Papa is here!

Enjoying the 70 degree weather in December we played outside all weekend!! It was fabulous. 

Painting with her new easel and paints!

Dee plus plaint= bad news. 

Taking full advantage of our amazing weather we wore shorts, sleeveless tops and ate froyo outside!

On Sunday we were having too much fun for Mommy to take photos. 

We took Papa to the Marbles Children's Museum and had a ball. The kids were super active. I cannot imagine how they will be up early... but they will be! 

Dee leading Papa to the fun! 

What a fun weekend! Looking forward to many more trips from Papa now that we live on the same coast! -Whitney 

Christmas Part 1

Papa is in NC to celebrate part one of Christmas with us!!! 

Sammie & Dee helped create the wrapping paper. 

Sammie was more excited to unwrap give Papa his gift than you could possibly imagine. So we had to exchange gifts almost immediately upon his arrival! She even told him some outlandish story about going to the store, looking and shoes and thinking "these would be the perfect shoes for Papa!" What?!! She's a mess. 

Dee gets to forward face now!! 

I couldn't get Dee on video and photo just doesn't capture how excited he was opening his gift!! He jumped, did the Paps "ooooooo" like a true Crites and was smiling ear to ear. 

Dee learning to unwrap his gift.

Sammie was super cute opening gifts. She is still in the let's unwrap everything phase and not too into understanding what's inside but we will get there...

She may be an artist like her Daddy.

Cutting Food!!! 

Happy Happy Girl.

Dee was instantly obsessed with his Thomas the Train set. He knows the sound it makes if anyone is touching it... and that is a NO NO! 

Mesmerized by Thomas the Train. 

Not sure who had the most fun. Papa and Daddy sure seemed to enjoy the new play food for the kitchen!

Boys...

Sammie got to open one of her gifts from Tutu and Paps the next morning because it went along with a gift from Papa. She got this easel and I am pretty sure she will spend days on end here. 

Master Piece! 

What a fun first day with Papa. Cannot wait to see him again soon in NJ! 

-Whitney 

Photo Dump for the Grandparents

I take a bazillion pictures! Every so often I will just post a random group of photos for the grandparents that live all over the USA to see. 

Anna dress! 

Hanging out in the patrol car that visited school. 

So hungry he is eating applesauce from his shirt. 

Grammy sent me a BIKE!!! Woooooooo

Learning to use their new toys!

Sammie forcing Dee to have a Tea Party

Naked is his favorite outfit. He also spiked his hair with applesauce in this pic.

We've entered the almost 2s with tantrums in public. SHOOT ME NOW.

Playing at Marbles with Letters!

His favorite new face! 

Goodness Dee is getting ornery! BOYS!!! And shocking... Sammie is getting pretty sweet. 

But they're both pretty freaking awesome!

All Hallows Eve 2015

Who knew that you could celebrate Halloween for a week straight?! Welcome to the final installment of our Halloween festivities... ALL HALLOWS EVE! Thankfully some very sweet new friends invited us to their neighborhood for the occasion.  

About 4:30 on Halloween we headed to one of Sammie's schoolmates house for a pre-trick or treat gathering. It was so nice to watch Sammie and Dee interact with other kiddos. AND... Brian and I actually had conversations with ADULTS!! 

Pre Party Grubbing

This kid can eat!

After the party, we changed into costumes and the real fun began!

Our little Buzz LightYear.

Our friends had this fabulous cat in the yard and the girls were so obsessed. Little Buzz LightYear was a tad terrified of the cat but did try to tell it off at one point! 

Strawberry & Alice

Most of the time the kids were so busy all I captured were blurs! 

runnnn

Brian did manage to capture a pic or two that looked "normal" for our household.

Alice... not so tight!

Trick or Treat

You guys! This neighborhood was so much fun!! Everyone got into the spirit. Parents, Grandparents and children all dressed up. There was a "real" Minnie & Mickey passing out candy, treats for both children and adults at the houses AND tons of fun decor! 

It's Mickeeeeeey! 

Dee was pretty skittish at about this whole business at first. Once he finally wanted to go up to houses, I would go with him. He would sheepishly take a piece of candy and then hold it. I said "put it in your bag" a million times. Well... after sneaking a piece of candy he figured out what was happening AND... he ran to the next house so fast. I get up there just in time to see him shove his bag at the sweet lady and hear him say "IN DA BAG"! From that moment on it was hard to keep up with this new little trickster! 

