Butterfly House

Thanks to our friend Julie, the girls met up with their buddy Marie to experience the Butterfly House for the first time. As Julie put it in her blog, they learned an awful lot about humidity that day. Ryan was more interested in the charity coin collector out front, Reese was confined to her stroller since mom brought the 'good' camera and Marie was her usual super happy, content, adorable self. Did we learn much about butterflies? Probably not. But we had fun.
Photo time out front (Ryan was insistent on crocs with socks)
The reason for the trip
Are we done yet?
Reese's view
Afterwards we walked over to the park to tire the kids out. Of course I turn around and notice Ryan has taken her snack and plopped herself down in the entrance to the slide. Never mind the children who may want to play on the playground, girlfriend is making herself at home.
photo credit to Mrs. Julie Reinheimer

Reesers....

As the second child, she tends to get overlooked (not by her mom, mind you, but by the camera) - somebody else in the family tends to garner the attention.  So here you have it, all Reese.
This picture is so Reese....laying her head down to chill out for a bit the second she got tired, regardless if she's in the midst of drawing with chalk or not. Love, love, love Ms. Reese Bentley Stiff

Ryan is evil, Reese still loves water....

So Ryan learned the age old trick that if you squeeze a hose together, the water stops.  And, more importantly, when you unsqueeze the water starts flowing again.  Well heaven forbid Ms. Ryan get her hair wet so she stays out of such sprinkler devices these days, but we all know her water-baby sister will take the plunge.  The parent side of me was actually quite proud of Ryan for figuring the hose trick out on her own.....and the sinister, evil side of me may have encouraged the game and may, just may, have given her a heads up as to when to let the water start flowing again based on Reese's proximity to the sprinkler.
Clearly we're all a little messed up in the head around here these days.
Reese and her usual inspection of my watering skills...
Enter evil
The reaction shots
I condone this of course because to know Reese is to know her absolute love of water, specifically sprinklers. When Ryan would stop the water, Reese would turn as if to say "what up sista, get the H2O flowin'"
And back on
This went on for a good 20 minutes....which in toddler time is like a blissful 2 hours.

5:30pm on a Tuesday

Cold chillin'

Give these two a Popsicle and you're their 'favorite'
Reese is not trying out a slick new hairstyle, you are looking at a girl who simply can not resist a sprinkler:
As evidenced here in her 1970's moo moo
And here in her casual chic 80's Polo

Barbaric Eating 101

by Reese Bentley Stiff
Belly up to the table with a blueberry muffin
Throw all pretenses of having manners out the window and dig in
Collect the straggler bits
Put on your 'innocent' face
Get it every last crumb....
Smile, sort of...

A-B-O.

My greatest fear these days is that I will be 'dumbing down' my children now that they are home with me full-time and not in school 5 days a week.  I really try to work with each girl on something each day but that can be easier said than done.  If they head into Kindergarten only knowing the strategy behind Big Brother and that Oprah reruns are on at 4pm, you know I have failed.  Anywho, I started working with Ryan on her letters after I asked her to point out A, B and C and she kept saying 'A, B, O'.   Off we went to get some flash cards, stickers and a file folder.  When she correctly names the letter or finds one out of a pile, she gets a sticker to add to her sticker book.  So far, so good.  Only we work in spurts - she likes this game for 10-15 minutes at a time.  But by golly, I will get all 26 letters down if it's the last thing I do.  I don't care if she's twelve before she learns them, I will not fail.
Reese? We're working on astro physics with that one.