Lunch with Dora

What a day the girls had today!!  Heidi took them on quite an adventure!! Two of their very favorite things were together at the mall!  Dora came to the bounce house.  Aggh!  How exciting!  They got to bounce AND meet Dora. 

Heidi not only took them, but also took some great pictures so that I could see what it was like.  I was so sad that I couldn't go, but these pictures made me feel like I was there! 

Here is Heidi's account of the day...sounds like so much fun!!

"So, today wasn't quite what we expected, but it was still a lot of fun!  We got there and expected to play with Dora right away, but apparently she wasn't going to be there until 11:45... so we played on ALL of the bouncy things.  Dora finally showed up and the girls seemed a little confused.  I'm not sure if it was because Dora was not in the TV anymore, or if it was because Dora was taller than Miss Heidi!  Giant Dora danced around to her theme music for a little bit and then the hostess for the party told us that Dora was missing all of her stars.  Each kid had a star with their name on it that was taped to the wall in different spots in the room.  They did a whole production, just like on the cartoon.  We hollered for map and there were three places on the map that we had to find the stars.  I'm sure you probably noticed that Isabella's star just has Isabel on it... that is because there was another little girl that was named Isabel that took Isabella's star.  Oh well... luckily none of them can read yet. HA!  So the whole group (about 20 kids and 10+ parents)  followed Dora around until all the stars were collected.  We got about five seconds to pose for a picture with Dora and then she disappeared so the kids could eat lunch.  They set-up a story time after lunch... Dora sat in a chair while the hostess read the story about Dora's birthday party.  All the kids sang Happy Birthday to Dora and then they got to hug her and take one more quick picture before Dora disappeared again."

So grateful for Heidi!!

Going down the slide while wating for Dora

My Bella...she LOVES to hug!

I don't often think they look identical, but here...I see it!

Silly Valentines

Yesterday, we had a fun filled valentines day afternoon!  We had some playtime with Daddy when he got home from work (hence the pics below).  Then the girls and I went to the library for over an hour and they were great the entire time.  The LOVE riding on the elevator, so we did that first, then we played with toys, read books, watched some older kids play on the computer, went potty, drank from the water fountain, and finally ran up and down the handicapped ramp outside for 15 minutes.  The girls find such joy in just living.  They were so happy and grateful for each and every one of these activities.  I love that they say "thank you" on their own now when we give them something or let them do something they want to do.  They are also so verbal.  When I told them we were going to the library, Leah immediately started yelling, "I'll push the button mommy, i'll push it, i'll push it.  Don't worry Mommy, I'll push the button." (in reference to the elevator button).  It was pretty funny!  Anyway, then after the library, we went to Ledos for family dinner!  We haven't done that in a while, so I was a little nervous about their behavior, but they did awesome and even sat in booster seats in the booth instead of the high chairs.  Overall, a pretty perfect day for me :)

Thanks for the SUPER cute outfits G'ma!

Love these two :)

Leah and Daddy being silly

She was being such a ham!

Sorry for so many pics of Leah...I am too lazy to edit and put them together!

Love this picture!!

Bedtime

This was literally 5 minutes before bedtime.  We had just finished reading books and Cesar came upstairs to say goodnight.  These girls have never ending energy!  Leah is the star of this show!

Fun Saturday

Cesar had a jiu jitsu tournament in Philadelphia on Saturday (which he won and got a big gaudy belt...yay Cesar!), so the girlies and I were on our own all day.  We started the day going out for a little breakfast treat at dunkin donuts. 

 By the time we got home, Deanna, Kai and Demi were at our house for a play-date.  I didn't get any pics of that, but hopefully Deanna got a couple good ones. 

After the cousins left, we took a nap and then woke up and got ready to go to the pool! 

Unfortunately, this is going to be the quality of my pics for a while...I have to send my camera away to get fixed AGAIN!

They discovered the lockers in the locker room while we were there and had a blast going in and out of them.  Couldn't help but think of Saved by the Bell as they were doing it!!

Happy Birthday from two 2 year olds...

So, this is what happy birthday looks like when you try to get two 2 year olds to sit still for a moment (and when your nice camera breaks right before you start taking pictures so you are forced to use your camera phone). 

They insisted on wearing glasses for the photo shoot!

Finally...I realized that the process was much better than the pictures, so after about 10 minutes I took a video of the attempts.

This was the goal (only it worked so much better without the kids)

Bella was upset that she wasn't in on this one, so she jumped in at the last minute :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!  I love you!!!!