Memorial Day weekend!

Tess and Nora had a fun Memorial Day weekend with Grandma Muriel and Papa Art. They came to visit and got to spend lots to time with the girls. Tess even enjoyed getting her first taste of gardening (and mosquito bites).

Planting flower boxes
Nora soaking it all in
Norman and his mini-me planter

Papa Art, Grandma and the girls

Happy Birthday Great-Grandma!

Last weekend, the whole fam traveled to Sandusky, Ohio to celebrate Great-Grandma's 84th birthday. We stayed at a hotel that has a water park, bowling alley and arcade in order to fully occupy even our most impatient family member. (Uncle Michael had lots of fun!)

Not only did we have a good time playing at the hotel, Papa Larry went all out and brought all sorts of fishing gear (fishing licenses included!) for Tess' first fishing adventure! What a fun surprise! Tess was psyched and didn't hesitate to dig in and touch the both the worms and the fish. Tess sort of caught her first fish with some help from Uncle Mike and Uncle Brendan. Shockingly, she had a hard time being patient and letting her bobber sit still for more than a second and a half... Dad or Papa would cast it out for her and she would immediately reel it in.

And then they'd do it again.

And again.

You get the picture.

Grandma's birthday dinner

(Where's Nora? She obviously took the picture. Duh.)

Ok, so she didn't touch this fish right away. This reaction is because the fish was kinda flapping around. Can't say I blame her.






This pic wasn't from the weekend, but I thought it was fun so I added it anyway. Just disregard that Tess is pantless. Nora wants me to be sure to point out that she is wearing a dress, so she is justifiably pantless as opposed to Tess, who has no good excuse whatsoever.

Tess + Papa = baseball fun

So Tess has been to more Tiger games so far this season than I have. What's up with that? Must be nice that she has a Papa that enjoys whisking her away to games while the rest of us are all slaving at work. What a lucky girl! She has to be one of the only three year olds in town that went to see both the Yankees and the Red Sox last week.

It hasn't taken long for her to establish a new routine at Tiger games. (Anyone who knows Tess knows that she is definitely a routine-orientated girl... right down to who-stands-where when we do the hokey-pokey in the living room.) Her routine consists of making her entrance into the park, heading straight for the batting cage to hit some balls, going to the seats for a little bit (for a snack, of course), taking a few rides on the carousel, hitting the potty and then making her treat selection of either cotton candy or her new fav, 'cookies in a cup.' Anything is possible when you have a Papa that doesn't say no!

There is only one rule: No Paws. No exceptions.

And as an added treat, here is some recent sister love for your viewing enjoyment

Just try not to notice that Nora looks like she's gasping for air.
She's fine, I promise.

The Sports Queen

Lately, Tess has been quite the busy bee with all of her activities during the week. Swimming on Tuesdays and soccer on Wednesdays. I am also looking to get her signed up for Mandarin lessons (obviously Spanish is a waste of time) and interpretive dance, but I'm having the darndest time finding classes that fit into her busy schedule. Private tutoring may be our only hope.

Here are some videos of Miss. Fish in action at swimming this week:




And at soccer, today was picture day. We'll post the professional pictures once we get them. Until then, here are the nonprofessional versions courtesy of Dad:

Five months old!

Nora is five months old today! At her last appointment (on April 24), she weighed 16 lbs 10 oz (90%), 25 ¼" long (75%) and her head was 45 cm around (a whopping 100+%... basically, off-the-charts).

Ummm, sorry Nora. Big head + big hair (which is probably coming your way too even though you're practically going bald now) = no hats. EVER. Wear 'em now while ya can. And that goes for you too, Tess. These are Mom's words of wisdom. Chances are, you won't be getting any great recipes or knitting lessons from me... but advice about how to deal with big hair? You've come to the right place. These things I know.

Happy Mother's Day!

Tess and Nora wish all of their special Grandmas a Happy Mother's Day today! They are two lucky little girls to have so many Grandmas that love them so much! And they were really lucky to get to see almost all of them on Sunday.

Meena and the girls

With Meena and Great-Grandma
Nora and Great-Grandma

A shout-out to Grandma Muriel! We'll get to see her soon!
♥ The best Mother's Day yet ♥

And here they are playing a duet on the piano...

Just be happy there is no video with sound for this one. Ouch.

Spanish lesson

This morning, Tess gave me a lesson in ABCs on her chalkboard using her laser lightsaber as her pointer. (Maybe teaching is in her future??) Along the way, she announced that she would now be doing it in Spanish. Huh?



Ummm... no offense Meena, but whatever kind of Spanish lessons you have been giving Tess need to stop. I'm much more comfortable with Dora teaching the Spanish at this juncture.

May the force be with you

A week in review...

This was a busy week. Instead of trying to break everything down into a bunch of baby posts, how 'bout we knock it all out with one mega-post?

Let's start with some Nora sweetness in the bath

Next we have Tess' long-awaited soccer debut. How did it go, you ask? Let's just say it's a learning process. We are learning that Tess isn't so into crowds of kids. She'd prefer to be the only kid at the park. And now we learn, she'd prefer to be the only kid on her soccer team. Funny, because I always felt that way about basketball. Ok, so I needed at least ONE teammate to inbound the ball to me. Ha.

Here we are before we left the house.

Still happy, as you can see...

Then we got there.

Yes, Tess went "boneless" and refused to participate. Here, they are stretching. Well, most of them anyway.

Much safer here with Dad. So here she stayed. She assures us that she'll play next week. Uh huh. We'll see.

Moving on...

On Friday night, Nora went to her first Tigers game! We couldn't have picked a better night... 80° weather and the Tigers won!

The fam at the game.




Tess and her buddy, Drew, that we saw at the game!

The 7th inning stretch...

Nora took it literally.
And here is a video of Tess doing some batting practice at the game. Something tells me that this will be part of our game routine for the rest of the summer.

Last but not least, we went bowling with Meena and Papa this afternoon. Papa has had his heart set on taking the girls bowling today for quite some time as it's the first day of Michigan's smoking ban in public places. Ya-hoo! It may take another 25 years for the bowling alleys to air out, but at least there was no actual smoke in there today!

Here is Tess doing her thing...


We'll call this one "All By Myself!"


Papa taught Tess to do the 'Strike Sign' and then 'Put it Away.'



In case you missed it, here is a little picture tutorial:

Photo A: Strike SignPhoto B: Put it Away