Bonus post - too cute to not talk about

When the girls came home from the hospital at 16 days, they slept together in the crib in their own room.

At 7 months we separated them, and they have slept alone ever since.

This week there's been some anxiety. I'm not sure why. Both Lily and Madeleine have mentioned it. Including a 11 pm freakfest by Madeleine wanting to know why Daddy and I get to sleep together. The unfairness of it it all!

So we told them on Friday night they could sleep together if they wanted. But at the first sign of trouble, we would separate them.

The picture is at 11 pm. Lily on the left, Madeleine on the right.

1 am screaming. Madeleine was on Lily's hair. Moved to separate bed. Haven't mentioned it since.

Welcome Summer!

We had a busy Memorial Day weekend. On Saturday we hit the pool in the afternoon. They usually don't allow floats or inflatable things, but since they were having an official pool party, they supplied inner tubes and such for the girls to play with. They had a great time (once we were able to find some that had been abandoned). Then we hit up Goodberry's for some frozen custard.

Sunday was ambitious as well. We went to Brixx Wood Fired Pizza for lunch on our way to Southern Season. They had just launched their annual sale, and I hadn't been in forever. In fact, the girls had never been. They have gourmet food items around the outer rim of the store, and the middle is filled with kitchen gadgets and dishware. Pretty much the LAST place you'd want to bring two four year-olds.

But they have a HUGE candy counter with all kinds of chocolates. The girls set their sights on the brownie pops dipped in chocolate, and we used those as leverage to get them through the rest of the store. ("Mommy how many more things do we need to buy before we can go?")

Then we went to Pittsboro to visit with friends and their 15 month old twins. The girls had a blast with the baby toys and playing outside. We went out to dinner as well, but two meals out in one day was pushing our luck. They barely ate anything and just wanted to go to sleep (which they did on the way home).

Sunday we went for a picnic in the Rose Garden at the Raleigh Little Theatre. I got to use my fancy camera for once when I could catch them. Then we spent the afternoon back at the pool (minus floaties plus two Barbies however).

Wait a berry-picking minute!

Since the girls are so into picking flowers (mostly clover and dandelions), I thought maybe they'd enjoy strawberry picking this year. I think I've only ever been once, but I knew there were tons of fields around. So I picked the one that was closest rather than hear them yell about how we needed to move closer. We went to DJ's Berry Patch.

I timed it so we were the first ones out there picking in the morning. That way there were pleny of berries and it wasn't too hot. Plus no serious pickers would mind the two four year-olds. It's not like we weren't up anyway.

The girls did great and within half an hour they'd filled 3 of the buckets you can get there. Way more than I wanted, but they were having a good time. If it were legal, I think the farms could get some good work out of a bunch of preschoolers.

At home we spent the afternoon making ice cream and the strawberry pound cake seen below. I wanted to just do shortcake, but they had a pink cake set in their minds.

Peakfest

The girls and I went to Peakfest in Apex for the first time on Saturday with Aunt Laura. We'd done Lazy Daze and Spring Daze in Cary before, but this was our first time to Apex.

We got started off early with the pancake breakfast at the fire house. Good move, and we got there just in time before the line was out the door.

The first thing we saw on the street was a face painter, and Lily and Madeleine could not wait to get their faces done.

Yes, that's a skeleton on Lily's face.

From there it was hard work collecting the free balloons (and losing a few along the way). We did the jump houses, and then I convinced them to go to the Michael Creech magic show in the community arts center.

Then we were back outside for lemonade and ice cream. There they discovered the kids corner and Happy Dan the Magic Man. They loved his show and followed the poor guy around the festival for the next 20 minutes. We had to go back to watch Hubba Bubba the clown immediately after. The only way I convinced them to not watch the show again was to get them back to the arts center to watch belly dancing.

Madeline tries her hand at plate spinning

Lily performs a feat of spinning three plates in the Hubba Bubba clown show.