Where's the Nutella Girls?! ...& Baby Hulk Sighting!

So I was trying out a new banana bread muffin recipe.  One with the likes of peanut butter and Nutella stuffed in the middle.  Sounds pretty delicious right?! Well, unfortunately I can't verify their tastiness.  At least not how these recipes were written because a key ingredient mysteriously went missing in the middle of the muffin liner filling process.  Can you guess which ingredient went rogue, and where it went?!

"Um girls, where's the Nutella?"  Lauren chimes in, "Olivia did it!"  Good to know that Lauren is still the bus driver, freely rolling over people she throws under the buses path! Beep, beep!  I turn to Olivia to find the hot mess in the picture above.  "Olivia, what happened to the Nutella?"  Olivia looks directly into my eyes and shrugs, "I no no mommy"  Meaning?  You guessed it, "I don't know mommy."  She's so cute here, but I was not so woo'd at the time, so I pulled her off her stool and went about finishing the muffins. 

 

She had pretty much depleted my small existing rations, so I had to change up the recipe on the fly--chocolate chips in the batter with a teaspoon of peanut butter sunk in the middle.  Now I can comment on these muffins.  Rating = Tasty! 



Girls waiting in angst to see if they'd get to reap the remnants of the mixing bowl.

By the time I got the pans in the oven, Olivia had pulled a chair over to the counter and she and Lauren proceeded to climb onto the counter.  They were looking to lick anything I would pass their way, which I did accommodate.  Olivia was already a hot, Nutella, chocolate mess, and I felt that Lauren deserved a reward for not downing the Nutella alongside Olivia.  So they did in fact get to lick the mixing paddle and the spatula.  Then each proceeded to get a paper towel bath to get the gunk off.  Here they are looking nice and clean, showing off their Easter bunnies that Nana Barbie sent them.  Overall it was a baking success, even if it was a baby-made mess!  OH! and check out the chance sighting I got of Baby Hulk--flexed arm pose, gritted teeth and all!!!


Check out the Baby Hulk Pose Olivia is rocking! 
She wanted to scare me off in case I tried to come at her with a wet wipe again!



Sweet Lauren was showing me how she rocked her bunny to sleep.

 

House Warming Wreath Craftiness

Our great friends, Luke and Jessica Stumme, just closed on their first house in Old Town Alexandria.  So I wanted to make them something special to commemorate their new house.  What did I come up with?  How about a one-of-a-kind front door wreath?!  One spool of twine, one yard of burlap, one wooden letter "S", and a couple different homemade flowers and bows later...and...voila! 

I really like how it turned out!  So much so I might just have one gracing our front door before you know it!

Inaugural Visit to Georgetown Cupcakes

What has Lauren grinning from ear-to-ear while licking her lips and fingers at lightening speed?!  Why that would be our first-time visit to Georgetown Cupcakes, the location of TLC's television series, DC Cupcakes. 

We went there today with out great friend Amber, and her daughter, Ellie.  It was actually Amber's idea, did I mention she's a genius?! :0P  So we headed towards Georgetown after morning rush-hour, about 9am this morning.  We had great traffic and made great time, but guess what we found when we got there?  The store opens at 10am, and waiting outside their front door was a line already half-way up the block!

 

I know what you're thinking--cupcakes at 10am in the morning Katy?!  Well, when you have toddlers that aren't great at standing in line, and you go and visit places that require standing in lines (most places here in the metro area), you make strategic decisions to avoid potential tantrum scenes.  Hence the morning wake up to get to Georgetown Cupcakes.

 

So we were able to grab a parking space literally across the side-street from Georgetown Cupcakes; but we then found two sleeping children--Olivia and Ellie. Ugh.  But, wait!  There are two grown-ups here, so this is a cake walk (literally).  What a luxury!  Silly, but a luxury nonetheless, to have someone old enough to just sit in the car with the sleeping child. 

