Loving the Sunshine

The girls have been having a great time with all the nice weather lately. They both love to be outside so it's terrific to have a stretch of sunny days. On Sunday, Sadie played outside for hours with the baby pool and all sorts of cups, buckets, etc.

In the afternoon, we decided to head over to the small playground at the CCBA. Sadie brought her scooter.


Her sister wanted to try the helmet too:


Nellie was determined to go up the slide:






Sadie climbed:

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Happy 60th Birthday, Grandma!
We love you so much!


You are such a great grandma and mom.
Lots of love on your special day!
Love,
Ann, Dan, Sadie and Nellie

Garden Girl

Sadie planted her own little garden in a small bed behind the house. She is really proud of the flowers and herbs she chose.


She also planted a very pretty pot of pansies for the deck.


She happily waters all the plants for us!

Mother's Day Tea

This past Thursday, Sadie's school hosted the mothers for a wonderful Mother's Day Tea.


The children sang to us and then we returned to the classrooms for pastries and presents.




("I love my mom because she is so nice to me." Left to right, Sadie holding Helena, Mommy, Grandma)

Thanks for making me feel so special, Sadie! I love you!

22 Months Old

22 Months
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Happy 22 month birthday, sweet Nellie! Just two more months until you are two years old. You are full of excitement and cuteness and bring us all so much happiness! You love to run and climb and talk and try to do everything your sister does.

We love you so much.

Quotable Helena

Just a few of the many things that Helena has said so far today:

"Sadie, a-peek-up, happy!" (upon picking Sadie up at school)

"Crackahs, milk, Mommy deed-it!" (when I gave her a snack)

"Daddy lab. Blue car." (observing Dan's car is not in the driveway)

"Candy peese! Uh huh! Mmmmm! (trying to get a Hershey kiss from the counter)

Trike-A-Thon

Biking
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie's school will be holding a Trike-A-Thon for St. Judes Children's Hospital on May 17th.

Her fund-raising goal to help "sick kids feel better" is $100, through $10 gifts, and she's already at $30!

To donate, visit her page!

Thank you!

Funny Face

Silly Helena
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Helena in some funny glasses!

The best part of these is that she puts them on and then says, "I'm toot!", which means, "I'm cute".

Dance Baby Dance!

Dance Baby Dance!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

This is one of Nellie's favorite games these days.

It was in the 80s today, following snow all day Wednesday. New England is strange. Sadie was so excited to be able to wear a summer dress and we were excited to be able to put Nell into something short and sleeveless so we could see her cute pudgy legs and arms!

Dan Zanes and Local Friends

This past weekend, we went to see Dan Zanes and Local Friends perform their annual benefit for The Friendly Kitchen in Concord. Laura, Isaac and Naomi traveled down with us and we met up with Beth and her boys there. This is such a fun concert and it's a treat to get to see Dan Zanes playing at Dan's high school for a good cause.

Gardening In Action

Gardening
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

They are pretty funny in action, our girls!
Here's more "gardening" from the other day.

Sister Art Time

time together
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Nellie yearns to use all of Sadie's art supplies. Sadie was nice enough to share some with her so they could draw together. They are really playing nicely together lately, especially now that Nellie is talking a lot and communicating better with Sadie.

Our favorite recent Helena quote:
"I'm messin'!" (meaning, I'm making a mess!)

Ready to Help

helpers
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Sadie and Helena are ready and eager to help in the garden this year, thanks to some kid-sized rakes and shovels Sadie begged me to buy at the supermarket.

They had fun digging after school on Thursday when it was warm and lovely. We woke up today to snow on the ground! Crazy New England spring...

Happy birthday, Nana!

Happy 60th birthday, Nana!
We love you very much and we had fun celebrating with you on Easter!

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Happy birthday to the best Daddy around!
We love you so much and we always have fun with you. We hope you have a great day and a wonderful year.
We're so lucky to have you.
Love and kisses,
Sadie and Helena

70 degrees?!!

sweet
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

It hit 70 degrees yesterday which is super warm for us this time of year. In fact, all week has been sunny and mild. Unfortunately, next week is forecast to be a little cooler and more overcast/rainy, but it still seems like the worst of winter is behind us.

We had to take advantage and get outside as much as possible, so we had a picnic lunch, played at the playground and then played in the yard later in the day.



(Nellie definitely inherited the curly hair!)

