Happy Birthday, Maren

My oldest is now four years old. Four! I can't believe it. She does act fourteen sometimes so it is a nice reminder that she is really only four. We did pizza and cake here at our place. I took the night off work and we invited a ton of family. We had a great turn out and Maren loved it! I let her stay up late and play with friends. She hauled in a ton of gifts and couldn't be happier. Thanks to everyone who helped make this day special for her! HUGS

From the vault

I finally managed to download videos from the last few months and here are a few short clips to summarize my favorites. Maren would sing made up songs for the camera all day long if you'd let her.

As you can see Lillian is following in her footsteps.

Love Story

"Love Story" by Taylor Swift happens to be the favorite song of my two girls. Lilly now knows the whole last verse. I tried to capture her singing it the other day while while Maren was napping because Maren is a camera hog.

Apparently Maren woke up before we got to the end of the verse.

Christmas Program Highlights

I wish these were clips of Maren and her perfect singing that she'd practiced so hard for. Of course there was not that much singing from her. There was:

clip 1: Looking for Mommy

clip 2: Lying down for a nap (those blue pillow things are baby jesus dolls made in class)

clip 3: Finding a new seat

clip 4: Finale

No, that was not part of the program.

New videos

I'm not sure I ever mentioned that my 18 month old is beyond verbal. Ok, I might have. She is just crazy ridiculous in the vocab category. Here is her latest video.

I love that laughter is contagious. I dare you to watch this and not start laughing along with them.

I am actually pretty proud of this post because that second video was taken just two days ago!! Yeah, mom!

Ah, Disney

What Disney has done for the vocabulary of my one year old is amazing.

Lilly likes Toy Story. Here she is reading a book of it. 

My Little Katy Perry

So funny!

My little performer

singing Firework by Katy Perry.

Halloween

Getting ready for trick or treating

I had to throw the applesauce question in there. She is an excellent talker and has a huge vocabulary however- she doesn't say applesauce. We all laugh and don't bother correcting her asselbah. Maren gets a huge kick out of it.

And we're off. 

We went to the Daytons Bluff neighborhood this year since we don't have a great block for trick or treating on.

Maren is off and running. She chose to be Bat Girl for Halloween this year. I put her costume together for $8. Gramma sewed it all together in no time flat!

Maren was so determined. She was house to house in a hurry. 

Lillian was having quite a blast herself. She was the cutest. I wish I could keep her this age forever.

The blow up vampire Mickey Mouse was quite fascinating to the girls.

I found Lilly's costume at the thrift store for around $3 with the tags still on it. She was going to be Chewbaca to continue the Star Wars Theme but she wouldn't wear it. This dinosaur was a way cute alternative.

State Fair!

I can't explain how much I love the State Fair!

It's such a fun time. 

However, it is yet another sign that summer is almost over.

The kids love it almost as much as me (which I'm pretty sure I inherited from my mom, thanks ma). I gave Gram a ticket for her birthday (last week) and we took the girls during the day. 

First stop: the miracle of birth center. It's a great place to see the animals up close and the babies too! Maren told stories about the video she saw of a calf birth (chains and all - she said they pulled it out of the mom's butt :)).

Lillian figured she belonged inside of the pens as she attempted with all her might to crawl right over the fence. My little monkey.

Maren sucks her thumb when she's overwhelmed or when she touches something silky. We are trying to discourage it more as she gets older but THIS is cute.

We scored free frozen custard for having good timing at Custard's Last Stand!

A big cup full. Lucky girls. We'll stop there every year now. It was great. Find them right outside the Grandstand.

Note: I am not a fan of strollers at the fair but during the day is USUALLY slower and Grandma and I can only handle so much so we packed the kids into them.

We trucked it to the pet building and watched an Australian Shepherd demo. They asked for a young volunteer, to which my mom and I offered up Maren. She got to go in the ring and pet the dogs. She loves dogs. She gave one a hug around the neck, which was pretty much the point of asking in a youngster. Way to go, girl. It did make Lilly pretty jealous. She wants to do whatever her sister does.

Right behind us, the Great Sing Along! A Karaoke set up, new this year at the fair. Maren is a total performer. She ate this right up.

sure she can't read the screen but she didn't care. 

- the song: Purple Rain, Prince. Can't tell? I know, too much laughing. Everyone loved her. I laughed so hard I was crying while taking this. (Hence the unsteady hand. I mean, how could you NOT laugh?)

We watched almost all of the parade and then it was getting so late we had to take the kids home for a rest. They slept like rocks for almost 2 hours when we woke them up to head back! Yep, once Matt got home we packed 'em back up and went for more! We ride the bus in. It's so easy(and free). Not to mention it is like an amusement park ride in itself.  

