Marching for Baby Tavio

A while back, we did a post about our friends Jen & Sal and their miracle son Tavio. On Sunday, our family walked with theirs as part of Tavio's Team in the March for Babies, which is the March of Dimes largest fundraiser. Tavio's Team, which raised almost $3,000, was full of spirit and energy on Sunday morning, despite the unexpectedly high temperatures. We had a great walk for a great cause! More pictures here .

Just a portion of Tavio's Team.

The kids all had cute Tavio's Team pins, while Jen and Sal had t-shirts made for all of the adult walkers.

Marching for Babies.

At the finish.

Jen snuggles with Tavio after the walk.

Photo of the Week

Emily just gets cuter every week.  More photos here .

For the Birds

When the weather finally warmed up and we headed outside, we were surprised to find that an enterprising robin built a nest on the swing set. We figured that experiencing the girls first hand would cause her to lay her eggs someplace else, but to our surprise, she laid three eggs over the course of a week. We were very excited to welcome little baby robins in mid-May, but sadly, the eggs disappeared late last week. The girls think that they just hatched and flew away and are keeping a lookout for baby robins (and Lee and I don't have the heart to explain what really happened). It is too bad they won't get to experience the little baby birds, but they enjoyed watching mother bird and her eggs while it lasted.

The girls excitedly counted the eggs each day.

If you look closely, you can see the mommy bird keeping her eggs warm.

This Could Be Our Best Purchase Yet

If we are talking "bang for your buck," the bubble machine is up there with one of our best purchases as parents.

Sheer delight on Emily's face as she gets battered by bubbles.

I love this shot - only an instant before Elizabeth popped that bubble she's touching.

Emily is literally trying to "taste" the bubbles.

I'd call that jumping for joy, wouldn't you?

Bicycle Season

We took Elizabeth's hand-me-down bicycle out of the basement the other day - we dusted it off, adjusted the handle bars, training wheels and seat and got ready for a season of riding.  But a funny thing happened over the winter - Elizabeth grew.  We're not sure how much, but it was enough to make her bicycle too small.  She rode it around the driveway for a while and in the street for a little bit, but she seemed pretty uncomfortable.  Which means, we're going to need to get her a new bike.  That's good news for Emily, who will get a few years out of this bike, but bad news for Lee and I who have to take Elizabeth bike shopping - she's pickier than her mother (if anyone can believe that), so I'm sure that the process will be anything but easy.

Yes, we are well aware that she's not wearing a helmet - she grew out of that too!

The Bubble Machine

After years of non-stop bubble blowing, Lee and I finally reached our limit and invested in a bubble machine.  We did our research and, given the amount of time the girls spend outside and their endless thirst for bubbles, we bought one that plugs in because there is just no way that we would be able to keep up with an endless demand for batteries.  The bubble machine made its debut a few days ago and the girls were simply delighted - so much so, that we went through almost two large bottles of bubbles.  Although it works best with "bubble juice" (which is about $7 a bottle more expensive than the bubbles we usually buy) it works well enough for what we need on plain old Dollar Store bubbles.  I have a feeling that we will be using a lot of them this summer!

The Final Countdown

This past weekend, we started what we hope to be the final year of this ridiculous house renovation that has sucked up three straight summers. Lee pulled the siding off of half of the final side over the weekend. He could have finished both sides, but for those little things called power lines - apparently, one time his dad told him a story about a guy getting electrocuted from touching a live power line and Lee doesn't want that to happen to him...whatever.  We are hoping to have the siding off within the next two weeks. We'll be sure to keep you posted on the progress and you can follow along by clicking on the "House Renovation" link on the right side of the page.

I think that our neighbors are going to be relieved that our house will finally be one color...

Photo of the Week

I couldn't decide between these two pictures of my little budding photographer....

Pinkalicious!

I named this post after Elizabeth's new favorite book.  My girls just love pink - and if you knew me when I was pregnant with Elizabeth, you must find that hard to believe, as I told everyone that while I might be having a girl, there would be NO PINK!  Well, I soon learned that as much as I try, I'm not really in charge of that kind of stuff, and the vast majority of the girls' clothing is pink or purple.  When it came time to make our latest round of cupcakes, the frosting had to be pink and purple of course.  Here are my little bakers.

Elizabeth always has to sneak in a taste of the batter....

Emily squeezes as much food coloring as she can into her share of frosting.

Mixing, mixing, mixing.

Filling our new cake decorator.

Elizabeth makes some interesting designs on the cupcakes.

Even Lee got in on the action, lending some strength at the end of the process.

Butterfly Bubbles

Elizabeth and Emily recently got matching butterfly bubble wands and have really been enjoying the size of the bubbles that they can make. We spent an entire afternoon in the yard making bubbles the other day.

Easter

Early Easter morning, we made our annual trek to Aunt Margie's house in New Hampshire to celebrate Easter with Lee's extended family. There was a full house, with only a few cousins missing the family event. As usual, the girls were showered with gifts and love from their great aunts, great uncles, grandparents and Great-Memere. After brunch, we headed back to Connecticut, where we cooked a huge Easter dinner for ourselves. We had a great day. More pictures from the family gathering here .

Elizabeth had a minor melt down to begin the day....but she soon cheered up.

This is pretty much all for Elizabeth and Emily - Lee's family is amazingly generous.

Easter loot from Uncle David and Aunt Melissa.

Aunt Denise kisses Emily in a successful effort to keep her out of trouble with mom.

Emily loves this blue horse from Uncle Chip, Aunt Chris and Jessa - could it be a replacement for the well-worn Lambie??

Huge Easter baskets from Aunt Denise.

Funky shoes from Grammy and Grampy.

Tinker Bell from Aunt Denise

Family picture with Memere (photo courtesy of Grammy)

Our family dinner. Elizabeth carefully positioned everyone in this picture, including me and the blue horse....