Happy 4th Birthday, Addie!!!

Wait.  Did everyone else blink and miss that?  It was 4 years going by in a FLASH.  

Can you believe Adeline Eve is now FOUR YEARS OLD?  She's no longer a baby, she's a little girl!  Addie is many many things.  She's super super sweet.  She's an amazing big sister to Cole.  She is dramatic and loves to pretend.  She's an amazing reader for her age!  She's reading signs like "Rockville Town Square" and the back of cereal boxes, and can read real books now--Amelia Bedelia, Curious George, Arthur, Frog and Toad, etc etc.  She does need our help occasionally, but overall, she's reading a ton of children's books on her own.

She still loves to dance and does it all day every day.  At school one day I was reading her the list of "opportunities" that her teacher posts outside of the classroom. I said "Oh, Addie, look, today Ms. Janice is coming in and you get to do dance." and her teacher looked at me and said "Addie dances EVERYday" :)  She's also stubborn and sassy, and sometimes I think she's 4 going on 14 with the way she talks back to us.  But I think we'll still keep her ;) because she's SO good at snuggling, giving bear hugs, and throwing us daily birthday parties.   Speaking of birthdays...

Addie's birthday started out to here waking up to balloons in her room again! 

A few presents to get the morning started

And of course a birthday hat

Some special pancakes for the divine Ms. A

Addie and Cole got to watch a movie in the morning, complete with a chocolate milk treat.

Then at school she got to bring rice krispy treats in for her classmates.  Then we ordered her favorite dinner: Pad Thai!

On the day of her birthday party, Addie had her last ballet class of the session

Then later in the afternoon she had her "Mystery Detective Birthday Party"  Sadly, we were all running around so much that we didn't take many pictures!  Here is one of Steve leading Addie and her friends for the big mystery!

So I leave you with some sweet Addie pictures....she is the most amazing little girl and we have loved every day of being her parents.

Happy birthday, my sweet girl, little peanut, little bear, Adelina Ballerina, Addie Bear, Adsaloo

WE LOVE YOU!

Louisiana Trip #2!

The last time we were on a plan we flew to Louisiana to visit Steve's side of the family.  Here are the pictures--how little was Addie?   

Steve's cousin Greg was getting married so we made the trek again, this time with two kiddos in tow. 

Checking out the airplanes at National Airport--a long day of traveling ahead of us. 

Don't worry, Cole, I'll share my toys with you

We flew into New Orleans, opted not to stop for Hurricanes, drove 2 hours to Lafayette and promptly had some chicken fingers and amazing Frozen Yogurt.  Feel free to ignore Cole's look of disdain--perhaps he had a bite of strawberry when he meant to have Coconut? 

It was so much fun to see the whole family staying at the same hotel! 

Addie and Yaya wore the same Booktrader of Hamilton shirt :) 

Off to Aunt Robbie's house to see Grammy! 

And the wedding!  The kids got all dressed up for the ceremony.  Cole and I watched all of 4 minutes of it until he became loud. Not crying...just loud. "MOMMY?  MOMMY?  DIS?  MOMMY? CAR." Needless to say, we made a quick exit to the back vestibule where Cole and Julie had a dance-off. 

Addie was an angel and watched the whole ceremony--I mean what's as cool as a princess?  A bride :) 

Family pics!! 

The next day we got to spend more time at Aunt Robbie's to hang out with the cousins.  Julie sits on a pot to reach the table--apparently a Granger family tradition. 

 We did some tree-climbing

And some awesome swinging

Family!!!! 

Aunt Robbie and Aunt Ada

Cousins Agustin, Steve, and Doug

Ricardo, Cole and Agustin

Grammy, Steve, and Cole

Cole's turn to sit on the pot

Restin' and relaxin'

Go Kart Racing! 

And too soon it was time to go home.  The kids on the shuttle to the airport

Who doesn't love floor pizza? 

Both kids passed out on the plane ride back (not simultaneously, of course) 

A great trip!  Congrats Greg and Courtney and to the Picco family--we all love you!

Pumpkin Patch!!!

This weekend we had GORGEOUS weather and we were lucky enough to head out to Butler's Orchard for their fall festival and also visit the pumpkin patch. We love fall fun!

First we headed to the tractor-drivin' pit.  Cole totally dug driving the mini tractor.

Addie pushing Cole on the tractor.

Then we headed to a big box of dried corn.  There were a bunch of dump trucks, buldozers, and back-hoe loaders (see I'm starting to learn more of the "boy lingo") but not enough to go around--next year, Butler's Orchard, more toys and you'll have less tears in the corn box.   Not pictured--Addie in tears because she didn't get the truck right away.  And Cole doing is typical "Addie duh duh saaaaad" (with a finger running down his cheek like the drop of a tear).  My children the actors--hysterical!

Addie and Steve rocked the giant slide....WEE!  Cole didn't want to do it this year, we were all pretty hungry.

So while Steve got in line for the food, the kids and I hit the hay-loft.  They LOVED it. 

