Second Birthday Bash

As usual, I'm a little behind on my posts, but, as usual, we've been busy, busy! 

The girls' second birthday party was SO MUCH fun, and the girls got a chance to see how blessed they are with family and friends!

We kept the party "simple" this year, and gave the girls a little inflatable pool to keep them and their friends busy! Unfortunately, it did end up raining, but the kids were pretty much done with the pool by that point anyway! They spent time playing in the play house, riding in the jeep, and just hanging out!

After a yummy dinner of burgers and dogs, we got to enjoy homemade ice cream made by Mamaw and Papaw and monkey cake and ice cream cone cupcakes from Aunt Sheryl. As usual, she did an AWESOME job of making the cakes look awesome, and the girls COULD NOT get enough!! When Macy first saw the cake, her first comment was "I'm gonna eat that" :)

I think they may have enjoyed it even more the following week when they got to finish off the leftovers.

 

We opened gifts and were able to confirm the fact that the girls really are just plain spoiled! :)  The hit of the night was the school bus slide from Mimi, Papa, Aunt Sabrina, Uncle Clayton, Haley, and Baby Noah, and the new baby dolls from their friend Taylor!  Papaw lovingly named the new dolls "Lucy" and "Ethel", but to our delight, the names have morphed into something a little more kid friendly..."Juicy" and "Tassel"...(yes, we are aware that it sounds like we now have two strippers living in our house! :)

The next day, the girls were able to open a few more awesome gifts, including their new kitchen set from Mamaw and Papaw!  (shame on me for not taking pictures of that yet!)  They are thoroughly entertained...and, to be honest, they got so much that I have actually put a few of their gifts in the closet to be "re-revealed" in the next few weeks!  I figured it would be nice to extend the experience for a little while and it would give them a chance to appreciate everything more!!

More party pics are here - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/2nd%20birthday%20party/?albumview=slideshow

And to close out the "year end" celebration, I finally got their "year in review" pictures uploaded, and they can be seen here - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Year%202/?albumview=slideshow

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to our Sweet M&Ms!!

It's IMPOSSIBLE to believe that we're really sitting on TWO full years!!  What a wonderful couple of years it's been!

We had a great day today, starting with a room full of balloons to wake up to, then Birthday muffins, candles, and a song. 

Unfortunately, after that it was off to school...however, cupcakes were in hand for a special snack for the class!  I had a nice dinner planned complete with the girls' favorite food, but a huge storm came through and zapped our power, so we ended up meeting at a Mexican restaurant for "beans".  We finished off with a trip to the ice cream store and headed home to open gifts!

Knowing how much the girls already have and how much they're getting, our main gift is for gymnastics lessons this fall, and then we provided some "things to open" for today.  The girls didn't seem to mind, and were excited at their bounty. 

Tonight we put two TIRED little ladies down, knowing that rest is needed, since the party is just getting started!

On the eve of turning TWO!!

What a short, fast, crazy, stressful, fun, AMAZING summer it has been! My goodness how things have changed...and it is so unreal to think about how much it seems like our little babies stopped being babies and became little girls over the course of just a few SHORT months!  (excuse the nudity, but that picture was just too cute NOT to post!  :) 

As I've blogged before, we've had one heck of a ride this summer...to sum it all up, we've changed daycares, changed back, changed the place we call "home", changed our rooms, moved to big girl beds (same beds, no rail), started pee-pee in potty somewhat REGULARLY (YEAH!!!),

gotten a first haircut (a small trim for Macy only, at this point, and, yes, as you can tell by this picture, she's less than thrilled about the experience),

started doing somersaults, started singing and doing the motion for so many songs, increased our vocabulary by 1000s (or so it seems), learned to "drive the jeep" (steering is not that important, is it?), traveled to the beach twice, went on vacation at Mimi's (once with, once WITHOUT mom and dad), learned to jump in the pool without anyone catching (with our new lifejackets, of course), learned how much we LOVE ICE CREAM (who doesn't?) and POPSICLES, and...most importantly...we've laughed and loved every minute of it!!!

Here are links for a few silly videos as well -
Saying hi to Emmy Cate - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Summer%202011/?action=view&current=VIDEO0073.mp4
Showing off mad somersault skills - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Summer%202011/?action=view&current=VIDEO0095.mp4
Watching it rain while mommy and daddy move the last loads of stuff from the old house - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Summer%202011/?action=view&current=VIDEO0075.mp4
Laughing with Daddy in the car - http://s937.photobucket.com/albums/ad218/mandyernst/Summer%202011/?action=view&current=VIDEO0074.mp4

It is UNBELIEVABLE that Macy and Makayla have only a few more days until they'll be TWO!!!! I never knew two little people could make life so AWESOME! :)  Now...let the party begin!!!!

MUCH THANKS to Ma and John for the MANY cards and money that they've sent this summer, and to Pa and Grandpa Ken for our first birthday cards and money!  The girls are starting to figure this money concept out...and boy are they excited!!

