Not Nearly Spring but 40+ Degrees ... We Will Take It And Like It!

The temperature finally went above 40 degrees today and mommy finally went outside to play with the girls, we know these temperatures are not here to stay, but we will enjoy them while we have them!

Early Valentine's Day

Today is daddy's last day home before he leaves on a five day trip returning on Wednesday night ... so today is Valentine's Day in our home.   The girls work up right on time and after a quick breakfast, they were surprised with new books and a few goodies in a valentine basket from mommy and daddy.

To have a little fun now that Madison was given the all clear from her surgery and to celebrate the little holiday, we decided to take the girls to Nickelodeon Universe at the Mall of America for a day of fun.  We arrived at the Mall of America around 10:30 a.m. and after getting all our winter gear stowed away in a locker, we were off to the amusement park inside.

The girls first ride choice was the Big Rigs!   They event decided they wanted to sit together and ride with each other as they were, of course, best friends.

After the big rigs, mommy and daddy surprised the girls with face painting.  They both selected unicorns for their cheeks, Madison's with rainbow hair and Alyssa's with blue hair.   They both sat very patiently and still while their unicorns were being painted.

They both were extremely proud of their new face decorations and were very careful not to touch or smear them until they were dried.

Next we were off to the Backyardigan's Swings and thankfully both girls were tall enough to ride by themselves and mommy didn't have to get super dizzy riding with Madison this time!

The Splat-O-Sphere was the huge hit with the girls and Alyssa humored her sister by agreeing to ride it twice in a row so she should haven't to go alone ... again, best buddies!

We made a couple trips through the roller coaster line and the girls enjoyed it every time, especially after they each got to sit in the front car!  The first picture is mommy and Alyssa's view from the front car.  The next picture is one of daddy and Madison taking their turn in the front.

Swiper's Sweeper is always a fun stop for the girls and again they surprised mommy by running and sitting in a car together ... they were giggling and shouting through the entire ride.

After Swiper's Sweeper we took a break for lattes for mommy and daddy and dippin' dots ice cream for the girls.   Madison had banana split and Alyssa opted for sour raspberry ... later she wasn't so happy to be informed by her sister that her tongue and lips were bright blue ...

We took a couple of turns bouncing in the big pineapple bouncer that is the home of Sponge Bob and then made our way over to the carousal where the girls chose their favorite horses/animals to sit on and enjoy the ride.

Blue's Skiddoo was another one of our many stops during the day and Madison was very happy to position herself in a Magenta while Alyssa was equally thrilled to be riding in Blue!

The girls informed us that they were finally hungry for lunch (it was already 1:30 pm), so we were off to the part of the day mommy and daddy enjoyed the most, aside from our girls' smiles ... Crave!  The girls enjoyed a grilled cheese and fries with chocolate milk and mommy and daddy enjoy ginger-pear martinis along with Mexican sushi rolls, our favorites!

Before heading home, we stopped off to check out the newly remodeled Lego Land and also bought a couple of books at Barnes & Noble.   We were tired, happy and ready for home.

The day ended with a flower delivery from her favorite delivery boy, daddy, and her two daughters ... just beautiful!!

Happy Valentine's 2011 ... we are truly lucky to have our little Valentines!

ECFE Mommy/Grandma & I ... Manners & Tea Party!

This evening mommy and Grandma took the girls to a manners and tea party at the girls' school.   The girls got all dressed up in their "fancy" wear and were super excited to attend the tea party.

When we arrived, there were several art projects that we sat down to do which would serve as our decorations for the tea party.   Grandma assisted Madison and mommy assisted Alyssa with the crafts.  We ended up making place mats for each us to use at our tea table.  We also made paper heart flowers with manner words written on them.  We made thank you flowers and please flowers.  The girls also had the chance to craft lovely bracelets for themselves.  Alyssa also made an extra one for mommy to wear and Madison made one for Grandma.

There was a brief circle time where our host/teacher talked to the children about proper manners and etiquette.  Finally it was time for the tea party.  We moved across the hall to another room taking our craft projects with us.  We found sweet little tables set up for a tea party in that room and we added our paper flowers and placements to our table.

The children washed their hands and stood politely behind their chairs until everyone who was sitting with us arrived.

We practiced good manners by politely passing tea and cookies to each other.  We learned the proper way to stir our tea without banging our spoons on the tea cup.

While our host read the story "Miss Spider's Tea Party", we sat and enjoyed the story while sipping our tea and nibbling on our cookies.

While it wasn't the formal tea party mommy had hoped for, it was good fun for the girls who loved every minute of the craft projects as well as their special tea party.   We were all so happy that Grandma got to join us for our evening out with proper manners!