Mommy's Helpers

Anna is constantly asking to help me in the kitchen. It is a little harder to have her in there, but I wouldn't want to discourage her helping in any way. The other night I had her stir the garlic in the butter to make garlic bread. Sara saw what was happening, grabbed her stool, spoon and bowl, and started stirring for herself. What funny little girls I have!

Big Girl Bed

Right now we are finishing the basement and we are almost ready for carpet (yay!). Since we have so much stuff down there, we are trying to make room up here for some of it. One idea that I had was to turn Sara's room into the storage area until we can move it all downstairs again. In order to do this, we need to get Sara moved over into Anna's room and into a big girl bed. So, we tried it last night. Both of the girls were so excited! Sara crawled right in and knew that it was her bed.Anna was just as giddy. She even tucked Sara in. Well, about five minutes after this picture was taken, Sara was done. She wanted nothing to do with the bed and cried until I put her back into her own room and into her crib. Then she went right to sleep. I guess she isn't ready for the transition after all. I better come up with a different plan!

Crazy Sara!

Sara has become a crazy little girl. Ever since she turned 18 months the personality has kicked in! Oh, and just for documentation, at her 18 month appointment she weighed 28 pounds. Yikes! She went straight into nursery without crying (gotta love that!), and learned how to hit and bite her sister (wonder who taught her that!).
Anyway, Sara is so much her dad. She is such a curious little thing! It is scary how much she observes and learns and does! She has learned to sing the alphabet, Itsy-Bitsy Spider, Wheels on the Bus, Paddy Cake and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star. She sings one of these songs constantly in the morning until we go and get her.
She loves having her baby dolls and loves pushing them around. It's so funny when she "shushes" her babies.
I sure love this busy little girl! She brings so much joy into my life.

Anniversary Fun!

For our 10th anniversary we had plans to go to Europe. Those were scratched when Rob was given the opportunity to go to Alaska with his Dad, brothers and brothers-in-law (the decision was made by both of us...I couldn't let an opportunity for Rob to bond with his family pass by.). Anyway, we ended up taking separate vacations to celebrate such a monumental anniversary (Rob in Alaska and me in DC). But we decided to spend some time together. So my parents watched the girls (thanks again!) and we headed out for a night on the town. Our plans were to go to dinner and a movie (I know, boring...but it has been 10 years!) but there were no movies out that both of us wanted to see. Then Rob remembered a little place that our friends had told us about, "Color Me Mine" and we decided to check it out. It was a lot of fun! You pick out the piece of ceramic that you want to paint and then they provide all of the glazes and tools that you need. They even fire it for you. Rob chose to paint a serving platter and I chose a bowl. It was so therapeutic to just sit and paint and listen to music (they have live music on Friday nights!). It is pretty cheap, depending on what you chose to paint, but it is so much fun! I highly recommend it.

Here's Rob painting his platter.I picked up the pieces today and here is Rob's finished platter.
And my finished bowl. Hey, I never claimed to be an artist!

10 Years Down...Eternity To Go!

Ten years ago today, in front of friends and family, I pledged to love my best friend for time and eternity. I remember thinking that I couldn't love him anymore than I did at that moment. I was wrong. I also knew that whatever trial came upon us, we would conquer it together. Ten years later, we have gone through some whoppers, some of which we are still trying to conquer, but we are doing it together. In the last ten years we have laughed a lot of laughs (sometimes they have been pity laughs), cried a lot of tears (mostly by me) and become very dependent on each other. I'm so grateful for Rob. I know that I would not have made it through some of my trials without him by my side. Happy Anniversary! Can't wait to see what the next ten years brings us!

Colledge Family Reunion

The Colledge Family reunion was this weekend. It was a lot of fun. The weather was so nice for it, not too hot and not too cold. Okay, maybe a little too cold to play water games :). Anyway, the girls had a blast. The first thing on the agenda was face painting. Neither Sara nor Anna wanted anything on their face, but they allowed it on their hands.
Anna had Aunt Kassi paint her a star, which turned out fabulous, and I'm not really sure what Kassi painted on her own hand. A butterfly maybe?
My very talented cousin, Tiffany, painted this cute butterfly on Sara. She loved it and was sad when it washed off in the shower.

Then the kids were sent off on a treasure hunt. They divided the kids up in age groups and sent them off. The treasure ended up being buried in the sandbox and the kids (parents!) had to dig it up.
I wasn't expecting to find a real treasure chest!
The goods!

Anna had to show me her treasure. She was very proud of herself.
The kids were drawn to the tub full of water and rubber duckies. Sara enjoyed stirring it with the noodle.

Both the girls ended up being soaked, but happy. And of course, the fun game was splashing daddy!
Sara and Rob ran the three legged race. It was hilarious!
Let's see if they can win!
They didn't win, but they finished the race!
Then both Sara and Anna got to shoot an air soft gun. I wasn't able to get a picture of Anna but she was able to hit 5 of the 6 cans and Sara got 4.
All in all it was a lot of fun. We were able to visit with family and the food was absolutely fabulous! You can't go wrong with dutch oven potatoes and chicken! Thanks Uncle Rex and Aunt Heidi for a fabulous reunion! You did a wonderful job!