This week in Woodhaven

Elsie, Reid, Max and Anna at the mall.A few random pics from this week. Mostly because I need to figure out a better way to post the pics on here, but I'm too lazy to do it. I need Tonya(twim mom friend) to email me and tell me how. Anyways. It is a little cooler this week, so we met up today with Max, Anna and Dawn at the mall. We haven't been able to get together for a couple of weeks. When they were walking into the mall, Reid got all excited and started waving at them. It was pretty funny. He said Anna's name too. So these are a few pics of them playing in the mall.
Max laughing at someone in the tunnel.
Anna was just not herself today. They had school before they came and was pretty tired. So at one point when we were counting heads to make sure all kids were accounted for, we find her across the play area sitting all by herself.
Elsie doing some people/kid watching.
Dawn with the kids.
Nana and Papa were here this weekend. They watched the kids while we went out overnight for our anniversary. On Friday night when they got here we bbq'd. The kids had their first corn on the cob. It was pretty good. Not as good as the local huron county corn, but still pretty good. The kids seemed to like it.

On our way out to visit Max and Anna. Elsie loves her glasses these days and will leave them on the whole time. Reid's don't last too long. We are working on leaving his hat on though.
Reid at the mall.
The girls, Elsie and Anna.

Toledo Zoo

Checking the big and ugly orangutan(not sure I'm spelling this right??)and the little baby.

Of course if there is a playground, we always have to make a stop there now. They are finally getting the hang of the steps and slides.
Elsie's favorite part of the day. Running in and out of the things that hang in the doorway so the birds don't escape.
Elsie is looking at me like she's saying "is there supposed to be something interesting in here???"
Reid and daddy checking out the monkeys.
Daddy helping Elsie down the slide. She finally will go down on her bum. Reid still turns around and goes down on his stomach.
Reid excited about something, I can't remember what.I love this picture. These are my favorite animals at the Toledo Zoo. They are these old chimps. They have all this grey hair. There are 2 of them. They have these blankets that they lay with. Of course I couldn't get a good picture of them this time. But this is a picture of the kids waving to them.

Last week in South Bend

Elsie and Reid checking out Quacker the duck with their GG.
Running around the tennis court. What a great spot for the kids. Nets to run around, all fenced in and nowhere for them to go. Next time we need to take some bouncy balls to chase around. They spent a lot of time just walking in and around the nets. As you can see the weather was nice but still a little cool.
The playground at the end of grandma's street. The ground cover is made of recycled ground up tires. It is the coolest thing because you almost bounce on it when you walk, but you get pretty black from it too. The kids definately can't get hurt though.
At grandma's house, all they wanted to do was walk up and down the sidewalk. Over and over and over again. Elsie has started waving at people as they go by. Everything is good until they stop to talk, and then both kids become mute.
Reid, running up the driveway to see his GG.

While we were in SB, we went to visit the Cira's. Cole, Sarah and Logan.(Tom was at work). Logan is just a month older than the kids. Cole will be 4 in June. We had a short visit one afternoon, but hopefully we can see them again soon. I think the kids had fun together.
Cole
Logan
I love this picture of Elsie and her GG.
Elsie prepping the tennis net for a game. Its just her height.
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We had a great visit in South Bend. We arrived on Tuesday and went straight to Grandma Nancy's school to visit all of the teachers. The kids had a great time running up and down the hall, and when we made it to the kindergarten room, they didn't want to leave.
We spent most of our time outside. The weather was finally warm enough to play outside. It was a little cool, but just right with a jacket on. We did a little shopping, looking for shoes for GG for Rick's wedding. We didn't find anything, but were able to order some online for her.
On Thursday we went to the church for lunch. They were having a salad bar. It was a great lunch for the price.($6.50) By the way, thanks for paying for my lunch GG. We got to the church a little early, so we went to visit with Pastor David(he baptized the kids a yr ago) and then played in the nursery. Grandma Nancy was able to come for lunch with us. Reid didn't really care for any of the salads(I guess he's his fathers son) but Elsie tried quite a few different kinds.
We packed up everything and headed back home on Friday morning.