 Lauren and I jumped out of the car first and went and stood in the light D.C. drizzle to get our first taste of these legendary cupcakes.  The line moved fast and once inside the doors, the sheer amount of cupcakes on pedestals were unreal.  Easily 200+ cupcakes behind a wall of glass, 20+ flavors. *insert beaming white light from heaven and angels singing here*  Seeing this wall-o-cakes, Lauren went bonkers!  I loved seeing her reaction.  It was the second highlight of the day, next to tasting the cupcake!  She was literally a kid in a cupcake store, and living up to the saying! 

 

Then, to see the amount of people they had working the register, in back baking/icing cupcakes, and just those filling orders--there had to be at least 25 people (no lie!) working in this storefront.  And it wasn't a super large storefront by any means.  It was shoulder to shoulder inside, both in front of and behind the counter.  Probably not the best environment for someone that's claustrophobic, but luckily neither Lauren or I suffer from that.  The sweet lady in front of us worked just a couple blocks away and was more than happy to tell us about her favorite cupcakes.  So we followed her advice on flavors and she was spot on (or so I believe, as I didn't try all four cupcakes we bought)--red velvet, chocolate peanut butter chip, chocolate ganache, and vanilla squared. Why I didn't take a picture of these simple, yet beautiful cakes? Not sure. :/  Guess a return trip is in order?!?!?



Not my picture, but shows the simple,
but sweet decoration.





National Cherry Blossom Festival - A Bucket List Item for Anyone!

Now I understand what all the talk is about when it comes to D.C. and cherry blossoms in the springtime.  I've truly never seen more beautiful blooms/foliage in all of my life. 


Tidal Basin on the National Mall-National Cherry Blossom Festival
NOTE: This picture was not taken by me personally, explanation why is to follow...

When they first started talking about the world renowned National Cherry Blossom Festival it in the news here though, I didn't understand why they celebrated it for approximately a month.  When I think of a festival, I think of a limited time only type deal--a weekend to one week, max.  Definitely not a month long though.  So for the average West Coaster/Arizonan (i.e. myself), the reason behind this month long duration is because Mother Nature is a fickle woman and not even the politicians in D.C. can dictate when the blossoms will show up each year.  You like that explanation?!  Seriously proud of it! ;0P  Also for the not-so-well-versed-on-cherry-blossomers, the National Cherry Blossom Festival takes place each year to commemorate the gift of some 3,000 cherry trees from Tokyo to our nation’s capital in 1912.  I did not know that tid-bit when I moved here, so I thought I'd share.

So how was the festival you ask?!  Well, I don't know. *sigh*  The blossoms showed up abnormally late this year, so unfortunately we Olsen's took a trip down to the National Mall too early and didn't make it back before the blossoms disappeared (hence it not being a Katy-taken picture above).  In our defense though, we went to see the blossoms on April 6th, what would seem a conservative date, if not a little bit late, for a Festival that "runs" from March 20th - April 14th.  But, since we had a colder than usual spring, the peak bloom didn't happen until April 8th-10th (conflicting info on exact date).  So our jaunt down to the Mall was premature by days. ;0/  BTW, the Peak Bloom Date is the day on which 70 percent of the blossoms of the Yoshino cherry trees that surround the Tidal Basin are open. I believe they were 50%-60% open when we were there. 

I was so bummed about our "miss" on this excursion that I took only ONE photo, and it was just of Nate and Olivia...no pictures of skulking Lauren in her red Radio wagon.  In her defense though, Lauren was jacket less and freezing.  We forgot to grab her jacket, Nate's jacket, nor my jacket.  So we had nothing to offer her.  Also, our diaper bag snack supplies were severely depleted at the playground the day before, so I couldn't even offer her some snacks to cheer her up.  So with that third strike against us (#1 being blossoms not full out yet, #2 being jacket less), I convinced Nate that we needed to call it a day (it was like 9am!).  We'll just say that Nate was "not-happy" with the situation, but complied with leaving.

