Playing around at Easton

Easton Shopping Center has what I learned is called a "Splash Pad." When they first built Easton when I was in high school, I think the splash pad was more meant to be a beautiful water art type thing that you could sit and enjoy while taking a break from shopping. I would say within a year, kids started coming and playing in the water. Now parents bring their kids decked out in swimsuits, and they make a day of playing in the water. I used to make fun of those parents. I have learned in my parenthood stage of life, that you should never judge what you don't know. I take the girls to Easton, decked in swimsuits, to play in that water thing all the time. I really should stop throwing rocks in this pretty glass house I'm in.

So, this day we met up with Haley and Karen, and also our good friend Jacqui, who also had family in town. Big 'ol group of us!

Haley was, of course, soaked by the time we got there


Normally, Claire is our water-baby (totally brave and willing to get soaking wet even in full clothes) and Olivia is the scaredy cat. Claire had an off day this day, and really had ZERO desire to get wet... or be set down... it was tiring.

Olivia played her same song and dance where she wants her hands and feet to get wet, but not her whole body, or more specifically, her hair.




Also in our group - Becky, the last bride I worked with! I love Becky... she's adorable, and really is willing to do anything. It had been raining right up to when we went to Easton, so everyone had umbrellas on them. Jacqui convinced Becky to take an umbrella into the fountain, fully dressed, and pose for me. I love people!










I'm shocked I could even take anything, we were all laughing so hard!

During all this, Claire was being a pip. Refused to even be set down, let alone go and play. Frankly she was acting like a little baby, and not like an almost 3 year old. So she got passed from person to person, everyone trying to warm her up to socializing with us.

I always joke that Claire gets her blue eyes from Karen. EVERYONE on my dads side of the family has brown eyes. My mom has blue eyes, so thats where I got my recessive gene from, and made it possible for her to have blue eyes, but its just fun to joke that she favors Karen in the looks department (in reality, Claire is like a mini-Tim)


Oh, finally cracking a smile Claire?

There we go... all better!


Look, at this point she even let me set her down!!


Now we totally convinced Haley that she needed to drag Olivia through the fountain. Up until this point, Olivia had only ran around the perimeter of the thing. But Haley got her up and through the fountain ;)




Haley herself had zero problems going through the fountain. She wanted me to take some images of her walking through the fountain when it was going full blast




And then... we all held our breath... Claire walked towards the fountain


She actually enjoyed herself (somewhat) when Haley carried her through the fountain




And we'll leave on an image of Olivia's standard pose by the fountain


Butt sticking out so only it, her hands and her feet get wet


Here's hoping lots and lots of images can (slightly) make up for my lack of blogging of late. Happy Summer!!

Lets all go to the Zoo!

My family is definitely getting our bang for our buck when it comes to our zoo pass this year. This week alone we've gone 2 times... the month of March we went four times. I'm pretty excited about this (I love a bargain - and going to the zoo tons of times with a pass is most definitely a bargain!)

This was the longest time my girls have ever spent at the zoo. We went with Grandma Karen, Haley and Jessica was in town for Easter. We ended up meeting up with the neighbors, so all in all we were a big group. And we were there for over five hours. That's right. Five hours. I knew ahead of time it would be a long trip, and I worried that the girls wouldn't make it - but they did really surprisingly well!! I'm a little proud of them!

Before we left, Jessica braided Claires hair. I (selfishly) with Jessica lived here and could braid Claires hair every day, because it was incredibly cute, and kept her hair out of her eyes all day long!


This trip was definitely the most exciting for the girls in a while, and mostly because the animals were so active! I don't know if it was the heat, or the fact that all of Columbus was at the zoo that day, but the animals were out and moving around like crazy!

The first big animal show... the tiger. Normally the tigers aren't close to the glass. They're far away, lounging below rocks. Today the tiger was pacing the line of the glass, like he was mad about something. He'd periodically dunk himself into the water, and then go back to pacing. He was so big, and so close, that Olivia got completely freaked out, and stood behind me bawling until we left. Claire, however, thought the big kitty was cool.

Thats the tigers head, next to Claires head

The next big exciting place... the flamingoes! Even they were super active - fighting amoungst each other, and coming really close to the fencing.




Jessica and Karen were practically hanging over the fence to get pictures of the flamingoes (Jessica got the best picture ever - I'm very jealous) until a docent came up and warned us that that flamingoes would, in fact, take your phone from you.




Look how close Karen was!! This was when the docent came up to us.


