The extra stuff

There are few things that didn't fit with any particular post but I wanted to share. 

In the continual preperation for Elizabeth's birthday, Lewis and I made crayons for the goodie bag.  This is way less hard than it sounds.  We took all (and I mean all) the broken nasty crayons that were hanging around areas of our house and melted them into molds to make new crayons.  Don't worry we had plenty of crayons that were still intact so they can still color.

A close up of the shapes.  Tea cups and tea pots and chess pieces.  The tea pieces didn't work as well as the chess pieces but we thought they were cool just the same.

Lewis made a second batch of beer.  This time it should be something close to a Sam Adams.  If you are lucky maybe he will share...doubtful.  Ok if you live in Georgia maybe I'll bring a few when we come visit.

Grandma and Anna Kate watching the process

Elizabeth's tee ball game...somethings just not as exciting as soccer

I love a girl that needs to clean the base to stand on it.

This is Elizabeth (L) and Julie (R) standing in the center, they are like double trouble, the dynamic duo, requiring me to have eyes in the back in my head kind of trouble...

Just for comparison

I like to keep all the clothes I possibly can and that includes bathing suits.  It thought that it would be really cute to see the comparison of the girls and what they look like at roughly the same age.  In the pictures Elizabeth is actually just 2 by about a week or so and Anna Kate is actually closer to 2.5 which normally you wouldn't think mattered that much but it makes a big difference in growth when they are this little.  Even so poor Anna Kate has a while to go with the hair filling in.

Elizabeth Age 2 (April 2008)                                 Anna Kate Age 2 (March 2011)

Lizzy old beach photos

Anna kate at the water park this weekend

Sea World

The girls got to experience a new theme park... Sea World.  Of course it's not new to Erin, "White" Grandma or I, but its been a long time.  Both girls did great, but I don't think the animals held their attention like that mouse can! 

The first thing we did was make reservations for dinner for 5pm at 10:00am... Trust me, just wait the for photos down below.

I think we all loved the dolphins best

This was a great show, they let the trainers swim with the dolphins... (Don't take that the wrong way, but at some point, you got to get back into the water.)

Four happy girls... It's tough to get them all to look the same way.

Some Shamu pictures

5 month old "baby" shamu, kind of cute except it will eat you

The girls were not happy about getting to pet a sting ray.  AK kept repeating No, grandma,! No touch.

Elizabeth did finally touch one and describes them as spongy

While the girls played we sat in the shade and enjoyed the peacefulness.

Looking at the dolphins underwater

Like Red Grandpa says...those are not smiles on their faces!

I can't look at a manatee without thinking of an old Dr. Katz cartoon where the manatee is on Oprah and everyone is telling it how fat it is and needs weight watchers while the manatee tries to explain how it needs the layer of blubber to be warm in the winter...I don't know why it still makes me laugh but the poor things are just huge and eat nothing but lettuce...really

Finally, one of the best parts, dinner underwater at Sharks Underwater Grill.  Da na, da na, da na da na...  That's right we ate dinner with LIVE sharks. No one had seafood, it just wouldn't be right.

Anna Kate enjoyed the dinner the best! If I had to chose the one and only time my child has ever fell asleep at the table from total exhaustion I'll take this time.  We enjoyed every minute and this little sleeping beauty just helped out with the calmness.



St. Patty's Day!

We had the best present today when we got home!

Sorry for the bad phone picture...

Elizabeth said who sent us this box?...I'm thinking who ALWAYS sends you awesome presents in boxes that are so exciting there is nothing better than the anticipation of getting into these presents!

Since she is about at that age we sat down and looked at the return label. I made her sound out J I M, boy she had it after that. Uncle Jim and Aunt Cindy sent me a present!!!!

 I blow you kisses!!

Girls destined to spend time on River Street in Savannah

The full video of opening present

I have several favorite moments

1. Anna Kate trying to eat the styrofoam peanuts

2.  Anna Kate squealing to express her frustration over sister taking charge

3.  Elizabeth's face when lewis tell her that her present is for me

4.  Elizabeth naming every Randall as a thank you for her present :)

We can see clearly now...

 The architectural window in our foyer had started to have some issues.  The seal around the outer edge had started to fall down, there was moisture between the windows and worst of all one of the plastic bars between the window fell down.  Most of this was due to the direct sun beating this window everyday and the other part was due to the fact it was never properly sealed to begin with. 

I didn't want to forever have the Boo Radley house on the block so we scheduled to have the window replaced.  This was no small feat as the lift was brought to assist with getting the glass up and down.

The middle window finally coming out after some serious elbow grease

The fresh new clean window...low E glass, hopefully will help with the heat in the summer time.  Water damage from the previous window was minimal.  I'm just happy to say this project is done and in the books. 

We're very proud...

Anna Kate's new digs

We have been waiting for the day when Anna Kate jumps out of her crib and we have to move her into the big girl bed.  So we waited and prepared and thought we were doing so well with being ahead of the game.  It seems she only really figured out how to crawl into the crib, not jump out the way Elizabeth did at all of two years, one month.  I finally just had enough and set up the beds.  Yes, I thought it would be neat for her to have two twin beds for sleepovers and sister stuff.

As you can kind of see, we have four beds in the room at this moment.  The toddler bed all the way to the left, her big girl bed, the crib, and the white bed.  I need bed skirts badly, but those suckers are expensive and I'm kinda of cheap like that so I'm waiting for the perfect balance of cute and inexpensive to land in my lap.

Anna Kate waking up after her first night sleeping in her big girl bed. *side note: the first night she was all about it, since then it's an in and out game.

The downside is that now we have the little stinker using her new found freedom at night to hang out in the stairway.  She usually gets put in the crib if she abandons the bed more than three times.

As a sneak peak, these are for Elizabeth's birthday party coming in April, it is an Alice in Wonderland theme.  Hopefully lots of more crafty fun things for the day are to come!