My mom will be here in a couple of hours!!

Caterpillar issues

I want to beat a little caterpillar. There. I said it. There is one caterpillar that I thought was dead earlier that is not. He has been spending the last few hours tormenting the two caterpillars that are in the upside down position ready to get in their chrysalides. He keeps scooting over to them and nudging them. Now he won't leave the one in the chrysalide alone. It almost looks like he is trying to eat it. I'm sure our friend Ryan thinks I'm a crazy woman because he was just on the phone with Doug and I was yelling at the caterpillar to stop being mean and leave the other ones alone. Yeah, I might be a little crazy.

What's been going on?

Last week we got a Live Butterfly Garden through Amazon. We got 5 little caterpillars and have been watching them move around and do their thing. As of this morning one is hanging upside down in its cocoon and two more are hanging upside down starting theirs. Two more are on the bottom and I am hoping they are not dead. They make a real mess in the little jar and it's been grossing me out the last couple of days to the point that I have had yucky Caterpillar dreams. It is pretty cool to watch them make the change though.

We did a lot of block play this week because Maddy has started stacking! She will usually get four or five up before she knocks it down or it falls over. I love watching them in the moments when they are both actually sitting still and playing side by side. 

This particular morning I was putting together the foot board shelves for Abi's new bed and they played happily nearby. So great.

I love the little touches on Abi's Indian village... like the train fence and the lizard on the roof.

The biggest change.... We finally got a big flat screen tv! Yay! It is such a nice change after watching movies and tv on the little screen that was not very nice. We mounted it to the wall and then I brought over my school cabinet, got a couple of black shelve units for $15 at Wal Mart, took out the computer desk, brought back down the beanbag, and voila! For the very first time I really like our family room!

St Patricks Day

On St. Patrick's day we made sure we were all in green to start the day. We didn't really have plans to go anywhere. Doug had the car. So, I let the girls put on green jammies. They have really cute froggy matching ones I got for only a couple of bucks at Wal mart but Abi decided she wanted to wear the matching pants but a different shirt. 

When we came downstairs we found that a leprechaun had left some surprises for us. 

New headbands for the girls.... (It's so hard to get a picture where they are both looking at the camera!)

Some gold coins, glow bracelets, and Lucky Charms. 

The girls had fun trading headbands too...

Unfortunately I completely forgot to take pictures of Doug's lunch and our lunch but here are some of the 'leftovers'. We made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the shape of shamrocks and had sour cream and onion Pringles, applesauce, and the girls had apple juice while the grown ups had little Mt. Dews.

We had some fun playing games and reading books and the real excitement came when Abi's new mattress arrived! She couldn't believe how big and soft it was. Yes, she is finally moved from a toddler bed where her feet were hanging off to a real big girl bed. Pictures to come later!

Abi and Maddy this week

Maddy has began to like coloring. Suddenly we have to be careful where the crayons, markers, and colored pencils are. She is pretty good about coloring on paper though. She found my file box in our room and first scattered papers all over my room and then set up shop on the treadmill to color on an old bill. 

Then she decided to have a tea party in my room. 

While she was doing this, Abi gathered dolls from all over the house. (Yes, we have an insane amount of dolls.) She set them up on our bed. When I asked her what she was doing she said, "I'm the little old lady that lives in a shoe and I have so many children I just don't know what to do!"

Digging and kissing

Last week Abi finally earned her Egypt dig kit. We sat down together and had a fun time excavating. We got to break into a great pyramid to see what would be inside.

We uncovered a cat!

Meanwhile, Maddy has taken a fancy to kissing her own reflection anywhere she can find it.

Oh Abi

Yesterday the girls and I went over to the local Blockbuster that is going out of business to see if there were any movies we wanted on sale. Abi quickly latched on to two Max and Ruby Christmas DVD's.
You have to understand that I do not like Max and Ruby.
I mean, where are the bunny parents? Why does Ruby always have to be in charge of troublemaker Max? Why does Max always do naughty things and it's supposed to be cute? Why does Max speak in one word sentences? So annoying. They didn't bug me so much when she first started watching them a couple years ago and then I noticed that every time she watched them she would start speaking like Max.
So, we own one Max and Ruby DVD. A Halloween one. Abi claims that Max and Ruby are her favorite movies. So she looked up at me with those pretty eyes and said "Please."
I had no problem saying no.
She asked why and I told her that even at $5 I could probably get them cheaper somewhere else. I knew this was probably not the case but it sounded good at the time.
Then she looks at me again, hugging the DVD's to her chest and says,
"But mom, life isn't about money. It's about love. And I love Max and Ruby."
Call me soft if you'd like but I tried to hide my laughter as I said, "Ok, pick one. But just one."
She was so happy.