It was bouncy!

It was fun to throw in the air!

It was tiring--they're having a little sibling conference and I wasn't invited.

Then there was a post-hay-jumping game of Ring around the Rosy to shake out the rest of our sillies.  Not pictured: our lunch of junk food and ice cream.  The kids were too distracted to eat much food, but they both looooved the ice cream.  We finished our cones while standing in line for the hay ride.

See you take the hay ride out to the pumpkin patch. We didn't realize this last year and came home empty-pumpkined.   But this year we were determined to get the perfect pumpkins.  Well, our rule was "you can bring home whatever you can carry" (hey, it was pay by the pound!)

Cole was almost lulled to sleep by the hay ride...almost but not quite.

We had a blast picking our pumpkins!  But by this time we were all tired and a bit cranky. 

Me proudly displaying our (easy to carry) festive decorations.

Happy fall everyone (or those who are still reading this blog!) enjoy the warmish weather while it lasts!!!

Bless me blogland for I have sinned...

...it has been over a month since my last blog post. I must repent. I don't know why this has been slipping through my hands lately...or my mind...with facebook updates I feel like most of my faithful blog readers already keep up with the kiddos, but I know this is different!

So...a quick update. Cole turned 18 months yesterday. A year and a half! How did that happen??? He's SUCH a boy. Such a boy. All trucks and loud crashing noises when he "tells" a story. But on the other end he gets all whiny if his hands get messy in the dirt? Really dude, because there's ketchup and yogurt all in your HAIR and you care about a little bit of dirt on your hands? He's also very sweet--he loves taking Addie's baby doll (ironically, the one named "Baby Doll Cole") and putting her (yes her) to "seep" (sleep) by placing her on a bed with a blanket completely covering her body and face (poor thing can't breathe). There's also a giant hedgehog in our living room named Lucy that looks like this. Cole is constantly trucking his sippy cup over to Lucy, plopping down next to her and waving in her face. "Hi. Lucy. Water." He likes trains (tah-mis) and is obsessed with mickey mouse. He still loves music and knows the last word to most of the lines of each Little Mermaid song (seeing as how we listen to it about a hundred times a week in the car). He's putting two and sometimes three words together in sentences ("Inono cookie book" also means "I don't know where the cookie monster book is, but please find it for me NOW so we can read it"), can identify shapes (heart, star, circle, triangle, sometimes oval and square), and know some colors (but is less consistent, and his default color is always "wat" (white). He can count to 10 so cutely while walking up and down the stairs. I have yet to capture it on video, but that is my next goal. If you sing the ABC's and leave a letter out, he can fill it in for you. This week he started saying abcd and then dissolving in a heap of giggles for some reason only known to that goofy little child. He's becoming a WAY pickier eater than I'd like...sigh...missing the days when he ate piles and piles of whatever we put in front of him. He's a big fruitatarian these days. All in all, a wonderful kiddo with a short temper and a huge heart.

Addie started a new school this year. Since she's a November birthday, she'll have 3 years of preschool, and the school she attended last year wasn't the best fit for her or the family. It was a co-op, which meant that I worked 1-3 days in her classroom a month and there was 1 steady teacher plus 2 parents who rotated each day. The inconsistency of me being there sometimes and not other times and of different parents each day left Addie a crying mess at almost every drop-off. We chose a new school which is not a co-op, so she has 2 teachers who are the same each time and...poof...she loves the school, hasn't shed a single tear, BARELY EVEN LOOKS BACK AT ME when I leave the classroom. May wasn't that long ago when she was clinging to my leg, but she is a changed woman :) And SO proud of herself too! Addie has a hilarious sense of humor. She knows when she's made us really laugh and then she declares "I'm funnier than the Great Zucchini!" (A local "funny man" that we saw recently). She's doing bigger things on the playground--she can flip on the rings that we have on our swingset, and she can almost pump her legs on the swing exclusively (but, she will let you know, she quite likes being pushed). For a girl who was terrified of going down the slide when we moved into this house...that's a huge deal!

They've been able to play together a lot more, which is SO nice. They get along for the most part, but do get on each other's nerves. We do our best to let them sort it out because I know they can do it, but we do have to intervene here and there to make sure no one gets hurt. But if Addie gets hurt, Cole is the first to rush over and give her a kiss. If she's sad he looks at us and says "Addie. Sad" and then runs over to give her a hug. But just as he knows how to make her feel better, he knows how to push her buttons. All in all....I couldn't ask for a better pair of siblings.

Pictures coming in a post soon...I promise....

We're famous!

Last week, I took the kids to Rockville Town Square, a shopping area that also has some fountains in the summer where we can cool off. A local newspaper reporter asked if he could snap some shots of the kiddos, so I agreed. Ironically, the title of the article was "As temperatures rise, residents urged to stay inside." Which we didn't do--oops :) Here's a link to the article: http://www.gazette.net/article/20110720/NEWS/799999842&template=gazette

__________________