Junior Olympians

We have been letting the girls watch some of the Olympic highlights on the laptop, and now they have become obsessed with figure skating (especially Emily).

Tonight she wanted to put on a skating costume and do her hair just like the South Korean skater Kim Yu-Na (pigtails is as close as we could get).And then she performed her routine, complete with lots of jumps and spins.A couple nights ago the girls were both "skating" around the living room, sometimes even holding hands.Or, more often, crashing into each other.Here is a little video of the skating party...

Treehouse Painting

We have been busy working on the treehouse again. We put together the walls that we had framed up, and Mom cut the plywood for them too. It's really starting to look like a house now!

The kids are thrilled with the windows, although Kate keeps asking where the door will be. Mom's answer: "Pretend the door is wherever you want it." (There is no door planned).

They are already busy planning out where things will go on the outside...

...and on the inside.Today Mom laid all the walls out on the floor so we could paint them.We went to Home Depot this morning to get the paint, and picked out a nice forest green color for the walls. This isn't our usual washable paint, so we were wearing our "painting clothes" just in case things got messy.Which (of course) they did.The kids actually did a pretty good job of painting. It was definitely easier with the walls laying flat--painting them vertical would probably have been a disaster.In the end we got two of the walls painted before the kids were over it. Looks like Mom will have to finish the third wall after they go to bed tonight.We're one step closer to having our treehouse done!

Dinner at Nana's

After our exciting morning looking at trains and dollhouses, we headed out to Nana's in the afternoon to visit with her and Uncle David, who had driven up from New Hampshire for the weekend.

Nana's gas stove was on so it was nice and cozy at her house. So cozy, in fact, that the girls felt compelled to remove most of their clothes and run around like crazy (this is known as cabin fever).Later on Uncle Seth, Aunt Sara, and Sebastian showed up, and we had the kids put their clothes back on and settle down."Settling down" is kind of a relative term with our kids.Finally we set them up in the playroom to watch a video, where they ended up spending most of the time climbing all over Nana's treadmill.Finally it was time for dinner--both Emily and Kate wanted to sit next to their cousin Sebastian--he was quite the popular guy!Nana put together a delicious dinner of chicken and spinach ravioli--Yum!Dinner was great, and we had a nice time visiting with the family too.

Model Train and Dollhouse Show

Today Mama went for her first outside bike ride of the year, while Mom and the girls headed south to Augusta to check out a model train and dollhouse show.

The show was in the Armory, which is a nice old building that is home to the Maine 240th Army National Guard.Grandma came along to help Mom out with the kids, and we also ran into Nana, Uncle Seth, and Sebastian there!

The place was packed--who knew that a train and dollhouse show would be so popular?

There was so much to look at! Lots of dollhouses, of course....

...but also lots of tiny little dolls and dollhouse accessories (which, as mom learned, are known as "miniatures").Chances are that if you can think of something that might be in a house, it is available in miniature form. It seemed like they had everything there.Of course there were also trains....lots and lots of trains to look at.

The girls got a kick out of the trains, especially the bigger-scale ones that actually had steam coming out of their stacks. They made great whistle sounds too--pretty cool!

There were lots of things to buy, of course, but Mom had a talk with the kids before we went in and laid down the law about not buying anything, so they didn't even ask, which was nice.

Surprisingly, this mirror was a big hit too. They loved watching themselves dance in front of it.Eventually all the excitement started wearing them down, and it was time to go home and have lunch.After lunch we went outside to ride bikes and await Mama's arrival home.

We cheered her up the driveway--that last hill is a killer!

After Mama recovered a little bit, she rode a victory lap around the driveway with the girls. She did 36 miles today in her first outdoor ride of 2010!

Needless to say, we are all proud of Mama for getting out there while there's still snow on the ground.

Mom's Office

Today Mom forgot to bring her lunch to work, so Mama and the girls decided to deliver it to her--wasn't that nice of them?

The kids are always thrilled to visit Mom's office, because they like to "work" alongside Mom.

Emily took it upon herself to add to Mom's "To do" list........although she did request that Mom get a lower whiteboard, please.Meanwhile Kate (and Shaggy and Daphne) highlighted some drawings........and ran some calculations.The girls had a fun time in the office, but eventually they had to leave so Mom could get some actual work done.

Pretty Pony Coloring Books

It's always so exciting for the kids when they get packages in the mail! Both of the girls received packages with coloring pages and My Little Pony coloring books from Chris's Aunt Char (Nana's sister).

Kate wanted Pinkie Pie to help her look at the coloring book and find a good picture to color.And of course Pinkie Pie found one of.....Pinkie Pie.Thank you Aunt Char for the coloring pages and books! Mom and Mama are especially grateful that you sent two identical sets, so we didn't have to have a wrestling match over whose was whose :) Yay!