yeehaw!

People have been asking the girls for weeks what they will be for Halloween. They are always excited to say they will be COWGIRLS!.

Today we went to two costume events so we could practice our yeehaw's before the big day on Monday.

This morning we went with the MOMs group to a local nursing home to bring some treats to the residents. The girls were a hit and Little Pie wasn't shy to tell everyone there that cowgirls say "yeehaw". (Although, according to her, it sounds more like "neehaw").

I couldn't decide which hysterical picture I liked the best!

This afternoon we met friends at Byerly's for their annual Halloween event. The place was packed with adorable kids and they didn't disappoint. The kids got some great "treats" and the DJ played some fun music that the kids danced to. (The best part about trick-or-treating at a grocery store is getting two free reusable grocery bags!). 

We are ready for the real deal on Monday!

we built this city

(No Uncle Drew, I'm not referring to Starship's classic 80's song). 

Now that the weather is cooler, sometimes it can be uncomfortable to play out in the wicked wind. Also, since our driveway is quite sloped, it's kind of hard to play with our bikes and cars on it.

That means we spend quite a bit of time in our garage.

To make things a little interesting, I built a little roadway for the girls to drive on with their cars. Destinations include such places as Target (duh!), the library and Mommy gym, Mini-hops gymnastics, the park (which refers to all parks we go to), Faribault (to visit Nana, Papa, Uncle Drew, Gramcracker, Magramma and Boompa), Fargo (to visit Gramma, Grandpa and Bindi), Uncle Rye's new house (he hasn't moved in yet), Terbear's house (to visit Dakota and Penny or play Barbies), church, Golden Valley (to visit Daddy at work), Illinois (to see where Daddy goes sometimes for work), and home (of course!).

The girls have fun driving to places, getting out and shopping or jumping on the trampoline or visiting people. Today Little Bird went to Faribault and asked Papa where Uncle Drew was. He was at work. Little Pie went to Target to get groceries but needed help putting them in her car. She also wanted to go to church and sing some songs. Both girls went to Mini-hops to jump on the trampoline.

Oh! The places they go!

i *heart* nyc

Rob and I were very fortunate to go to New York City this past weekend. He was at Honeywell's headquarters in New Jersey all week for training, so we booked me a flight (with points!) to come out for the weekend. Since Rob has so many Hilton points, we also got a room in Times Square. The girls headed to Nana and Papa's for the weekend and we were off to have an incredible time.

I flew into Newark where Rob was there to meet me. We took the train into the city and quickly checked into our hotel because we had booked a bus tour; a Night on the Town tour which left at 6pm. Unfortunately it was raining, but we figured that's fine since we'll be in a bus. It turned out to be kind of a crazy experience since before we even started, almost our entire tour group got lost on the way to the bus. When we finally found our bus, we took a spot up top. I'd never done a tour before, so it was nice to hear about some of the history that I otherwise may have not known. Traffic was bad trying to get into the Holland Tunnel so we had trouble making it to the piers to catch our water taxi for another tour. Fortunately we made it and the rain let up. The water taxi was awesome and the tour guide was hysterical. We went up the Hudson, getting a good look at the construction of the new trade center towers and then turned around to stop near the statue of liberty to have a champagne toast.

This picture is hilarious even though Lady Liberty is blurry. It sort of sums up the hysterical night.

After toasting Lady Liberty, we headed up the East River to get a good look at the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. When we returned to the piers we got back on the bus to head to dinner at an old restaurant in Little Italy. Unfortunately, our bus driver GOT LOST. We also thought we were going to kill about 50 people with the way he drove. We finally got to dinner where Rob and I sat with a nice Norwegian couple (I told them that their King and Queen were currently in Minnesota!). Most people were starving so dinner was quite dull as we were all stuffing our faces and wondering if we were ever going to get back in one piece. Our final stop was to be The Top of the Rock which we were all excited to see at night. But since the driver kept getting us lost, we didn't make it there before the last elevator went up. Several people were very upset since they were leaving the next day. Rob and I just got off the bus and left, planning on using our vouchers later. To end the evening we wondered around Times Square, taking in the the sights and lights.

The next morning we were so lucky to wake up to the best weather. It was going to be windy, but we dressed and layers and were just happy to see the sun. We started off the day with a latte and a walk in Central Park.

We came upon a big chess tournament in the park and it was the cutest thing ever to see so many kids so serious about chess!

This was my third trip to NYC, but I hadn't yet been to the Brooklyn Bridge, so after wandering the Park for a while, we took to the subway to Brooklyn. We enjoyed some VERY delicious Grimaldi's Pizza (that was well worth the hour wait) and then headed back to Manhattan over the bridge. 

You're supposed to be able to see the Statue of Liberty behind us, but the lighting was kind of bad!

We hadn't planned on it, but since we ended up close the World Trade Center sight, we walked over there to see if we could get a look at the new 9/11 Memorial. We hadn't gotten tickets so we didn't plan on going in, but we just wanted to see what we could see. Unfortunately there were so many people down there with the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations that it was so difficult to get around. We decided instead to get on the subway and head to Greenwich Village. We shouldn't have been surprised but we found more demonstrators at Washington Square Park as well. It was really interesting to see and it was kind of cool to be there for it all. 

We kept walking, admiring everything we saw and wondering what it would be like to live in NYC. We tried to guess real estate prices and tried to figure out what area we liked best (just in case we won the lottery and had the opportunity to buy a place there). Soon we grew really tired and we just wanted to sit and have a beer. We found such a place in Bryant Park; a cute little outdoor cafe/bar that had fire pits and Adirondack chairs. We got a couple of ($9!) beers and enjoyed some people watching, more fresh air and big city life. By this time, the demonstrators had marched their way up 6th Ave and we got an incredible view of thousands of people chanting and waving signs. (Word is they were heading to the Upper East side to protest near some big bank executives homes).

