I is for Independence

I have run out of clever and moderately related letter-themed titles, so fortunately this is the last painful attempt to be clever for the month of April.

K. has become much more independent in the things she is able to do.  For one, and the topic of this post, she is a quite competent bubble-blower.  She also is quite the fashionista, as you can see by her dance leotard and bling-y sunglasses.

It is in pictures like these that I see glimmers of what she might look like when she’s a teenager/young adult, and I ask her father to polish off his shotgun to deter any would-be suitors.

Love this girl!

H is for Horse

N. and I went to the museum again with our friends.  One of the things we did (N’s first time!") was to ride the carousel.  She had a lot of fun, and was confident enough that I was able to sit on a horse next to her rather than hold her.  I should have picked a different row for myself, as my horse didn’t go up and down, but since that was my only disappointment for the week I figure things are pretty good.

Wheeee?

And then I took a picture of her pretending to be an Indy car driver, but she totally turned to the side and posed, making a weird, sarcastic face!  It was even funnier in person and not the norm for a two-year-old.

G is for Gestures

Stretching it a little with the title, but for the Easter Egg hunt at church, my friend and I usually lead a few songs with motions.  Her daughter (a third grader this year) has helped lead for the last couple of years, and this year both of my girls joined in too!  I was such a proud Mama—I think they have less stage fright than I would have had at their respective ages.

F is for Family

After the Easter brunch at church, we stopped at a park to pose for more photos.  A lot of people would say that their hobby is photography; my hobby is just simply trying to make people pose as I’m not quite clever enough with my camera settings that candids ever turn out non-blurry.

Even so, sometimes the shots when everyone is getting in place are the cutest to me.  I love seeing the family interact!

I imagine you’ll see this photo resurface near Father’s Day as well:

All four of us!  N. was pretty tired and ready for a nap at this point, and the wind was doing some crazy things to our hair!

I was looking through the photos and came across this, and it made me laugh!  It was in a whole bunch of normal, smiling portraits of K. and I had forgotten she gave the “thumbs up".”  The unexpected is funny.

E is for Easter

D is for Downtown

Because K. has been asking to ride on a train for, like, two years and because it is one of my favorite ways to head into the city, we took the “light commuter rail train” as part of our trip.  So fun!We trekked to Watertower Place and saw the Lego store.  N. obviously had somewhere to go once the picture was taken, but the other girls had fun posing.And we had a lunch at the American Girl store.  The girls each brought a doll and were quite polite.And on the way home from our trip, the girls posed with all of their dolls.  Notice that there’s one more than we started the trip with—M. had been saving up and bought a really really cute doll that looks like her.  They also got some darling accessories; I might invite myself over to their house to play dolls sometime.  My girls saw things they liked, but we didn’t purchase anything.

C is for Chicago

B is for Ball

I got an idea from Pinterest to use cardboard tubes and make a ball drop/ball run.  I used painters tape to hold them to a large box I found in my basement (thankfully, B. had just purchased something that came in a just-the-right-size box).  The painters tape wasn’t as secure as other tape, but it was what I had a lot of on hand.

The girls had a lot of fun!  If I were a nicer mom, I would have explained the science behind it and had them help me put it together; I just made it myself and let them play with it.

A is for Aquarium

We took a trip over Spring Break with some friends of ours.  Both moms (me and my friend) work at our church, so being gone for an entire week or part of the week involving a Sunday was a no-go, so we packed up our girls and took a three-day jaunt.

We traveled to my parents’ house, and on the way there went to the aquarium.  N. found a duck that swam right by the window.  She followed it and played with it for a while.

The girls cooked a breakfast of bacon, eggs, and pancakes.  Sorry for the dismal lighting—we were in a darkish area and flash photography would trouble the fish, who do not have eyelids to protect them.Three of the four girls.  N. was too engrossed in the fish swimming by to pose politely.

Outside.  My girls love their friends so very much, and it was amazing taking a trip with them!  Both of the older girls were huge helps with my girls—at the aquarium, K. and A. hung out together and I didn’t have to worry about them.

More about the trip in future posts!