Final Day of the Blog Challenge

In this past month what have you learned?

I have learned that even though I blog a lot, it is really hard to have to blog every day. There were a few days when I didn't get the time and I would quickly do the post the next morning. Then there were times like this one. I should have written this one yesterday but didn't get around to it so I am doing it today.

I have learned that I walk around thinking I am so different from everyone else and I think now I have more in common with those around me than I thought I did. That's nice.

I have learned that I like having a subject to blog about other than just our outings. Although it was hard to blog every single day, I thought it was really fun to dig in to a few of the subjects and open up.

I am glad I did this challenge and glad that a few of you are doing it too!

Legoland Discovery Center

I had no idea this place existed until last summer when a few friends blogged about it. I have been thinking about going there for awhile but kept putting it off. Finally a couple of weeks ago the girls and I had to go down to Illinois for Abi's eye appointment and I decided it would be a good day to go just a little further south to visit the Legoland Discovery Center. 

I got a coupon online so that it was only $14 for all of us. I felt really bad with the other families in line paying $20 a person!

We arrived a bit early and the gift shop was open but not the Discovery Center. 

The girls had to get a picture in front...

they have this funny Einstein right inside the door. His eyes move which is kind of creepy but fun.

They had a lot of Spongebob characters around the store so Abi wanted to pose near some of them.

She played with some of the lego bits for a while.

We finally decided to head across the way to the Jamba Juice while we waited. We shared a scone and talked for awhile and then were still first in line to get in when the other area opened. 

We took this picture for daddy.

Our first stop was the Dragon ride. You just ride this dragon through a castle with lego creations. Abi was a little scared by it for some reason but Maddy liked it. We rode it again later in the day.

Abi was happy to point out Harry Potter to me before she rode the bike ride. 

There is a fun little play ground area too.

Abi didn't enjoy this ride that much either but she did go on it again later and once she realized she could hold onto the bar she liked it much better.

They had some 3D movies so we went to one of them and then went over to see the mini Chicago made of Legos. That was pretty cool. 

then we went on Jungle Safari. Abi loved this and we did it again after lunch.

they had two big Lego figures in one of the rooms. One was Batman and one was President Obama. All the kids were getting pictures with Batman but no one was getting one with the President. Abi didn't want one with either.

She did want to sit for awhile and build with Legos!

After playing for awhile we went into the Lego factory where the guide tells the kids how they make Legos and they get a little yellow brick. The girls both had turns pushing buttons and loved that. Then we went to go get lunch. Abi got the kids hot dog meal that came with a soda and a little mini figurine. I got the hot dog meal too and mine came with chips so we shared those. The sodas were refillable. I got Maddy some milk and a muffin and she was happy. I thought the prices were pretty reasonable and the food was good for what it was. I have no idea why Abi wanted to sit in front of the creepy clown.

After lunch the girls wanted to play with these giant foam Legos. This was one of their favorite things. I think next time we go I should take a book and read while I let them play. 

We then went to a little presentation where Abi learned how to make an airplane with Legos. They charged you a little under $5 if you wanted to keep it. I wasn't planning on it but when she asked if anyone wanted to keep theirs and all the kids raised their hands, Abi had hers up too. She kept looking at me and saying, "Mom? Mom? Mom?" and looking back and forth between me and the instructor. It was pretty funny. I knew she really wanted to keep it because she had worked hard on it and was proud of it so I decided to go ahead and get it.

We watched another 3D movie- this time a Bob the Builder movie they both enjoyed and then went back to the giant blocks. 

Next to the giant bricks there were some little ones you could build with. They had a shaking zone where you could build and then push a button to make an earthquake to see if your building would fall down or not. 

Maddy loved reaching in to get these bricks...

and making little creations...

I loved that every time she reached in she would stick her leg in the air...

We went back to see the City and the safari again...

Then we went in search of the pink castle Abi saw on the map. The funny thing is that we had been right next to it when posing with Harry and hadn't noticed it.

She went in for a while to build a castle...

I spied Hagrid while she was riding the bike thing again.

By this time we needed to leave to pick up Doug on our way home. 

Abi posed with the lion ...

and the weird guy before leaving.

It was such a fun day! We can't wait to go again!