Project 365: Week 25

6/17/12: Natalie having fun with her new Cootie game.

6/18/12: Hanging out at Princeton before Natalie's swim lesson.

6/19/12: This was Natalie's first day of camp at her school. I had to wake her up each morning for her to have time to do her (veeeeery slow) morning routine before camp started at 8:30. I found her sleeping totally perpendicular in her bed. How is that comfortable?! Also...this is why I loved her afternoon class during the school year. No having to rush in the mornings!

6/20/12: You know your kid has stick-straight hair when she sees that her hair has a very subtle flip at the end one day and says, "My hair is curly today!"

6/22/12: Julia waiting for her birthday party to get started!

6/23/12: Wrapping paper is just as fun as the gifts!

Happy Birthday, Julia!

Here is a recap of Julia's day...

Watching Natalie play outside...

...and making a piggy face!

Discovering the tupperware cabinet.

Getting a new bean bag chair (she was skeptical at first, but ended up doing some belly flops on it, so we think she likes it) :)

And being (mostly) happy!

Here is a picture of Natalie on her first birthday. Yes, I purposefully put Julia in the same pink jumper, because I am corny and sentimental like that. It is fun to compare the pictures!

Birthday Party

Yesterday afternoon was Julia's birthday party! We actually had a joint party with Iain, who is exactly two weeks older than Julia. Iain was sick when his party was originally scheduled, so Karen ended up having to cancel it. Since their birthdays are so close and we had the exact same guest list, I invited them to join in on Julia's party...why didn't we just do that in the first place? I provided snacks and the venue while Karen covered cupcakes and favors. It was so easy for both of us!

Natalie and her throngs of baby fans.

The birthday kids as everyone sang to them.

Testing the waters...

"This is pretty good!"

"I think I need to use two hands."

Crazy arms!

I'd say Iain liked the cupcake too!

All the babies looking at something interesting off to the right. They were all born within 2 months of each other last year...hard to believe they are already having birthday parties! Left to right: Julia (6/24), Sadie (7/25), Iain (6/10), Connor (5/24)

As a comparison, here is Natalie with a cupcake at her first birthday party. That is as far as she got...touching the frosting with her fingertip. Also, notice with the first kid, I was so prepared to keep her tidy and clean with a massive bib. That is actually the same "Birthday Girl" shirt under that bib...it was still in good enough shape for Julia to wear because it didn't get a single speck of cupcake or frosting on it when Natalie wore it. With Julia, I just let her go at it! Turns out it is way more fun that way :)

Randoms

Here are a few recent pictures that didn't make it into any of the Project 365 posts. Some were taken with my phone (sorry!).

Natalie waiting for her first swim lesson to start. She is doing great! The class is held at the pool at Princeton...she thinks it is so cool that she goes swimming at the same gym where Brad works out!

Julia has moved from 2 naps a day down to 1. She is still usually tired in the morning but refuses to take a nap in her crib, so we try to just power through the morning and then she takes a nap around lunch time. Of course, if we go anywhere before her nap, she almost always dozes off in the car.

The moms and big kids went to a Trenton Thunder baseball game last night. Here is Sean, Natalie, and Teagan hanging out with Boomer, the Thunder mascot. A couple friends were not interested in going anywhere near Boomer, and a couple had already left by the time Boomer made it to our section. Natalie wouldn't take a picture with him last year, but she was giving out high-fives left and right this year!

Natalie and Teagan enjoying the game.

Natalie was showing Julia how to use the Magna Doodle.

"Here, hold this..."

"Yay Julia!"

Show at The Little Gym

Sorry it took me so long to get this up! I will (mostly) let the videos and pictures do the talking:

Natalie making her grand entrance into the gym...each kid came out and did a flip!

Upside down!

Ta-da! She did great and was so proud of herself.

Project 365: Week 24

6/10/12: Modeling her first 2-piece swimsuit. No, we did not get her an itty-bitty bikini. But a tankini sure does make potty breaks easier!

6/11/12: Julia loves milk! Well, she did for a few days. Now she won't drink it anymore. We'll keep trying!

6/12/12: Once she finally got the hang of tipping a cup, she wanted to do it all the time! That is a plastic coke bottle that goes with Natalie's play food. Sorry Julia, no milk in there.

6/13/12: Lots of tackles in this house!

6/14/12: At home before her Little Gym (ballet/tap/gymnastics) show. She was so excited and did such a great job! Lots more pictures and some videos coming soon on the blog.

6/15/12: Mandarin oranges don't stand a chance against Julia! Seriously, she literally inhales them. I don't think she even chews. She could probably eat one of those little fruit cup things of oranges in 45 seconds. I should time it sometime.

6/16/12: Picking cherries! We went at 9:00am today (first day of cherry picking). I ran back to the farm store for something at 5:00pm and the cherry picking was already closed for the season. Glad we went when we did!

Project 365: Week 23

6/3/12: They both love this beach ball! There is lots of squealing when they manage to find the coordination (and interest) to play with it together.

6/4/12: Natalie could not get enough of this little mannequin at Old Navy. This was right as we walked in the store. We had to stop to give her a goodbye hug as we left too.

6/5/12: Natalie very proud of herself for fitting inside a storage bin. Yeah, she's that small!

6/6/12: I had forgotten about this toy but came across it in the basement a few days ago. Julia pushes it around, keeping her legs totally straight as she walks Hopefully this will help her get the hang of bending her knees. Can you tell she is proud of herself? I think we are in trouble when she starts walking on her own...she is up to no good!

6/7/12: Rehearsal for the big dance show next week! The parents got to come in and sit in chairs like we will next week...just giving the kids a chance to get used to performing for an audience :)

6/8/12: Rainbow toes!

6/9/12: Bouncing!

Seven Years!

In honor of our seventh anniversary this coming Monday, Brad came home with 7 cupcakes from The House of Cupcakes in Princeton. They most certainly do not fit very well into the runner's diet, but I had no problem eating some anyway! He got 7 different flavors: carrot cake, banana cream, smores, mint chocolate chip, peanut butter cup, salted caramel, and peanut butter cream. I told him he did a good job waiting until we celebrated our last anniversary living in NJ so we could max out on trying different flavors :)

Last Day of Soccer

Natalie and Caitlin (in the middle) practicing their soccer skills.

Group shot with the coaches at the end.

A good way to get a bunch of little kids to sit still for a picture!

Foam Rolling

I recently learned about a muscle stretching tool called a foam roller. I bought one and tried it for the first time last night (after a pain-free one mile run, hooray!). Of course, no one can do anything in this house without Natalie nosing her way in to it too.

Stretch those calves! Lengthen the Achilles!

She loves the foam roller!