Single Dad

With Laurin and Grandma off to California for a long weekend of fun in the rain, the girls and I struggled to survive the 80 degree sunny days last weekend in Indianapolis. We had cookouts with friends, watched soccer, went to multiple parks, and had a pretty good time. If you just keep them moving, they never have time to think of things to whine/fight about. Now, if we could just get rid of Sanna's nightmares and Riley's bladder alarm that goes off every morning at 5, things would be perfect.

Spring Fling

The first 70 degree day of the year apparently means you throw on your favorite dress when you get home and jump on the deck while singing at the top of your lungs. The shirtless old man next door picking up dog poop must have really enjoyed being serenaded by these two mini Michael Jacksons. Hopefully we have many more days like this.

Smith Family Christmas!?!

Last weekend Ryan's parents and sister came to town to celebrate Christmas. It may have been a few months late, but it was worth the wait! Ryan's sister, Jenna, is getting married in June, and we are all very excited to see our family grow. Jenna came, along with her soon-to-be husband, Tom, and his adorable daughter Genevieve. Genevieve is just a few months older than Sanna and Riley, so they are beyond thrilled to finally have a cousin. The girls love getting together, especially if it involves sleeping bags and sleepovers:) The weekend was great, and the girls especially had a blast at the neighborhood park.

Pretty ladies! The beautiful bride-to-be and her mother.

COUSINS!!!! (I have no idea what Riley was looking at:)

Three generations of Smiths!

Grammy and Riley.

Riley was in rare form at the park. Check out her face.

Sanna and Mama swingin'. Notice that Woody is never far, no matter where she is:)

Nanni loved catching Woody at the bottom of the slide. All of the girls took turns catching and releasing the ol' Woodster.

Riley and her silly static hair.

Again, Woody getting in on the park fun. I almost feel as though I'm raising three kids. I mean, I have to tuck him into bed, buckle him in the car, wrap him up so that he is warm, etc, etc. Thank goodness that Woody doesn't eat, cry, whine, or talk back.

Typical Nanni face:)

We had such a great weekend with the Smiths, and we hope to get together again soon! We are all practicing our interpretive dances and Michael Jackson dance moves for the big wedding. I sure hope that Jenna appreciates a good moonwalk!

Parties and Pencils

We've had a busy couple of weeks. Our friends/neighbors, the Iannuccis, just moved to Ireland for 6 months, so we ambushed their house the night before they left to steal their food and interrupt any last minute tasks that they had to complete before their departure. We are truly helpful, loving friends. We wanted a shot of all of the kids together and, as usual, a less than stellar picture was all that we could get. Sadly, this is the best one that we have ever taken of the 4 of them.

Riley and Erin hammin' it up.

The girls went to their friend Maven's birthday party a few weeks ago. This picture of Sanna eating one of the delicious cake lollipops was the best picture of the batch. It is hard to get photo gold when no one will sit still or act interested in our desire to capture cuteness.

This is not the most flattering picture of little Nanni, but she was just so proud of writing all of her Valentine's Day cards that I had to share it. Both girls filled out a Valentine's Day card for each of their classmates, carefully writing each friend's name, and signing their own. They are learning to write all of their letters at school and couldn't have been prouder to accomplish this special Valentine's Day task:)

Riley standing in front of her cards:)

Sanna's famous signature (of course she picked Toy Story cards).

Riley's John Hancock (equally shocking that she picked Barbie cards:)

They will have a Valentine's Day party at school on Tuesday that the parents are invited to, so you KNOW that Ryan and I would NEVER miss that. We have our eyes on parents of the year 2013 since we already had a huge parenting fail in 2012. I know, I know, it's only February, but don't judge us people.

Super Indy

This post has nothing to do with the girls, just the Super Bowl. Everyone in Indy was very impressed with what a great job the city did hosting the Super Bowl, and I think that the rest of the country agreed. It was quite a sight to see, and we enjoyed going down to Super Bowl Village to be in the middle of it all. It was definitely a once in a lifetime experience!

