Touch A Truck

This morning was the City of Neenah Parks Department's annual Touch A Truck event. They bring all kinds of construction equipment, public works trucks, and just really cool vehicles to the parking lot of a local park and let kids climb all around, in, and outside them. We met some friends and made a morning of it.

There was a race car,

A cement mixer,

A tow truck,

A SWAT team armored truck,

A police car (let's hope this is the last time we see Natalie and one of her favorite sidekicks, Super Dude, climbing into the back of a squad car!),

Whatever this is!

A school bus (bigtime fav of both girls),

A fire truck,

A crane,

An 18 wheeler,

A garbage truck,

And a street sweeper. (There was also an ambulance that we didn't make it to but let's hope Natalie doesn't take after Uncle Benny and see the inside of one of those anytime soon.)

It was a great event and everyone had a blast!

Happy 3rd Birthday, Skittle!

Miss Skittle turned 3 on Friday - we can hardly believe it.  She rang in her 3rd year in style - with 2 big parties and 3 rounds of cake and presents.  One party with friends on Friday morning at home and one with family on Saturday at the cabin.   In Natalie fashion, the parties were Rosie-themed and purple.  Here are a few pictures from both.  The full array can be seen at our photo site.

Birthday Wake-Up Balloons

Friend Party

Family Party

Thanks very much to everyone who helped her celebrate and who made her birthday weekend very special!

15 Month Well Dot

Audrey had her 15 month well-baby check-up this morning. She's doing well, growing and developing exactly as her doctor would like, and now weighs 20 lbs 9 oz (16%) and is 29.5" tall (22%).

So what has the busy 15-month-old been up to lately? Lots of reading with her big sister. By far her favorite book is Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?  She squeals when she finds it in the book basket or when anyone begins reciting the lines.

Taking her first school bus ride thanks to a friend's birthday party.

Endangering any cupcakes within range.

And learning just how much Natalie will try to talk her into.

She walks behind and along things and will stand independently if she's busy enough that she forgets she's scared. We're looking forward to watching her first steps - all she needs to do is build the courage. We're very proud of our growing girl!

Weekend at Home

While it isn't extremely exciting to blog about, it was exciting to have a weekend home to check some things off the ol' to-do list. We had a bunch of outside and yard projects on our minds. So we loaded up and headed out to Home Depot where the race car cart was a girl highlight of the weekend.

Chris built a beautiful raised cedar planter to house our herb garden.  We currently have sage, cilantro, basil, rosemary, chives, and spearmint starting inside.  We're hopeful the 40 mph winds will die down sometime soon so the poor guys can move out of their crowded greenhouses and into this lovely new home.

Natalie worked hard helping Mom weed flowerbeds and Dad fix the mailbox and Audrey worked hard inspecting the lawn.  Not sure why all of that led them to do this but if were inside their heads we'd probably find more than a few surprising things.  Better yet we wonder why crawling on patio block didn't motivate Audrey to take off walking!  (She did stand for several seconds on her own a few times this weekend though so that's a start.)

Amongst all the activty, Audrey finally popped two new teeth through in 2 days.   She's excited for more culinary adventures.

Hope all of you had nice weekends as well!

N-A-T-A-L-I-E

Miss Natalie has proudly known how to spell her name for over a year but has more recently learned to write all the letters. And even more recently, how to do so in a straight line (some of the time).  She's proud to show off some of her recent work!

Green Eggs and Ham

Because these Leprechauns really don't need any green beer...

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

(Bonus: Natalie, upon hearing what we had planned for breakfast: "But I don' YIKE green eggs and ham!"

Dad: "You do not like them, so you say, but try them. Try them, and you may! Try them and you may, I say.")