Olivia was laughing, so pardon the double chin

Needless to say my first National Cherry Blossom Festival was a fail :(  BUT, I'll be all over it next year!  Even if that means the girls and I do a daily run up to the National Mall to get a real live look at how the blossoms are blooming.  I know what you're thinking--Overkill right?  No way.  Not after seeing some of the pictures that friends took when they went at the right time.  Unreal.  Truly.  I found the following picture online, which seemed to capture what I love most about the older trees out here--when they canopy a street/walkway.  Gorgeous.  I will make it to the 2014 Festival.  Even if I have to go by myself!

Petals begin to pile up on the ground so much so, that it begins to look like fallen snow.

Last Day of Classes: Gymnastics & ABC123

Lauren had her last day of classes for this quarter at the Lee Rec Center.  And oh how we loved these classes!  They helped get us all up and going in the morning, as well as allowing the little girls to be active during the winter months here.

This is right before Olivia was kicked in the face by Lauren :(

  

They both developed great balance during this class.

Olivia wasn't even signed up for the class, but she loved Ms. Jewell and this matching game!

Lauren's sitting on the ground chatting with her new friend, Mary Grace.

We look forward to taking more classes in the coming months at Lee Rec. And hopefully we'll get Ms. Jewell and Ms. Laura as teachers again!

Florida Vacation #2!

We went to visit the Wilson Family at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, Florida, again! Yep, they allowed us back through their doors after our trip to visit in September (2012), and man do we love it here.  It is a bit bittersweet in visiting them though.  Since Tyndall was where we were supposed to be stationed right now (July 2012 blog post delves into full explanation), it's rough to come and see how awesome it is and not get a bit peeved at missing out on this assignment.  Secondly, we really miss the Wilson's as close friends (kids & Kelly...and PJ too I guess ;P ), and not being able to see them at least weekly like we did in Illinois.  Well, it has been a bummer.  BUT, to focus on the positives...it is awesome to go and vacation where friends live--you really can't beat it!

So we started our 16 hour drive on Saturday evening (April 23rd), so I could get a jump on the drive down while the girls slept peacefully in their seats.  And the plan worked until about 3am, when I got too tired and we stopped and found a hotel for the night/5 hr sleep stop.  We arrived at TAFB on Sunday afternoon to happy, playing friends and beautiful weather.  Seriously, couldn't have asked for a better start to our vacation.

Olivia watching Tangled mid-drive to FL.

Mmmmm--delicious!

And it wouldn't be a visit with Kelly if we didn't bake a little...or a lot!  But we love to try new recipes, and the neighbors don't mind being testers, so why not right?!  Olivia thought it was a great idea!  Plus, we had to make something to take to the Easter Sunday potluck they have with their ward.  So cupcakes were the obvious choice right?!

Front yard/driveway play was our main source of fun this trip!  After our first day here, it got a bit chilly and rainy, which wouldn't be uncharacteristic of anywhere else in the U.S. in the beginning of April.  But there in Florida, Kelly said it wasn't normal.  They had been going to the beach the week before, though admittedly, her kids don't mind cold water. But we just made it like a beach in the front driveway.  Complete with sandpit (front yard) and water (play pool).  This way when kids got too cold or weather rolled in, all could just come inside.  

We certainly had a ton of fun at the little beach right by base housing.  We nicknamed it crab beach because the kids caught like 27 hermit crabs there one day. Even building the crabs their own little aquarium kingdom with their various buckets and toys.  I was their spotter from the bridge, and it was awesome to see them hustle to get the crabs before they got away.  The little kids (Lauren, Kate and Olivia) weren't as enthralled as Brynn, Tyler, and Dylan, but they were loving the water and the sand just as much.

