Making Pancakes

One of Katie and Ella's favorite jobs is to help me make pancakes...

Here, Katie (in pink) with the pink (of course!) whisk... Ella is using the 'baby' whisk.
Cheesing it up for the camera!

Park Day

The weather is getting nice here, so off to the PARK we go -- YEAH! It's so nice getting out of the house! Here are a few photos of the girls with their friend, Ben, enjoying a beautiful Spring day at the park.

Katie with Ben

Little Monkeys...

Ella joins in the climbing fun...

Here Comes the Bride... again

The girls playing bride and groom again... not sure about his infatuation with playing 'wedding'... ??? Here Ella is the groom and Katie is the beautiful bride, who looks a little like a 'starlet' to me.

Our Trip to Oklahoma

I was a bad mommy and didn't get the camera out as much as I should have during our trip to Atoka. But, here are the few I did manage to snap.

Katie near the window reading a magazine waiting for take-off.

Deep in concentration...

What, Mom?

Ella, about to fall asleep sitting up...

Grandma bought the girls a few St' Patrick's day accessories -- Katie in green hair!

Ella in a BIG green bow tie!

Making silly faces for the camera

Little Flowers - Ella (in blue) and Katie (in yellow)

We had a "girls day out" while in Atoka and had our nails done.

Katie is getting her toes painted PINK, of course!

Making sure the nail tech is doing a good job...

Ella's turn... she picked out a bright, BRIGHT orange for her toes.

Ella (looking a little sleepy) and Katie reading a magazine while her toes dry.

Spring Snow Day

March 2nd and it SNOWED here -- LOTS of SNOW! Bill had a 2-hour work delay, so we took the girls to the neighbor's yard and went sledding. Here are a few photos of all the fun...

The view from our front window -- a winter wonderland, at least for today!
Ella making a snow angle

Katie's turn

Dad, Katie, and Ella making snow angles in our front yard

Later we went to a friend's house and played in the snow a little more...

Snow ball fight!!

Except neither kid likes to get wet... needless to say, it was a very SHORT snowball fight.

Katie (on the sled) and her friend getting ready to go!

Ella sledding solo

All the kids going simultaneously...

Katie pulling her friend down the hill

Ella and another friend from school getting ready to hit the slopes

Wheeeeeee!

Katie again

There they GO -- having a BLAST!!

Split Day Interrupted

We've been trying to give the girls a little more one-on-one time, so every Saturday (or Sunday) each parent takes a kid and does a little something with just them (Katie started calling it "Split Day"). Twice Bill took Ella to the National Mall and they went on a ride on the carousel (poor Katie drew the short straw and went grocery shopping with me!). This past weekend, Bill promised he would take Katie for a ride on the merry-go-round. Ella was so disappointed and wanted to go with him so badly, we ended up making a "family day" out of it instead. Here are a few photos of our trip around downtown...

Katie enjoying her solo ride, while Ella and Daddy went in search of a potty.
Daddy riding with the girls (Katie in pink/Ella in blue).

Going around and around!

(I had no idea if I was getting a good photo or not... I would literally just point and click -- that carousel goes FAST!)

Daddy doing circus tricks.

Help Me Burp the Baby, Momma!

There's this "happy birthday" song they play on the kid music channel ALL the time and the lyrics are (obviously) Happy Birthday, but it sounds more like "help me burp the baby"... so, yesterday, my girls "helped me burp the baby!". We had a great day -- I took the girls shoe shopping in the morning, we had a nice nap in the afternoon, for dinner we went to our favorite Italian restaurant and had pizza and spaghetti, and then home for BR ice cream cake -- YUM!!! Here are a few photos of the girls helping me blow out the candles... you'll notice we're all in our pj's! It was way past everyone's bedtime, including mine, so the girls helped Daddy put ME to bed, complete with a night-night song. The best birthday gift EVER, I think -- shopping, no cooking, and early to bed! (Dear Hubby surprised with yet another perfect birthday gift -- after putting me to bed, he got online and bought me and the girls a plane ticket home -- ahhhhhh, such a Sweetie!)

Ella (in the green jammies) and Katie (in her usual pink) helping me blow out the candles.
Ella was NOT happy with the heat from the candles.

Or the smoke!

"Help Me Burp the Baby, Momma!!"