Countdown

Just one week until Athena's birthday party. Although we've been talking about her "Fairy Princess" party for months, I somehow thought there was still tons of time to plan it. I completely lost a week which I think is because I can't believe how fast time is zooming by.

My baby is going to be three.

Today we created a birthday chain with one link for each day until her birthday (party). Athena is allowed to cut a link of the chain every night (after brushing her teeth) and count the remaining links. The excitement is building.

One more week and my sweet baby will be a three year old little girl.

Ring Around the Rosie

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

This is just too sweet not to share, though it doesn't capture all of the cuteness. As usual, I was late dragging out the camera and missed Athena and Zoe (in their tutus) dancing together. Athena tried and tried to get Zoe to dance with her again but had to settle for Eeyore.

Happy Belated Valentine's Day!

Thank you to my sweet Christopher who knows I prefer tulips to roses.

"Don't I get any candy?"

Cabin Fever

We literally have not left the house for three days. With my sickness, Zoe's sickness and a little snow and ice storm just for fun, we three have been stuck inside this tiny house, staring out the windows and going a little stir crazy. Chris is on a business trip and it's a challenge keeping the girls busy with activities that take very little energy from me, but we found a few. These are the kind of things we've been doing to keep from climbing the walls:

- Hide and seek. After so many hide and seek sessions where Athena hid right in front of me and I had to go "look" for her, we started playing "Hide the Kitty" where Athena's favorite kitty cat "hides" and she finds it with her flashlight. I like this game especially when Athena hides the kitty herself and then goes around the room "Are you under the bed? Noooo...."

- Playing with tape. Zoe is like a cat, you give her a piece of tape and she tries to shake it off her finger then it gets stuck on her other finger and she'll shake it off again. Stickers are fun too.

- Valentine crafts were trotted out several times and many loved ones will get some pretty unique creations.

- Putting things in boxes. Zoe is immensely entertained by little finger puppets hidden in plastic tupperware and stacked on top of each other. Who knew?

- Dragging Athena around the house on her butterfly blanket got old very quickly so I convinced her to drag stuffed animals around the house instead. You can keep this going for awhile because all the animals have to have a turn.

- Playing a homemade game of construction paper shapes taped to the floor and a Mom laying on the couch saying things like "okay...jump to the blue square...dance to the red triangle...be an elephant on a pink rectangle..."

- Endless rounds of sock basketball.

- Making kitchen concoctions that included a sugar-free chocolate pudding with reduced fat Nilla wafers and strawberries that really was quite yummy.

Thankfully, Mimi stopped in with some necessary refreshments (milk, juice, trashy magazines and cold medicine) and gave me some time to go take a nap while she watched the kiddos for awhile. I can't wait for Spring...

(Update: I'm feeling much better and I've just dug out the car so we are good to go in the morning. I think Zoe and I need to drop Athena off at school and just drive, drive, drive...and perhaps pick up some groceries.)

Pajama Day

Today Zoe and I were sick and Athena was sick by association, so we stayed home and in our pajamas for the majority of the day. Chris left early this morning on a business trip and the thought of getting us all dressed and out of the house to take Athena to school (for 2 1/2 hours) was too exhausting. Plus it was such a busy weekend, I thought a day of doing NO- thing was in order. Still, it's pretty rough entertaining two little ones without any out of the house activities, especially when you're not feeling great, but we made do.

An activity of PlayDough with cut straws kept
their interest for at least 20 minutes.

Zoe probably is sucking on some PlayDough here.

Athena deep in concentration making a PlayDough porcupine.

Doing dishes. Sort of...

And making faces.

Worn out

Uncle Stu (aka "Cornholio") and his Athena are worn out after
a long weekend of lots of activity and very little sleep.

(P.S. Happy Birthday Yia Yia!)

See ya!!!

Would you trust this man to watch your children?

I WOULD!

Uncle Stu is in the house tonight and Chris and I are out on the town with Mimi and Mom celebrating Mom's birthday. I predict very late bedtimes, plenty of running around and lots of books read. In fact Athena (who is napping now in preparation) will pretty much have the time of her life until we get home and pour her exhausted little body into bed.

See ya!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

Halftime show

We had our very own live halftime show during the Superbowl that really was not restricted to halftime. In fact, the show continued pretty much throughout the entire game (sorry PopPop). We are not a serious football family, but we did enjoy the game (Go Giants!)

My babes rockin' out to Tom Petty
(I could not be more proud)

We call this Zoe's "white man overbite" dance.
She's a special dancer. She flings here arms behind her
and bends her legs spastically.
I think she's got her mother's rhythm.

And the bow.
Thankyou...thankyouverrrymuch.

Party Girl

We went to a friend's birthday party today. I took so many cute photos of Zoe in her party dress that I could not choose just one for the blog. So, here's my first attempt at a collage. I'm not really sure how to adjust the photos, but it's the best I could do.