Madonna

Scarlett tried to take the bow out of her hair all by herself. She wound up looking like this:

Then, incredibly proud of herself for looking crazy, she didn't want me to take the bow out of her hair. This is what she said. "I look like Madonna, don't I? This is how Madonna looks and I want to look like Madonna forever. And after I look like Madonna I want to be a pony. And then a headband."

Dad's wallet

Holden really likes Joe's wallet. He grabs it and runs to this particular corner in the dining room and, well, basically shushes us if we ask him to give it back. And just for good measure, he'll throw a "NO!" and "MINE!" in there too.

Thomas the Tank Engine

Scarlett rarely lets Holden watch any type of "boy" TV show, so he gets a little excited when one is coming on.

Some hungry ducks

Today we may have jumped the gun a little bit on Spring. We went to feed ducks. It was cold. The ducks were hungry.


















And there were lots of them.


















Lots.


They were so hungry that they came right up to us. Like RIGHT up to us.

The kids had a blast though. Unfortunately, we went through an entire loaf of bread in about 7 minutes...

and our hands got really cold. Like really, really cold.

So we went to feed ourselves at Friendly's.

Unstoppable

Happy Valentine's Day!

First Family Portrait

Here is Scarlett's first Family Portrait (click picture to see larger view).

Please note the following:

No one has arms.

She considers herself a grown-up and yet Holden is still a baby.

Link has four legs and a long nose.

We all look miserable.

I love it.

Writing

Now that she's learned to write her name, Scarlett has moved on to write other very important stuff on her art...like "VOTIFO" which means "Scarlett drew this for mommy and I love you, sweet mommy." - obviously.

Before ballet begins...

Here are a few baby ballerinas huddled around a mom's iphone watching "The Nutcracker" before their instructor calls them into the studio for class.

Disney on Ice

At the end of January, I was an incredibly brave momma and brought both kids to see Disney on Ice (tix courtesy of Aunt Nachie and Uncle Craig). I rarely bring the kids to the grocery store solo so bringing them to a crowded arena was self-back-patting worthy, especially when I had to lug 32lb Holden around while holding Scarlett's hand at the same time through the crowds because it was too packed for a stroller. (I'm still patting myself on the back - can't you tell?) But it was totally worth it. They had a blast. I didn't know what Holden would think about it, honestly. But he loved it. I dressed the kids in their matching Mickey and Minnie Mouse t-shirts, and...well...I was pretty proud of myself for that too. But, since this is starting to sound like a "Lauren is way too proud of herself" post instead of a "Lauren's kids had fun at the Ice Capades" post - I'll digress. The kids each got to pick out a toy during intermission. Scarlett got Ariel:And Holden got Mickey:The show itself was very fun and we got to see everybody. And I do mean everybody.

Yay Disney on Ice! (And Yay Lauren...just kidding. Kind of.)