When I go with Matt we brave the evening crowd by using the backpack. We hit up the milk ($1 for all you can drink). While there Lilly saw everyone eating those Sweet Martha's Cookies. I can eat 1, maybe 2 so we never buy them as they only come in large quantities. Since the girls are so lucky (or maybe it's because they're so cute) they managed to have someone offer them the rest of their cookies! Amazing! Now, cookies and milk and it's not even dinner time.

 Maren had to walk by the kid-way earlier today and it wasn't easy. I told her she could pick one ride and go with Dad later. She had her eye on the Sky Glider. And that's what she picked as her one ride. Up and over the grounds they went!

...right up to the Great Sing Along for the last 3 songs of the night. We even ran into a friend! Hi, to Alex and Millie from ECFE!

Maren continues to belt it out.

The kids did great. We were home by 9 or so and they were still up. They crashed hard. Lillian slept till 9am the next morning! Thanks for an amazing family day, guys.

Why I can't get enough of Lilly

It's not the shortest set of video clips, for that, I apologize. I know you are all very busy and don't have 2 minutes, more or less one minute, to watch blog videos but this one will leave you smiling I promise!

She is just so fun! She has that funny squished up nose face, her "n ga n ga" which means all done, and then her vibrato laugh, and her squeal that lets you know when you've guessed what she wants. If only they were 15 months old forever.

What Lilly Says

Wanna see how quickly Lilly is growing up? Check these clips!

Clip 1: Of course our kids are into Darth Vader. 

Clip 2: Yo Gabba Gabba is a total fav around here. It comes across odd but it's really great if you watch it.

Clip 3: Lilly loves bubbles. This was while Dad was fishing in Canada. I was running out of ways to get things done. This worked for me to get dinner made.

Hermit Crabs

Maren earned hermit crabs on her last sticker chart. She had wanted a chameleon, thanks to Disney's Tangled, but when I found out they are not social, they are very expensive, and I'd have to feed it live crickets we nixed that fast. We got her convinced she wanted hermit crabs. On Father's Day she got to go pick them out. They have been great. Maren loves them! She takes them out twice a day and Lilly is now quite enamored. Here is a video of 'em

 We have three. Spot, the smallest, Pinchie, he's medium sized (and does pinch) and Spanky the biggest. I picked up a lot of stuff for them on craigslist so we've had minimum investment. I would highly recommend hermit crabs as an aquarium pet for kids. They're pretty easy and even Matt and I enjoy them.

Baby tricks

Lillian does not do baby tricks.

I keep trying anyway. Here I am trying to get her to say pillow. Towel and pillow were her newest words back mid-June when I shot this video.

Now Lillian says, "peek boo." It's super cute. 

As I mentioned she doesn't do baby tricks. 

I tried for a long time here. I may have caught a quick few. We had fun playing at least.

She's adding on quickly to her vocabulary. 

She says, "pet, crab, sit, tub, rag, hat, bubble, teeth, chee (cheese), poo (pool), co co (color), mo (more), and gna gna (all done).

And She's Walking

Yesterday was our last ECFE class of the school year. We were in the infant toddler room and Lilly just took off! She walked from me to the book shelf, about 5 or 6 feet! What? Wow! I'm glad Harneet saw it too or I may not have believed it. Unfortunately Dad wasn't home to help be get a video of that first day of walking but today I had help.

Here's a compilation of the videos ending in Lillian loving her lovie and Maren not to be outdone loves her blanket too.

My Maren

Oh, my Maren. She is non stop. She is always busy. She currently enjoys musical instruments. Last night after dinner we were all given an instrument and told to play it.

This is what she created. 

Notice she is wearing my old Wonder Woman costume. 

This may also resemble a Katy Perry song.

She's a big Katy Perry fan, E.T.?

Jumping Cousins

Maren and Lillian have cousins very close to their ages that live in Iowa. We are able to see recent pics and videos on their online photo album. Maren really likes to watch the videos. After viewing one similar to this she decided we had to make a video like it - so we did:

Can't wait to see the boys this weekend and get some great videos with all of them!

This one's older too

It's from earlier this month. I didn't teach her this. She just came up to me with it.

I'll have to credit her sister. 

Videos

As I mentioned I will always be behind on my video posts. I am a stickler for chronology so this is tough but I thought some may still enjoy them even if they are older.

I bought a sand box at a consignment sale.

I soon regretted it. 

Bouncing Lilly.

Note my chaotic, circus-like life.

My Performer

I'm not sure where these songs come from but I love how they make me laugh- 

I hope they make you laugh too.

Her favorite "Aladdin" song

My Little Rock Star

Talking with Lillian

I'm a stickler for chronological posts but my videos will always be a little behind because it takes me that much longer to upload and publish them. My appologies.