Pickle Breath

Charlotte, like any two year old, is weird. This evening, when told it was time for bed, took a drink of milk and proceeded to spit it on Linda's foot. This landed her in time out while I dumped the rest of her glass down the drain. The fit that ensued was heard throughout our neighborhood, since our windows are open.

Linda had Charlotte come and sit on her lap to calm down. Charlotte started whining, "I want mcgreder" or something like that. She couldn't show it to us, and eventually she said it went down the drain... Maybe that stands for milk - spit ammo. Who knows. She gave me a hug for bedtime and announced that she wanted a marshmallow. We watched her dawdle into the kitchen barefoot and pantless, and she proclaimed that we didn't have any marshmallows. Upon spotting the next item in logical sense past marshmallows, she picked up a jar from the pantry and said "I want a pickle". She strolled into the living room with the jar of sandwich - length dill slices and repeated it, with us waiting for the magic word to be bestowed upon us. Eventually Linda gave up and said OK, and opened the jar for Charlotte.

As Charlotte looked upon the pickle - tips protruding from the juice near the rim of the open jar, she spoke; "I want a big one." (A common term in our house) - don't give the girl a half of a pop - tart, have her split a baby mum-mum snack with her sister, or even the dreaded banana or cereal bar that's not ALL IN ONE PIECE or you will hear this complaint.

Charlotte pulled a pickle from the jar and repeated herself, apparently not pleased with the pickle she had selected. I started in - "what do you say?" and "If you don't tell your mother please in three seconds I'm coming in to throw that pickle in the trash"... Charlotte complied, then turned to Linda afterward, "I want a big one". Linda explained that they're all cut like that, but Charlotte insisted, placing her (already licked) pickle back in the jar. She pulled another out, and luckily this one was right; it was a shorter pickle, one that had not been cut in half before being sliced lengthwise, so there was a rind all the way around it.... in other words, a "big one". It was downed in a snap, I received a pickle - breath kiss, and she was off to bed.

...for good we hope.

It's raining, it's pouring.

Missouri has been experiencing some crazy late spring weather. Tornadoes, rain, hail. It's been nuts. We've dodged the tornado bullet, but we got some insane hail the other night. I've never seen hail this big and this prolific. It was pretty crazy to see. We didn't experience too much damage. One broken storm window, some holes in a few of Matt's modifications to his car, a hole in Charlotte's patio table, a broken slide on a play set, and about 40 pretty good size dents on my car. It could've been worse. The dents add character, right?

Our front yard. All the white dots are hail stones.

One of the bigger stones. This was probably the average size.

I just couldn't get over how many there were!

Trying to show perspective. The coin on the bottom is a quarter. The top right stone was probably about 3 and half inches in diameter. It was huge!

KC Again!

We went to KC last weekend for the Cardinals/Royals game and my aunt Robbie's 5oth birthday party. We had a blast! While we thought we were going to the Friday night game, we realized, after checking the time on the ticket in order to calculate how fast I would have to average to get to the game on time, that our tickets were actually for Saturday afternoon. Surprise! We slowed down, had some dinner, and cruised into Parkville to relax with Grandpa Freeman and Grandma Edie. Saturday afternoon we headed out to the ballpark to cheer on the teams!

A family divided. Audrey had on a Royals shirt since we didn't have a Cardinal's one that fit her. Bummer. The shirt made her look just a little less cute, but the pigtails and the kid-sized pretzel made her look pretty sweet. (BTW- kid-size pretzel? Best idea ever! It was only $2 and just the right size for the girls. And me, for that matter. Genius, I tell you.)

Enjoying the game and the pretzel.

Here, Daddy!

Grandpa Drury enjoying the game.

Charlotte downing some water, not Mountain Dew. Geez, can you imagine this girl hopped up on caffeine? Yikes. And where did this big kid come from? She looks enormous here. At least she still has baby hands. If she ever loses those baby hands, I'm going to cry myself to sleep.

Cheese face. And see that ugly blue shirt? Yeah, she wasn't wearing that when we went to the game. I turn my back for a minute and all of a sudden she's in Royals gear instead of the Cardinals' shirt I put her in. NOT COOL. When the Cardinals won (suck on that, Matthew!), we switched it back. :)

Party time! Audrey got her very first birthday present from her Great Aunt Shirley and Great Uncle Dan. She's almost a year old. :( Not. Ready.

