Spring in Full Swing...

Let's see, the last we left you we were covered in Easter egg dye, and now we've moved on to sand. The girls spent Patriot's Day soaking in the sun down at the Cape with Mama Mer (Mama Fran was at work... the Dutch are lousy Patriots). The Spring weather has been most cooperative with our love of all things playground... did someone say play?! Who would think that Gilbert and Sullivan would appeal to the 5 and 3 year old set? Well, Nonne would and thanks to her part in the wonderful production of Pirates of Penzance, our girls now walk around singing the soundtrack - - tarantara tarantara. Carmen enjoys the "Major Generwal" even though "he tells a lie" and Lucia hopes to "sing as high as Mabel" someday. A mother can dare to dream...

It's the Most Colorful Time of the Year...

Sorry for the delayed Easter post... we've been trying to remove Carmen's Blue Man Group audition body art. The girls enjoyed full immersion egg dyeing this year with their pal Alexa.... although Carmen objected to the term dyeing, "We gonna die the eggs? Noooo!" So we tried to call it coloring for her sake. Another cute Carmenism happening at the moment is her saying "Awwight" (all right). Example, "Carmen please clean up the markers" *heavy 3 year old sigh* "Awwight"... it's adorbs. After the hard work spent on the egg assembly line, we headed over to Mimi's house where you know who had paid a visit. There were treats galore and who gets to have an egg hunt in the woods?!? Oh yeah, these two princesses. Don't tell them we only had about 20 eggs, and when they weren't looking I'd just take one out of their basket and toss it over my shoulder. We could have stayed out there all_day. It's a good thing our girls can eat their weight in hard boiled eggs, they need all the protein for their Olympic training.

She Has In Fact, Lost Her Mind...

So yes, Meredith did have a birthday, get the hair cut and said goodbye to all of her mental faculties. Such is life I guess. Good thing Auntie Alison and newest tribe member Simon came for a visit to soothe the savage beast. Mmmm, baby. Auntie Julie was also on hand to simultaneously entertain and terrify the children. Turns out, Aunties can be quite handy when they're not trying to eat the children. It was our last weekend up north, and while there was no skiing to be had, we did take advantage of the mild weather with some outdoor fun. Aunties sure picked a good weekend to be East.

One Small Piece of Pasta for Luce, One Large Step For Fran Kind...

She looks so sweet and innocent doesn't she? So I feel this blog wouldn't be complete without inclusion of the now infamous "Ditalini story." What is Ditalini you may ask? Well, it is a small cylindrical shaped pasta approximately the circumference of a 5 year old's nostril. Yeeeahhhh.

The afternoon started innocently enough, with the girls playing out on the sidewalk, drawing with chalk enjoying a picnic on the front lawn (which included some cooked pasta leftovers). When all of a sudden Luce said, "Mama... oh no... MAMA!" I looked up at her sniffing little face and she just pointed to her nose. 

Me: "What happened?!?!"

Luce: "I was just trying to be silly!"

Me: "DON'T MOVE!" 

I ran inside to retrieve the tweezers, but by the time I got back outside the pasta had traveled from the edges of the nostril, to half way on up the schnoz. Great. Lucia was starting to panic a bit (and ok, I'll admit so was I) but then I remembered reading something from our local online mom's group about this very situation. So I ask you dear reader -- do you know what to do if you need to get an object out of a nose that can't be reached with tweezers? The solution is remarkably easy, if not slightly nauseating. You simply cover the other nostril (the clear one) and blow into the person's mouth (as though you were administering CPR). Once I got a good seal, the pasta shot out like a bullet. A gross, snot covered bullet... but it was out, and we returned to playing without missing a beat. The whole thing was over in like 7 minutes, but it is a day that will live on IN INFAMY.

Ok, enough drama. Go look at some pictures of my kids.

Wait, one more piece of drama... so Mer turned schmirtysomething this month and had a mid-life crisis. How do I know? I received a text from her with the following message, "Would you kill me if I got this haircut?" So did she get the cut? Am I writing this from jail? Stay tuned for the dramatic conclusion... 

A Dwagon, A Dwagon I Swear I Saw a 3 Year Old Dwagon...

Or a 3 year old honey badger...

Or a 3 year old do dah...

Or a 3 year old ballerina with a goofy Dorothy back up dancer...

In any event, a bone fide three year old to be sure. Per Carmen's request we had a weal dwagon birthday party complete with balloons (thank goodness it is the Year of the Dragon) and another magnificent cake from Nonne - - special shout out to Auntie Cathy for the nice Photoshop work. All our friends were on hand to celebrate the big day, Carmen had a blast and didn't turn to the dark side once. She is very much into role playing with her sister and usually opts for the "side kick" or "bad guy" roll. We often hear her say, "Wucia, you be Pwincess Weia and I'll be Wuke, awight?" ... or "I am Dark Vader!" said in her most menacing tone. It is too cute. Oh, a note about the poster -- big sister helped her to decorate it, can't you tell?

Goofballs and footballs...

Ok, so it has taken me this long to recover from the terrible Super Bowl deja vu. With some distance, I may be able to discuss it in detail, but truth be told I watched more of The Rescuers with this rowdy bunch because I could just_not_take_it. Luckily, we were fortunate enough to be entertained during the debacle of a game and at least the girls had their first real sleep over, high five for that! In more cheery February news, the girls helped Mimi celebrate her birthday and guess who decorated the cake?? They somehow even managed to fit a couple of candles on there too. And a special shout out to Auntie Mia and Uncle Roman for the yummy Valentine's Day cookies... they were VERY well received.

Oh the weather outside is mild...

and our girls are getting wild.
and since we've got no !#%!%^ snow,
put on a show, put on a show, put on a shoooow!

In all honesty, I have no idea what they are doing in this picture... but someone is wearing my clothes acting goofy (and this time, it ain't me). Ok, so here we are at the end of January and I can see the grass in my backyard. By this time last year our mountain luge was in full swing. This global warming is bonkers. We have been trying to make the most of it up North and and we have managed to get the girls on skis and skates and I even procured the appropriate outdoor equipment. Mama Mer took Luce snowshoeing which was lots of fun but Carmen, still prefers to eat the stuff.

In other January news, per the girls request we had a birthday party for "Dr. Luther King" as Lucia calls him complete with costumes and cake. When asked what she learned about Dr. King Lucia responds, "Well, I know he had a dream..." When played them the speech on YouTube, Carmen covered her ears and declared it "too loud" while Luce thought that the black and white video "looked boring." Nevertheless, they started a nice tradition and perhaps in a few Januarys they'll be able to appreciate more than just the cake...