(Sorry for all of the bad pictures and video...we've done a lot of snapping with our phones this summer...but better to have blurry memories than no memories!)

Cousins Everywhere

A couple of weeks ago, Uncle Jason, Aunt Jen, Reganne, and Riley made the trip from Kansas City to Gainesville to visit with the family. Fortunately, we were able to come down for the weekend so that we could spend time with the WHOLE family!  It’s so funny to watch how the kids all cling to the “next oldest”. Macy and Makayla still LOVE their Haley, and were fascinated by Reganne and Riley, but Reganne was the star of the show for Haley and Riley, and our girls are just a bit too young to fully engage with the big girls...they were not at ALL bothered by hanging with (and getting a LOT of the attention from) the adults…and doting on Baby Noah with every chance that they could get! We all had an awesome time playing at Mimi’s, swimming in the pool, riding in the boat, and playing at the perfect Tiki Bar restaurant where the splash pad is cleverly placed by the outside dining area for a perfect dining experience for all!

On Saturday night, Uncle Nathan, Aunt Lauren, and Emmy Cate made it up for a visit and dinner as well, so the girls got to hang with almost all of their cousins in one setting…it was SO COOL! As hard as we tried, we proved, as usual, that it is virtually impossible to get a perfect picture of more than one kid at a time at these young ages but had enough shots to make up some pretty good memories! If only we could be able to spend more time together as a group!!!

Back to the Beach

We had lofty goals for an awesome 4th of July weekend at the beach this year…and we did have an awesome day at the beach on Tybee Island with Aunt Miss and Uncle Whit on the Saturday before the big holiday! We got up early (as usual) and, to my surprise, our feet were in the sand by 11am! We let the girls have some “warm up” time, and attempted to hit the waves!

Macy was pretty interested right away…she let Daddy carry her into the surf, and LOVED splashing in the ocean and even blowing bubbles and dunking her face! Makayla wasn’t quite so eager! We tried letting her walk, we tried carrying her, and she was just a little too afraid of the crashing waves. We resorted to spending some time in the sand, and she enjoyed playing for a bit, and then realized just how dirty she was!  

 After continuously asking for “napkins” to get the sand off, I finally just carried her in to the ocean far enough to wash off a bit, and she was less than happy about it…of course she was happy to be clean, so we headed up to the shady area and planted her on a chair where she could stay clean.

Macy finally got out of the water for a while too, and the girls enjoyed a snack on the beach. After a messy snack of cheese puffs, I knew Makayla needed to be washed off and just picked her up and carried her toward the shoreline while explaining that it was time to wash her hands! Amazingly enough, this time she was PERFECTLY content…she let me dip her in to clean up, then LOVED it when I bounced her around and enjoyed the cool water. Macy came back out to play, and all 6 of us were able to enjoy some good times in the waves before time to eat!

We were all kind of tired, and looking forward to some island drinks and seafood…however, unfortunately, lunch was slow and the girls hit their limits, so I had to make a quick exit to the car where they IMMEDIATELY passed out! Fortunately, sitting in the cool car wasn’t so bad for me either, and we were able to end the fun afternoon with a nice long nap!

Aside from the Saturday beach adventures, we had a long trip down on Friday, which began by Makayla getting sick all over the car before we made it to Charlotte. Not to be deterred from our trip, we stopped at the store, grabbed some cleaning supplies, cleaned up and headed on. We successfully made it to downtown Savannah where we met Aunt Miss and planned for some time at the splash pad. The girls had little interest, so we all went and hung out on the deck of Wild Wings while Marley and the girls enjoyed a break from the car.

We had a few more moments of random puking (I’ll spare the details) on Friday, but were pleasantly surprised to see NO signs of sickness all day on Saturday. Unfortunately, Sunday morning was a different story. Makayla got sick enough that we decided that a doctor visit was in order, only to get back to Miss’s house to realize that Gary was starting to feel bad as well. We grabbed some lunch with the family, then quickly packed our bags and headed home. It was a LONG trip, with lots of stops along the way, and I’ll just sum it up by saying that Macy now points to her sand bucket and says – “Macy Sick”…Ugh!!

We did have some good times in Savannah and on Tybee, and were very grateful for our awesome host and hostess…unfortunately, between the timing of our trip and all of the puking, we weren’t able to enjoy a SINGLE firework this year. I’m pretty sure the girls would have been terrified by them anyway, so we will just have to look forward to better success next year!

Back when we sang Happy Birthday to Emmy Cate…

Since I’m SO far behind on this post, I can’t even use it as a chance to give a belated birthday shout out to our sweet niece, Emmy Cate…and, unfortunately, her mom is a much better blogger than I, so she blogged about this months ago...however, I did have some cute pictures of Emmy and the girls (along with a random assortment of farm friends), as well as the other cousins, from when we headed to Atlanta to celebrate her 2nd birthday! (All of the pictures can be viewed in the album here)  Aunt Lauren and Uncle Nathan provided an awesome celebration, complete with a petting zoo in their own back yard…the girls thought it was AWESOME…except for the chickens…Makayla HATED those things! It took them some time to warm up, but before the party was over, they were petting the bunnies, sitting on the pony, and just enjoyed the experience. Ironically, the best part of the party for them was when they let balloons into the air. We still regularly hear about letting balloons go up in the air and constant reference to Emmy Cate’s birthday party!

