Spring Has Sprung

We had beautiful weather all week up until the main event, the Easter Egg Hunt. I snapped these pics before the rain started. Sanna took right to the bounce house, jumping like her life depended on it amongst kids of all ages. Riley cried at first but realized she could let her sister have all the fun. They actually skipped the egg hunt in lieu of more bouncing without any other kids aroun (besides Granny Smith who joined them).

This picture about sums up our days. Sanna happily going throughout her day, enjoying new things while Riley screams (she replaced biting with a high-pitched scream, which after debate we think is an improvement for the long run) because Sanna is touching her.

All the flowers in the neighborhood bloomed this week, leading to many photo ops while the who family and dogs took a walk to get some gelato. After some violence in the new side-by-side stroller Sanna got to walk home like a big girl while Riley was strapped in being pushed by grandpa. She did not enjoy it and let us know for the entire 6 blocks.

Due to all the excitement I wasnt able to get them to stand still long enough to truly capture the cuteness of their Easter dresses. This was close.

That might be the smile ever to grace Sanna's face. Someone's kid ran in front of the picture as I took it so it is only photo bronze.

On Friday night, the presence of babysitters allowed us to walk downtown to the Final Four festivities. We walked 3 miles to stay at a concert for 5 minutes. It wasnt even a value at free. We realized that free concerts are made up for in adult beverage prices. Being the cheapskates we are, we walked another 2 miles to our favorite sunny night destination for slightly less expensive beverages.

Lets see who can name this famous location...

Bye Bye Babies

My family left me for the week, so I dont have much to report. I have been sent pictures to let me see how much fun they had without me. I did not take these pictures obviously, so dont think less of my photographic aptitude.

Tree Huggers

Sanna's Turn for Photo Gold

I really wish these pictures didnt turn out so well. It would be great to be happy in my digital world. There is something about film that make things look unique and interesting. Anyway, I now have a new favorite Sanna picture as well.

New Camera = Photo Gold

Thanks to the generosity of one Frank Souza I share with you the following pictures. I received a new (old) camera of his in the mail this week and went right to work. It is a film camera with a really nice zoom macro lens on it. A new camera coupled with some great weather resulted in my favorite Riley picture ever (the last pic). The roll with many Sanna pictures will be developed tomorrow. Anyway, enjoy my adventures in black and white film on a Nikon N6000.

The End of an Era

One thing we have always been able to count on was our girls' ability to sleep. Every night we put them to bed at 7 and they wake up between 730 and 800 (830 thanks to the recent time change). Also, they would nap for 1-1.5 hours in the late morning. Today, however, everything changed. Sanna has become less excited about sleeping, pitching major fits at bed time and nap time. Today, Laurin put her down for a nap and she did her normal whining/talking to avoid sleeping. About 20 minutes into her 'nap' we heard her start crying quite loudly. We didnt hear a thud, so we listened for a while and she stopped crying. After a while, Laurin turned the monitor on only to hear the sound of someone turning the TV on. We knew what was going on at that point and snuck upstair to sneek a peek. She was sitting quietly on the floor playing with a stuffed animal while Riley slept to soothing sounds of a soap opera. We decided she wasnt hurting anyone and didnt want to wake Riley, so we let he stay out of the crib. About 15 minutes later, I went to check on her and found Riley awake and Sanna sitting in her baby's stroller, topless. I rushed down to get my camera and snapped the shot in this post. After going upstairs to get Riley out of her crib we found that Sanna had emptied all of her clothes out of the dresser in an apparent attempt to find a better shirt. She failed in her attempts and gave up I guess. Anyway, I guess we need to build higher walls on the cribs or strap the girls in at naptime.

The Girl Who Cried 'Poo'

The biggest highlight of our week (besides being sick still) was the acquisition of the girl's potty. It is more practical than the one that goes on top of our toilet, but there are obvious downsides. Being accessible (we keep it in the closet in their playroom) means they ask for it constantly. Every time we agree to let them use it we have to take off their clothes (apparently pretending like you are going to go potty requires complete nudity). Also, if they ever were to go we would have to clean the thing out which doesnt look fun. The toilet is supposed to play music when they go. We havent heard anything yet, but have 'tried' numerous times. The first picture shows Sanna relaxing after a failed attempt. The other pics are randoms from the last week or so. My camera was dead for most of the week so it is slim pickings.

We Went Outside

Im Sowwy

Being gone on business the entire week makes it tough to document our children's lives. Also, I was immediately welcomed by visitors after my arrival home. Here are some of the highlights of the weekend...

As you can see, Max came to play. Booger was around too. He isnt in any of the pictures because he spent most of his visit in time out for being evil.

The girls took some time out to nap with their best friend

World's biggest lap dog.

This wasnt from the weekend. Riley was making an evil face while squeezing Sanna's head between her hands. Oddly enough, Sanna found it amusing. These two have taken to beating on eachother recently. I think we are in for a wild next 12 months/years. I think we have a couple of brutes on our hands. Please dont call CPS on us if the kids show up with black eyes and bloody lips. They just like to wrastle. Yes I misspelled that on purpose. Also, Sanna is now our official brat/evildoer. Riley may have a short fuse and lash out, but Sanna has bad intentions and a devious mind. She is constantly ripping toys out of Riley's hands and has taken to slapping everyone with her tiny fists of fury. It was cute for a millisecond. Now she is racking up the timeouts which appear to have no effect on her. It is hard to stay mad at them when they come out of the timeout and hug the other one and say 'sowwy'. I know they dont mean it though. They are already using their cuteness as a weapon.