IN DA BAG!

Now, Dee snuck quite a bit of candy between houses. He was putting wrapped candy in his mouth and we would just find him spitting out wrappers!! He is CRAZY! 

Once the festivities began to die down, we headed home. Sammie was allowed 2 pieces of candy and then she left her bag (full of candy) on the table for the "Switch Witch". (I hear you can purchase these Switch Witch dolls but thats not what we do.) We read the idea somewhere last Halloween and decided to adopt the practice. How it works for us:

1- Collect candy and only eat 2 pieces.

2- Leave your treat bag for the "Switch Witch"

3- Wake up on Nov. 1 with no candy and a present in its place!

Sammie was sooooo excited to see this doll the next morning! She only asked what happened to her candy once and hasn't been a thought since!! This plan works so nicely for us because we really try to limit sugar for our kids but want them to go and have fun on Halloween.

Alice In Wonderland from the "Switch Witch"

And if you're wondering... NO, Dee did not "qualify" for a present. He ate his weight in wrapped candy!! Plus... Mommy forgot to get one thinking he wouldn't notice! Oopsy!

Happy Haunting Folks!

-Whitney 

Spooky Lessons

We are not crazy over scheduled toddlers but Halloween week sure seems to be eventful! 

On Tuesdays Dee attends KinderMusik in Cary while sister is at school. They had their Halloween party this week and it was precious. 

I love watching the kids interact with one another and musical instruments. Dee especially loves the drums. 

If you met Dee before he could walk you probably saw him "hop" from place to place on his knees. Well... He just jumps from place to place these days. 

Some of the kids do not care for the parachute in class... Dee eats it up! 

After class we run to grab Sammie and take her to ballet class. She was Alice In Wonderland today and so cute. 

Dee tries to crash ballet class every week. Poor kid just wants to be big.

Our new sweet dance friend. She was so excited to be a "cupcake fairy" so smiled that big for 45 minutes! 

We have 1 busy day a week but it was super fun!!! 

-Whitney

Choo Choo!

Our little man is all about the Choo Choos! And by Choo Choos, I mean anything with wheels. Trains, cars... Anything! 

When Grammy was in town, she very kindly gifted Dee this amazing train table! The kid spends so much time with the trains! It's heaven! 

Now, he gets a bit frustrated with the levels so we have taken down some of the fun stuff and made the track simple for now. When he's a bit older we can add the cool stuff back on. 

Thank you Grammy! We love it!! 

Hideaway Woods

I know I am constantly saying how awesome North Carolina is but... IT IS! 

We became members of the Life & Science museum in Durham last month and it has already paid for itself. The kids love it and there is so much to do! 

Gateway Playground area is great for my active babes.

Dee loves this slide because his Sissy can go with him.

I couldn't keep up with the kids in butterfly area. They were amazed. 

Just like our many other adventures here, the kids love it because they can explore without me freaking out that they will break something. We've been to the museum several times already but last week was our first time to go look at the butterflies and insects.

We rode the train around this trip. It was a favorite. 

Now, they have a farm at Life and Science and the kids really love it as well. I cannot breathe when we are in that section so I keep attempting to skip it... last week they spent 20 minutes exploring a TRAILER! A trailer people!! I may be from Oklahoma but I think my kids are city kids! Ha!!

20 minutes in a trailer... who knew it would be so fun!

Now TODAY being a member of the museum really paid off. We got to experience their new attraction, Hideaway Woods, before it opens to everyone. It is AMAZING! I mean... so flipping cool. Never mind that it was pouring down rain because we played for 2 hours anyway.  My pictures do NOT do this place justice. I was having a hard time keeping up. Sammie was all over the place and she is only 3! I was a bit concerned about her getting to the top and freaking out. Yeah right! That kid was faster on the ropes that most big kids and took the big fast slide down a million times. 

This is where Mommy stopped. Couldn't carry Dee across this one and he was scared. 

I am in another tree house taking the pic to give you a height idea...

Super Sammie lapped that poor 6 year old sitting on the ropes more than once! 

Dee play also... just a little lower!

There is a creek the kids can play in (which reminds me... wet clothes in car!!) that we basically bathed in, a toddler area with small tree houses close to the ground and some stick houses. Once we started getting really wet I had to put away the camera so I missed those pics but so awesome. 

I cannot wait for friends to come visit so we can play!

-Whitney