Of course the aquarium was awesome as always. I got a cool shot of seahorses


I have way too many photos to share, but if you fan me on facebook, you can see them all. At this point we all took pictures with Hannas green glasses... they're some funny pictures :)

We ended with the gorilla's. Now I'll be honest... the girls have only seen the gorilla's one other time. The gorilla's are in the back of the zoo, and I hate walking back that far, especially given that the girls never ask to see them. Though that'll probably change now... Claire LOVES the gorilla's. I had bought her a stuffed manatee back in the aquarium, and she showed it to all the gorillas. She and Donna went around to all the windows, just looking at them all.


And when I came up to take a picture of Claire with a gorilla, I couldn't help but laugh at how pleased as punch she was so be in a picture with him


Before we left, we got some Dippin Dots. This is, by far, my favorite picture from the day. The girls had been so good, and here's Claire, obviously incredibly hot, just chillin with her ice cream.




And of course, this was the scene when we pulled up in our driveway. Claire with her manatee, Olivia with her new platypus




Everyone should get out and enjoy the zoo!! Polar Bears are coming in less than a month!!

348 - 364

It's the home stretch! Almost there!

348 of 365: Pretty Lady
I took portraits of both girls this day, and this is the best portrait Olivia I have gotten to date. She's so pretty.


349 of 365: nudity
Yep, the girls no longer where clothes. You're more likely to see them naked than to see them clothed. Please don't judge us.


350 of 365: self portrait
Taken at work, in one of the Christmas balls I hung all over the place


351 of 365: Santa baby
Look! Both girls sitting happily on Santa! I never thought I'd see the day!


352 of 365: beat
taken after a long long afternoon of last minute Christmas shopping


353 of 365: magic
These are Olivia's ornaments (I buy her one from this set every year) and I was playing around with bokeh (the circles in the background)


354 of 365: let me sleep
Vash laid down in this baby bed I use as a prop for newborns. Olivia's the one that covered him with a blanket - so he wouldn't get cold during his nap.


355 of 365: pensive
perhaps worred about Santa?


356 of 365: sugar
the day I baked sugar cookies until I was buried in sugar


357 of 365: chocolate
the day I baked chocolate chip cookies until the package of chips ran out


358 of 365: Not a creature was stirring...
Christmas Eve, right after Santa had dropped by. I must have been on the computer and just missed him ;)


Lets break in the 365 to talk about Christmas. Firstly, I hope everyone enjoyed theirs. We certainly enjoyed ours. This year Olivia truly understood Christmas... she understood that she was going to get to unwrap a whole lot of presents. We'll work on a better message for her later ;) So for Olivia, every time she was done with a gift, she would point to a new wrapped present and say "Owivia open nother pwesent mommy??" She was always very polite about it. Claire wouldn't open her presents, but she would sit next to you while you opened it, screaming "WHAT IS IT!??????? WHAT! IS! IT!!!!!!!!!!!!" I just died laughing.

Christmas day we started at our own home, then we drove to Upper Sandusky. In upper, Tim and I quickly realized that we had forgotten sippy cups. Olivia can use a real cup, but Claire can't (though she can use a straw) To substitute, we gave Olivia her juice in a disposable coffee cup. Hilarious!


This image of Karen pretty much sums up all of the adults feelings of Christmas by the end...


From there, we came back to Columbus, and went to Tims parents house. We attempted a picture of all the grandkids together, but it didn't go so well...

359 of 365: presents


360 of 365: Generations
Three generations of men in Tims family. Oh and Claire. Because she manages to weasel herself into many pictures


361 of 365: snow now??
We had no snow over Christmas. It actually felt very Halloween/Thanksgiving-like in the weather department. Of course it snowed 2 days after Christmas. Thanks a lot Mother Nature!


Since it snowed, the next day we went over to my parents house to visit Haley and Aunt Sue, and play in the show. Got to love a bundled kid.






I asked Haley to throw snow, since it was such fluffy snow, and looked so cool when it was thrown.

362 of 365: SNOW!!!




And Haley tried so hard to teach the girls how to make snow angels. Claire was really the only cooperative one in that attempt, and even that probably had more to do with the fact that she could barely move in her snowsuit.




363 of 365: dropped
Claire has now stopped napping. In her crib. She has, however, taken up Olivia's method of just dropping to sleep where-ever she is. Only Olivia won't leave Claire alone. So here's Olivia sitting as close to Claire as possible, while watching tv and picking a wedge. Love that kid.


364 of 365: snuggie
I love all my presents that I got for Christmas, but it's the snuggie that gets the most attention. I love that thing. Probably because it's zebra print.