March Madness

We enjoyed a fun weekend with Nana & Papa!  It's always a good time of laughing, story-telling,  yummy desserts, reading, and hugs, and each visit seems too short.  And we never take enough photos.

We're doing our best to pretend it's a warm spring.  We ride bikes or go to the park every day after dinner and the girls really enjoy the extra daylight.  Nina is working towards ditching her training wheels and Pip will maybe start using the strider bike soon too.  

Nina is interested in letters and literacy.  Her recognition of the sounds that letters make improves each week.  You can usually find her talking about the alphabet and the letter of the week at school.  She also appreciates a good rhyme.  She is signed up with an all-day preschool program next year.  

Pip is doing a good job with her potty-training.  She's finally agreeing to be cajoled into wearing pull-ups and regularly sitting on the toilet when needed.  She's got number one down, and we're crossing our fingers about number two.  It's fun to see her learning this and being proud of herself, and to see Nina proud of her as well.

whoops

It's been such a long time between our blog posts that our weather seems to have transitioned from winter to spring, which is typically a 3 month transition here.  The girls seem to have grown before our eyes and finding the spring clothes tucked away in storage has been a pleasant challenge.  Even their vocabularies have grown, e.g. Nina's: "The sun is irritating," (when it was shining in her face through the blinds) and Pip's: "Watch me make this balance." 

Ice cream!    ----  Pow-pow-power wheels

climbing and rocks

More artistry

Ben and Kara thoroughly enjoyed a trip to Austin, Texas, to visit friends, Kayla and Matthew, and the girls got to stay with Grandma and Grandpa.  They got new shoes, painted their nails, swam, saw animals and went all over town.  Meanwhile, their parents ate, saw sights, ate, hiked, ate, played, and then ate some more.  It was extremely fun to get away, even if the weather was colder and drearier in Texas than Minnesota.

More Holiday Fun

The girls had a great time with Valentine's Day and also enjoyed getting more family time on President's Day.  Nina wrote out all of her friend's names on her valentines for school, daycare, and did Pip's work for daycare too.  It's fun watching her become more comfortable with letters and writing.  She definitely enjoys it, along with working on art projects.

We've been to a few events around Phalen, Chelsea Heights, King of Kings, and Como.  The girls liked the baby shower at Como where they debuted the new baby orangutan, giraffe, snakes, and zebra.  Pip still loves babies.  She continues to make us laugh every day with her ridiculous antics and off-the-wall questions.

 

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Indoor Fun

Even with a fairly mild winter thus far, the lack of light keeps us inside more often than not.  The girls continue to color a lot and Nina enjoys her writing.  She has been interviewing people on their favorite things and then writes the responses with some help.  She also has been copying the months out of her calendar onto new paper.  Both girls enjoy playing with a variety of toys, cars, balls, ponies and whatnot and have spent a lot of time this weekend setting up the dollhouse and playing angry birds (the physical version).  Otherwise we try to get to the childrens' museum during non-peak times and the girls always have a blast there.