Alden's little outfit, which Anna placed on my belly, since that's where he was.
Anna and Kara dresses from Mimi.
Just hanging out and being best friends.
By the impressionist stuff and Degas statue at the art museum, then on Art Hill. We walked all the way down and back up in 100 degree weather (before the heat index). Maybe not the best idea...
Unfortunately we haven't made it into the "purple pool" as much this summer as we would have liked, since the side of our house is mosquito city and they love me and the girls...I end up with at least 6 bites if we're there for any length of time, and the girls have been covered in painful bites all summer. "Buggy bite hurts" is a common refrain.
Note Kara's precision in pouring on Anna. They also loved pouring on me, and on the ground, to make mud so that Bunny Foo Foo could come (in the book version we have he throws "yucky mucky" mud pies instead of bopping).
Has it really only been 4 months? I knew they were growing ridiculously fast!
Easter baskets/presents. Funny how I called these their "fat babies" and now they look skinny to me compared to Alden. :) Then the egg hunt...
Guess Anna was in her pretend to eat everything phase back then, too.
So proud of the "people" in their eggs.
We have new pictures and stories, of course, but thought I'd clean out my picture folders before I do that. Found some cute stuff! :)
Dated April 19th. Anna on the left, Kara on the right. Their fights are just as ridiculous now, if not more so. Anna's verbal sparring with Kara is the funniest to me, since she will say "No! Blah Blah Blah Blah, KAY-RA!" in very emphatic tones and with the same cadence every time.
We stayed downtown, still a favorite destination/thing to say, mainly because of the Arch. Luckily we could see it from our window! We stayed at the Drury Plaza, which was also nice for the huge lobby with fountain, complete with statues of Lewis and Clark and their dog, popcorn reception, and breakfast in the morning.
While we opted to swim instead of going to the Arch Park, we did take a picture of the girls in front of the Arch (after an aborted out to eat attempt at our favorite Thai restaurant in town and lots of lecturing about why it is not okay to run away all the way down the street)...too bad you can't see the Arch!
Checking out the beds after swimming (during which Andrew prevented them each from drowning too many times, as they kept diving under water - more death talk ensued). We have a picture of the girls on a huge hotel bed, and you know how I like to be fair. See how well the girls "hold" Alden? :) They do like to fight about wanting the "head part" and "no feety part." They slept in a queen bed and did really well...Kara fell out, but luckily onto the extra pillow we'd put on the floor.
Sunday morning at the hotel - "Nanny hiding corger" and Kara trying to get her out. They are SO funny when they tell each other what to do, mainly because of the tone of voice. And jokester Anna checking to see if anyone cares she's still hiding.
Our one picture from Meramec Caverns, a place that has more billboards advertising it than anything I've ever seen. We took an expensive cave tour and hiked around to see the sights - I had Alden and so Andrew had to carry both girls for a lot of it. I did manage Alden and 1 girl some, too. Alden woke up and needed to eat (it was a LONG tour) and cried for about 1/2 of it, so the girls tell me "Algo no like cave" over and over still, several times a day. Then they laugh and tell me "just hungry," since that's always my response. We also took a little boat tour of the Meramec.
Girls dancing in the "theater room" of the cave during the light show (to the Missouri Waltz)...which shows up better on our computer than on blogger. Thank you God that the room also had seating, so I could fill Alden's starving belly before the tour was over!
Last weekend we went to the Science Center, at the girls' request...the "mean dinosaur roar" was turned off, which was a huge disappointment. They did like our discovery of a turtle whose mouth you can sit in at the Turtle Park, though.
We went to Suson Farm and had a great time. Unfortunately it was almost 100 and sunny, so we stayed until we were all dying and the girls were crying from the heat, which was not all that long. They both remember petting the brown and "orange" horses, but their favorite thing to tell me about the trip is that a turkey scared Kara and a bunny scared Anna - they were each startled by their respective animals and still think it's so funny. Any time we hear the word horse Kara tells me "Kara see horse farm." They talk about themselves in the 3rd person, having no concept of "I" yet. They also refer to their room as "your room," since that's what we call it. So we have "mommy daddy room," "your room," "kitchen," "bathroom," and "other room" (our combined living/dining area). Anyway, pictures...
