McKenna's first haircut!

McKenna got her first haircut in early February. Her hair doesn't look very different from before. We just needed to get the back of her hair (that had grown into a mullet) evened up. Since I didn't want the management of bangs just yet, we opted to just get the front of her hair evened out as much as possible without taking off any real length.

She did really well with the cut. At first she was tentative, and at one point she whimpered a little bit, but then she rallied and seemed unphased by the whole process. Then, when it came time to blow dry her hair, she was so intrigued by the hairdryer. She was trying to dry her hair herself. McKenna was cracking our stylist up ... she kept saying "I hope you are getting pictures of this, Mom!"

The first snip and holding Daddy's hand for reassurance

Now she's not so sure about this...

Then she sees decides that this is no big deal

But, the hairdryer really made her curious

She was literally trying to hold it herself and dry her hair

She would push it up to her head and let it sit there

And, she didn't want to let go!

I didn't get any "after" shots. We were all just laughing too hard about the hair dryer and I forgot. She looks adorable with her little baby bob!

Snow Angels

During the first week of February, we had our first measurable snow here in the Philadelphia area. Madison was so excited to go outside and play in it! This was McKenna's first snow to play in, so we were excited to get her out there and see what she thought of the whole thing.

Overall, we had lots of fun. Although, with McKenna not walking, it was somewhat challenging to manage her during our adventures. After she was sliding down my hip for the 100th time because of all of the nylon clothing we had on, I finally decided to set her up in her sled and she watched as Maddie took turn after turn going up and down our hill in the backyard! After a while though, McKenna was less than amused at being bundled up like the Pillsbury Dough Girl and wanted to go inside. Luckily, the prospect of hot chocolate and a movie was enough to lure Madison into wanting to come inside with us when McKenna had enough!

Having a ball sledding!



McKenna's first time playing in the snow... not too excited!


Whee! They went down the hill together.... so cute!

McKenna and Mommy in the snow

Telling me that she wanted to have a snowball fight.... doesn't she have a mischievous look on her face!

There's the first attack on Mommy


And, now she is using her sled as a shield as mommy gets her turn to throw snowballs!

Bippity Boppity Boo

For Madison's 4th Birthday in January, we decided to take her to the Disney On Ice show in Philadelphia. This was a special treat just for Madison, so Mimi came to the house to spend the morning with McKenna for us. There was a Disney Princess Pre-Show event that was right up Madison's alley! We could arrive up to an hour early and get a tour of all of the princesses most beautiful gowns up close. Madison was in heaven! The even bigger surprise was that Belle and Cinderella both made appearances and waved to Madison in the crowd and even said hello to her. She was so excited.

Then we headed in for the main event and were entertained by scenes from Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and Tinkerbelle, not to mention several appearances by Mickey and Minnie!

We had a Disney-rific morning together!

Our little Belle posing by Disney Belle's dress

And, there is the "real" Belle behind Madison

With Snow White's dress

Posing with Cinderella in the background

Daddy and Maddie ready for the show to start!

Showing us her brand new Belle necklace that she bought as a souvenier at the show with the money that Mimi and Pop-Pop gave her!

Halloween Fun, Fun, Fun!

Halloween was lots of fun this year with two little girls to dress up! Last year, McKenna was only 12 days old on Halloween, and we didn't put a costume on her. She was a "new baby" for Halloween.

Earlier in the day, our playgroup put on a Halloween Parade and the kids had a blast! Our friends V and J had us over to their house and we paraded around their cul-de-sac, played great Halloween-themed games, sang Halloween songs, and of course, trick or treated in the big witches cauldron!

Later that afternoon, we waited for Daddy to come home with our pizza. We quickly ate our dinner in anticipation of the big night! We were ready to go trick or treating so quickly that we were actually a little too early to go out, so we had to wait patiently for 6pm to finally roll around! Then, it was time to go and Maddie was beside herself. She was constantly planning out our route and deciding which houses she would go to next. She was so polite and always wished everyone a Happy Halloween before she took any goodies and always said Thank You. She makes me so proud! All in all, it was a wonderful family night with my little Lady Bug and my Princess Belle.

