Correction to last night's post: H is for Hot Wheels. Oops.

Oops. They are Hot Wheels cars, not Matchbox. Leave it to Mommy to get that one wrong. :)

Anyway, here are more pics without a lot of dialog. Too tired.

M is for Matchbox Cars and P is for Papa John's

Today we took the kids out for an adventure. OK, really we were just running some errands and loaded them in the car to ride along. In order to provide an "adventure opportunity", we decided to treat them to Papa John's. OK, again, I will clarify and say that yes, they do eat Papa John's regularly (and LOVE LOVE LOVE it, of course), but this time, we took them to eat in one of the restaurants here in town. Eating out isn't completely unusual for them, but they are used to Cracker Barrel surroundings because that is our typical outing. This time, we thought we'd change things up a bit and visit a Papa John's location AND they got to sit in big-kid chairs instead of highchairs! It WAS a good time!
Anyway, they did fairly well considering they had a lot more freedom than they are used to and had to do just a little exploring while they were there (checking out the 2-liters, trying out the bench in front, looking at the cooler with all of those wonderful Coca-Colas staring back at them). Food was really the last thing on their mind, but it was a good experience.
Later we let them play with the newly created Matchbox collection that Daddy has started for Clark. Kroger has a great 10 for $10 deal on various cars, so he usually comes home with one any time he is at the grocery store. They got a little play time with the cars while we worked to clean up the kitchen. Everyone wins. :)

And for dessert...French Toast with Beebabies!

I should explain that "beebabies" are what Emma calls blueberries and strawberries. Anything of the berry persuasion. It's probably the cutest thing I've heard yet.

They ate well for dinner and I had two pieces of French toast in the fridge and thought I'd make dessert by adding some fresh blueberries and strawberries. My kids LOVE berries. They LOVE fruit, in general, but definitely berries. They light up when dessert is fruit. Yeah! They DO get a cookie or cake or ice cream sometimes too, but it's nice that they think fruit is a dessert/treat.

Tonight Clarkie blew a kiss to Uncle Stevie. It was just precious! I'm so proud of my big boy! He was building a super-tall tower of blocks too. Clark can count to ten in words that aren't quite right, but definitely the right sound and sequence and we love to hear him counting. He also is working on learning his ABCs with sissies.

Kendall was happy singing and dancing along with songs on one of their CDs. She also had a lot of fun playing with her spaghetti noodles at dinner and loved the first taste of peanut butter and banana.

Ems was just excited about anything fruit-related...beebabies, neena (banana) and something she says for peanut butter, but I can't think of it at the moment.

The first three pics came about when I told them I would take their picture and to say "cheese"....that's what I got. Emma smiling through her VERY full mouth of french toast; Clark looking up like I was putting him out by asking for a smile; Kendall looking away from me just because I asked her to be cheesy.

Missing Nana

I didn't get any shots today and am missing my mom a lot right now, so I found the last of the pics taken before she passed away.
I can just hear Kendall saying to her "Love you!" And Ems would probably call her "Neena" because that is what she calls bananas.
I'm really NOT trying to make anyone cry here, just feeling nostalgic. I've had dreams that she has been here playing with the kids with me and just wanted to look at the pics again. Hope it's OK with my "followers".

Love you Nana.

Dancing Buddies

I found Clark and Kendall dancing to the oldies music that I was playing while fixing dinner this evening. It was cute because they really were holding hands and swaying. I wish I could be on both sides of them at once so I could get the facial expressions of both.
Emma, once again, was not concerned about missing out on anything and kept to herself reading books. She was dancing to the music at times, but never seemed to want to interrupt their little dance.
I'm including the crazy one of Clark where he is imitating a Hulk-like growl that Daddy does sometimes. I thought it was funny to see him imitating the expression.
Who knows what Ems was doing with her cup at her feet, but it looked cute.
Mommy is TIRED and has a big day tomorrow, so I'm going to leave it at that. Nightie-night all.

We Love Bagels!

The kids love the mini bagels. Emma calls them "dagels".
Back again tomorrow.

More Sibling Sweetness

OK, so it might not be very obvious, but Clark was actually the instigator in these displays of affection between he and Kendall. I was SHOCKED and ran to get the camera only to be given MORE glimpses of these precious moments between the two of them. Emma was not interested at all and stayed away from the whole thing and didn't seem at all bothered that C didn't come to her for hugs.
Clark continued to approach Kendall with arms outstretched and they would embrace. The both drooled on each other's shoulders and, of course, Clark did receive an injury (K bit his shoulder) and still he came back for more hugs! Go figure. Funny thing is the picture right after her biting incident is the one where he sort of looks like he just might choke her, but he hugged her instead.
Then he tackled her on the couch for more snuggles and then sat on her and started pointing to her eyes, nose, etc, like she always does to everyone else. And she started playing with his hair and my shot of that sort of looks like those gorillas grooming each other at the zoo. It was pretty funny. And pretty amazing that they continued this even later in the evening when Daddy got to see it for himself.
We really do love to see them act as though they like each other. I know that there will be times of sibling rivalry, but I really hope that there is a wonderful bond between the three of them that will endure.

Sunny Days Keepin' the Clouds Away....

We had another BEAUTIFUL day here and tried to get the kids outside as much as possible. They had playtime in the front yard and ate at their picnic table and then we moved the fun to the driveway - bubbles & bikes. When naptime rolled around, they were less than enthused to come indoors, but we convinced them that we would play after naps.
Once everyone woke up (after Mommy and Daddy spent the entire two hours working in the garage), we headed to the park. They are not used to "strangers", so usually they think they know everyone they meet. Today was a very busy day at the park and the kids were pretty interested in observing other kids and parents playing. Kendall seemed particularly drawn to the kids playing basketball. Clark loved having access to mulch, though there weren't as many incidences of it going in his mouth, which is definitely progress. Emma loved the slide and just wandering around from one thing to another. Fortunately, Auntie Karen met us there so that we had one adult per child in order to facilitate the most fun. :)
Afterwards, we had to pick up Teddy from his salon-spa day and ran into my nephew, Tommy, and his new baby, Pearl. She is a 6 wk old English Bulldog and too cute. I got to hold her and she snorted while she tried to snuggle. Sweet.
We headed to Cracker Barrel and met up with Auntie Karen and Uncle Tom and the kids ate like PIGS! They really like chicken strips, okra, mac 'n cheese and carrots. We even treated them to a scoop of ice cream for dessert since they ate like champs!
All in all it was a great weekend full of family-time and sunshine and even some productive work around the house. Woo hoo!
Oh and I wanted to mention a few moments in the pics: Kendall ate almost all of the grapes on all three plates today. Fortunately this did not turn into WW3. She does love the fruit. They look incredibly dirty because, well, they were. They got their hands in the dirt and Mommy didn't bother to clean it up (I know, I can't believe it either!). At the park, Ems was sifting through mulch and throwing it over her head...which meant it ended up in her hair. Pretty. And, of course, Kendall did some dancing while we were out front. Love it! Clark was busy being all boy and digging in dirt, climbing on things and...oh, pushing the pink and blue baby buggy, though I don't think I got any pics of that. ;)