A night at the orchestra

We spent last night enjoying every minute of the performance by the Philadelphia Orchestra at the Kimmel Center. The pianist was absolutely unbelievable. It's awe inspiring to watch someone command an instrument at such a level. Incredible. Above are a few pics before taking off for the performance.

Our worm garden

I stole the idea of making sensory tubs from a toddler preschooling blog I sometimes read. Anyway, I loved her most recent post on sensory tubs so Isabella and I put together her own tub and it was a huge hit. (I've put together tubs filled with rice or beans and other trinkets in the past)
The girls and I spent the morning exploring in the woods near our house and we filled a plastic insect catcher with berries, rocks, leaves and anything else that caught their eye along the way. We went to the local sporting goods store and bought a can of night crawlers and a bag of fake worms. I put organic potting soil into a plastic bin, dumped our finds from the morning walk, the worms of course, a magnifying glass and a few shovels into the bin. Isabella spent most of the afternoon digging around and inspecting her worms. I even caught her talking to them for about 15 minutes. Olivia wasn't quite as interested. She got pretty close and just kept pointing saying, "look, look..." as to make me aware of the creepy crawlers in the box.
The sensory tubs have been a huge hit, I'm just not sure if I'm going to be able to top the worm garden.

Olivia

Olivia, Olivia, where do I begin. She's growing so quickly, although she's still my little baby. Olivia loves to have a good time, no doubt. She has a big personality and loves to be the center of attention. Her vocabulary is growing each day and I'm surprised by what she understands, both in English and in Spanish.

Things she loves: her pacifier, her sister, taking a nap, her bottle, jumping on the trampoline, petting dogs, eating, playing with balls, dancing to all types of music, singing, playing with kids who are older than her, the slides and swings at the park, playing with water and swimming

Things she could do without: getting her diaper changed (of course), having a toy taken away from her (can't blame her)

Things we're working on: more sharing, less clinging to mom and less hitting other kids who are her size or smaller

Still 2

Sometimes I have to remind myself that Isabella isn't 3 years old yet. She's very independent and in my opinion, pretty mature for her young age. She's such a sweet girl and in general very well behaved. A friend of mine said that the older they get, the more fun they are, and I agree with her. Isabella and I can just hang out all day and never tire of each other. She's a really cool kid and I hope that we become great friends in the years ahead.

8 weeks left...

Yes, hard to believe, but only 8 weeks to go until my due date. We recently added a 15 foot trampoline to our backyard and it's been a hit with not only the girls, but also with mom and dad. The girls and I just love playing on it. I can't wait until my body is able to really jump on it without the fear of a baby falling out.
Either this little guy is really growing or I'm just eating a lot...I almost weigh what I did when I delivered both of the girls. At this rate, I'll put on another 10 lbs before my due date. Yikes. Oh well, as long as this guy is nice and healthy, that's all that matters. I go in on Thursday for an ultrasound. He had a few choroid plexus cysts at the 20 week ultrasound so we're following up on those, which should be gone and getting an idea of how he's growing in general.

Faker

This is what Olivia's fake cry looks like. Pretty convincing, huh?

The Farmer's Market

A stroll through the farmers market was in order for a perfect Saturday morning. I must confess that my gardening experiment has failed. Sad. I hate to admit, but I should have listened to Jason when he said that I should reconsider renting a garden plot since we have a lot going on and oh, the newborn might just keep me busy. Yeah, I told you so is in order. Well, now my next plan is to stock up on fresh local produce and perfect my canning skills. The girls enjoy the market...there's great food, live music and a lot of dogs to pet. I think it beats the dirt filled garden, but I haven't given up on my gardening endeavor, perhaps next year will be our season.

Last day

The last day with Sheila and Kate was spent taking a walk near our house and going exploring near the pond. The girls found an old tree swing and had the best time on it. We enjoyed authentic Jersey pizza and spent more time jumping on the trampoline. It was the perfect way to end a great week.

