Big Brother to the Rescue

After Mommy dared to strip the sheets off Elizabeth's bed so that they could be washed, including the Dora pillow case, Patrick swooped in to fix the situation. He managed to stop Elizabeth's huge FIT with a brotherly hug and then comforted her under his "jungle" covers. He then told me that I should "just leave her (Sissy's) covers alone already!"

Monsters vs. Aliens

Elizabeth saw her first movie in the theater on Sunday. She liked it, Patrick loved it. Elizabeth did a great job watching, expect when she was trying to eat all the popcorn that had fallen on the floor!

Happy Birthday Daddy and Grandpa!

After Daddy and Grandpa played golf on their birthday - this past Saturday - they came to our house for birthday treats and lots of birthday Kansas twisters!

Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

After a delicious macaroni and cheese dinner it was time for presents. Aside from the ones we wrapped, Pat thought it important to bring Daddy presents from the toy room. Daddy was thrilled!
Pat and Elizabeth gave Daddy a golf ball digital picture frame filled with our favorites for his desk at work!

Time for yummy double chocolate cake.

We Love Birthdays!

Lalalala, Lalalala Elmo's World

Tonight we took the kids to see Elmo Live - When I Grow Up. They were very excited and talked about it all week. The show was great......Brian and I even kinda enjoyed it.
It was hard to get any great pictures of the kids as I had at least one of them on my lap for the majority of the show. We had great seats....center stage third row (thanks Pop Pop). At one point Patrick asked if this were real (I think as opposed to a movie). Both kids were looking all over at the lights and perticularly loved the disco ball hanging above us.

Sitting on the stage at intermission.

Elizabeth's favorite, Abby Cadabby.

Patrick's favorite, Oscar the Grouch (only because Snuffy wasn't in the show)

The best part....the streamers that fell on us at the end of the show.

Who Are These Children?

After dinner on Thursday night, Patrick and Elizabeth enjoyed a treat for dessert.....mini M&M's. Why you ask? The both each ate a good sized piece of quiche Lorraine (with spinach in it!) AND Elizabeth ate like half my salad with bitter greens and a tahini salad dressing. Not sure what turned the tan/white/brown goddess green, but it needed to be rewarded.

Busy, Busy Day

The kids had a super busy day this Saturday. First they were dragged all over the world with mom....her errands. After a quick lunch (Burger King as a treat for being so good during the errands) it was off the Moreland the Magician. Then we ran around the playground with our cousins for over an hour. When we got home we cleaned up and headed to the mall for pizza and special surprise for Patrick and for Sissy.
Patrick's surprise was to go and play miniature golf at the underwater golf place (he asks about it every time we even pass the mall in the car!) Patrick was excited to have the alone time with Daddy too. While Daddy and Pat played golf, Mommy and Elizabeth went off to Build-A-Bear. It has come time for Sissy to give up her binky so we thought we would put it inside a bear to cuddle with.
Sissy wanted to give her bink one last go around. Not sure she knows exactly what's going on.
Elizabeth did the cutest heart dance with her teddy's heart She loved every second of it.
She was also extremely agreeable about putting her binky and the heart inside her bear.
However, when we got in the car, and she was tired, Elizabeth had a bit harder time understanding why the Binky wasn't coming out of the bear.
I know that the pictures aren't the best quality, but they paint a great picture, fortunately for you a slient picture, of the whole scene.
Thankfully, by bedtime Elizabeth was full of snuggles and smiles. She went to bed with a little wimpering, but not too bad. This is probably because she found a binky somewhere in her room.....thought I had found them all......because after being put to bed she emerged from her room with one about 15 minutes later.

And The Hulk Was Born

To our surprise, Moreland the Magician apparently turned Patrick into the HULK in the middle of his show on Saturday! Balloon animal, disappearing balls, Patrick to the Hulk, connecting separate pieces of string....all part of the act, according to Patrick.

Number 2 = Bike

While at work today I got a text message Sara, our sitter, that Elizabeth had gone poops in the potty. This has never happened before.......despite her doing beautifully going pee in the potty. She has mastered getting on the potty herself, staying dry, and even the public potty...with no seat! We have completely filled our sticker chart and used up three sheets of princess stickers. But, with out going poop in the potty we were unable to get our potty reward. Today we finally could. So, after work it was off to Walmart , and then Target since Walmart didn't what we needed, to get a ..........DORA bike!!!!!

