Sunday, April 28, 2013

Letters

Elle has been saying her ABC's for a few months now, so we started working on recognizing the letters. She can recognize about 2/3 of the alphabet (if all else fails, guess "A" or tell Mommy to "you tell me dat number"). I'm also working on getting her to spell her name. Not that hard in theory right? Well the poor girl knows her name sounds like just the letter "L", but there's a bunch of E's and L's in there. So most of the time she says "LEEL" or "LELEEE". We are working in it!

Our Weekend

The girls and I stayed busy with crafts and playtime this weekend. Friday was the sleepover, which ended up putting on pajamas at 4 and going about our usual play. The girls slept together, which meant they woke each other up at 6am Saturday.

Swinging before 8am. Scarlett got them both dressed & fixed their hair as soon as they got up. Apparently Elle picked out her own clothes.

 
 

We went to Michaels & got a few $1 crafts for our rainy Sunday. We happened upon kids club, so the girls painted a frame. They loved it!

 

After Michaels, we had lunch and went to Palmtree Playground. The girls had a great time! We played for over 2 hours.

 
 

This morning we did some more crafts. Elle made her necklace then got to work painting in her Bubble Guppies book.

 
Scarlett painted her little animals. Yes, she literally rolled out of bed and went straight for the art table.
 

We squeezed in a little outside time before the rain rolled in.

 

After playing at home for awhile, we tried out Tutti Fruitti for frozen yogurt. It was really good! Now the girls are supposed to be napping (Ha!).

 

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Catch Up

The past couple weeks have been a bit crazy around here! We got back in town from Charlotte, spent most of the week with Coco, then Cameron came into town for the weekend. It's been the girls and I this week, but it's still seemed busy! Here's a few pictures from our past 2 weeks!

It's all fun and games (and treats) when grandparents are in town!

 

Scarlett's adorable picture! The girls were thrilled to be back to school!

 

On Friday we picked up Daddy after school. His plane was a bit delayed so we stopped for Starbucks to kill some time. The girls got hot cocoa with whipped cream. Scarlett thought she was SO big!

 
Saturday was a bit chilly, but we headed to the zoo for the morning. We saw some animals, had a picnic lunch and rode the carousel.
Daddy had to fly back to Charlotte on Sunday, but we ate breakfast at home, walked the park and stopped for a coffee (and more hot chocolate for the girls).
 

After the chilly weekend, it warmed back up this week. Here's a cute picture of Elle right before we picked Scarlett up from school one afternoon.

 

We had quite a scary ride home from school yesterday. A severe thunderstorm complete with a tornado hit with almost no warning. I had just picked Elle up from school so we were driving home in it. Luckily we made it home in one piece (just scared from driving through tree limbs flying, a Salvation Army truck tipped over in the intersection in front of us and a transformer exploded). We hung out in the bathroom for a little bit, then the storm was gone as fast as it had come. We were without power for a couple hours here at home. I got a text from school that they were without power too. Scarlett said they squished in the hallway with all the other classes because the big wind might crash the windows. Then they went back in their class and played in the dark and then finally just laid down for a nap. Luckily the power at school came back on after 2 hours.

I think that about sums up our last couple weeks! We have a quiet weekend planned at home, complete with a "sleepover" planned by Scarlett. We are to wear pajamas, play games, watch a movie, eat cupcakes and Scarlett and Elle get to sleep in the bed together. I'll report back on that one!

 

Friday, April 19, 2013

Spring Pictures

Coco and I did a little impromtu photo shoot with the girls after finding these cute dresses at Target.  I think they turned out super cute!





Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Tiger World

We found a deal on Living Social for tickets to Tiger World, located just 20 miles north of Charlotte, so we decided to head up today and check it out. It's an animal conservation center that houses several tigers and lions as well as a few wolves, bears, monkeys and other exotic animals. It was interesting driving up... It's in the middle of nowhere located at the back of a neighborhood. If you've seen the movie "We Bought a Zoo", its a lot like that! It made for a fun morning and we got to see tigers and lions much closer than you can usually see them in the zoo (but don't worry...not scary close). All the tigers had their names written on their cages, so the girls loved that!

Posing with the cubs. They were playing just like kittens!

 

 

 

That bear is huge!

 

 

Sunday, April 7, 2013

Nature

We found an awesome park in Charlotte today. We played on the playground first (way bigger than any I've ever seen in NOLA), then we went to the adjacent nature preserve for a hike.

That's not even the whole structure!

Scarlett did the monkey bars all by herself!
 

The nature preserve

There was another play area with a tree house and these cool nature musical instruments.

On the trail!

Elle got tired & need to hold us.

 

 

Charleston

We drove into Charleston on Easter and stayed for the week. The weather wasn't the best (a bit chilly and rained all day on our last day), but we still enjoyed ourselves!

We originally planned to stay downtown, but after lots of recommendations by Cameron's coworkers, we instead decided to stay at Wild Dunes, a resort on the beach just north of Charleston.

 

Monday we went downtown and walked through the market, by the waterfront, rainbow row and much of the French Quarter. We had lunch at Poogan's Porch which was amazing! The fried chicken biscuits were delicious!

 

Tuesday we went to see the "big boats" at Patriot's Point.

The U.S.S. Yorktown

 
Inside the submarine (not my favorite!)
 

Wednesday morning we toured Boone Hall Plantation. The girls were very good for he house tour, but once we made it to the last room (the original man cave), Elle decided she was "scared of dis house. I want to go to our new house".

Scarlett posed with the cotton field. Elle refused because she said that cotton was going to get her.

 

Posing in the gardens

 

The longest stretch of live oaks in the country

 

We enjoyed homemade ice cream at the end of the tour.

 

Our plan was to spend the afternoon on the beach at our hotel. We ate lunch on the pier, then made our way onto the beach to p,at in the sand. It was SO cold & windy that we didn't last long! The girls were so happy to play though!

 

Thursday was very rainy & cool, so we drove back downtown. We did a little shopping then stopped for lunch and a treat. Scarlett wasn't feeling well (sinus infection), so we headed back to the hotel early. We ate dinner at our resort, then headed back to Charlotte Friday morning.