New year, new pictures.

As I slowly try and reincorporate blogging into my routine, I'll try and catch up with a few fave photos from the past months... from starting soccer to the annual monarch butterfly crop to a family road trip (Lawrence to St. Louis to Indianapolis) to Halloween shenanigans to holiday traditions.

Abby and Elise LOVED playing soccer and are eagerly awaiting the start of the Spring season. They continue to excel at piano (Elise keeps us moving with "The Entertainer" almost daily and Abby has mastered "Colors of the Wind" with such emotion)... Speaking of piano, I missed their last recital as a certain someone couldn't stay quiet for even 30 seconds and we spent the next 35 minutes in the car. Four of us (sans Anna) read The Hobbit together and then enjoyed movie nights to see it in action - A and E are now working their way through the fourth Harry Potter with John as their nightly read-aloud. They joined student council at school and we got to enjoy a proud parent moment when a teacher from STUCO emailed and used the words "kind" and "mature" and "amazing". Speaking of teachers... third grade will be hard to beat. I practically have to drag Anna away each morning because it is the most inviting, nurturing, and upbeat learning environment (they are in the same class again this year) - the girls have each missed one day of school and even that was too much, in their opinions. I think I can count on one hand the number of times I have NOT done Abby's pigtail braids for school; I can probably count on one hand the number of times I HAVE helped style Elise's hair for school. When fixing lunches each morning, no matter the question ("Do you want a cheese stick or a babybel?"), Elise always answer "I don't care". When Abby is asked, she always answers: "What kind of cheese stick? Is it a white cheddar babybel? Actually, do we have any of the cheese I like from the Merc? Can I have slices of that instead?". This. is. them.

Anna continues to serenade us with "The Twelve Days of Christmas", sometimes loudly in the shopping cart at the store, sometimes quietly through the monitor at night as she yammers endlessly before falling asleep. She was caught marching around Gran and Grandpa's coffee table just last week, chanting "Organize your life! Organize your life!", which is a perfect example of her charismatic personality - she listens to everything around her and we are so entertained by her selective use of certain bits she's heard. I am happy to report that Anna's back-seat driving has subsided... while I thought I was enriching her world with colors and information, little did I know that tuning her into stoplights would result in nonstop directives from the backseat: "Mom, it's green. GO!"... "There's a green arrow. YOUR TURN!"..."It's RED! You can't go on RED!". The latter was the most difficult - toddlers don't seem to quickly grasp "right on red". Sigh... Over the holidays, the official "first movie" was enjoyed and, if you've been with me for awhile, you might remember that Abby and Elise's first movie was "Mary Poppins". While I continue to hold steady on limited to no screen time, Anna's first movie was "Elf". Yes, Will Ferrell. She loved it and told everyone after "Buddy - that's a good name for an elf". At least it followed the real-people rule instead of animation, right?

We took a road trip in October - first stop in St. Louis to see Crazy Uncle Cousin Scotty, Traci, and Uncle Bob. A and E LOVED the apartment John booked for our night there - bunk beds and all... which I think made up for the fact that they had to endure a carsick little sister in St. Louis rush hour traffic shortly before arriving. It was a one-and-done incident, probably thanks to the help of Dramamine thereafter. We hit Fitz's for the world's biggest root beer floats and then spent a good portion of the next day at the zoo. My cousin Scott was a wonderful tour guide and provided unlimited laughter and entertainment.

From there we headed to Indianapolis to see Cousin Mark and Lisa. This was our third trip with Abby and Elise and Anna's first. It is always a weekend of relaxation, wonderful company, fun outings, and 5-star treatment. We went to the Children's Museum, found a couple wonderful playgrounds, and carved/decorated pumpkins.

Halloween brought us Hermione Granger, a Dark Fairy, and a Cat Ghost - how can you argue with those choices????

We are fortunate during the holidays to have ample time free of commitments - with family nearby, we don't travel... John's job allows him to have at least a week off... and we just roll at a steady and slow pace. Anna loved the lighting the "benorah" each night of Hanukkah, she STILL asks to see Christmas lights when we're out after dark, and the taking-down of our tree triggered a meltdown of epic proportion. I think she actually went through each stage of grief over the course of her hour-long episode: sadness, denial, anger... as she was finally calming, I said "I love you", to which she replied "I love you too but I can't talk right now". Tree-trauma aside, 2016 ended quite peacefully.

Simmer down, Summer

Recently, I'm pretty sure I used the phrase "stop and smell the roses". I also, on multiple occasions, have soap-boxed the evils of the over-scheduled life. And let me tell you - after the past 3 weeks around here, I am even more solid in my belief that quality has nothing to do with quantity. 