The Smiths came down for media day flaunting all of their Patriot's gear.

Media Day resulted in about 500 pictures of Tom:)

Ryan was fair and took one quick pic of Eli.

The stadium in all its glory.

The new JW Marriott, where the NY Giants stayed.

The circle at night.

A night view of the JW Marriott. It was quite an impressive sight all lit up!

WHAT?!?

What?!? What's wrong? Oh, you want some more of this? Apparently the two people that actually read this blog are disappointed with the lack of posts lately. Sooooo, ask and you shall receive:)

We really haven't been all that busy lately, but the hustle and bustle of daily life tends to wear us out around here. The girls have done some cool things since we got back from Florida, but we haven't done a very good job in the photo documentation department. They went to see the Disney Princesses on Ice, which they LOVED every second of, while Ryan and I would have rather been getting root canals. We took out a second mortgage on the house to fund the 2 beers (TOTALLY essential, I promise) and two plastic princesses that we bought at the show, but I must say that it was worth it just to watch them react with such excitement.

The only other noteworthy event was the girls promotion ceremony for their karate class that they take at school. After a few months of classes they finally received their yellow belts. Parents were invited to this ceremony, but it was on a Monday at their normal class time in the middle of the day, so I figured that not many people would be able to make it, no big deal. WRONG. According to Riley I was THE ONLY ONE who didn't watch. Talk about guilt. Just one more parenting fail I guess. Naturally I assured them that I would leave work to watch their next promotion ceremony. Won't make that mistake twice. The other kids must have stay-at-home, non-working, parents who send their kids to daycare five days a week anyways. They must be able to clear their casual lunching/shopping/spa treatment schedules at the drop of a hat. Lesson learned, my bad.

So since we have no photo documentation of recent events, you will have to settle for a few more pictures from Florida. We sure are missing the warm weather right about now!

Nanni LOVED playing in the ocean.

Riley was finally over her fear of sand this year, but still approached all activities with extreme caution. She had fun looking cute and searching for "perfect" shells. Oh boy, this one's gonna be a handful:)

They built a "swimming pool" down by the water.

Awww, occasionally they look like they love each other (in between the screaming, yelling, screeching and swatting)

I can't believe how old they look now. No babies here. I fear that they will start acting like teenagers soon.

We celebrated Great Aunt Patti's 25th birthday while we were in Florida. She sure does age gracefully:) Now the girls ask at least three times a day if it is THEIR birthday yet.

We had to ride the carousel at Sea World 500 times. Okay twice, but waiting in line made it feel like 500 times:)

We even took the flamingo paddle boats out for a spin.

We saw three different shows at Sea World: dolphins/birds, seals/walruses/otters, and orcas. Here's a shot of the Shamu show.

Well people, that's all I've got for now. We will try to start posting more so that Riley doesn't call us out on being the only parents on Earth who don't blog about every moment of their kids' lives:)

Getting Our Vacation On

The first three days of vacation have been filled with presents, family, and Crabby Bills. We are fortunate to have grandparents that allow us the freedom to watch soccer games at our favorite Florida bar. Today's game brought disappointment to Laurin, whose team lost 2-1 at in the final minute after some unfortunate officiating. My team has a big game tomorrow, so we will see what happens. Before the soccer, we went to the park to burn some energy. There is one random pic from yesterday where the girls spent hours running up and down the beach.

Florida!

We have arrived back int Florida. This time with a much less stressful flight. That probably had something to to with the iphones, ipads, leappads, and food in abundant supply. The girls were a hit on the plane, showing off their Woody and Pooh dolls. We went almost immediately to the beach after arriving at the Condo. Sanna took right to the sand, rolling around and sending her skin into a rashy disaster. Her sister is no longer afraid to touch her bare feet to the sand, which helps when trying to enjoy the beach. Our only attempt at a sister photo involved a lot of licking and hijinx. More to come....