Another Weekend Post

This post has been sitting on blogger for 3 days, just asking me to finish it already! So it's gonna be another "here are some pictures with not much text" post :) Which, if I'm not mistaken, is what most of my readers prefer anyway ;)

Next time you will get to read a sappy post about Maya starting PRESCHOOL (I know, right???) and how I can't believe she's so grown up and ohmygoodness I.cut.her.hair. (!!!) and she is basically a teenager now. But for tonight, some pictures of last weekend :)

Went to a cookout at Bryan and Tif's house on Saturday night. Holy moly check out the eyes on Gracie! Also, I'm pretty sure both (normal sized) twins, separately, weigh more than Charlotte! It would seem that I make small babies :P

On Sunday, we went to my dad's house to go swimming. Well, Michael and Maya swam (along with Grandma and Grandpa). Charlotte, Katie and I hung out poolside and stayed out of the icy water :D Maya also got her fingernails AND toenails painted, which is always super fun. As you can see, she chose to make a fashion statement with her multi-colored toes!

The girlies waited patiently to get in the pool.

Michael decided the best way to force himself into the water was to go down the slide!

Maya spent a good 20 minutes jumping off the stairs into the water :) Grandma and Grandpa had several different fish floats, and she had to try them all out of course!

Charlotte and I were happy to be spectators to the whole scene :)

Isn't he cute? I'm a lucky lucky lady :D

By the end of the day, Maya was very very brave with the fish floatie...

...and Charlotte was asleep.

In West Kent, Ohio, Born And Raised

On the playground (park) was where I spent most of my days,

Chillin out maxing,

Relaxin all cool

And all shootin some b-ball outside of the school

The end :)

The One With Many Charlottes

Not much to blog today. I spent most of the day cleaning, and the girls actually played HAPPILY and TOGETHER. I feel like we're settling into this two kid thing and it is wonderful. Though you know tomorrow is another day, and just as it can be better, we all know it can be worse! But I'll take today for what it was and hope that I have many more like it :)

Due to all the cleaning, I don't have many pictures from today. But here are some of Charlotte being silly tonight :)

The weather has been ahhhmazing. It makes me think of fall and colorful leaves and apple cider and sweaters and walks (which have been seriously lacking this summer). As long as the rain stays away tomorrow we'll be heading to the park. Tonight's exercise was Standing Pilates (killer!) but tomorrow I think I'll count running around with my kiddos exercise enough! Tonight I'm just gonna enjoy the crickets chirping through the open windows, kick my feet up, and enjoy what is left of my day.

Wow! Two Posts In One Day!

To make up for my lack of blogging lately, here are some more pictures :) Maya was very intently coloring, and Charlotte was busy playing under the table, as usual :)

The One With The Hungry Giraffe

Michael had a business trip to Battle Creek, MI (home of Kellogg world headquarters) this week.

The girlies and I took the opportunity to tag along, and got to visit the Binder Park Zoo while we were there.

It was very, very cool. We are no stranger to zoos, but this one really blew me away. There were random birds walking around on the paths (one with her chicks ~ so cute!)

an awesome petting zoo

Charlotte wasn't so sure about the pygmy goats, so she hung back with me

Maya, on the other hand, was in LOVE. She was even talking to the goats.

and an Africa exhibit where people could feed giraffes from one of the overlooks.

Also, of all the zoos that we've been to, this one easily had the most "natural" habitats for the animals, where they had plenty of room to roam, and they participate in species preservation programs that maintain breeding pairs and release the babies into the wild (once they are old enough, obviously! :)).

They had random "scenes" set up that made it look like explorers had set up camp to observe the animals,

and all of the signs that told about the animals were written as field notes on sketch pads and clipboards.

All in all, probably the best zoo we've been to. And believe me, the fact that it is in Michigan makes that hard for me to admit!

The rest of the time we were there, we mostly just hung out at and around the hotel. They had a pool,

a nice area outside where the girlies could walk/run around,

and a nice grassy area where we could lay down!

We had a great week :D It's nice to be back in the Buckeye state, but we had a fun visit :)

(You may have noticed this "backpack" in a lot of the pictures. With few exceptions, Maya has carried it around since Monday. She has it on right now, but is carrying it diagonally as a messenger bag, and is pretending to be Diego with his "rescue pack")