Amazing Trip to the Zoo

My parents came to town to visit us and we had such an amazing visit. It was great to see them and it had been a while (since Christmas). We went to the zoo and every animal was incredibly entertaining; the lions were right in our faces, the elephants were eating their hay and most entertaining was the hippo that ate an apple regurgitated it and then ate it again. Ha! It was a fantastic visit with my parents too.

Hipster Eva

Eva has some new dance moves. She got the attention of a cashier at New Season's with her hip hop moves that she was busting out in the checkout line.

I Love These Girls!

What must life be like to be sisters? Here they are ultra goofy, enjoying snuggling with each other in our bed. It's times like these that I can't get enough of my sweet babies.

Too many times recently I've noted that they are growing up. Last week Lila finished up swimming lessons by making enormous leaps in her swimming ability. We are so impressed with her ability to swim at only 4 1/2. She is swimming on both her back and her front and has great patience in the water.  We have signed her up for one more lesson this winter and hope that she continues to gain additional skills and confidence. On the last day of her lesson she announced a breakfast that she was going to go down the slide by herself. Scott and I both independently told her that she didn't have to go down the slide by herself if she didn't want to. We feared she was setting herself up for too much pressure and disappointment. That afternoon at swimming she proudly was one of the first in line to go down the slide and she did it...4 times! We are so proud of her bravery and ability to push herself outside of her comfort zone in order to advance. On Friday afternoon while on a walk Lila walked Parker for the first time. She was such a good dog-walker and Parker was remarkably good. Since then she has walked Parker 3 more times. At the park Lila surprised me several times with trying new and challenging activities climbing, going over, going under and sliding down fire poles all by herself. She happily skipped from one activity to another. I can always tell when Lila is proud of herself...she skips everywhere. So precious!

Eva has been telling me, more than she usually does, "I can do it myself" and she can. Eva has shown an interest in helping in the kitchen and specifically unloading the dishwasher and so we have put her to work. Eva unloads and separates the silverware tucking it nicely into the the silverware drawer. Inspired by Lila's writing and reading Eva has started writing letters too. She wrote an E the other day and continues to practice each day. I love her letter E!

Mom, Who's Your Boyfriend?

At school yesterday Lila told her teacher that she had a boyfriend and that he had taken her to a Valentine's Dance. When her teacher told me that she had a boyfriend I was thinking...here we go. When I realized she was talking about Scott I could not have been more proud of her. Good choice.

At dinner last night Lila and I were relaying the story to Scott and at the end of the conversation Lila smiles at me and sincerely asks, "Mom, who is your boyfriend?" Scott and I had to laugh and just smile at her innocence and viewpoint. Sweetness.

Date with Daddy - Valentine's Day

The girls had a date with their daddy for Valentine's Day. They both went to the Valentine's Day dance this year with Scott. Last year Lila and Scott went and this year with Eva being a little bit older she was invited too. Scott reported that Eva did great at the dance and got out on the dance floor like she owned it. Both girls bought new dresses with their Christmas money (thanks GG Shrum) and they were so delighted that their dresses were excellent for spinning around. Eva demonstrated how her dress poofed out when she would spin to me several times. That's the sign of a great dress!

I'm so grateful that Scott is not only wiling but initiates these types of activities with the girls. It's so important and the girls love, love loved their date.

They went this year with Alan, Taryn and Haily Kerker and Alan ordered corsages for all of the girls. So Sweet! Thanks Alan. All of the girls looked beautiful heading out the door for their date.

Eva Plays Pretend

Truthfully I was a little irritated when I saw that Eva had left a bunch of her items in the living room. My theory that 'Mom is happy when the kids are fed and the house is clean' could not be more true. Just when I was feeling frustrated by these toys being left out I realized what a great little mommy Eva is to her teddy bear and baby doll. Each of them have their own blankie, a bowl with pretend food and they are having a picnic. How cute is that? It is such a great responsibility teaching little girls how to be good care givers and future little mommy's. Eva is such a good little helper. She is always the first one to put water on the table for dinner and hand me my towel when I'm getting out of the shower.

Eva having a 'picnic'.

Big Girl Bed

Eva and Lila are officially in matching twin beds in their room. We transitioned Eva from her daybed (crib) to a twin bed on Sunday. It's exciting and heartfelt at the same time. Our baby phase is officially gone and we have two big girls.

Before:

Look mom, I'm too big for my bed.

After:

We still have a few finishing touches to put on the room like a nightstand for Eva and new bedskirt for Lila but it's coming together nicely. This room has changed a lot over the past 5 years! One crib...then two cribs...one crib and one bed...and now two twin bed. The next transition will be stacking these two beds into bunk beds. No hurry on that (if you ask me!).