 We were getting a little nervous because we needed to get back to our hotel to get ready for the show, but we weren't able to cross the street until all the demonstrators marched by. After it was clear we started walking back to the hotel only to find that Broadway was also entirely blocked off. We literally became part of the group and had to figure out a different way to get across Broadway. Fortunately we made it and we were back at our hotel to get changed.

That night we got all dressed up and saw the production of Wicked. I LOVED it! I was so glad we went because I was kind of bummed that I didn't see it when it came to Minneapolis. Plus it was so fun to see a Broadway production on Broadway. Even Rob liked it. At the suggestion of a friend, we went to Becco for an after show dinner. The food was so yummy and the experience was wonderful. 

Sunday morning was our last so we used our Top of the Rock vouchers and got there before the big crowds. It was an incredibly beautiful morning. I thought that the trees would have been changing colors by now, but they were still green. (I really wanted to see the city engulfed in reds, oranges and yellows!)

We spent the rest of the morning perusing the shops on Fifth Avenue before heading back to get packed up. 

It was an AMAZING weekend and I'm so glad we had the opportunity to go. 

But we were so EXCITED to come home and see our girls!

a big fail

I'm putting it on the record...after 6 months of trying, I have failed at potty training the girls. When the girls are 13 and I'm dealing with teenage girl issues, I want to come back to this and laugh at myself for thinking this was the end of the world.

But, I'm losing my freaking mind. I feel like I have tried everything. I feel like I've read and used all possible suggestions out there. My only conclusion is that they are not ready.

But how can that be? When I go through the "checklist" of "is your toddler ready?", I answer yes to everything. Well actually, I don't think I can say that they have ever had a dry diaper for more than an hour. But if they are ready and willing, then how come that doesn't fall into place? Is there something physically wrong? 

Little Bird did really well for a really long time, having only 1 accident a day, but now she has given up. I can't motivate her with anything. She will use the potty, but still have 4 or 5 accidents a day. Not just little accidents, but change the undies and pants accidents. Sometimes she'll refuse to go on the toilet when I ask her and then 20 minutes later when I ask her again, she is soaked. On the bright side, she does tell me when she has to poop.

Little Pie was doing well with the potty, but still not pooping in it. I thought that was fine, thinking it would come soon, but now she is constantly peeing in her undies and never in the toilet. She poops in her undies 3+ times a day. I can't begin to express how frustrated I am with cleaning up those messes.

I think I'm so frustrated because I feel like the girls get what they are supposed to do. They always say, "I'm supposed to tell Mommy or Daddy when I have to go pee", but they never do it. They say, "when I'm dry all day, then I can play Candy Land/wear princess crown/eat candy corn/etc." but they are never dry all day and they don't care when they don't get to do those things.

Sticker charts don't work, new undies don't work, picking out your own undies doesn't work, reading  potty books doesn't work, telling them we can play Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders doesn't work, talking about it doesn't work, telling them they can't play downstairs doesn't work, not letting them sit on the couch doesn't work, changing them out of their favorite pretty dress doesn't work, pretending to cry because I'm so sad doesn't work.

I even jokingly said today that we were going to have to take money out of their banks to pay for all the pull-ups and Little Bird excitedly ran to her room to get hers. Ugh! You are supposed to not like that idea!!

So my conclusion is that they either have a physical problem in that they cannot hold the urine or they are somehow trying to control the situation. 

If it's a control thing, then it's off to the parenting section of the bookstore I go!

Sundresses

We went to the park today. It's 80 degrees. On October 8. We wore our Easter sundresses there. It's October 8!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

summer in october

I don't know how we got so lucky, but this week has been so beautiful. Not only has it been unseasonably warm, but it's been unseasonably hot (like 88 yesterday!). The girls have even wondered if we could get the pool out. I don't blame them since we are back to wearing summer clothes and eating outside. It's been a perfect mix of clear blue skies, bright sun, vivid reds oranges and yellows on the trees, breezes and NO humidity. We all wish this weather could last all year.

Because the whole week has been so beautiful, we have spent a lot of time outside. On Monday our group went to French Park to play and walk the trails. The girls had a lot of fun running (too fast) on the trails. They thought it was amazing that we had to cross two bridges to get to the lake. It was fun to be on the beach even though we weren't swimming. 

Little Bird is a bit behind because she had fallen and scraped her elbow pretty bad.

They all swore they saw a turtle, however the moms had a hard time locating it.

Yesterday was unbelievable hot so when it finally cooled down after supper, we went out to the driveway to draw with chalk. Since we had gone to gymnastics that morning, the whole day was spent talking about gymnastics. The girls wanted me to draw a trampoline and a balance beam. I also drew some stairs and we practiced climbing, balancing on the beam and bouncing on the trampoline. Little Pie and I worked on drawing "E" and I was so impressed with her results. She mimicked my movements really well and I caught her practicing on her own, talking herself through it with my descriptions. Poor Little Bird didn't have a lot of patience learning her "S". "S" is a hard letter to draw anyway.

Rob came home just as we were about to go in, but the girls had to show him our creations. They wanted him to jump on the trampoline over and over and Little Pie giggled so hard at his animation of it. She kept telling me "it's fun out here Mom!". Surprisingly they obliged when we finally said they could do one final jump before going in for a bath. They both matter of factly said that we would come back out tomorrow when Daddy got home.

Balance beam

Action shot! Little Pie is hysterical with laughter while Rob jumped on the trampoline. Also, you can see a few of her "Es" (they are the orange ones). I wanted to get a close up, but my camera died after this picture.