The girls and I went and picked Nathan up from the Tallahassee Regional Airport on Saturday morning, just in time for us all to be together on Easter Sunday, as well as bonafide beach time.  Nathan couldn't come down to Florida until the weekend because he had a TDY to WPAFB the week before.  But he was living it up as soon as he got to Tyndall and caught sight of the Wilson's garage and mass amounts of play things. I'm pretty sure that Nate took anything and everything rideable, that would hold his weight, out for a spin on Harlow Lane.  Technically I guess it had to hold his and Olivia's weight combined, as she had to be riding anything he way.  As evident in the following pictures.

So safe Daddy!

We did make it to Mexico Beach for some fun in the sun the day after Easter.  Lauren loved being buried in the sand, so you can imagine what Nathan and I did most of the day.  Oh, and Kelly got in on the kid-covering too, as she's a well versed veteran on this activity now.

Olivia was content with her shovel and bucket.

Mermaid Lauren

Kelly showed us how to bury a kid, Florida style.

"Look at my mermaid tail mom"

Per the picture above, you can see that Lauren and Olivia were really "classing up" the Wilson's front driveway with their diapered bums and lawn chairs.  Guess we better see if our friendship is still intact enough for us to come visit again late this summer huh?!  The Wilson's might just tell us to leave our clothes on at all times and our lawn chairs at home! :)

National Children's Museum

In our attempt to find new indoor fun for Lauren and Olivia, we decided to brave the Saturday morning crowds at the National Children's Museum (NCM) with our good friends, the Castle Family.  Nate and I went to the Academy with Brett, and he's an Arizona native like me, so it's always fun to catch up with him and his family whenever possible.

The museum was doing an exhibit on different modes of transportation from around the world.  The one the kids were drawn to most was the motorized bike taxi that's utilized across Asia.

Monroe and Olivia "taking" a taxi ride

Olivia wanted to take her shot at driving too...

Here Olivia is trying to mimic Lauren's current face she does for all pictures - fish hooking each side of her mouth. Sooo cute ;)

Can you tell that Olivia is very fond of Monroe?! She was stuck to her side like glue for a while.

They also had a mock-up of a fire truck and fire fighter gear for the kids to try on.  Waiting to take our turn to try on the clothes and sit in the driver's seat was probably the most trying part of our visit to NCM.  Lauren still has a lot to learn in the patience department, as does Olivia.  At least we didn't witness any "not-taking-turn tantrums" while we were playing with all the exhibits, which was very surprising with how packed the museum was...

Lauren the fire fighter!

I somehow missed getting pictures of the girls operating the miniature ship loading crane, as well as playing dress up in kimonos and pretend shopping in a village market.  Fail on my part, but I'm sure we'll make return trips in the near future.  I'll make up for it then with some photo taking overkill! ;0)

Olivia's 18 Month Well Baby Check-up

Olivia's first ever pig-tails-she loved 'em!

So the girls continue to favor the Olsen side of the family when it comes to growth charts, which I don't mind a bit!...well for now at least.  When Lauren and Olivia begin to pass me height-wise while they're in Middle School, ask me again if I mind. :0)

Olivia's statistics for today's 18 month old check-up:
Height: 33" (82nd percentile)
Weight: 24.15 lbs (46th percentile)

Compared to Lauren at this age (Height: 35" (95th), Weight: 29.5 lbs (95th)), Olivia does not measure as tall, nor does she weigh nearly as much.  Five lbs is a significant difference toddler weight-wise, so what on earth were we feeding Lauren?! Protein bars and heavy cream?!?  Comparing Olivia to Lauren is not really fair though (I know, I know. I'm stoking the rivalry fire a little early right?! :/), as Lauren is an extreme on the spectrum. 

Independent of siblings statistics, we do recognize that Olivia is rather tall for her age and looks more like a 2 1/2 year old than her current 1 1/2 years.  She is shaping up to be another daddy look alike if she keeps this growth rate up...Oh, and there's the blonde hair and blue eyes too I guess.  Nate just loves having what he likes to call "the dominate genes" - tall, blonde, blue eyes.  My competitive spirit wants to trash-talk Nate into submission, into taking back his gene remarks; however, looking at my girls, I really don't have a leg to stand on now do I?!?!?

