nicely together and laughing. Always a relief to not hear crying and screaming which is more often the case (we are still learning to share here). I should know better by now that it may be suspicious...Anyway- this is what I found:

I think Elena had all the control. Just hilarious!

And then the Spring Growth:

Also, we have been having a nice array of bloomage around our house, thanks to the plethora of rain we are still being blessed with. So I snapped some pics of the Roses...

I love my rhubarb plant- it's so fun to cook with it year after year!

Also I was able to (only) plant three tomatoes this year- sad I know, but we have been getting too much rain to allow too much work outside. It rather depresses me sometimes to be stuck inside so much. I had so many plans for the garden, which we even tilled with our Mantis, then it rained constantly (pretty much) and now it's all weeds again. So here are my very well-watered tomato plants. Those groundhogs and squirrels better stay away from my earth box! Or I will go Elmer Fudd on them.

It has rained so much lately that mushrooms are growing in the grass!

Maryland Science Center

On Memorial Day we went with out friends to the Maryland Science Center, which is located right on the chesapeake bay in the Baltimore Harbor. We spent a better part of a day there, and one of the first things we did was see a movie in the IMAX Theater. We saw Night at the Museum 2, which incidentally was the very first cinematic movie to which we've taken our kids. They actually did pretty well, despite the fact that each of them needed a diaper change during the movie. But overall, I could not have been more pleased at their attention spans. (Not that they were transfixed the entire time- snacks and playing on the- Ew!- dirty floor offered a distraction of sorts.)

We saw all the cool exhibits- from outer space to Newton's Alley where you learn about physics and other cool stuff, to the human body to dinosaur bones. Lots to learn and see! We finished on the third floor where among other things, they had the Kids' Center. This happens to be the only place I took any snapshots. They had the funnest stuff for kids to do! They really enjoyed the water table where they could splash around to their hearts' content. Such fun for my water babies!



And a short video clip of everyone playing together. A funny exchange between Elena and her friend- she gets upset at him splashing her with water and he reminds her- "Hey- it's all about having fun!" My uptight little girl...and in the meantime Aaron is getting soaked to his diaper and not caring a bit. It's a good reminder to me too- it's all about having fun!

They had a bunch of dress-up clothes too and Elena put on the turtle and the ladybug. I think I got it backwards on her...oops!

Aaron loved the train set...

And the big peg board!

It was the best way to spend our day off- indoors! Because we had lots of rain all day. Isn't it supposed to be April showers?

p.s. While attempting to complete this post, the Orioles hit a grand slam, I tried to soak up a huge V8 juice spill from my very light-colored carpet, and changed one very full diaper. When can I look forward to a life with no interruptions? Probably never...

Hershey Park and the ZOO

We are back in the game! It's been a while since I posted, mainly because there was nothing really to post about in our boring little lives. Then we had some good friends come visit from out of town and they got us out of our boring rut. I apologize if this post goes a little long. Mostly photos, I promise!

Last friday we all went to Hershey Park- a theme park based on chocolate, AWESOME! It's only a 2 hour drive for us, so we met our friends up in Hershey, Pennsylvania for a fabulous day of fun. As luck would have it, our friends had some extra tickets to the park, comped to them by their hotel room, so we did not have to pay to get it. Shall I repeat? AWESOME! (Thanks guys, you know who you are.) I didn't feel as much pressure to get my money's worth. I think I only went on three rides the whole day- it's all about the kids now!

Here are Elena & Aaron at the beginning of the day- all ready to go and not knowing what fun was in store...

Elena's first ride- how perfect since she is obsessed with airplanes.

Aaron and Daddy. Little man was a little upset because we hadn't found any rides he was tall enough to go on yet. But we found some!

And some with Daddy too!

Weeeeee, Elena!

The child laughing with absolute glee is Elena.

Aaron was his daredevil self on his little rides and was putting his hands in the air- we thought it was pretty cute.

Overall a very exciting and exhausting day. Elena even took a nap for a while, she'd had so much fun. (Amazing since this child refuses to sleep lately.)

The following thursday we all went to the Maryland Zoo in Baltimore. We had gone to the little Zoo at Hershey park the week before, but it's pretty small and doesn't boast too many exotic animals. This one was a lot bigger and the kids were able to see some cool animals for the first time. I will list their favorites: Penguins, Polar Bear, Giraffes, Rhinos and the Chimpanzees.

Here they are being turtles- my cute little terapins!

They also had a oetting area with goats. I didn't anticipate little 20-month old Aaron to be so fearless around them! He walzed right up to them with a brush and went to town. Here are a couple of video clips...

Elena liked to kiss their noses.



Another fun and exhausting day! Tomorrow we are off to one last venue with our friends while they are still in town- the Museum of Science!