Monday, April 1, 2019

March

This month we spent lots of time with my parents.  They stopped by for the first week of March on their way home from Florida.  The first thing I did after their arrival was take Mow to a dressage show.  This is the first event we've been able to do since his injury last August. He was great and it was fun to have my mom be a "show mom" again!
 
 
The girls loved all the attention too!  Here Grandma reads to Leonie (left) and Elsie before bed.
 
Grandma playing airplane with Leonie.
 
Grumps giving Elsie a wheely ride in her cozy coup.
 
 
Elsie riding Rabi
 
 
Leonie's turn.
 
 
At the end of my parents' visit they watched the girls from lunch time to bedtime one day while Matthew and I were dancing on a movie set!  This was the first time someone else put the girls to bed without us. I don't think they even noticed our absence ;)  We do have a photo of us on the movie set but we can't share it until after the movie release.  So stay tuned until The Glorias comes out in November 2020!
 
Recently we dropped the second nap from the girls' sleep schedule and they are doing very well with one nap a day.  The change in schedule also gives us a little more freedom to get out of the house.  On Mondays we've been stopping at a playground before meeting Daddy at the chiropractor.  Here's the girls in a bouncy car.  Elsie on the left.
 
 
For more than a year we've been receiving monthly Cricket Crates full of activities for toddlers from Grandpa Gunzburger (Thank you!).  Most of them have been a little too complicated so far but the girls are getting old enough to start enjoying them now.  This month we played with the kitchen crate.  It came with a little kitchen stove, a wooden spoon, a wooden skillet, a cookie cutter, and play dough. The play dough was a huge hit and, surprisingly, no one tried to eat it!  Here's Leonie.
  
Elsie cooking in the skillet.
 
 
Our car had to be towed a couple of weeks ago to fix a part and we took advantage of the empty car port for driving these cars.
 
 
Other outdoor activities this month included helping in the garden.  Here Leonie (left) and Elsie are riding on my little garden scoot-and-do.
 
Supervising daddy while he installs a raised bed.  Leonie seems to have an objection to what he's done so far!
 
 
While Elsie wanted to help dig.
 
My parent's came back later in March to help me watch the girls while Matthew went to visit him mom and help out while she recovered from cancer treatment.  Here's Grumps making giant Lego tunnels for the girls to drive cars through.
 
Grandma and her girls.  Leonie on the left.
 
 
Grumps giving more car rides. Leonie on the left.
 
Also during their visit we went back to Mommy and Me dance class.  Now that the girls nap later in the day we can squeeze dance class in to our morning.  We were the only ones there so the girls enjoyed helping the instructor put out hula hoops for one of the activities.
 
 
And here's Leonie dancing with scarves.
 
 
We took advantage of the beautiful weather to visit some play grounds as well.  Elsie on the slide.
 
 
Leonie.
 
 
Both girls loved this plastic ladder climbing structure and they eventually could climb it unassisted.  Here's Leonie delighting in her accomplishment!
 
 
And Elsie reaching the top.
 
 
The girls and I had fun with Grandma and Grumps but we did miss Daddy.  Luckily we were able to FaceTime with Daddy and Nanny most nights while he was gone.  (Photo taken by Pop) And we're happy to say that Nanny is feeling much better!
 
 
After our visitors left the girls were stuck with just me and about a thousand caterpillars to play with (it's tent worm season).  Leonie is just fascinated by the creatures and is slowly learning how to handle them with care.  I apologize to those that lost their life during her learning curve!
 
 
Sisters and BFFs.  Elsie on the left.
 
 
Elsie likes to carry the sand toys back to the house.
 
 
The girls like to "help" me in the garden whenever they can.  Shere Khan (the "stray" cat) also follows us everywhere and insists that everyone pets him.
 
 
While my parents were here my mom helped me get my veggie garden in tip-top shape again so here's a photo of what's growing so far.
 
 
Finally, a couple of videos from this month. 
 
Cars in the carport.
 
 
 
We need to order door locks now! Leonie is outside, Elsie in.