Lake trip to Bull Shoals with Aunt Ali, Uncle Mike, and Cousins: Stella, Bret, Mia, and Max. Elise LOVED going tubing with Stella. Abby thought our "cottage" was perfect.

John's drum performance at the pool with our sweet, sweet Baby Charlie (not our pup, obviously!)

First trip to the Kansas City Zoo with the Littlejohn crew! We traveled to Africa and back with Auntie Sara, Kate, Julia, Lucy, and Anderson.

We also started piano lessons - twice a week this month. I'm teaching two Baby Sing and Sign classes a week right now. There was a week-long morning class at the Arts Center...

Please don't read what I'm NOT saying - the people and the places that have filled our days so far this summer are making memories with us! Would I be filling your screen with the these pictures if we had any regrets???? Do the faces in those pictures look anything but happy???? But that is the struggle - finding a happy medium without turning down invites or opportunities that might be too special to pass. I know that we're tired. I know that we are off-kilter. I know that we are homebodies who thrive off of the comfort of each other in our own home. 

This has been a great learning experience for me - we don't "do" over-scheduled. Abby is having night terrors this week - they'll pass, but I have no doubt that she is unsettled and exhausted. Her shrieking then wakes Elise in a terrible what-the-hell-is-wrong kind of way. All of that then wrecks me in a my-poor-baby kind of way. 

Deep breath - in and out. Calendar cleared. Summer simmering down. 

Meet me in St. Louie, Louie...

Nothing says "Happy Spring Break" like a weekend getaway with GREAT friends and your handsome hubby. Oh... and a swank hotel... and a fab wedding... and an orangutan...

Lana and Jamey - thanks for being tragically hip. You guys are a hard habit to break. 

Gran and Grandpa - thank you for taking care of our children, formerly known as Abby and Elise but currently being referred to as Bill Self and Jeff Withey. The puppy said her hotel (aka Gran and Grandpa's house) was pretty swank, too.

Indianapolis!!!

Thoughts on our most recent road trip:

• Despite the excruciating hatred of the car in their early months (12 months, to be exact), the girls are now rockstar road-trippers
• Go crazy in the bulk section before departing (The Merc, Whole Foods): stock up on lots of fun (and healthy) treats to offer throughout the day (nuts, dried fruit, yogurt-covered pretzels)
• Also for food, take advantage of all the easy-to-eat, packaged, organic kid-friendly finds such as: Stonyfield organic yogurt squeezers, Happy Tot Pouches. While the girls are well past 3 (say, what?!?!?!!), I have no problem giving them things like the happy tot pouches, which might be geared for younger ones, because what harm could it possibly do?
• Get books on tape from the library!! The girls LOVE stories, and while my ginger pills help protect me from getting queasy in the car, I still can't ride and read. With their carseats side-by-side, they shared the book-holding and listened to book after book. 
• Start enforcing naps in the car at an early age. We began taking the girls to visit their great grandma at Lake of the Ozarks when they were one. We'd always travel at naptime and, after letting them enjoy the ride for a bit, we got them in the habit of taking their nap, as usual. We turn on some quiet music, tell them it's time for naps, and stop interacting with them. The girls had their normal 1 1/2 - 2 hour nap on both the drive to and from Indy. 
• Have a few "aces in the hole". For us, it was a couple of new notepads, some new little colored pens, and assorted stickers. They are also very into babies right now, so I snagged a new outfit for each doll while we were in Indiana for the trip home. A little "special something" goes a long way while in the car.
• We continue to greatly limit screen-time. The girls rode for 8-9 hours, each way, without a DVD, computer, or video of any sort. We all really enjoyed the trip! There was a lot of talking, a lot of singing, some "I spy", and endless sightseeing. We were about 1/4 of the way home and the girls were already asking for another roadtrip. Those are my kind of girls!

Wordless Wednesday: Teach a man (or woman) to fish...

And you feed him (or her) for a lifetime...

Vacation Preview

We just returned from a family vacation to Minnesota, a place that is near and dear to me, my brother, and my parents. After 19 hours in the car (round trip) and six days of fish-catching, loon-watching, leach-removing, rock-collecting, song-singing, dock-jumping, boat-driving, uncle-following, pancake-eating, beer-drinking, lake-bathing, and fish-frying fun, I can pretty much assume that Little Pine Lake now holds a special place in the heart of my husband and children. There will be more to come on this topic...