Day four NYC

Of course we just had to check out a few sites in NYC with the girls. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, not a cloud in the sky and about 70 degrees. We started the day with a stroll through Central Park. The girls played on a playground and then we headed to Burger Heaven for lunch. We needed to satisfy our sweet tooth so we visited Dylan's Candybar which did not disappoint. After loading up on candy, we spent several hours playing at FAO Schwarz. We topped the day off with a 30 minute ride in a rickshaw through Times Square. The day was truly perfect. There was no major meltdown, we found our way around the city and saw all of the sites on our list. Can't wait to go back.

Day three

We enjoyed the day at the Please Touch Museum. Olivia's favorite part of the museum was the water feature. She was totally soaked after just a few minutes, but enjoyed every second. Kate and Isabella loved it all and had fun doing crafts together and playing with foam dough. Although, I did have to break the news to Olivia that it's way too early for implants. :)

Day two

We spent the 2nd day of their trip visiting Independence Hall, checking out the Liberty Bell, enjoying a picnic and playing at Smith Playground. We topped the night off with burgers and shakes at this pretty cool diner.

Check out the fun the girls had on this cool swing.

A completely blissful week: day 1

This past week was one of the best we've had in a long time. My beautiful, fun, sweet, and just all around extraordinary sister-in-law made the long trek from California with her equally wonderful daughter for a week filled with east coast adventures. Day one was spent at Storybook Land. The weather was perfect and we felt we had most of the park to ourselves. The girls loved riding the rides together and just thought this place was magical. They ended the day by jumping on the trampoline in their princess dresses.

Retirement is.....

AWESOME!! It's only been a couple of hours, but I'm sitting here blogging without this nagging voice that says, "You should be studying instead of blogging or you should go to bed now because you have to get up at 5:30am for work tomorrow." I'm sitting here on the couch in my pj's, sipping a diet coke and enjoying the freedom that comes from being unemployed and a student no more. Gosh....I love this feeling! I might even catch up on the last season of Lost. My "to do" is a mile long and I look forward to checking things off. A few things that come to mind:

Finish decorating the living room
Finish decorating the guest bedroom
Start decorating the nursery
Spend some time in the garden, maybe even plant something
Organize the bedroom closets
Spend time each day making "lesson plans" for my at home preschool time with Isabella
Try out new recipes
Take more photos in "manual mode"
Organize a picnic club
Take cookies to neighbors down the street (it's been on my list for about a year now)
Have friends over for dinner more often
Read something other than a textbook

What a transformation.....from working woman to domestic goddess or something like that. I'll let you know how long this domestic bliss lasts, but for now, it's feeling pretty good.

family prayer

I've been slacking on having family prayer with the girls before they go to bed at night. I have no good excuse except that Jason is never home for bedtime and I've just gotten lazy. We're trying to make a better effort and tonight Olivia knelt down, folded her arms and said the sweetest sounding "amen" at the end. There is nothing more adorable.

the exercise ball

The days of playing outside in nothing but a diaper are here. Because I'm not using the exercise ball for my six pack anymore, the girls have a good time with it outside.

Time for dessert

Olivia was a big fan of this dessert tonight. I can't blame her.

Moving along....

I'm officially in the 3rd trimester of pregnancy and boy do I feel like it (no pun intended). I'll be 29 weeks along this Monday. This little guy is moving all of the time. In fact, today I think he turned so he's head down and is ready to make his big debut in a couple of months.
I've definitely felt like a big fat pregnant lady this entire pregnancy and of course that isn't going to change for several more weeks. I'm still able to sleep comfortably at night which is nice. Although, several times in the last week, I've woken up because of a disturbing or scary and incredibly vivid dream. Sometimes I awake in a minor panic and can't go back to sleep. Pregnancy does weird things to a person, you know, as if the massive belly, back pain and swollen ankles aren't enough.
I'm feeling like I'm nearing the home stretch and getting super excited to meet our newest addition.

Simple pleasures

There is nothing better than a sweet, cold popsicle on a warm day.