Over the river and through the woods...

... to Camp Nebraska we go.  I was fortunate enough to have some extra time this spring to take the little girls to Camp Nebraska as this is our last year before Natalie is in real school with a real schedule. So we got up early and headed for the airport in our jammies (for the record, Mommy was dressed in real clothes).

As an adult, I see trips to the airport as stressful, time crunched and annoying. It's easy to forget how magical the airport is to kids. All you have to do is look at their eyes every now and then and you remember how fun and exciting a trip to the airport used to be.

Natalie carefully picked our seats, which meant an entire row, a few rows behind the wings so she could watch them during takeoff and landing.

Since he wasn't there, Scott requested a video of Eloise during takeoff. I wasn't sure how it would work, but now I'm so glad he suggested the idea.

The goods required to fly alone with two kids... plus the two backpacks full of toys, wipes, diapers, spare clothes, headphones, chargers, snacks, tissues, stuffed animals, blankets and my wallet. I had two beers on a flight that took off at 9am: one for each kid. I felt that was reasonable. And plus, I had a handful of drink tickets that were about to expire.

I was lucky to be able to travel with two happy kids. They were thrilled to be flying on an airplane and we were all overly excited to see Grandpa and Grandma.

Trip to Vertuccio Farms

It was a beautiful morning, so we decided to take the girls on a little adventure: peach picking. We got there early and had the place mostly to ourselves. Both girls enjoyed being out and had fun assisting on the hunt for the good peaches. Natalie and Scott were able to check up top and found all the ones everyone else couldn't.

And it took a little practice, but Eloise learned a new word...

Little Miss Independent

Just a few days shy of her 18-month birthday, Eloise finally decided it was time...

Mother's Day

The weather was made to order on Mother's Day, so we went out to check out some new parks in the area. The kids had a blast and mommy and daddy enjoyed being outside, playing and relaxing.

Eloise freak fever

No symptoms, just WHAM, the 72-hour fever bug strikes hard and quick.

 

Natalie the Karate Kid

Natalie was surprised to get a one-on-one class at karate. Her teacher allowed her to earn a red stripe by sparring with him. She LOVED it.

Reading is bliss

Eloise turns the corner

Eloise is finally getting the hang of kneeling, knee-surfing, standing and walking. Pretty soon, she's just going to take off!

A snapshot of April 2016

So, April blew right by. Here's what we were up to...

Eloise took a music class. She initially was not into it but eventually warmed up to the idea.

Natalie continued to learn new things, like how to play Hangman, at school.

Eloise continued to like to sit on the potty.

Natalie went to the dentist.

Eloise began studying Chemistry while also working on standing up and learned how to lay face first on the kitchen floor while mommy is trying to make dinner.

 Natalie found the dress Katie wore at our wedding and was able to squeeze into it, just barely.

Whitney's friend from high school came to visit and everyone loved her (duh).

Natalie took her big sister job seriously and began showing Eloise how to use the potty and reading to her while doing so.

Eloise began doing more climbing and was finally able to climb up into her chair by herself and then down out of it by herself also.

The weather was unseasonably nice and we began stopping at parks on the way home from school just to enjoy the weather.

 
Eloise continued her training for strongest baby contest.

Mommy began going to Farmer's Markets

Random silly things happened...

 

 The girls continued to LOVE books.

Natalie and Daddy began to build circuits.

Natalie's Birthday Party

We gave Natalie the option of having her party at a fancy party place (like Bounce U) and only being able to invite 10 of her friends or having a party at the park and inviting all her friends. She chose to play games, decorate cookies and play with all her friends at the park. So, that's what we did...

She was surrounded by so many fun people: friends from school, neighbor friends and friends she's grown up with because they are the kids of our long time friends. Daddy organized some fun games (relay races, Red Light/Green Light, sack races, etc.) to get the kids playing all together and burning off some energy.

When the kids got restless, he got the parents involved in the sack races... thanks to all the parents who participated in the silly races. The kids loved it.

 

 After all the races, it was time to decorate cookies...

The kids played on the playground for a while and then they ate more cookies. It was a beautiful day for an exhausting party.

Eloise rode in the backpack most of the morning and finally fell asleep during the cookie cutting. She managed to stay asleep until we had the car all packed up.