Hold Me Closer Tiny Dancer.........

Madeline finally started dance class yesterday. She was SO happy, evident by her face in these photos. She is in a class with one of her school friends, Delie. I can't wait to see how this progresses over the next several months!

It's getting chilly outside

My blogging has taken the backseat, yet again. I frankly don't make the time to sit at the computer like I once did. I hope with the colder days that are inevitably ahead, that will make me sit down and share stories and photos with our readers.
Our life isn't anything out of the ordinary, but we have fun. Our two babes keep us on the go from the first chirp of them in the morning to that last cry in the night.....

Lucy is 11 months and will be 1 year old on October 1st. She is crawling, standing, walking around the furniture and walking with her walker and she really likes to climb the stairs...some times she disappears without us knowing and where is she? Upstairs in our room. :)

She eats just about anything you give her, but her favorites include anything with cheese...and anything dipped in ketchup. Much like her older sister.

Lucy is a snuggler, she likes to be in constant contact with either mom or dad or sister Madeline.....she has a bit of a seperation problem which quickly goes away....until she sees mom again. Then it's tears! She's quickly learning to "fight back" when Madeline takes away her toy. Not necessarily a good quality to be learning so young, but, she has a voice and she's learning how to use it! She loves loves to dance. The girl hears a beat and her butt starts to wiggle! It's hilarious! And she loves to play with all the toys and all the toys her sister would rather her not play with!

Lucy is just one of those easy going, happy-go-lucky kids and we're very blessed.

Madeline is 3. Just turned. She's officially in preschool and loving it. She's certainly a smarty pants. And speaking of pants, she's officially potty trained. In fact, she just learned to put her poopy in the potty yesterday! She dresses herself, she buckles herself into the carseat (with minimal assistance of course), She goes potty and wipes and washes hands without help (most of the time) She is perfectly content reading book after book snuggled on the couch with her pillow and blankie most of the time. but she also loves to play pretend....pretend baby, pretend cookies, pretend bugs.....you name it, we've played it. And speaking of playing, she's mastering the game of Candy Land. She cheats good. Even cheated so well she made her dad quit 'cause she beat him! :-) Very funny.

I don't know what else to say, she's a happy kid. That's all I care about!

Ahhh, the boat ride.

Going on a pontoon boat with two kids under 3 can be tricky. Luckily ours were very well behaved and seemed to really like it! As evident by the photos below. What was the occasion? What else do people do on a Monday in the summer ;-)
Nanny and Bubba treated us to a pontoon ride for my birthday. The best part of the day was watching Madeline get excited about driving the boat, seeing the ducks and of course, eating snacks and coloring under her "towel blanket".

Madeline's 3rd Birthday

We have so many photos, too many to post in one sitting. But here's a few photos to share anyway. Madeline had a visitor on her birthday, Ariel, The Little Mermaid. She had one little prince among all the princesses, her cousin, Brendan.
Pizza, Cupcakes, Storytime, Face Painting and of course, presents! Happy Birthday my little sweetheart.

Summer Fun.

What do you do to stay cool in this heat? The girls like Popsicles. Yes, even Lucy does. And Madeline, she wants them for breakfast, lunch, dinner and each snack in between. And of course, there's the mini pool. Now that Lucy is crawling, she very much enjoyed sitting and moving around in the pool. Madeline likes to pretend she's having a shower, and so, we got out the soap and made a real bathtub/shower experience out of it. Come winter, I'll miss these days, so we take advantage as much as we can!

Updates on the girls- Lucy is 10 months now. Crawling. Eating some table food. She had her first grilled cheese with ketchup the other day and seemed to really like it! Her personality is developing more and more- for example, she knows how to let her sister know when she's making her mad! She shreaks. Or screams. She really is a well tempered, easy going, happy baby. Except, at night. She doesn't much care to sleep. A problem we've had since she was born. It's exhausting, but we manage to find our way through the night up and down and up and down. Someday, right? She is a snuggle bug, so at least she's sweet to hold onto.

Madeline is spoiled. She's nurturing, she's happy, she's bossy, she's sweet, she's everything a 2, almost 3, year old should be. She's quite smart, we think. Maybe smarter than us at times. The best thing she says to us, is without prompting her, she will reach for a hug and say, "I love you Mommy (or Daddy)". Melt. Your. Heart.

In the house, we've, rather Lowe's, has been building our lower level man cave/bar/kitchen. Everything a man cave needs will be in this section of the house. It should be completed this week and just in time for all things party coming up later this month! We also leveled our backyard space, ridding ourselves of all weed trees so that soon we can have a backyard for our kids to run around in. For now, it's a mud pit with holes :-( Maybe by fall, maybe not til next spring, whenver..... it will be a lovely space for the kiddies.

Summer is winding down! Enjoy it! And enjoy the recent pics!

Happy 4th of July Everyone!

Happy 4th of July! Happy Independence Day! We spent this gorgeous day at home. Our friends came over for an old fashioned bbq. Hotdogs on the grill, potato chips, salad and watermelon! Yum! The girls had a fun afternoon with their little friends and I was lucky enough to catch a few shots of them still in good moods! America's Sweethearts...they sure are! I hope whatever you did to celebrate you were with your family or friends or those who mean the most to you. It really was a day worth celebrating!

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day this is year was quite pleasant-spent the day at home. John did some yard work, and the girls spent most of the day outdoors. While it wasn't the sunniest of days, it was nice and warm. And most importantly, there was no rain.
Things in the Maslow household are going well. Daddy goes to work each day as usual, and comes home to either quickly change and head off to another (Rocks) baseball game or to pack up the girls in the stroller and head to the neighborhood park. Swings and slides are our family favorites. I keep busy, very busy, just keeping up with both girls and the household chores- too many to list. And trying to keep our girls from getting bored during the day and coming up with new activities is hard! We have our favorites and we stick to them but now I need to change it up. Madeline could spend all day, everyday, outside running through the yard doing sommersaults and her version of the cartwheel, or just rolling down a hill. She would be perfectly content living outside on the sidewalk with a brand new box of chalk and gallons upon gallons of bubbles. Mix in a few treats and some ice water and you've got yourself one happy 2 year old. As for Lucy, she's perfectly happy watching her big sister...as long as mommy is within good distance.
I've been researching area parks and playgrounds and I can't wait to take Madeline to a few area ones.....first on my list is the Hyland Play Area in Bloomington. I hear it's pretty fantastic and according to it's website, it's like a real time Chutes and Ladders. And next will be Lewis Park in St. Paul (if it ever stops raining). According to their website, “the play area features a new line of play equipment like nothing you have seen before,” including the city of St. Paul’s first splash pad – which essentially the best, most high-end version of running through the sprinklers. It includes 5 in-ground jets, 2 water wiggles, and a water tent. I think it's safe to say that Madeline will have a blast and Lucy will too...heck, so will mom and dad :-)
Anyway, it's a good life here.

A few photos from Father's Day....the first was taken by Madeline. She loves to take pictures of everything!