A New Week

Elsie getting brave enough to touch the goats.
Reid very excited about something at the farm.
Elsie sharing her toys with Kalia.
Reid and his new friend Britt
Max and Elsie meeting up at the bunny cage.
Anna and Elsie checking out the sheep.
Our friends Sofiya and Kalia

I don't have any pictures of the adults. I forgot my camera at home on Sat, so I missed out on an whole days worth of pics. Can you believe I did that??
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Wow, its amazing how quickly a week can go by. We had a very busy week. Last weekend we had friends visit us from the Pittsburgh area. Christy is a twin mom I met online and she has twin girls, Sofiya and Kalia. They came for a 4 day weekend. She brought along her 15 yr old dtr Brittni to help her out. We spent most of the weekend either here at our house or at our other twin friends, Max and Anna's house. So we had 6 -18 month olds together playing. It really was fun. Tiring, but fun. We were able to get outside and play, went to a couple of parks and then went to a petting farm that is close by(Uncle John and Aunt Kathleen, if you are reading this, we can't wait to come and see all the animals in your barn. The kids will love it). Next time Dawn and I have to go to Pittsburgh to see Christy.

Then, on Monday, Grandma Nancy came to stay for the week. Her school was on spring break, so she had the week off. I worked on Tuesday and Thursday. On Wednesday we were supposed to go to playgroup and the children's museum, but Elsie was up all night and had a fever by morning. I called and took her in to see the pediatrician that morning. We had an apt to go on Friday anyways for a recheck of her ears and they both needed a shot they missed at their 18 month apt. Elsie had another ear infection, but the left this time. This is her 3rd one in less than 2 months. The Dr and I are hoping for warmer weather, so that we can be healthy for the summer. Nancy and I did manage to both find dresses for Rick and Michelle's( my brother in law for those of you who don't know)wedding in May. So now we are all clothed I believe. The kids are done, I found a dress, I may need shoes, not sure about that yet, and Rob wears a tux.

I am heading to SouthBend next week to visit with Rob's grandma. I started calling her GG. (great grandma) I think Reid even said it the other day. He has become quite the copy cat. I will really have to watch my tongue. He likes to repeat everything you say. Mind you, you often can't really tell what he is saying, but he is trying.

Playgroup

Elsie washing her utensils in the washing machine. For about 3 months now we have been going to a playgroup on Wednesday mornings from 9:30 -11:00. It is called the Great Parents Playgroup. It is a free group. The leader is Maggie. Most of the kids are the same age, the oldest is 2yrs old.The kids seem to be having a good time there. It is nice to see them interact with other kids of the same age, and to try and get them used to following a schedule. They have a free play time and then they have crafts they can do and activities to help them with new skills they are learning. Today they made sticker books and played with playdough to help them to use their fine motor skills by using the playdough scissors, cutouts, knives, and rollers. It makes them use their pincher grasp. This was our first attempt at playdough. They only ate a little bit, and Reid didn't like the taste,so hopefully he won't eat it.
Reid playing on the slide
A whole bunch of moms and kids.
Elsie over in the corner reading.
Reid attempting to do the craft. Its more of "no, don't touch that, don't dump that out, no-thats not yours, don't rip that up" I know eventually that arts and crafts will be fun, but right now its a lot of work.

We took Elsie to the dentist yesterday. Everything is fine with her teeth. Basically we don't know why her tooth fell out. The other front one is loose as well. She may have been born with weak roots and then her being a thumb sucker doesn't help because there is added pressure on her teeth. We did an xray and you could see her permanent teeth, and she said it looks like they are developing normally, so we don't need to go back to see Dr Jody until they are 3.

Ball Pit, Naughty Kids and Snow

Ok, I had to add these pics of the kids. They still have so much fun in their ball pit. Some days I think that I'll put it away, and then they start playing in it all over again.

This picture is of my 2 naughty kids sitting up on the fireplace. The fence is there to keep them out obviously,but yesterday they figured out a way to get up there. Sitting there all innocently, reading books, playing with puzzles and looking at the video's I had up there. I think the fence may be coming down shortly. I can see injuries in the future trying to get over it.
And last but not least, the "lovely" (can you hear the sarcasm??) snow that we woke up to this am. Do you think that this is the last snow fall??? I keep saying that everytime it snows.

Easter

We did our first Easter Egg Hunt this year. The Easter Bunny hid a few plastic eggs for us to find. It was fun. Reid found the 1st one.
Elsie was soon to follow, not to be outdone by her brother.
It didn't take long for them to figure out that there was something in them. Here they are sitting down enjoying their treats. Teddy grahams, goldfish crackers and animal crackers.
I didn't get any pics of the baskets that they got. Just a few little things from Target. Elsie got a few dress up things, a little skirt, and a tiara and a boa and a purse. Reid got sidewalk chalk and stacking blocks. They both got a little book.

Easter was a pretty mellow day. We went out for breakfast, went the grocery store to get supplies for the week. Mommy made pulled pork sanwiches and french fries for dinner and homemade banana bread for dessert.