Goats...not the kind that bite your shirts, like at Grant's Farm, where we're headed again this weekend with Andrew's family, who are all in town (or you can refer to it, as the girls do, as the farm where goats bite you). Kara remembers petting this one goat's ear - good times!
Piggies. We saw one take a shower and lots of others sleeping...Kara climbed up here herself so I didn't have to pick her up, and I thought it was so cute.
Geese and ducks, and the "teeny horsies."
Silly Nan trying to climb in with the horses to pet the ones that were far away, and cows close up.
Andrew got some good shots of how happy they were with their selections while I shopped.
They're looking more similar to me lately - I almost mix them up a lot. Andrew does mix them up a lot. :)
They were so happy with their choices and their animals, and the novelty didn't wear off until a day or so ago...we had to take "Doggie" and "Panda" with us everywhere (very original names, just like mom who had a favorite bear named Bear, oh, up until I got married!). I find it absolutely hilarious that Anna picked Hello Kitty slippers to go with the football outfit, and equally hilarious that she has no concept of the disconnect between those items - she knows nothing about football. Kara may have been steered to the golf outfit by her father... They have since traded animals because Kara really wants the panda and Anna lets her have it.
Glad you had fun, sweeties!
Last weekend we took a family "vacation" - we were in town almost the whole time, but Andrew took Friday off, and we made an effort to do as many fun things as possible (well, a bunch anyway). Since our current family/life/work situation makes it hard for us to take a big vacation, we decided we'll keep doing these mini ones every 3 months or so. We all really enjoy them, and it's so nice to get away from our routine!
Here's the rundown...Friday morning: Butterfly House, feeding ducks and playing in Faust Park; Friday evening: mall; Saturday morning: Suson Park farm; Saturday evening: hotel downtown, dinner, stroll, pool; Sunday morning/early afternoon: Meramec Caverns and boat ride
We started the fun Wednesday night. The Botanical Gardens has a free music festival that runs all summer, and it was the last concert of the year - we hadn't made it to any yet. It's Andrew's favorite thing to do in St. Louis, and we both love the Gardens, since we went a lot when we lived so close a few years ago. The girls were great and had SO much fun dancing to the music (after a trip to the back to see the "big fishies"). There were tears when we left, but prior to that they won the hearts of those around them to the point that a law student asked me if she could babysit them! Alden was fine once I traversed the whole Gardens with him screaming so I could feed him in the bathroom - he was entirely uninterested in eating in the dark/heat.
Kara, Anna, and me in the "biggie car" before departure...Anna avoiding her paparazzo father.
Friday morning at the Butterfly House...
The Butterfly House has big display cases of bugs (loved, Anna even pet a cockroach several times; Kara declined), but is mainly an indoor greenhouse-type place with SO many butterflies flying everywhere. Cool, but kinda strange to have a bunch of butterflies flying in your face all the time. After Kara got over her initial fear, they both had a lot of fun running around screaming and jumping and swatting butterflies.
There's also an outdoor garden area. The girls are cuter than ever, but the worst at posing.
Anna and I found this back in a corner when she was trying to run away after crying about not being able to eat rocks or something equally important. She made me go get Kara so they could sit together, and Kara "drove" them around...this is what they'll look like 14 years from now, only a mom can hope they'll have more hair by then.
After the Butterfly House they climbed around the big caterpillar outside, fed some VERY crazy ducks cheerios (their favorite of the entire weekend, they've told me), and played on the swings/playground - Anna learned how to swing on her belly, and Kara figured out how to climb a ladder by herself.
A note on the shoes: they usually wear one of each...Andrew's idea to keep them from fighting over the dark pink ones. Other than "are they twins?" comments about their shoe arrangement are what we hear most (except at church, where they're known for being barefoot...I think that people at church think I don't put shoes on my children - I do, but they take them off as soon as they get a chance!)