Not what I expected, but more than pleasantly surprised!

On Tuesday I'm headed to NYC to hang out with Martha Stewart. OK, so maybe I am going to see a taping of her show, but that's considered hanging out, right? A girl can dream.

I am going with 9 other Chester County Moms bloggers and friends. I am so thankful to Sarah for scoring these tickets for us. It's going to be a fantastic day full of laughter. I am sure we'll have alot to blog about upon our return.

There weren't alot of details given about the topic for next Tuesday's show. And, truthfully, does it really matter what the show is about? I mean, we're going to have a day in NYC, see Martha Stewart, and spend adult time with girlfriends... the show's topic is somewhat inconsequential because all of her show topics are good ones.

Then, I checked her website yesterday to see if they had posted any info about next week's lineup and saw the news...."Halloween Crafts with LL Cool J". Oooohhhhh... how the Ladies Love Cool James! This is awesome on many levels.

First, did you ever think you'd see a day when LL Cool J was sitting in Martha Stewart's craft room and helping her with a Jack-O-Lantern? Good stuff. Second, my inner college self has already played and replayed in my head the lyrics to Around the Way Girl and Mamma Said Knock You Out! So many of his songs were fixtures on the party playlists back in the day! I am really looking forward to hearing about his new album... think we might get a copy of the CD? And, third, well, you've SEEN LL Cool J, right? He's the ultimate in eye candy!

Can't wait to "meet" you, LL. I'll be the inappropriately overzealous mid-aged mommy blogger in the audience whose 9 friends are holding her down because she's so star struck!

Check your local listings and look for us in the audience!

So Much To Say...

And so little time....

I have so many things I want to tell everyone about like my birthday, our AMAZING vacation to Maine, some very funny Maddie-isms from along the way, her first day of preschool tomorrow, some awesome product reviews to tell you about, and also some fun new tips on greening your life ... I think I got even a little more crunchy (in a good way!) while we were in Maine.

Anyway, need to go unpack, prep for preschool, and maybe catch some ZZZ's. Will spend time this week trying to work on the backlog of fun posts!

Hope everyone had a great week while I was away! Missed you all, internet!

Olympians in the Making

Let me start this post by telling you just how much our playgroup ROCKS! We've been part of a playgroup since Madison was 4 months old. I knew from the very beginning that if I was going to be a Stay at Home Mom, I wanted to find a supportive network of friends for myself and for my child(ren). Well, I found it. There are all types of Moms and all types of kids in our playgroup and I've loved getting to know everyone involved. Aside from the wonderful friendships, our playgroup schedules some of the most creative and fun event for the kids! We've made some really wonderful memories at events that the playgroup has planned.

This past week, our playgroup had scheduled a 3-day Olympics Mini Camp for the kids. We were lucky that the weather cooperated and all 3 days went off without a hitch. Denise and Dawn did an absolutely amizing job at coordinating 4 different Olympic events (each day!) for the kids to partcipate in. This was no joke... we were doing the Olympics right here in suburban Philly! Not to mention the medals, the Olympic history, the Olympic torches they carried around the "friendship flame".... they thought of it all.

Madison had an unbelievable time all 3 days. Heck, I had a great time all 3 days! She took part in each Olympics station each day and tried out all of the events. More importantly, she can tell me about the Olympic flag and knows that we came together in friendship this week to compete.... it's awesome that they learned about the spirit of the games too!

I feel so lucky to be part of this amazingly creative group of families! Here is Maddie in all of her Olympic glory!

Day 1 - Pillowcase Sack Races

Day 1 - Fencing

Day 1 - Basketball

Day 2 - Relay Races

Day 3 -Soccer

Day 3 - Balance Beam

Day 3 - Tumbling

Day 3 - Our Olympic Medalist

Day 3 - Taking the Podium

Even the babies were having fun at Olympics camp too!

It's Playtime!

Our long awaited playset has arrived and was set up in our back yard yesterday. Madison is soooo very excited as you can imagine. We still need to put the mulch under the set, which will happen this week, but that didn't stop us from testing it out last night. Here are the kids trying out the playset!













