After many weeks of working hard, Madi finally earned all of her magnets on a rewards chart. So what did she want as her "big" reward? A sleepover! So, we invited two of Madi's best buddies over and let the giggles and girliness take over! Of course, there was dressing up like princesses... Painting toenails and fingernails... And we even made some cupcakes. Well, I made some cupcakes and the girls enjoyed eating the batter and icing. Paxton thought maybe someone would drop some of their cupcake, so he camped out under the table.
"Uh oh! Mommy caught me!"The girls actually did amazingly well considering they're 3 and 4 years old. I expected at least a little sadness or tears around bedtime, but all they did was whisper and giggle for about 30 minutes after I turned the lights out.
Silly Jenna
Sweet Allie
Crazy Madi
All in all, I think it was a great night! Thanks to Jenna and Allie for coming over and making it special. I'm guessing this is just the start to many sleepovers. I'd better start resting up now. :)
Last week, we finally made it to downtown to take a ride on the trolley train. Our good friends Dorothy and Cooper joined us too. All aboard! Paxton enjoyed the experience much more OUT of his stroller. We got off of the trolley and walked down by the River Market where there is a cool playground and Splash Park. At first, Madi and Cooper were a bit timid around the water... But they finally got close enough to get a little wet. Madi had fun and giggled when the water splashed her, but never got up the nerve to run through the water. Cooper, on the other hand, decided there was no better way to beat the heat than to get sopping wet! Here he is sitting on the water sprayer. It must be a boy thing! :) I let Paxton touch the water, but he was more content to just watch the older kids run around and scream. Such fun! After Cooper got dry clothes on, we went back to catch the trolley. The kids passed the time drawing in the dirt with sticks. Why do we buy kids toys again? After getting off the trolley, we met Ted at the Heifer Village and let the kids enjoy the exhibits while we enjoyed the air conditioning! I thought this was a cute pictures of them at their lockers. The way time is flying now, I'm sure it won't be long before this picture will be a reality. :( Paxton didn't care where we were - he just wanted to find things to climb on. We had a great time and the whole morning of fun cost me a whopping $2! Can't beat that! Thanks Dorothy and Cooper for a fun time!
There's no question that Paxton loves his sister. And Madigan is quite fond of her brother too.
But lately I've been seeing hints of the "fun" that is to come. Paxton is interested in EVERYTHING that Madi does... but she's not too crazy about it when he tries to take over her fun. (Make sure you note her pouty lips!) And poor Paxton is going to have to be a tough boy if he's going to survive living with the ultimate princess who wants to turn everyone else into a princess too... Look at that smile - what a toot! They're a handful and yes, they wear me out. But I wouldn't have it any other way.
That's right - Little Man is now 8 months old! Getting Paxton's picture this month proved to be difficult. In fact, that's his "basket" in the background and is as close as I could get him to it. The boy has started to crawl and is constantly on the move. Think I'm exaggerating? Just check out the outtakes from this month... And as you can see, he's quite proud of himself! I, on the other hand, am just tired. :) He's definitely growing too fast, but we're loving every minute of it!
This might be the longest I've ever worked on a blog! Even taking out the pictures for the last post, we still had a LOT of pictures. I've done my best to sum up our fun trip here but let this serve as a warning - this is still a long post. :)
Bonding (aka spoiling!)
I know it goes without saying that the kids were given lots of love and attention from Grandi, Gramps, and Aunt Kate. Here are a few random pictures of them all.
Madi and Grandi
Paxton and Grandi
Madi and Gramps
Paxton and Gramps
Madi and Aunt Kate (in their matching gold sandals!)
Paxton and Aunt Kate Church Pictures
As always, we had family pictures made while we were dressed up in our church clothes.
The Tea Party
This started simply enough. Just Madi having a tea party with her bears. But somewhere along the line, it was decided that the bears weren't dressed up enough to attend the party. So some accessorizing took place - all pink, of course. And if the bears were dressed up, it only made sense that Madi would also need a fancy pink outfit also, right? And what pink party dress is complete without... you guessed it. Pink shoes! I'd better get some "Cool Mom" points for this. (and yes, that is a pink bow in MY hair as well.)Modeling the final productAnd while the dress didn't stay on too long, the tea party experience continued until finally the bears were not good enough guests and the tea party attendees extended to include the rest of us. Madi was very careful pouring and drinking her tea. But Gramps still thought she needed lessons on the proper way to drink her tea and eat her cookies (goldfish crackers). Madi wasn't sure about all of that, but thought he was pretty funny. Paxton wasn't sure what to make of the whole experience, but found it quite entertaining!
The Hunt
One night, Madigan got the whole family out to hunt some lightning bugs.
She worked hard to catch the little buggers. And was rewarded with a whole jar full of lightning bugs!
The "Gathering"
In order to let us catch up with some of our North Carolina friends and give Gramps and Grandi a chance to show off their grandkids, Sandi invited some people over dinner one night. As you can see, Paxton hammed it up for everyone...
And Madigan made some new friends. Silly girls :) Krispy Kreme
While in NC, we visited a Krispy Kreme for some donuts.
If you've never been to a Krispy Kreme, they have windows that you can watch through to see how the donuts are made. Both kids enjoyed this.
I, on the other hand, felt a little sick watching them. Yes, that is a large pool of oil the donuts are soaking in. Still not grossed out? How about this fountain of gooey glaze that each donut passed though?Madi didn't care what we thought about the fat and calories in the donuts. She just though they were G-O-O-D!Paxton tried hard to see what all of the fuss was about. "Give me that thing!!!" The Museum
We also visited a very cool Museum of Natural Science.
Madi's favorite part was the butterfly room where butterflies flew and landed all around you. She also liked the giant mouth and thought it was funny to pretend we were getting eaten. The close-up :) Swimming
Last but not least, we went swimming at the cool pool in Aunt Kate's neighborhood.
Paxton enjoyed the water, as always. But also enjoyed drying off in the shade with Grandi!Madigan was determined to try out the slide...until she actually got up on the slide, of course! Here's a video of her adventure!
As you can tell, her sliding down was a COMPLETE accident and didn't go over too well. :) She recovered though and we had a great time at the pool.
Heading Home
Although Madi was VERY sad to leave Grandi, Gramps, and Aunt Kate, things were made a little easier when she got on the first plane and saw a super surprise - TVs in the headrests!
I was surprised to find that they offered shows and music for free. Needless to say, it was easy entertaining Madigan on that flight!
We had a wonderful trip, as always. Thanks Grandi, Gramps and Aunt Kate for making our time in NC so special!
So, we invited two of Madi's best buddies over and let the giggles and girliness take over! Of course, there was dressing up like princesses...
Painting toenails and fingernails...
And we even made some cupcakes. Well, I made some cupcakes and the girls enjoyed eating the batter and icing. 
Paxton thought maybe someone would drop some of their cupcake, so he camped out under the table.
"Uh oh! Mommy caught me!"
The girls actually did amazingly well considering they're 3 and 4 years old. I expected at least a little sadness or tears around bedtime, but all they did was whisper and giggle for about 30 minutes after I turned the lights out.
Sweet Allie
Crazy Madi
All in all, I think it was a great night! Thanks to Jenna and Allie for coming over and making it special. I'm guessing this is just the start to many sleepovers. I'd better start resting up now. :)
