4th of July Fun...

The 4th of July...one of my favorite holidays...that was until I had kids! :) Fireworks (Which I LOVE) are loud, and scary, so the 4th is not as much fun, that is until the girls learn to like fireworks! :) THis year, we decided NOT to chance the whole firework thing, so we decided to keep it a little more low key, especially since we had the girls' 2nd Birthday party the day before.

Usually we'd have some friends over and do small potluck, but this year we just hung out as a family, and it was nice. Especially since we knew we'd be heading over to Phoenix the next THursday and have a TON to do!

After naptime, we got the girls' dressed and decided that after we all played outside for awhile, we'd go run some errands and out to dinner! FUn! :)

Once we got outside, the girls were quickly swallowed up by our neighbor's to play with. THe girls LOVE Angie, Andy, and Mr. Bob...so they were quite thrilled to go over to their backyard and play. Andy is an awesome baseball player, he plays select...he's so dedicated! This afternoon, they decided, since the girls were playing with the wiffle ball and bat that it was high time they learned to play ball....so they did...well, kind of!

Miss Olivia and the wiffle ball..she always steals these from their backyard! :P It's even more of a bonus if we get one in our back yard from the kids playing over at their house! :)

Miss Sydney...since her sister picked up the ball, she went for the bat! :)

Playing around....before we discovered the bat! :)

Olivia learning to 'play'...now all she wants to do when she sees that bat is play baseball!

Swing batta bata swing!

Why is Sydney over there? Running the bases was a hard concept for Olivia to grasp!

Now Sydney was TOTALLY into baseball...so fun to her!

Sydney running to first base!

Running to second, after Olivia hit the ball!

Hanging out on Mr. Bob's rock decorations in his back yard...it's a favorite spot of the girls'! :)

Sydney....

Mommy attempting to get us BOTH to look at the camera....learning to look and smile when Mommy says cheese is not going so well....it's hard to catch BOTH of their attentions sometimes! Hats off to professional photographers who have figured this out! ;)

Miss Olivia...gotta love those pig tails!

After our backyard fun, we went to Best Buy....we bought super fun things for our trips to Phoenix and Seattle....a new portable DVD player with a 5 hour battery, a PSP for Daddy and Nook for Mommy..happy birthday's and anniversary to us! :) After that we ran to our favorite place in STL...Target, the girls love it there! :) As do I and then off to dinner at O'Charley's, we had a great time and the girls were so so good...they are doing so well at eating out these days! :)

Sydney....

Olivia...

Mommy and Olivia....

Daddy and Sydney...

O'Charley's has AMAZING rolls....which the girls LOVED, but apparently the butter dish is even more exciting....they are so taking after Grandma Carol in their love for butter...I figured, it made them happy and they were eating as long as they were dipping their bread into the butter containers, so it was all good. :)

Olivia...

Olivia offering to SHARE her butter with me....doesn't she look....well, greasy! :) Miss Sydney...

What a little poser! :)

Hope all is well, and that you too had a fabulous 4th of July!

God Bless America,

J

Sydney & Olivia's 2nd Birthday Party!

How in the WORLD did my babies get to be 2 years old? I just cannot believe it, somedays it seems like just yesterday that I was finding out we were having a baby and then finding out it was twins. :( I completely get the "they grow up so fast" comment that everyone tells parents. It stinks. I told Matt the other day, I totally get now why people have more kids. WOnder what makes them really stop! :)

So, we decided that since this year the girls were going to be in AZ for their 2nd Birthday, that we would do the party BEFORE we left, especially since once we came home from AZ I went right back to work and that it was just too much to have their party and do all my work stuff. Fun times! :)

So, on Saturday, July 3rd we had the girls' 2nd Birthday...more of a low key party, we only invited family and some close friends...MUCH smaller than their First Birthday Party. Next year, we'll probably invite more of their friends as they will understand the whole playing with friends thing.

Due to the girls' continuing obsession with Yo Gabba Gabba, we decided to make that the 'theme' of their party..so I ordered some balloons, plates, napkins, and cupcake rings and we were off. While I would have LOVED to have done a cutesy party with a ton more YGG stuff, it just wasn't in the cards. Maybe some day they'll have a super fancy party, but not this year! :)

They LOVED all their YGG stuff...it was a super big hit...we're still eating off of the placemats that I bought them...thankfully I had them laminted! :) I ordered a Toodee shirt for Sydney since that is her favorite character and a Foofa shirt for Olivia since that is her favorite character...the shirts were also a HUGE hit!




Miss Sydney.....

Apparently eating ice is AWESOME...the cooler was a great hangout place for the kids during the party!

My little climbing monkey! Sydney LOVES to climb this!

Miss Olivia....and her 'laloons. YOu sure can make her happy with some $1 balloons from the dollar store! :)

Eating some ice as well!

Apparently she was a little concerned that Cameron was in the ice as well!

She LOVES to dress up...already! So cute in her construction hat.

Cake time...we were NOT happy that Mommy and Daddy pulled us from

We each got our own cupcake, the same color as our favorite Gabba character!

Olivia...

Miss Sydney.....

Our BFF..Miss Caroline...the girls were disappointed that Miss Stephanie didn't end up being able to make it! :(

The Davis Twins...Cameron and Collin....

Their older Brother....Brandon...the girls were VERY concerned that he was playing with their Buzz and Woody toys...they are still working with sharing! :)

Opening presents...the girls got TONS of loot! :)

ah....our favorite present of all...a wubby bug. I know, the girls really need to give up their pacifiers, but man do they love them...we'll have to do that later on in the year! :) Not to be out done..Sydney LOVES her bear that plays OH What a Beautiful Morning..VERY loudly...sadly the bear is 'broken' or turned off these days..it makes us crazy!

Olivia and her wubby bug. SHe's currently obsessed with bugs, so when I found these they HAD to have them! :)

The Fatzinger's before they left the party! Such a great picture!

WHY is it that we NEVER take pictures before parties start???? As you can tell, family pictures for their 2nd Birthday party were not so successful. Why you ask, because the girls wanted to PLAY not take a picture. :(

Hope All is well,

J