Donut Shoppe

I took the girls to visit a new donut shoppe that opened up downtown.  I thought it was would be a great "experience".  We would sit in the cozy cool little place - me with my coffee and the girls with their donuts - and we would have great conversation.

Length of "experience": T < 2 minutes

Please note that the donuts were not around long enough for me to even get picture of them.  It took us longer to get seated than it did to eat them.

Jump Jump

The girls LOVE jumping.  When they get hyper, they start running while jumping and grunting "jump", which is hilarious. 

Anni and Elli will make you jump, jump.

And, no, we aren't wearing our clothes backward, because that's wiggety wiggety whack, yo.

In case this post was a throw back to junior high for you:  Kris Kross.

Watermarking

Papa finished the upper-railings on our deck reno this weekend, so we were able to venture out there and do some painting.  Water painting, that is.  Oh, we wrote our names, drew flowers and doggies and piggies and helicopters and tractors.  Free fun!

Elli telling me that this squiggle is a tractor.

Anni's close-up.

Elli carrying our medium over to an "untouched" area.

Anni drawing flowers.

Artists don't often work well in teams, but we do. 

Bye, Mommy!

My girls like to "disappear" still.  The very act of shutting their eyes renders them invisible to all others.  I continue to play along.  They say "Bye, Mommy!" and "away" they go.  Even the other sister will play along with the charade.  They also like to disappear by physically tucking themselves away.  They usually don't bother to totally hide, though, because as soon as they can't see anyone, the job is considered done.

Anni: "Bye, Mommy."

Now I see her...

Now I, supposedly, don't.

"Boo!"

The socks are the give away, Elli.

No matter. We're only interested in the theatrics, anyway.  "Boo!"

Sense and Sensibility

Surely, this is my progeny.

Transfixed by Jane Austen.

 And, perhaps, one of them is "sense" and one of them is "sensibility", like Elinor and Marianne.

Boredom Buster

Sixty Degrees

When it's over 60 degrees in January, what do we do?

We visit the city park for a nature walk.

Anni leads the way.  She picks the most interesting paths. 

She would walk straight off a ledge for how mission-focused she is.

Elli follows behind.

She prefers to stay closer to Mommy, and often holds my hand.

Posing.  They actually did it when I asked them to for the first time.  Sort of.

We visit the play structure.

Anni climbs up and comes down the slide all by herself for the first time.

Elli DID do it by herself once or twice, even on the tallest

and twistiest slide, but not this time.

We go get FroYo.

Anni devours hers instantly and asks for more.

Elli dawdles while people-watching and day-dreaming.

We head off to "our" market (where everybody knows our names, dum-dum-dum).

Go-carting.

We wash it all off in the bathtub, nosh some dinner, then run around in circles singing "ring-around the rosie" 12 times, followed by racing our cars and trains repeatedly down the hall way, then snuggle with Papa for a few minutes when he gets home.  A wonderful day.

Pretty Lights

One of things I will miss about this holiday season was the awe inspired by Christmas lights.

Growing up, it was tradition in my family to go for drives to look at lights.  The Doubleshot are rarely out late, because bedtime is at 7, but when we happened to be out and about after dark one evening, the girls really got to take in the light displays for the first time.  This began an obsession with "pretty lights".

More Lights?

From then on, we could not drive anywhere without "More lights?  More lights?  MORE LIGHTS!!!!" being shouted from the backseat over and over and over.  And, then, just when I would get a reprieve from the cycle, the girls would spot more twinkling lights and start again.

We are also fortunate to have a great view of several neighborhoods from our perch up on the farmer's hillside.  Each night when it would get dark, (insert Anni announcing that it was "DARK!!!" very loudly each evening, just in case we didn't notice) the girls would look out to see all of the "pretty lights" and comment on them.

Pretty Lights

Pure magic.

Pigtails

Were you concerned about our coiffures based on yesterday's pictures?  Fear not.  Enter Pigtails.
 

Pigtails are powerful.  So powerful that you can obtain discounts on catering in their presence.  Or divert attention from a mother's particularly bad hair day. Or bring even the sushi man from the local market to dig out his phone to snap a picture.  Or draw forth a smile and "hello" from practically every one who sees them.  If you have a low moment, think about 2 sets of "piggy tails" and be well!

Too much flash photography, Sushi man.

Bubble Beards