Oh, I forgot that Lauren insisted on being weighed and measured while we were at this visit too, as she apparently assumes that if we are at the doctor's office, it's about her. ;0P So her unofficial statistics as a 31 month old are:
Height: 39" (95th percentile)
Weight: 34 lbs (90th percentile)
...all measurements being pretty much par for the course for Lauren...

Holy Jeez Fall Leaves!

Tree leaves around here are no joke...and emaculate yards even during the falling leaf season seem to be a requirement.  Especially in our case, with a landlord for an immediate neighbor.  Oh, And he's the one who sets the bar that all other neighbors measure themselves by (ugh, sigh, etc...).  It certainly helps that he has lawn maintenance that seems to come every week and vacuum his leaves/grass (yes, that's the what the machine looks like. Or better yet, it looks like a minature zamboni, with a suck-button).  Needless to say, this SAHM and her two toddlers are no match; however, we put up a mean fight on the weekends when Nate's home.  Now that guy is a machine! He doesn't suck like the mini-zamboni, but he's a serious raker!

 

So after the girls rough housed in the leaves for hours on end, including running through our just raked piles!  They came inside tuckered our like I've never seen before.  Hence the crazy, exhausted napping positions they found...

 

Yes, sleeping face-down in the carpet

You can't see it, but Olivia is standing with her head on my lap--sleeping!

 

Gymnastics & Dance...Ready or Not, Here Comes Lauren!!!

So we were able to sign Lauren up for gymnastics and dance classes at the local parks and rec center.  Due to the Lee District Rec Center's great reputation though, all classes are usually full with 10+ person waiting lists, before 10am the day of early registration! It was a shock to me when we got here in August that I wasn't able to get her in any classes until this early registration round opened, and these classes don't even start until January.  So to ensure we got an actual spot in these classes, I woke up at 5am (without a kid waking me up!), and jumped online to enroll Lauren in these classes! We were the first enrollees in one class, and second in the other two.
So now that we were confirmed class enrollees in both dance and gymnastics, I was now allowed to buy leotards and dance shoes for Lauren.  We scored some great deals from Amazon and had the leotard and shoes in our hot little hands within two days of ordering them!  Lauren put the leotard and shoes on at 9am in the morning, and was ripped from them both at 6:30pm, kicking and screaming into the bath.  But she sure was cute spinning around and saying, "me mommy, me mommy". As in "watch me mommy".  I'm sure glad to have active activities for her to do come January, as we need to burn off that energy somehow.  Otherwise it just burns up the house!

Do Ninjas Celebrate Thanksgiving???

The answer would be YES!!! Or at least this little ninja does!



Lauren demonstrating her prowess!

The calm after the sword storm!

Olivia unarming the ninja with a smash-and-grab!

 

Some of you are saying, "What in the world did they do for Thanksgiving?!"  Well the ninja costume makes sense when I tell you that we spent it with our cousins (Nathan's first cousin, Leslie Olsen Torgesen's family), and Uncle Kirk and Aunt Cathy.  The Torgesen's live in Elkton, MD, about 2hrs away from us in Alexandria.  That's 2hrs, non-Thanksgiving Eve traffic; 4hrs Thanksgiving Eve traffic! (*insert decompression sign) 
So the part that makes everything fall into place is that Lauren and Olivia met their second cousins, the Torgesen kids (Mikey, Isabel, and Piper), for the first time on Thanksgiving Eve.  Mikey had a brand new ninja set when we arrived, and somehow Lauren conned him into letting her wear it before he even got the chance! Lauren still has her MacGyver-title worthy skills--I'm telling you!  The video is hilarious in that she does a duck-and-run move at the end--so ninja-like right?!
So Thanksgiving was full of the F trifecta: food, family, and fun! We ended up eating about 1:30pm, so that left a lot of time for dessert, clean-up, toy room play, and card games for the adults.  Nate and I learned a new game called Foot and Mouth, which was awesome!!!  Wish we had more card-playing friends in the immediate vicinity because I looooovvvveeee this game!  It's canasta on steroids...good times.  I was Uncle Kirk's partner and we did pretty awesome, though got inched out right at the end by Aunt Cathy and Stafford (Leslie's husband).  It was a good thing we needed to leave to put the girls to bed; otherwise it would've been a harder defeat to swallow :/ Per Aunt Cathy and Nate, Uncle Kirk and I have very comparable temperaments when it comes to competitions and winning/losing.  But come one, who's really okay with losing?!
Then on Black Friday, instead of joining the crazies at the local stores, we went swimming in the hotel pool!  As you can tell by the photos, I forgot my swimsuit, so Nate was overloaded with holding non-swimmers...and Lauren's diaper was overloaded with water. Wowza!  Not to quote 90's rap song lyrics, but this "baby's got back"!!  Truly!!



