Playgrounds and Pigtails

Last week I asked Charlotte if I could put her hair in pigtails.  She immediately responded, "Yes! Like my friend Sadie!"  So whenever I brush her hair to go somewhere I ask her if she wants a hair bow or pigtails.  The past few days it has been pigtails every time.  I am not gonna lie, I love these pigtails :)

The kids were at church tonight playing with Jay while I got ready for a VBS meeting.  Why did I say I would help direct VBS? Oh yes, because apparently I like to keep my plate completely full.  In reality we have a wonderful children's director who will do most of the work, but the kids will probably spend a lot of time playing at church on the playground while I help prepare for VBS.

I don't think they will mind :)

Fun Weekend

We had a fabulous holiday weekend spending time together!  It was like a preview of what this summer will be like.  Jay and I worked on stuff outside and the kids just played really hard outside everyday.

Saturday evening we had another family over for dinner.  The kids loved playing together and we enjoyed hanging out with other adults.  Jay and I joke we need to have people over for dinner every weekend because the kids always have better table manners and eat more whenever there are more people at the table! It was a wonderfully relaxing time together with friends. 

Sunday we went to church and then headed to Scott's Strawberry Farm in Moneta.  We went there last year, but this year I would say we had much more "help" picking by the kids.  Hopefully each year their participating will continue to increase. 

Before we got out of the car we loaded everyone up with sunscreen and hats.  The rule was if you took off your hat you had to go back to car.  So far they are both doing really well keeping their hats on and they don't mind the sunscreen.  They may be extremely pasty white right now, but they will have beautiful, healthy skin when they are 50!

There were much more people around this year picking strawberries.  The kids loved walking up and down the row to find the red ones.

Trey helped much more this year and really got into finding bright red strawberries.

Charlotte was so proud of every strawberry she picked.  I am loving that pink hat!

She also nominated herself as the keeper of  the bucket and she had to be the one to move it down the row. 

Taste testing

Love these two so much!

Charlotte had to reach really hard to get the perfect one!

This is right before Trey spit out the strawberry.  Apparently he prefers his to be chilled from the refrigerator, not hot from the sun.

He found the best one! I didn't think about him being in light khaki shorts until we arrived.  Luckily he stayed clean and juice-free the whole time so I didn't have to worry about stains!

Now I have 2 boxes full of strawberries on my counter to take care of and put away.  I am thinking about freezing some, making strawberry pound cake, strawberry jam, strawberry smoothie pops, and just enjoying some fresh strawberries!

$4 Haircut

Last Christmas Charlotte got a baby doll with hair accessories from her Great-Uncle Jack.  It has been one of those favorite presents that she keeps playing with over and over again.  The best part were the mini-comb, mini-brush, and pretend scissors that came with the accessories kit.  Charlotte loves to give her babies haircuts, but now she has branched out into people haircuts.

Tonight while I was fixing dinner I heard Trey say "Sit still Charlotte and I will cut your hair." I rushed across the room to see what was happening, and they had fixed up a hair-cutting station as they called it.

My favorite part was that Trey had put his superhero cape on Charlotte just like the capes he has to wear at the hair-cutters. 

Then they switched so Trey could be the "customer." 

Unfortunately he was not still enough for Charlotte so she brought a chair over and told him to sit in her "hair cutting station."   She also kept tickling him the whole time, so you can't blame him for being wiggly :) 

Finally, Charlotte gave up on her brother altogether and decided to cut Dora' hair instead.  Poor Dora, the cape was a little bit too big.  You can see the cabbage patch doll in the background.  She wouldn't stay in the chair on her own, so she got traded in for Dora. 

When I asked how much they were charging for the haircut Trey said "Four dollars." 

A Flair for Drama

I am not sure there is anything more dramatic than a 2 year old girl, except maybe a 13 year old girl, but at least we have 11 years until we get there.  Charlotte has become quite the little drama queen in the past few months and I think her brother is getting slightly exasperated.

