Sweetness and Mischief

Now that you're all caught up on Ari and Keira seperately, it's time for an update on them together.

Last month we attended Keenan's cousin's wedding in Oklahoma. I don't know what it is about weddings, but it brings out Ari's social side. At the reception he immediately gravitated to the stage (remember the wedding we went to last year?) and Keira was, of course, close behind. They danced the night away and giggled with delight as the ran back and forth between the stage and the table where we sat catching up with family. I was able to catch this sweet moment (side-note: the song playing was from one of my favorite albums in high school. Takes me back!)

Not only are they being sweet to each other, but they've also started getting in trouble together too. Last week Keira finally figured out she could get out of her bed and room at bedtime and naptime. Her first stop was Ari's room and they talked and played until we broke up the party. Luckily this only lasted a couple nights before Ari realized he missed his sleep. Keira continued getting herself in trouble and we finally had to resort to putting up the baby gate. Of course, we couldn't resist getting some of their antics on video. You may have to turn up the volume to catch what they're saying.

Ari’s Turn!

In my attempt to make sure Keira’s memories don’t go the way of the 2nd child, I fear it appears Ari’s been lost in the shuffle.  At least as far as my blog’s concerned anyway.  So in order to right this wrong, here is an update on our sweet boy.

Three has been a rough age for Ari or maybe more for us.  We’ve had to modify techniques with him to keep one step ahead.  The past couple of weeks, however, have been a different story.  I think watching Keira’s “terrible 2” antics and our response have somehow shocked him into being on his best behavior.  He’s been so sweet, helpful and just a plain joy to be around again.  He even says “I’ll draw you a picture to make you happy” when Keira’s trying my patience.

Speaking of drawing, Ari’s artwork has turned a corner.  One of his last weeks of school he drew a cow that looked like a cow!  I really need to scan it in for preservation.  He likes to draw dinosaurs, seahorses and our cat, Obi.  On top of that just a couple of weeks ago he wrote his name by himself for the first time and today started branching out onto other letters in the alphabet.

Ari and I completed a 2 week parent/child swim class this summer and he’s since become much more comfortable in the water.  He also participated in his first VBS this summer and enjoyed that as well.  I have him signed up for a “Scientific Cooking” camp for preschoolers at our YMCA in a couple of weeks.  He’s very excited for that one.

Ari’s physical activity level has really increased this year.  He loves to ride Keenan’s skateboard or his own trike around the driveway.  He also has quite the arm and can launch our Aerobie (frisbee) or a ball great lengths.  Interestingly enough, he throws left-handed even though he’s predominately right-handed otherwise (although today I saw him coloring left-handed too).  It’s almost like he’s becoming more ambidextrous as he gets older!

Before this gets too long I’ll leave you with some recent pic’s.  Lately Ari will ask me to take his picture hence the one of him in bed :)

Ari asked me to “make my hair look nice and take a picture” and modeling his new sandals:

 

All set for “crazy hair day” at VBS:

More Keira

I realized my birthday post didn't really talk about all the fun things Keira is up to these days.

Clothes and Hair - she refuses to wear a dress and generally picks out something purple to wear. Almost daily she wears a pair of hand-me-down purple croc's that are a size to big. She also refuses to let me put a pony-tail, bow or barrett in her hair. Most days she will let me wet it slightly and run a comb through it so it at least looks tamed. She also likes to "wun awound nakey" which either means no shorts or no shirt and sometimes both.

Singing - she loves to sing these days. Her favorites are Twinkle Little Star and the ABC's (which she almost has down!). She also enjoys doing "Criss Cross" (that game on your back) and patty-cake. I've overheard her using her dollhouse Mommy to sing Lullabye to the baby too.

Talking and Counting - Keira talks in complete sentences and has added things she remembers to her conversations. She talks a lot, but only to us. A couple of weeks ago she rattled off counting 1-10 all on her own!

Here's proof:

She sure is a lot of fun these days, but the "terrible 2's" are creeping their way in!

Happy Belated Birthday to Our Baby Girl!

I really meant to put up a post yesterday. You know, on her birthday. Oh well. I'm only a day late, right?

We didn't do too much out of the ordinary to celebrate her special day. I think she's a bit confused about her birthday since we already had a party and cards have been coming in the mail all week. We went to the doctor for her well check and all is well. She's still an average, healthy little girl! The good news was no shots, but the bad news was routine blood work. Amazingly enough, she didn't make a peep when they stuck in the needle - not even a flinch! She did cry when they measured her head and her length, though. Silly girl!

I made a favorite dinner for her and some strawberry frozen yogurt. The dinner was a big hit, but the yogurt didn't go over so well. I tried!

We'll have one more celebration when we head up to Wichita at the end of the month. Maybe after that, Ari will stop asking "is Keira 2 now?" :)

A Tinkerbell Tea Party

This past Saturday we started Keira’s 2nd birthday celebration.

The girls were invited to the “fairy gardens” of our house.

I really wish I had taken more/better pic’s of the decorations.  It came out really sweet.  Links to the ideas/crafts I used will be at the end of the post.  The pink string in the pic above held each girl’s fairy outfit and gift bag (again, really wish I had a pic of that!)  Here’s what they looked like:

Poster board type fairy wings, a sparkly tulle skirt, a golden star wand and a gift bag complete with Tinkerbell fruit snacks, a fairy necklace and chocolates.

Everyone arrived about the same time and we started off by letting the girls decorate their wings.

Then it was time to try on their outfits and dance to some fairy music (a.k.a. the music video on the Tinkerbell DVD).  The younger girls wanted nothing to do with it, but the older girls were dancing queens!

We all sang “I’m a Little Teapot” and started the tea party with snacks and “tea” (fruit punch).  I provided pb&j’s in star shapes, turkey and cheese sandwiches in heart shapes, pizza puffs, goldfish and plenty of fruit.

(Side note – Ari was not happy about being the only boy and spent most of the party just hanging out with my parents.)

Since everyone was at the table we decided to have cake time – chocolate cupcakes with pink butter-cream frosting and purple sugar sprinkles.

Then it was on to presents.  Keira received lots of Tinkerbell paraphernalia, some cute clothes and a doll house.

As far as we can tell everyone had a great time and things went so smoothly!  It was a lot of work, but a lot of fun too :)

Links:

Printed signs and cupcake picks.

Flower tissue garland.

Still Here

Ugh...I can't believe it's July and I haven't posted since our trip! We were home for 6 days then drove up to OKC for a wedding. After that, it's been 2 weeks straight (M-Th) of swimming lessons. I opted to do the parent/child class with Ari since it was his first time and he's so slow to warm up to new people. He did really well, but it really threw me off my regular schedule due to it's time and all the extra planning, laundry and showering I had to do. Today was the last day so hopefully the rest of the summer will be more "normal." I was really hoping to have a relaxing summer, but it's not looking that way so far! Oh well :)

I just wanted to put up a quick post to let y'all know we're still alive and well. We're having the first of Keira's birthday celebrations this weekend (still can't believe she's almost 2!!!) so I plan to post pic's of that by Monday.

We hope everyone is having a great summer as well!