Playtime with Miss Pam

 Our buddy, Miss Pam, came over this afternoon to play and wanted to check out The Matterhorn (she was a founding contributor).  The kids always love to see her because she is just SO good at playtime!  She was able to get lots of laughs out of them as she pretended to let Kendall knock her over while K was on the swing.  Kendall just couldn't get enough of that and was cracking up the whole time.  Clark was on the glider yet he still got a kick out of Miss Pam's antics with Kendall. 

The Matterhorn is Complete!!!

Daddy finished The Matterhorn early this morning and after naps, the kids had an opportunity to get outside and enjoy it.  We also had a visit from Dave (Troy's brother-from-another-mother) this afternoon and his cutie daughter, E.  She and the kids played together well and she was very careful to quit swinging if one got in front of her.  E also helped push them on the swings and rode on the glider with Clark too. 
Mommy's pooped, so I'm going to cut this short.  We are SO excited that the kids have their fun new play set outside!

Our Big Backyard

Today was the first time the kids have ever stepped foot in the backyard.  Seriously.  I know it sounds ridiculous, but since we had two dogs, we had a major doggie-doo-doo-land problem back there.  We had planned to fence off a section for the kids and an area for Teddy (we now have only one dog) in order to keep the kids from running into the piles of poop.  But today Daddy got almost all of The Matterhorn completed and also tried to pick up some of the dog bombs out there so that the kids could see and enjoy their new play set.
We spent about an hour this afternoon running around the backyard and testing out the new slide and the swings (as Daddy assembled them).  They LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  The swings are a big hit, but we only have two, so we will see how that works out.  There is another glider that holds two children, but I am not sure how easy it is to operate for 25 mo olds.  Daddy still has to assemble the parts that actually allow them to climb up to the platform so that they can slide down, so we have to put them at the top (though Clark was able to climb all the way up on his own).  Unfortunately, I took pictures before he was really done with today's work, so I'll have to get more tomorrow with the swings attached, etc.

Daddy had some other work to take care of, so I loaded them up for a quick trip to Nana's back porch to eat dinner and have a little more playtime.  I truly thought that they would be worn out tonight, but were still going strong for more playtime after baths.  Uncle Stevie came over and we encouraged them to RUN RUN RUN, so I'm thinking they should sleep like rocks tonight!

It was so fun to see their excitement about being in their backyard.  It's a whole new world for them out there with sticks, rocks, trees, dog bombs, the neighbors at the fence, etc.  They got a kick out of just running and chasing each other at one point and it was just too cute! 
I'm looking forward to many hours of fun in Our Big Backyard....camping out under the stars, roasting marshmallows, potato sack races, building forts, sprinkler time in the summer.....  We have so many more memories to create out there, but today was a big one for us!

Painted Piggies

Today Mommy bought the girls Piggy Paint (see http://www.piggypaint.com/  or the Amazon links below) so that I could try to paint their cute little fingers and toes.  As you can imagine, this was a dumb idea.  They don't allow hair bows or pony tails to stay in their hair, so why would I expect them to cooperate while I painted their toes?????  Mommy wasn't born yesterday, so I thought I'd try painting their cute toes while my girls were still strapped tightly comfortably seated in their high chairs after eating dinner.  I thought that "dessert" might be a good diversion.  They were obviously VERY interested in what I was doing with their toes but seemed willing to go along with me and excited about how pretty it looked.  Of course, as soon as I was done, they were touching it with their fingers and rubbing their feet together so that it got smudged, but it's still there and I got a couple of pictures!  And it is OH SO GIRLIE and wonderful!!!  Ironically, later on the last thing they wanted me to do was take pictures of their freshly painted piggies.  Too bad I didn't think of that before I unstrapped them from the high chairs! 

Stalling

Here's a progressive pictorial of Kendall trying to stall and use distraction to get her brother and sister to bed (instead of her).  She called each one of them when she picked up "their" sleep sacks and then started to sing the "Goodnight Song".

The Emma pictorial illustrating how she was running, running and running before bed in an effort to get her to sleep BY HERSELF tonight.  Daddy and I later endured a lengthy battle with her at bedtime, but she is sleeping soundly right now.  Whew!

And a few of Clark keeping entertained before bedtime.  Notice that he too is hanging onto a sleep sack.  I believe he, too, secretly hopes that Mommy and Daddy will put a different child in the sleep sack.  Never gonna happen!

Good night!

Should be blogging....

I'm here looking at Southern Living, Golf Digest, Smart Money and Wild Animal Baby magazines with Emma.  She will NOT go to bed tonight.  We've tried three times and she just goes ballistic.  Ugh.   Mommy is tired and ready to be done.  I'm trying to type with one hand and am unable to edit the pictures since she is sitting here with me. 
Here's the latest shot of The Matterhorn (their new swing/playset):

Mommy took the kids over to Nana's house (it is about to sell, so we are enjoying some playtime there with the kids).  Auntie Karen and Uncle Tom met us and helped me keep them entertained.  We had a picnic dinner on a blanket with pizza, watermelon and granola bars (have YOU tried feeing three two-year-olds???).  All in all, I think they had a great time.