Lauren kept jumping in, climbing out, jumping in, climbing out...

Worn out bunch!

Baby Lauren's Got Back right?!

After lunch at Klondike Kate's, we hit the road back to Alexandria to start our Christmas decorating.  God Bless Nate and his checklist-driven self.  Our house was Christmas-ified before our heads hit the pillow that night; but Christmas is my absolute favorite holiday, so I didn't mind in the least...

The Catch22

I've come to realize the Catch22 I put myself in by starting our family blog right when we started having children: I blog for our family to capture the memories, but it's because of said family that I feel I have no time to blog.  Does that about sum it up blogosphere people?
But I've realized I just need to suck it up and post what I consider less than thorough or complete posts/stories.  Maybe even pictures-only posts, if needed.  Because I've obviously developed an unhealthy aversion to posting anything I don't feel I give a good, complete effort on (it's been 8 months since I posted last for Heaven Sake!).  So I'm going to go against my extremely competitive nature, for the moment...or however long it takes me to catch up on our life and happenings of 2012, and stop measuring myself against you timely and thorough mommy bloggers! (Kelly Peper Wilson--can you PLEASE bring down the bar?! I know you're hitting stride on like your 8th year of blogging, and it's second nature to have blog-time built into your day; but at least make it look harder!!) 
(Insert resigned sigh) So now I'm going to make a valid effort not to fret over taking everyday family photos. Why do I fret? Because the first thought that pops into my mind when framing my family through a camera lens is, "When am I going to find the time to post this?!"  This is no way to live people!!!  I shouldn't be deterred from taking everyday pictures because of my blogging-block--completely counter productive!  So I've been letting my photos figuratively stack-up, because not only am I waaaay behind, but because somewhere along my pre-children career it was beat into me that any product output needs to be my best work. Work that it thorough and complete, as it'll reflect upon me. Not to say that this belief is incorrect, it's just not a feasible mantra for the current me: a mother to Irish Twins that's nearly one year behind on posting pictures and putting into words our adventures and the many, many firsts for two sweet girls' lifetimes.
So where to start???....Why how about last November?!  That's right folks, you're about to get caught up on the holiday season from 2011.  Here's to hoping that I can get caught up to this 2012 holiday season by the time New Year's hits! And we're off...
WARNING READERS: I'm going to be back-dating these posts as far back as 11/1/2011, so that when I create books from this blog, they'll be in chronological order.  Seeing as I'm not the most avid blogger (again, working on it), I'm not sure how you'll know which posts are new besides just going back to November 2011 and scrolling through again.  Sorry :(

Olivia's One Year Old Check-Up

In "not-so-shocking" news, we've got a big baby in our Sweet Olivia!  She has not slowed down in the growth department since being born a nine pounder just over a year ago.

Olivia's latest statistics:
Height: 31" (93rd percentile),
Weight: 23.7 lbs (81st percentile),
Wears a size 4.5 toddler shoe,
...& Completely fills out size 18 month clothes.

So here's to another tall, Olsen-esque daughter!