Magnetic Personalities

Fun with Learning

After the successful use of our zoo membership this spring/summer, we decided the invest in a children's museum membership for the winter. Now that the kids are 2, they get charged everywhere we go. I miss those glory days where they could even fly for free. We look forward to much more museum fun. Its great during the weekdays, there is noone there. The play room could entertain our kids for hours. And, there is a carousel.

Grand Rapids Fun!

I am taking over the blogging, yet again, since Ryan has been slacking. It's as if he thinks that he has a job or something:) Last weekend we headed to Grand Rapids for some much needed bonding time with Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Aunt Jenna. The girls had a blast but, as usual, it was doing very different things. Riley was so excited that Grammy had kept all of Jenna's dress-up clothes and Halloween costumes. She was in heaven!

This was Riley's go-to outfit for the weekend. She wore the dress and tiara just about every moment that she was awake.

She got a big kick out of "striking a pose" for all of us in Aunt Jenna's old dance outfits.

I thought that she was going to freak out having something cover her moneymaker, but she seemed to thoroughly enjoy being the Pink Panther.

Ryan finally got in on the dress-up action, reliving his glory days as a shark. He was quite proud of himself for still being able to squeeze into his childhood costume. Here is the shark is eating Raggedy Anne.

The shark in all of his glory.

I know that this post has been all about Riley, but Sanna offered up few photo ops since she was constantly tending to her beloved Weebles. She would take all 14 of them everywhere that she went in their school bus. She even picks her nose with the Weebles nearby.

Even though they were entertained by very different things over the weekend, they were both so excited that they got to spend time with their Grammy, Papa, and Aunt Jenna! Thanks for the fun everyone!

Hodgepodge

Ryan has totally been slacking lately and letting all of his loyal followers down, so I will step in and put up a hodgepodge of random pictures from the last week. I know that most of you have seen these pics on Facebook, but I'll put them up anyway:)

Aunt Katie was a good sport and dressed up as a cowboy for Halloween. She kept her horses in line and kept them moving from house to house. It wasn't hard since Riley kept insisting, "MORE CANDY!!!!!".

Riley was very pleased with her collection of candy. She insisted on dumping it on the floor and examining every piece. She was in heaven.

Little Nani wasn't as excited, but had fun nonetheless. She was all tuckered out from galloping all over the neighborhood. Good thing her horse provided a built-in pillow.

Moving on to other events in the Smith household. Sanna has taken to standing on the changing table attached to her crib after her naps. Usually she is naked and jumping. Good times. We snapped this pic as we walked up the stairs and she exclaimed, "I UP HIIIIIIIIIIGHYA!!!!!!!".

Now for Riley's newest obsession, dressing up. Emre generously donated this tutu to her dress-up wardrobe. She hasn't taken it off since she got it. Paired with Aunt Bermes's heels it turned into a delightful little outfit. She's surprisingly good at getting around in giant heels; we could be in for trouble with this one:)

Finally, we purchased flower girl dresses for Aunt Katie's January wedding. We finally convinced Sanna that it would be really fun to put her princess dress on. Of course Riley needed no convincing but, as always, she was available to explain to her sister why and how she should put the dress on. So helpful.

Horses

Today was action-packed. Swim lessons, nap, lunch, halloween party, party at the iannuccis, meltdown, run home, wonder pets, bed. I tried to bring my underwater camera to swim lessons, but it is hard to get it in the pool as we never get out after starting the lesson and I cant hold it the whole time. Sanna might be traumatized forever as the her beloved bounce house collapsed on her due to a blow fuse. She did go back in later, so I guess it wasnt that bad. They also ate frosting-covered cookies that got all over their costumes. Finally, we went over the the iannuccis, where the girls whined about wanting to be inside, then outsie, then inside (repeated 50 times). The girls ate more food than most adults would at a meal (including a whole tub of hummus). Finally, they cried about not wanting to go home. It was an awesome day.

Potty Time Revisited

So, these pictures have nothing to do with this topic, but they are fun nonetheless. They were taken while I was away. Apparently everyone has lots of fun while I am gone.

Back to the topic at hand. Our girls have ramped up their interest in using their various potties. We have had numerous sucesses in the past week. Laurin may go crazy from having to constantly take off their diapers/clothes. Also, every time one needs to go, the other one goes crazy if she cant try as well. If any of you are fans of the Guiness Book of World Records, we may be in it soon. Sanna will soon be the youngest person to get a hemmhoroid. If she hears that Riley poops on the potty, she is going to as well, even if it kills her. I want to take a video of her from the neck up working her magic. He face turns all shades of red, she grips the handles on the potty, and she lets it rip. She always finds a way to make something happen. When we get these girls out of diapers we will probably have to buy a ferrari or something. I wonder what the pile of diapers we have gone through in the last two years would look like.

Yooooo Gabba Gabba!

Well, the day we had all been waiting for finally arrived yesterday. We put on our dancin' shoes and made our way to the Murat Theatre to see Yo Gabba Gabba Live. Unfortunately, Ryan decided that driving to see clients would be more exciting than Gabba, so he took off in the morning. Well, maybe he decided that we all should eat this month. Regardless, we were all sad that he couldn't come with us to our first family concert/show. Poor Ryan. Please forgive me, but I only took about 15 pictures as opposed to Ryan's usual 115.

We didn't get to meet any of the characters, but the girls did get to stand next to this super sweet Muno cutout.

Getting them to stand for pictures was like pulling teeth, and they only like to make their silly/cheesy faces now.

The girls got some rockin' DJ Lance Rock glasses to wear during the show.

Their favorite part of the whole show was probably when Brobee was singing the balloon song, and then balloons began to fall from the ceiling.

The balloons were so big that they could barely see over them, but they insisted on holding them the entire time.

I can't wait to see what show we will go to next!!!!

Pumpkins Revisited

We made a return trip to Beasley's Orchard in Danville, IN. As a point of reference, the first pic is from one year ago when we visited the same orchard. Last year we couldnt partake in the bounce house and brought home lots of pumpkins. This year, we thoroughly enjoyed the bounce house and chose not to bring any pumpkins home. This was somewhat annoying to me as we had to endure a knee-wrenching trip on the hayride to get to the pumpkin patch. I guess the dry, hot summer wreaked havoc on the pumpkin crop this year, as most were baby-sized (which was cute), and the quantity was far less.

There wasnt much interest in the large pumpkins, but Riley did try her best to pick this one up.

Sanna had a series of love-hate relationships with the baby pumpkins. At first, she was into the green pumpkins, then the orange and green, then finally the orange. She would pick one up, carry one around like it was her new best friend, then drop it all of a sudden to move on to another. The pic below was at the end of one relationship.