3 Years, 5 Months, 1 Week, and 5 Days

Ruby & Charlotte are 3 years, 5 months, 1 week, and 5 days old today. Ruby is able to sing along with various songs since I have the iPod on shuffle here throughout the day and she loves anything to do with music. She picked up on some lyrics from The Avett Brothers "Die Die Die" (a much nicer song than the title suggests) and sang them quietly during breakfast yesterday. Charlotte is interested in jobs as of late, and explained to Bob & me what it is that we do: "Mommy, you have 3 jobs," (holds up 3 fingers to count on) "Making cake pops, teaching me to behave properly, and sell books. Daddy has 2 jobs," (holds up 2 fingers to count on) "Teaching me to behave properly and goes to work so he draws pictures all day." Enjoy the photos!

We met our friends at the Schaumburg Township Library, which has an enchanted forest area in the children's section and is the grandest library I have ever been in:

Ruby kept wandering off to go look at books while sitting under a tree:

Ava & Charlotte sat in a little cottage and smiled together:

The library is only 10 minutes from HVS, so we went and visited Bob at work during his lunch hour where they had little interest in seeing what he drew and wanted to draw their own pictures instead:

We went outside to play in the sleet as it turned into big clumps of snowflakes:

They stuck their tongues out hoping to catch some:

The next day, after the storm had passed, we had loads of wet snow to play in. Melissa showed them how to roll the snow into a large ball to make a snowman:

Ava, Ruby, & Charlotte with their snowman:

They love playing in the snow:

They are interested in how to make letters, so I made some tracing worksheets with their names for practice, though they were more excited about having pencils than tracing letters after a couple of minutes:

I found some non-toxic nail polish (Piggy Paints) to try, and they thought it was amazing to have paint on their nails. Charlotte (on left) chose purple, and Ruby chose pink:

3 Years, 5 Months, and 5 Days

Ruby & Charlotte are 3 years, 5 months, and 5 days old today. Winter continues to be mild here, allowing us to spend more time outdoors than usual. We went on an impromptu zoo trip last Friday as it warmed up into the mid 40s. Enjoy the photos!

Ready to go on a Target shopping adventure:

At the zoo, Ruby preferred to ride in the wagon while Charlotte chose to walk:

They pretended to be joeys inside this giant kangaroo statue:

Grandpa Jay jokingly said that the crocodile thought they looked delicious, which caused Ruby to adamantly state "I don't taste good!" to it repeatedly:

Once we got near the bear exhibit, they ran ahead to get to the playground:

Charlotte found many sticks during our walk through one of the forest exhibits:

Ruby loves to paint:

Bob fashioned some loopy braids on Ruby that made her look like a milkmaid:

Ruby sat with her hands on her cheeks as she watched this Winnie the Pooh scrolling TV toy at Ava & Jacob's house (we were there to help celebrate Jacob's 1st birthday):

Charlotte took a turn pulling Jacob's new wooden snail around the room:

41 Months Old!

Ruby at 41 months old:

Charlotte at 41 months old:

3 Years, 4 Months, 4 Weeks, and 1 Day

Charlotte & Ruby are 3 years, 4 months, 4 weeks, and 1 day old today. Painting with watercolors, cinnamon raisin toast and the Tinkerbell and the Lost Treasure DVD are favorites right now. They are able to walk in stores and be trusted not to run about or touch things, which makes going out on my own with them much easier since I don't need to rely on places that supply 2 seat shopping carts. Enjoy the photos!

At their pre-preschool Valentine party:

They gave out their own Valentines to all of their classmates:

I continue to be more excited about Lincoln Logs than they are, and am perfecting my building skills:

They prefer to knock down what I create:

The tin makes a great spaceman helmet:

The lid makes a wonderful drum hat:

All suited up to leave the house and go to Hobby Lobby for craft supplies:

Charlotte studies an old Sesame Street book:

Ruby Lee Lewis:

Making foam sticker snowmen:

Snowmen shadows:

The dollhouse is making a comeback these days:

Charlotte colored a birthday card for Aubrey, who is turning 5 shortly:

Ruby colored a birthday card for Hudson, who is turning 3 soon (he is Aubrey's little brother, and we plan to meet them one day!):

3 Years, 4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 1 Day

Charlotte & Ruby are 3 years, 4 months, 3 weeks, and 1 day old today. We are still having unseasonably warm weather for this time of year, though not quite as warm as it was last month. We went to the children's museum with Melissa, Ava, & Jacob last week. It seems that the kids brought the souvenir of a stomach flu home from it. We've spent a lot of the week watching TV and reading books in towel beds on the couches with bowls nearby. As of yesterday they seem to both be getting better. I registered them for the 3s preschool class that goes twice a week next school year, since we will be staying in Illinois now. Enjoy the photos!

Charlotte examines the mud with her binoculars:

Ruby watches the geese start flying with her binoculars:

The melting snow created a lot of puddles for jumping and seeing reflections:

Playing together with their barn:

I was very excited to bring out Lincoln Logs and show them how to build houses:

They were more impressed with the cardboard lining from the tin:

It became a sled:

Eventually, they did start to play with the Lincoln Logs themselves:

But discovered that they made better drumsticks than house building materials at this time:

Wednesday afternoon they played the "Let's take a nap with our dolls" game, but Ruby actually fell asleep and spiked a fever then, which ended up being the start of the stomach flu:

I made Valentine's Day favors for their preschool party this weekend, which consist of a hearts matching game and individual Valentine cards to hand out:

I came up with a strawberry vanilla cupcake recipe to try beforehand (and they are delicious):