Oh my gosh, look at this! This book is super cute. It's all about Audrey Hepburn, Audrey's namesake. The illustrations are just beautiful. It's as much for me as it is Audrey!

This birthday stuff is pretty cool. By the way, I've been told that my girls look like me and I'm always like, yeah, I see similarities, but when I look at this picture, I feel like I'm looking at one of my baby pictures. It is creepy! She looks just like me! So is it vanity to call her cute? Must ponder...

Thanks for the present, Aunt Shirley! I'll definitely be wearing this when I see you at the beach this summer!

Mommy Loves Audrey

Audrey and I had some serious bonding time a couple of weekends ago. Matt took Charlotte to KC for Great Strides, a walk to raise money and awareness for cystic fibrosis. Our dear friend, Jeremy, lost his battle with cystic fibrosis in 2008, just a couple of months before Charlotte was born. He was so excited to be an uncle and I know that she has her very own guardian angel in Jeremy. It's very important to us to continue to support the cause and Jeremy's parents, so while I was not able to go, we wanted to be sure Charlotte was there.

Since we have done a lot of traveling this month, we decided it would be a good idea to keep Audrey home with me. So we had a quiet weekend at home, just the two of us. I don't think I even got out of my pajamas on Saturday. :)

Watching the rain outside. She was in such a good mood the whole weekend.

Her sweet face. How can anyone not love this face?

Helping me cook. We made brownies.

Do you see the concentration?

Want some, Mama?

Sidewalk Art

Charlotte loves drawing with her chalk outside. I have admit, I love it, too. :)

Beautiful pictures.

A picture of our front yard. Charlotte and Audrey are both in swings. Charlotte told me where to draw them and what color dress to put them in. She also told me to draw me in a pink dress next to the tree. She didn't tell me to draw her dad. I wonder what that means...

Playing with my hair. She loves to put "ponies" in my hair.

Her war paint. I have no idea how she managed to cover her face with chalk. Such a strange little girl.

Mother's Day

After a fun afternoon at Matt's dad's house, we headed to Belton to spend time with Matt's mother, step-father, brother and sister-in-law for Mother's Day.

Watching Finding Nemo with Aunt Lindsey

Our best attempt at a group picture on Mother's Day

Trying to get a picture with my girls. More challenging than I expected. Charlotte did not want to sit on the upper tier of the flower bed because the one below it was "just her size". I gave up and scooted to the end of the upper tier and let her sit on "her" bench.

See? Just her size.

A generations picture. Charlotte was D.O.N.E with pictures.

A Park and a Picnic

After we went to the railroad, we met up with Grandma Edie and headed out to English Landing Park for a picnic. It was a positively beautiful day and we all had a nice time. Uncle Nash was able to join us as well.

Charlotte carried the water to the table.

It was a little heavy for her.

Audrey enjoying her fruit.

Want some, Mom?

Ah, this face.

Checking out the playground with Grandpa.

Charlotte wasn't sure what to think of the bridge. She was a little nervous about it moving, particularly when the boys ran across it while she was still on it!

Not nervous about the slide, though.

Audrey swinging with Grandma Edie

She had a good time. :)

I think she was playing hide and seek with Grandpa here. Either that, or she's just weird. They are both equally plausible.

After riding the little train, Charlotte enjoyed watching the big trains come through the park. She loves her trains!

Riding the Northern Railroad

Last weekend we went to Kansas City. We spent the first half of the weekend with Matt's Dad. Saturday morning we headed out to the Northern Railroad to ride the train. It's a miniature train that runs a half mile track on the weekends during the summer. Fifty cents buys two trips around the track. We were there on opening day, but missed the first run by a few minutes. Charlotte was dawdling. :)

First lap of the season complete!

Waiting for the train to return to the station.

Charlotte held on tight to her ticket.

All aboard!

And we're off!

Railroad crossing, watch out for the cars...

She didn't have a good time at all- can you tell? :)

Through the tunnel...

And out.

Grandpa and his granddaughters

Audrey rode with Grandpa for both trips.

That's right, both trips. Charlotte had TWO tickets! The second time we moved to the front of the train and Charlotte flirted with the conductor. He even let her "fix" the horn. She was pretty proud of herself.

I let her ride all by herself. Such a big girl. Sigh.

Through the tunnel again...

And out again.

Even Audrey had her hands up.

Pulling back into the station.

Bye, train!