The weekend was also even more exciting due to the fact that we got to stay at Haley and Noah’s house! Unfortunately, we didn’t arrive until late evening, so we had to hit the bed pretty early on Friday night, but the girls were delighted to wake up to have hours of play time with Haley! They played with balls, played with bubbles, swung and slid on slides, and even jumped on the neighbor’s trampoline…SO MUCH fun! And, of course, loved helping to feed baby Noah!!

Unfortunately, Daddy wasn’t able to make it on the trip, but we had a fun weekend and the girls LOVED getting to spend time with their cousins!

Beach Babes!

As promised, I couldn't skip a re-cap of our awesome weekend at the beach in mid-May!  I had to travel to Raleigh for work...AGAIN...and with "Little Loose" and Uncle Chuck about 30 minutes apart...and about 2.5 hours from Raleigh, we decided to create a full adventure!

As usual, I left for work on Tuesday morning, Gary manned the fort while I was away, but then left on Wednesday to meet me in the [state] Capital city!  I hate traveling away from my little family SOOOO much, so it was very cool to get to see them on Wednesday evening!   We had a fun family night in the hotel ;), then I went to work :( while Gary took the girls to the Children's museum and then met me for lunch.  I went back for a couple of additional hours of duty while he wasted some time at the park, carefully keeping the girls awake until I met them and we were eastward bound...and the girls were fast-asleep before we made it to the highway!

We were originally planning to make our accomodations on Little Loose but had also planned to spend some time visiting with Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nan...after inviting ourselves even for that, Chuck kindly extended the invitation for us to stay at his pad, and we decided that might be better...It was PERFECT!!  We're so lucky to have family like that in such cool places!  :)

We got to Chuck and Nan's around 7, and after a few minutes "breaking in" and meeting the only allowed resident pet, we decided to head out for sushi!  I was a little bit nervous about Macy and Makayla's "table endurance" after such a long day, and they did end up getting a little bit grumpy before we left, but they did pretty darn good considering the circumstances!  We were all exhausted, so we hit the sack as soon as we made it home, and I secretly prayed for the chance to sleep in the next morning...silly me knew that that really wasn't going to happen, so when 6:15 rolled around, I wasn't at all surprised at my wake up call!  The girls and I took a jog around the neighborhood, made a quick jaunt down the boardwalk to catch a glimpse of the ocean, and then hurried home to dodge an impending storm. 

After a lazy morning at the house where we played with some new friends (tree frogs) and tried on some of Aunt Nan's finest jewels, we decided to take a little drive to the boat, stop by to see Uncle Chuck and Aunt Nan's awesome new boat, and grab some lunch in Beaufort.  It was a great day and the girls rolled with the punches like little troopers...but by evening, the shortage of nap time and the crazy schedule kicked in, and they were tired little ladies!  Fortunately that evening my cousin Hillary, along with her husband Matt and their new baby, Myles, came into town as well, and the girls got to say quick hellos before soon heading to bed. 

The next morning, as usual, the girls woke up right on queue and we made another quick jaunt around the hood before heading back to hang around the house to wait on the weather to clear.  The girls LOVED staring at and "playing with" "Baby Myles" and thought they were such good babysitters! :) 

After a late breakfast, the guys decided to go do some boat "stuff" and the girls (+ Myles) headed to the beach!  The girls were fascinated by the shore at first sight!  Macy was quickly ready to rid herself of her shoes and hit the sand, but Makayla quickly decided that the sand wasn't for her, and she would be perfectly fine as long as the flip flops stayed ON! 

The water was still quite cold, and the girls were pretty fearful of it anyway, so we did a little bit of walking around, then plopped on our towels for some fun in the sun.  Silly Mommy forgot all of our sand toys, but the girls were able to keep themselves busy for over an hour before we decided to head home for naps.

After a fairly long nap, we made a trip to a couple of the obligatory beach stores in a vain attempt to find some kind of worthwhile souveniers, and then took a stroll on the beach with Daddy, since he missed the first trip!  It was a nice, breezy afternoon, and the girls really got into watching the surf, running in the sand (although flip flops were still mandatory for Makayla!), and collecting sea shells.  It was a great family trip, but we were happy to have fairly consistent bed times for the girls so that we had a chance to enjoy a couple of amazing fish dinners and great times with the grown ups after dark! 

Sunday we packed up our (huge) load and headed down to check on "Little Loose" one more time before making our LONG journey home.  The girls were champs, but I will say that 6 hours in the car was a lot for ALL of us!  We all look forward to the next chance to see boats, water, sand and sea shells!  Belated thanks to Uncle Chuck (whose name the girls STILL love to say!), Aunt Nan, Hillary, Matt, and "Baby Myles" for sharing their weekend with us!