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Our little leprechauns send you their love on St. Patrick's Day!

Enjoying The Rain

Sadie has always loved rainy days and especially stomping in puddles with her rainboots. She got a new pair of rainboots last week and was very pleased when it rained this weekend so she could wear them. Helena also got a "new" pair of rainboots, ladybug boots that were Sadie's when she was small.

Sadie quickly taught Helena how to stomp and they had a great time in Hanover looking for places where they could splash.

(Thanks Nana for passing along this cute pic from your visit!)

Girls

Sadie drew these girls this morning. I love this picture! Sadie says that the last girl in the row is a baby, which is why she doesn't have any legs (?). I am mostly posting this picture for Grandpa and Grandma, as I think it will remind me them of a girl they know who used to love drawing girls, in rows just like this!

More! More!

Swing!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Nellie has been talking up a storm lately. She is getting new words everyday, starting to combine words and her pronunciation is getting clearer. Her adorable "mees", which meant "please", just changed to "peas". Happily, "thank you" still remains "tinkoo".

Other cute ones:
bahsi = paci, pacifier
raysenay: raisins
muttin: muffin
Melmo: Elmo
yoyo: yogurt

A hint of spring!

A hint of spring!
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

We had two beautiful days of sunshine and 40+ temperatures this weekend and the girls were so excited to get outside.

Sadie was delighted to get back on her bike and Nellie loved Sadie's old trike. We biked around the parking lot across the street for a while and played in the backyard too. It's a little muddy back there, but the swingset is still great to play on.

Something New

In January, my friend Vanessa opened my play space, an indoor play space for kids under 6. We have gone several times and the girls always have a blast! It's great addition to the Upper Valley.

Lots of lego and magnatiles:


A London city bus to drive:


Buckingham Palace guard costumes:


New York City, complete with a deli:


Eiffel Tower to climb:


Lots of mats, rodys and plenty of room to run and play:

Having A Good Time Together

Sadie and Nellie enjoyed a "picnic" in the living room this weekend.

Skating

Pond Party
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

This Saturday was the annual Pond Party at Occum Pond. We were pleasantly surprised to see how much more comfortable Sadie was on skates this year than last year. Age? Transfer from ski lessons? Who knows, but she was having a great time on the ice, even trying some figure skating moves!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to all the people we love so much!











And happy birthday, Auntie Kara!

Fun with a Box

fun with a box
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

As Nellie gets older, she and Sadie are starting to really play together and have a good time. This game involved two boxes, a scarf and a train whistle...they were on a train ride together!

A sweet sister story:
Helena was at day care today. Sadie had a half day of school. Since I had a short meeting in the afternoon in Hanover, I arranged for a Dartmouth student to watch Sadie while I was in the meeting.

I gave the babysitter some cash and said she could take Sadie to the bookstore, hang out there and Sadie could get a book. When they came back, Sadie had chosen something for herself, but she had also selected and bought a book for Helena, totally unprompted!

She made a good choice too. Nellie loves "Elmo's Valentine" and we have already read it a number of times.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Daddy Daughter
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

Last night, Sadie and Dan went to the Daddy-Daughter Valentine's Dance at our local community center. They looked wonderful and I hear they had a lot of fun. Dan reported that Sadie mostly danced with her friends but danced with him a few times.

They came home at 8:30 at night, with Sadie happy, tired and clutching a purple carnation. Each girl got a flower when she arrived at the dance!

Turtle Sadie

Turtle Sadie
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

In the Reptile House at the National Zoo there was a Discovery Room with lots of things to touch and explore, like snake skins, all kinds of reptile skeletons and this amazing turtle shell that kids could try on. Sadie enjoyed it all, especially the turtle shell.

This shell is pretty big but there were several live turtles which were even bigger. We saw them!

Fun in Washington DC

White House
Originally uploaded by Dan and Ann

We had a great long weekend in DC with Grandma, Grandpa, Aunt Jenny and Andy.

Lots of pics posted on Flickr. We all enjoyed the American History Museum, Air and Space Museum, National Zoo, White House, Washington Monument and Natural History Museum. Swimming in the hotel pool was another highlight!

It snowed one of the days we were there...about 3 inches, which would have been no big deal here in NH but totally flummoxed DC. We were giggling to see people putting salt on top of the snow and trying to move it around with brooms!