Elizabeth's feet don't reach the pedals, but she had fun pushing her self along up and down the driveways. One more reason to be excited for Spring to stay.

A Bright and Sunny Sunday

Here are some highlights from our Sunday outside. We have to make up for the vitamin D deficiency we all must have for living here.......hurry up Spring!

Patrick's impression of an old man on our hike in Baltimore woods.

Pretending to be cavemen making fire......good thing for the human race that these two weren't cavemen!

Sissy and her walking stick....one of two.

Patrick didn't buy that it was a leprechaun house

Sliding on a "glacier".

Swinging with mom :)

Our second stop was our favorite park, "The Purple Park", or King Park.

Patrick saw his friend Keyan and had fun running all over with him.

Two Silly Leprechauns

On Saturday we ventured out to the St. Patrick's Parade. It was a beautiful day, warm if you were in the sun, and the kids, and Mom and Dad, had a lot of fun.
I guess my kids are the scary Leprechauns, not the fun and cute kids of Leprechauns. Aren't the glasses cute?? They didn't last long though.
After walking around for a while, having popcorn, roast beef sandwiches (yum...Clarks), grabbing a beer and Irish coffee (apple juice for the cherubs) we met up with some family at homebase. Patrick and Megan loved playing with Timmy.

The Louer/Dwyer cousins lovin' all the bands and floats.

Elizabeth loved the music most of all. She would dance to any noise.....Harley's, truck horns, bad bands.....it was very cute. Here enthusiasm caught the eye of a member of some band and he let Elizabeth help make the music!!
Patrick did a wonderful job looking after "his only boy cousin", as you can tell by the loving hug for William. After the parade it was home for a quick nap and then out to Ciochi's for spirits and corned beef.......and tons of playmates. I think the number of children out numbered the adults.

Happy Birthday Dr. Suess

Tonight Patrick and Elizabeth came to Mommy's school to celebrate Dr. Suess's birthday. We went last year and had a lot of fun so Patrick really wanted to go this year. He loves going to the library at Mommy's school (who doesn't.....it is beautiful!). It was hard to take pictures there because the kids were all over the place and by the time we left (we were only there a 1/2 hour) Elizabeth was covered in black magic marker and there was cake everywhere.
Here you can clearly see how it came to be that there was cake everywhere. After the party Pat, Sissy, and I went to Tully's for dinner and talked about all the fun party stuff we did. At the party there were Dr. Seuss stories, word games, CAKE, computer games, and a Dr. Seuss craft. Not to mention all the neat books that were on the library shelves. Patrick spent a long time with a book of ancient civilizations......he can now identify Olmec ruins, a statue of Buddha, and a sarcophagus. No joke.
When we got home the kids were ready to show off their Dr. Seuss craft. After being asked what words rhyme with at, Patrick came up with Pat, cat, and bat, all on his own. He wrote a P, C, and B somewhere on his hat....it was then covered by random scribbling.

Behind this mask there is a mewing Sissy cat.

Patrick and Sissy hung their masks up on the frig so that Daddy could enjoy them after returning home from a Crunch game. It was a fun night.

Fashionista

I came back from a shopping trip to the outlets today to find Elizabeth super excited to see all the stuff I had bought. Until I managed to get the stuff put away, Elizabeth was trying on whatever she could get her hands on, even Pat's stuff.

Here she is showing off her new raincoat and Easter bonnet!

Heading to the House of Bounce!

The kids are completely excited that there is a HOUSE OF BOUNCE (a store with six big bouncey things in it) near out house.
Elizabeth was great pushing her way through the bouncey toys that had obstacles.....little girl but she's sure tough.
It was hard to get good shots of Patrick.....he was moving through all the bouncey's super fast. As we walked in he said, "This is great. It's like a festival!"

The kids will sure be excited when they find out that Sara is bringing them back in less than a week!

This morning Patrick and Elizabeth pulled their chairs right up to the counter to "help" Daddy make Sunday meatballs. They helped by finishing off the loaf of white bread.....nice breakfast! These whole wheat eaters will love the lump in the stomach later!
Patrick also helped by cracking the eggs......half in the bowl, half on the counter and a dozen pieces of shells for Daddy to fish out!

This is what happens when Mommy says, "Say MEATBALL!"