lol

I have been wanting to get Audrie's hair cut shorter and give her an actual shape and style to her hair. She loves her long hair but it gets SO tangled and usually looks like a hot mess most of the time. 

Anyways, I came across a website where you can try hairstyles on a photo.

Pretty fun!

This next one is my attempt to see if she looks like me at all..... nope.

This next one is how SHE would like her hair to look, I'm sure...

 Maybe Lady Gaga...??

I'm going to try to make her an appointment this week, so I'll keep you posted! :)

getting caught up

This is going to be a lengthy post, but I want to get caught up on some things we've been doing lately around this crazy town.

First, just a cute photo of both the girls getting ready to go out on a rainy day in their rain boots.

And I need to capture this on video, but anytime you get near Annie with a camera lately she yells "CHEEEEEESE!!!" and gets this goofy grin. Love it.

 

Ok, a few weekends ago I had one of those days where I was just in love with living in NYC. I woke up that Saturday morning and decided I wanted to find something to do with the girls. 

I got on my favroite website www.mommypoppins.com (which has a TON of activities to do with kids in NYC) and happened to see that there was a free children's theater event at Lincoln Center. So I threw some clothes on the girls and we took the subway downtown to Columbus Circle. I'm SOOOO glad we did. It was totally AWESOME!

 It was an organization called Story Pirates and they put on a TERRIFIC show for the audience of preschoolers.

The basic idea is that they act out stories that kids have written. And if can imagine what kind of stories a 4-5 year old would write... they were hilarious stories. The actors were so entertaining and had the kids laughing the entire time.

 Here is Annie trying to get onstage...!

 Before the show started they had the kids write their own stories and make books.

 Audrie and Annie both made cute books to bring home.

 Here is my attempt to be in a photo with Annie. She actually did great the entire two hours we were there!

 The best part of the show was the last 30 minutes they let the kids in the audience make up the stories and the actors did improv acting and singing right there on the spot. It was great!

My heart nearly stopped though when they called on Audrie to make up the next part of the play. In that split second before she spoke and everyone in the theater was looking at her I could only imagine WHAT she was going to say. Luckily she just said something about how every turns into vegetables, so it was fine! Then the actors danced around and made up a song about turning into peas and carrots, etc. Audrie thought it was the BEST THING EVER.

 

So this one of those days where I loved how easy it was to find something awesome, free, and educational to do with the girls. We all left with big smiles on our faces.

 

Before we got back on the subway to head home, Audrie stopped to get her favorite snack -a hotdog from a street vendor. I gave Audrie two dollars and let her walk up and order it herself. She was so proud.

Then last weekend a girl in Audrie's ballet class invited her to her birthday party at Build-a-Bear. Jamie and I commented on how great it felt to be inside Build-a-Bear and do something familiar (because we have Build-a-Bear in Arkansas). The irony was that this Build-a-Bear is in the middle of Times Square so when we walked out it was back out in the madness. But for a moment it was nice to pretend we were back home.

 I don't know what my problem was but I didn't get any good photos from this birthday party.

 The girls had a great time and we got to talk to other parents at the party. Which it's always nice to meet more people here with kids the same age as ours.

 Look at Audrie's goofy smile in the middle of all these kiddos!

 Audrie was very sweet and well-mannered at the party. I love it when we get to see her using all her "please and thank yous" like that. Warms my heart.

 Annie mostly ran laps around Build-a-Bear the entire time with me chasing behind her..! But she wasn't mis-behaving... just burning off energy... with a huge smile on her face while she ran. She did pause once so I snapped a photo...

 

Here is Annie saying "CHEEESE" again...

 And a quick photo of Audrie in Times Square I snapped on my Instragram when we were headed to her ballet class.

Ok, thanks for reading all this! I just wanted to get a few of these outings documented before too much time passed.

house full of girls

 Last week it was SO nice to have my mom come visit with my two 17 year old nieces, Emily and Sydney. They had a jam packed agenda and I had a blast spending time with them!

 

And my mom is probably going to kill me for posting this morning pic of her, but my favorite part about having her here was that each morning Audrie and Annie would crawl in bed with her (my mom slept on the air mattress in the living room). It was nice to get a few more minutes of sleep while my mom kept the girls distracted! :)

 It was Emily and Sydney's first visit to NYC and being the 17 year old fashionistas that they are- we got to do A LOT of shopping. Whoo hoo!! These two girls are so precious to me. I have loved watching them grow up and can't wait to see where life takes them. So talented, smart, and pretty!

 I got to go with them to see Wicked! I had been looking forward to it for months and once again it did not disappoint. Such an inspiring show!

 I didn't do great about taking photos while they were here, but Emily and Sydney posted tons of great pics on their Facebook and Instagram so I'll have to steal their photos.

I was sad to see my mom go, but I'll manage since I call her pretty much every day on my walk home from school (I always call to see if she has time for my daily "therapy" session).

I had mentioned to someone that I was homesick and they asked what it was that I am homesick for. I had to fight back the tears, because the first image that popped in my head was me laying on my mom's couch, with my head in her lap, and her telling me everything is going to be ok.

It's kind of funny to me that, even at 33, I'm like Audrie- I still need my mom to kiss my boo-boos. I hope when my girls are 33 they will still need me too!

Thank you, Mom, Sydney, and Emily, for coming to see us! Come back SOON!!!!

accidentally on purpose

 The other day Annie woke up from her nap before Audrie so she had some 'quiet' time to herself. I found her sitting on our bed watching cartoons. She looked like such a little princess perched up there that I had to snap a photo. (She still loves her blankies!)

 Yesterday I was straightening up the living room and before I went to put my camera away I snapped these two quick photos of Audrie.

 Of course, if I was actually trying to get a photo of her it never would have worked, right?? But I love how sometimes the accidental photos turn out to be my favorites.

I bought the girls matching Easter dresses and am going to TRY next week to get a photo of them together. smiling. at the same time. We'll see what happens...!

happy birthday daddy

 For Jamie's birthday last week the girls and I made Jamie a special birthday dessert.

 The girls LOVE to cook with me in the kitchen (and any excuse to wear their cute aprons).

 Of course they usually eat half the batter before we get it in the oven.

 I've always wanted to try making these cupcakes inside an ice cream cone (I put a hershy's kiss in the bottom of each one before I poured the batter in.) Yum!

 The girls helped me ice them and we brought them out to Jamie to sing Happy Birthday for him.

 He made a wish and blew out his candles.

The girls had picked out some presents for him to open. My gift to him was I took the day off work the next day so he could have a "day off", too. (oh and we also bought a washer/dryer combo for our apartment... which is actually a really big deal for us after 8 months of dragging all our clothes and sheets to the laundry mat!!). Happy Birthday, Jamie!! :)

don't come between annie and her iphone

We knew it was only a matter of time before Annie was addicted to our phones. She mastered it pretty fast and is at the point now where you just hand her the phone and she turns it on, finds her favorite apps and plays until you make her stop. So crazy!

The irony of this next picture is that she is sitting next to a large pile of books... (not reading them). ha!

 

 But I will say that I have been impressed with her skills and honestly some of the apps she plays are really educational. Her favorite is one called Tozzle. She puts together puzzles and they gradually get harder. She's really great at it!

Her other favorites are anything in the Toca Boca line of games. But she also loves to get on youtube and usually she stays on the Baby Einstein videos, but you know how fast youtube links can lead to terribleness so I have to stay pretty close to her (I wish iPhone would let you put a password lock on only the youtube app).

Anyways, I actually am glad Annie finally figured out the iPhone- it really helps on long subway rides!