Swinging Sisters

From Labor Day...

Three of Bea

Here are a few videos of Sweet Baby Bea who, for some strange reason, just keeps growing up! I know from experience that these little videos of everyday moments are the ones that I treasure most as the years march on, so here they are. [Hi Future Carri, remember when you thought these were just boring little videos of next to nothing? See, aren't you glad you captured them? Hi Future Josie & Bea, I know your silly mama used to drive you crazy with that camera always in your face, but aren't you glad now that she did?]

Bea, who has mastered the fine ancient art of "Peekaboo!"



Bea's first finger food

Bea & Josie, just being silly sisters

That face!

Those cheeks! Those lips! And don't even get me started on those big sparkling eyes! I could truly gobble her up whole ;)

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Sunny Sunday @ Eden Park

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Look at all of that blonde hair

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Back to ballet...

...and her leotard still fits but her twinkle toes are one & a half sizes bigger. She has a new teacher and we were able to get a spot downtown this year (no more early saturday trips to blue ash). Here's to another great experience at The Cincinnati Ballet Academy.

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Yo Gabba Gabba LIVE!

OH WHAT A TIME WE HAD AT YO GABBA GABBA LIVE!  

YGG was never one of Josie's uber-favorite shows, but we knew she would have a blast at the live event considering it would feature lots of music, lights and silliness. It did not disappoint. That's for sure! 

Me and my girls, on our way in...  

 DJ Josie Rock

 DJ Bea Rock

 Josie during "Hugs Are Fun"



And now for the best part...the videos!!

This is my favorite one, so we will put that one first. That's Josie, in the aisle with the other little rockstar she paired up with for the evening.  Look at them go:

This one is dark, but lightens up. Lou & I were dying during this one. The band "I Fight Dragons" was live on stage and Josie was rocking out! (I think she's ready for her first Phish show...)




Short, but getting the sillies out never disappoints:




Josie & her little friend got picked to go up on the stage with Biz Markie! You have to follow her and her little green dress to see her, because she headed to the back. She was dancing like crazy (with the guy in the red hat on the back left). SO cute. I'm such a bad stage mom. I totally should've told her to stay in the front.




All four Schneiders had a blast. As you can see, Little Bea was in awe of the whole thing.



All told, we are definitely "experiences" people. The tickets really were way more than should be allowed & I wasn't so sure it was a good idea to go. But, we knew as soon as Josie took off into the aisle and Bea let out that big wide-eyed smile that this was going to be worth every penny. And it was!

Bluegrass for Babies

Such a great time! Lots more pics and video to come. Had to share this preview.

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Garden Sister Shots

Really adorable shirts from my dear friend Ali + good lighting + some free time in the afternoon + the garden box as a backdrop = a little photo shoot in the backyard of our little darlings. Enjoy!

Dress up...eventually

The other day, Josie wanted to play dress-up for the first time with Beatrice. She had all sorts of things picked out, and as she was planning the dress-up extravaganza, I noticed they were being particularly adorable with one another on the bed so I grabbed my camera. We did eventually get around to playing dress-up but, as it turned out, they had much more fun being sweet together on the bed before the "real" event even started.

 I love these "un-moments."

My friend Linda -  amazing mother, talented editor, wonderful children's book author, and woman I want to be like when I grow up - recently said of these two girls: "I thought love was invisible--until I saw photos of them together." We couldn't agree more.

Quick Quote

In the car the other day Josie was asking us questions about dreams and nightmares. We have always tried to really break things down for her and get her talking when something is bothering her. And we always try to get to the feelings behind whatever is going on. She told us about a great dream she had with butterflies, ladybugs, princesses, candy and a whole bunch of other glittery, girly goodness. Then she told us about nightmares with monsters with big eyes and trees that come alive. It was all very sweet and serious business but then she said something that absolutely cracked us up. 

Lou: "What else did you see in your bad dream?"
Josie: "A building that had feet and got up and walked around. And then the whole city got feet and got up and walked around and stepped on me."

Lou: "And how did you feel when you had that happened in your dream?"
Josie: "FLAT...and squished!"

Mmmm....Duffins!

Last weekend Josie and I  made "duffins" out of Kiwi Magazine. We've been cooking a lot more from scratch lately, and the idea of a dessert that was part muffin and part donut (and all duffin) sounded too good to pass up.

I've been looking online for the recipe to share with you all, but apparently they have a month lag from the print to online recipes. So check http://www.kiwimagonline.com/ in a few weeks and I suspect it will be there. We made a few substitutions to eliminate the dairy by using Vanilla Rice Milk instead of regular milk and Earth Balance Spread instead of butter. We also used apricot jam and strawberry jam for the filling instead of raspberry as suggested. The apricot was our favorite.

Josie brushes on the butter so we can roll them in sugar

Roly looks on (and gets excited about "duffin boo-boo milk" according to Josie)

Fanning them with a magazine to cool them  down

Posing, very proud (and ready to eat!)

Sun-flowers and Sun-art

Here are a few photos of our sunflowers in full bloom! We have big plans for our sunflowers next year and will have loads of seeds (if anyone would like to plant some in your yard). It's amazing how much you can learn from a tiny packet of seeds. Nature is so incredible.

Loads of big busy bees!

The garden and the sunflowers thriving

Our house from the street: swingset, garden, sunflowers - yep, that's pretty much us! :)

I also wanted to share our fun art project. I remember using this paper in photography class in Junior High. Thanks to The Runyans for getting this for Josie from her birthday wishlist. We are having SO much fun creating nature prints!

Step One: Collect "interesting things" from the yard and lay them out on the sunpaper

Step Two: Stop to push an invisible fairy on our fairy swing while the sun works its magic

Step Three: Remove the objects, rinse paper in lemon juice & water

Step Four: Behold your masterpiece!

First Day of School, 2011

School is in full swing - complete with all of the massive transitions that have come with it. More on that later, but for now let's head back to that first day of school. It was so unbelievably easy compared to that first day last year when we were all three filled with such a flood of emotions. There were definitely some big emotions this year, most they were way more excitement than anxiety this time around. Here a couple of photos from that first morning.

The outfit she picked out - down to one blue scrunchy & one green scrunchy "because I need one for each flower on my skirt" -

Very excited about her two nursing necklaces that I let her wear -

The annual "peace tree" photo -

Daddy (after making her breakfast and packing her lunch) drives her to school every morning. That fifteen minutes each morning has come to be such a sweet and special time for the two of them - which apparently involves singing lots and lots of reggae!

And check out her "montessori movers" - these adorable little school slippers are just the sweetest thing!