I'm looking forward to lots of fun times out in the yard with the kids! And to getting a few swings in myself :-)

Hershey Park Happiness...

Yesterday, Matt and I took Madison to Hershey Park for Matt's new company's summer picnic. Despite the heat, we had the most amazing day! Madison is a ride-lover. She adores going to the rides on the boardwalk each year and really enjoyed our trip last year to Dutch Wonderland. Even though she loves rides, I had some reservations about Hershey Park because the have many more "big" rides than the other places we've been that seem to focus on more "kiddie" rides.

At Hershey Park, they label each of their rides according to height and name each of those levels a different Hershey's candy. Well, Maddie measured up as a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup and to my surprise SEVERAL of their roller coasters were labeled for Reese's. Are you ready for this.... even the Super Dooper Looper!?!? Yes, we did ... I know you are wondering..... we did let our 3.5 year old go on the Super Dooper Looper. Am I CRAZY (don't answer that, anyone!)? She was just sooooo excited, never a single hint of fear, only pure excitement and laughter and happiness on every coaster she rode yesterday.

I was seriously concerned about letting my 3.5 year old on the Super Dooper Looper. It goes upside down for crying out loud! But she was very persistent, she was above the required height requirement, and my hubby wanted to take her on as badly as she wanted to go. So, off we all went to the SDL. And, you know what? It is a memory I will have with me for years and years. I got to sit with her on the SDL, Matt was behind us. The WHOLE time she was laughing, screaming "This is so awesome", throwing her arms up in the air, and had a smile plastered all over her face. Not once was she ever hesitant, fearful or anything less than just purely ecstatic to be riding. It was something to behold. She has some fears about several things, but amusement parks and water parks are not things she is scared of.

Here is Madison with Matt getting ready to ride the Comet roller coaster. This was her first ride on a "big girl" roller coaster and she loved every moment of it!

After we rode in the park for a while, we headed over to their water park and had just as much fun! We had a fantastic time on the log flume, the tube rides, and the large water play area. We were exhausted by the end of the day, but well worth it. It was so nice to have some one-on-one time with Madison and spend the whole day laughing and playing with each other.

And, thanks to Mimi for coming to spend the day with McKenna so we could take Maddie. We really appreciate it! And, McKenna loved her special day with her Mimi too!

Lucky Strike

Yesterday, we wanted to do something fun together as a family. Because we came back from vacation on Saturday, Sunday was one of those rare weekend days when we were home and had no plans, so we wanted to capitalize on one more day of family time. The weather forecast was calling for some rain and thunderstorms and it was generally pretty grey and overcast in the morning. We really wanted to go to the zoo, since we have an awesome membership package there thanks to my parents! But, we were afraid to drive all the way down there just to have to turn around because of the rain.

A few months ago on a cold winter Saturday, we took Madison bowling, and it might have been one of the best Saturday afternoons we've ever spent together. We had so much fun! So, we decided to go bowling again yesterday, and once again, we had a fantastic time. The best thing of all was that Madison got her first STRIKE! And, even better was that I actually had my camera out at that exact moment and got a pic of it! YAY! Here are some highlights:

I Love Bowling!

This is actually the pose just before she rolled her first strike! I love the ball ramps that they have for the kiddos to use. So much easier than teaching them to roll the ball on the floor between their legs.

Just before the ball hit the strike. Yay Madison!

Mommy even took a picture of the score board as proof. See her strike in Frame 5!

In other news, during our trip to the beach, McKenna started trying to mimick some of the things that our friend Caden can do (they are only 5 weeks apart in age). Well, Caden can clap his hands really well and looks so adorable doing it. And, McKenna has been trying hard to clap her hands. However, she's been struggling with keeping her hands open and her palms flat. She tries to clap with her hands clenched it fists, almost as if she was making the "more" sign that we have taught her.

While we were bowling, McKenna got her clapping down pat.... What a cute time to perfect it. She was our own little cheering section. Here she is:

Palms open....

And there's the clap!