Grandparents day 2

Day 2 of the Brady's visit was the complete opposite of day 1.  It rained all day so we threw ourselves a party!  Since 4 of us have birthday's within 2 weeks, Grandma and Grandpa brough everyone's presents and we had a big party with brownies and icecream, more Dr. Quinn and Grandma's famous roast and Grandpa's mashed potatoes.  The icing on the cake were all the party favors that Aunt Natalie had sent, leftover from baby Madison's first birthday. 

 

The girls were in charge of the candles.

I have to say I was pretty impressed with Grandma's decorating skills!  I had no idea she was so good with streamers and balloons!

Quinn was very interested in ripping streamers down.

She warmed right up to Grandma and Grandpa when they arrived, and loves the doll they gave her for her birthday.  Quinn plays with stuffed animals and dolls like the other girls never would.  It makes me so happy.

We decided to try a trial run for the eventual 1st birthday cake mess.  Here is our before short.

The during, it was just a brownie, so she couldn't made a huge mess.

And then she blew my mind by cleaning the plate.  This girl is an eater!

Grandma and Grandpa helped out with some box pictures.

Sometimes it's so hard to choose my favorite!

When Tyler is around, he is a pretty awsome Dad.

Love this guy.

Quinn will do anything for a sucker.

And gets pretty mad when she is cut off.

Grandparents visit!

Tyler's Spring Break was magical for a few reasons.

 

The first of which was that Tyler's parents came for a visit!  We'd been dying for visitors and the girls could not wait to have Grandpa and Gradma come!

The second magical thing was that the day they arrived it was so warm we didn't even need to wear jackets!  It felt like the perfect summer day and so after picking up Gma and Gpa from the airport (and gorging ourselves on delicious Burgatory after that) we parked downtown and walked to the point!

It felt like being home, and I think we were all longing for a little bit of home.

We made it across the bridge without anyone defying gravity and spontaniously falling into the river.

And all the cars were able to stay on their side of the bridge and not crash into us.  I have irrational fears about many things.

Quinn even got her very first sunburn!

The point was a fun place to explore and I look forward to going back when things are green.  Heidi loved having Grandpa's undivided attention whenever she wanted.

Alex clung to Grandma when she wasn't collecting dead leaves and seed pods and running like she never had before.  But when I think about it, it has been a LONG while since we have been anywhere that she could just run.

And so they ran.

The warmth and the Grandparents and having the Tyler away from school made for the best day we've had in ages!

We tried to act all cool like we were Pittsburghers, but then we got lost driving like 5 times.  It's not Tyler's fault though because he never drives anywhere and basically lives his life on a 3 mile path to school and back. 

I think I can call Pittsburgh my city though.  I'm starting to get to know it and love it.  The roads are less terrifying and I'm making fewer wrong turns.  I can even venture downtown without GPS and not get lost. Sometimes.

Quinn didn't know what to do with all the attention!

Tyler has been quite the trooper since Christmas.  We have finally gotten our roation list though and are only 2 months from the end of this terrible, long and lonely learning year!!!!

We spent such a big chunck of the girls lives at Grandma and Grandpa Brady's house that they girls are still convinced that THAT is home.  I don't think it has helped matters that Dad sort of disapeared once we arrived in Pittsburgh, and they talk about moving away all the time.

I have to say that it's growing on me though, although I don't think it's my forever city.

Just so much to do here!  So many viewfinders to climb on!

Tyler really liked having his Dad around for the week. 

When he wasn't reading books to the girls he was doing man stuff with Tyler.  It was good for Tyler.

After visiting the point we got lost on the way to the Duquesne Incline (GPS's fault) but eventually got to enjoy the view of the city from Mount (ha) Washington.

I made everyone try to pose into the sun, remembering a picture from our first week here.

Crazy to think that Quinn was a floppy little thing when we first arrived.

 

And look at those girls!  Who are they?  Alex's bangs can almost be tucked behind her ears now, and Heidi won't let us cut her hair short anymore (thanks alot Rapunzle.)

After the Incline we went home to show off our house and let everyone relax for a bit.  I think we even treated Grandma and Grandpa to an episode of Dr. Quinn before we all rolled into bed.

March has come!

Weve had a bit more sun this past week and have tried to go out and soak it up when it's not too windy.

It's inevitable that the second the girls get outside they run straight for the snow piles, even in church shoes.  I've never been so happy for rainboots, wet socks destroy family outiings.

One of our greatest creations thus far this winter have been the can shoes.  We built these beauties one cold day and the girls were entertained for about 4 hours straight.  Alex has gotten quite good at balancing in them, and the clangy thumping noise has stopped bothering me so much.  As for the neighbors, I don't know.

Quinn loves being outside, but hates mittens.  With cold humidity this is a problem.  She fits into Heidi's 2 year old coat, which we made Heidi give up for her sake since she no longer fits into any of the baby coats.  Heidi got bumped up to Alex's orange coat and Alex graduated to a hand me down purple coat.  Every one is generally happy, although I can see seeds of unrest in Heidi as she is starting to feel the frustration of getting big sister's old things.  This is mixed with her jubilation when she finally gets to wear something she's been lusting after that Alex has finally outgrown.  Heidi is cathing up to her sister for sure, and if Quinn keeps up this rate............

Heidi is full of suprises every day.  She begs to do school and have Mom time, while Alex would rather sit in her room playing dolls and listening to books on tape.  I'm amazed with the things Heidi is picking up in "school" and we have decided to start her in homeschool Kindergarten next year.  She has already begun to read Alex's beginer reader books and LOVES to sound out letters and words and do math.  She is completely self motivated when it comes to academics and it astounds me.  Motivating her to clean up her toys is an entirly different thing.

Saturday we went to the zoo. It had been awhile, and it was a sunny, warmish day so we couldn't miss the opportunity.  We generally only do the zoo on school days, so when we arrived and saw that the rest of Pittsburgh was there, I was a bit taken aback.  One thing I love about homeschool is that our schedule is our own.  We visit all the museums in the afternoon when the little kids are napping and field trips are over and we have the place to ourselves!  I never thought that in a big city like this we could experience such an intimate experience with such amazing places!  I don't know that I will be able to return to Utah, because there are just SO many children that you can NEVER experience anything alone. Anywhere.

We took the crowds as an opportunity to just run and be free.  There were so many people that we couldn't get close to the windows inside, and many of the outdoor animals were inside for the season.

We had a picnic on a bench and the girls took Quinn on some adventures.

The sun and the laughter and the grilled cheese made for a wonderful time.

The crowds didn't really matter in the end as the girls just wanted to play in the snow piles, run down hills and play shadow tag anyway.

A few weeks ago the girls asked how cheese was made.  This took me back to Provo and Aunt Kate's homemade mozerella so we gathered the ingredients and tried it out.  You notic Quinn in the background signing "all done" it's the only sign she will use and she uses it for EVERYTHING.  While she does it she sings ALL DONE in a high pitched baby voice that is beyond adorable.

This is our finished cheese ball.  The girls loved it and would have eaten the whole thing right there if I had let them.  It was fairly easy and something we will probably end up doing every few weeks. 

We don't get to see Tyler very much these days because he has night classes this unit.  But Friday night we revived our old family movie night tradition and started watching Dr. Quinn medicine woman.  We tried the first episode on a whim because we were learning about that time period in school, and the girls got sucked in!  They beg to watch it every night and I love that it's something we can all enjoy. I think we will all remember Dr. Quinn evenings with girl scout cookies for a long time.