Conversation at breakfast on Saturday morning...

Charlotte: "MOMMY, come feed me."
Me: "Charlotte, why can't you feed yourself?"
Charlotte: "I too busy."
Trey: (who was sitting across the dining room table from Charlotte): "Charlotte, you are not too busy, you are just sitting at the table."
Charlotte (with all the attitude a 2 year old can deliver): "I AM too busy. "

Then later on when she had to go to timeout for hitting her brother on the head...

Charlotte: (sitting on the bottom of the stairs crying):  "This is NOT fair.  This is NOT fair.  I be a good listener now. This is NOT fair." 

In the car on the way home from church...

Charlotte (pushing as hard as she can against the car seat straps): "I stuck.  Trey save me.  I stuck."
Trey: "Charlotte you don't need to be saved.  You have to stay in your seat. "
Charlotte (moving into a full blown scream): "Get me out! Get me out!"
Trey: "Charlotte, you can get out when we get home.  You have to stay in your seat until we get home."

Tonight we went to see the children's choir performance at church.  Trey's class was filmed singing a few Wednesdays ago and they play it on the screen in the sanctuary before the older kids sing on stage.  Trey and I went to the performance together and left Charlotte in the nursery.  Trey did so good sitting on the pew and watching the kids.

At bedtime I asked him if he wanted to thank God for anything special that happened today.  I was thinking he would mention listening to the singing because he kept talking about it on the way home.  He prayed, "Dear God, thank you for us dropping off Charlotte at the nursery."

Lately

May has been a busy month! We started the month off with weekend visiting family in Richmond.  Trey and Charlotte were so excited to see their cousins. Sorry for the blurry picture, but you can tell Trey and Chandler are having a fun time!

 Nana is helping the little ones learn play a game together.

During that weekend Jay and I went to a wedding of one of my college roommates and had a night away in Charlottesville.  It was our first ever night away (since the hospital when Charlotte was born) and we enjoyed the time alone, but were ready to get the kids the next day.  The kids loved having a sleepover at Nana and Papa's and didn't want to come back home with us! 

The kids are at such a fun age of playing together.  They always want to be together and Charlotte loves to copy everything Trey does.  When Trey got dressed in his "Go Hokies!" shirt as Charlotte calls it, I asked her if she wanted to wear her "Go Hokies" shirt too.  She was beyond ecstatic to "match my Trey" as she kept saying! 

Charlotte is continually expanding her vocabulary and never. stops. talking.  She cracks us up continually with what she says.  She is still loves sauce and I think pizza sauce is her favorite!

 Trey got a new set of smaller legos for his birthday last month.  At first he kept asking for his lego duplos, but now he has realized all the cool things he can build with the smaller legos.  He likes to look at the plans in the little lego book and will follow them to make the item.  He was so proud of the windmill he and Daddy made tonight. 

 Last Friday was our first "free" evening in a while, so we decided to do an ice cream/movie night for the kids.  As you can tell, the ice cream was a big hit.

Mill Mountain Zoo

At the end of April we went to Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke with families from our Sunday School class.  The zoo is fairly small as far as zoos go, but the kids loved seeing the animals and playing with their friends.

Seriously, family photos are not our thing.  You would think this is an outtake, but really it is the best shot we had.  

Trey loved singing to Brayden.  He would sing his ABCs and any other song he could think of while Brayden just listened to him.  It was very sweet. 

Trying to spot the owls. 

Charlotte could just barely see into the glass. 

This zoo had a slide too so now our kids think every zoo has a slide.  Charlotte wore her shades most of the morning and they both loved the slide!

 The Saturday we were there the zoo was also celebrating Earth day so that had lots of free "extras" for the kids like face painting, pizza, and making bird feeders. 

Trey waited patiently in line for a while to get a tiger on his face.  It turned out a little more like a cat, but we convinced him it was very tiger-like and he loved having his face painted.