Bribery & Fashion

Today I swallowed my pride & bribed Ainsley to wear a dress with a matching sweater for school pictures.  (Spiderman toy in exchange for a dress.)


Why do I stoop to such levels?  Please see the following:

Ainsley still loves "stripes on stripes," regardless of the color.

Boots & shorts 

(don't worry, we didn't let her leave the house like this)

She still LOVES tie-dye.  

(I still don't.)

Thanks Auntie Julie for bringing more tie-dye!

Now she loooves peace signs too!

Why would you wear the matching shirt to the skirt when you could proclaim your love for soccer instead?

The monochromatic "my-favorite-color-is-blue" look:

And my personal favorite, tie-dye & stripes.  Awesome.

Where have we been?

I have no excuse for not updating the blog - just busy with my little monsters.  Here's a recap of what we've been up to the past few months:

Max continues to use his dimples to get out of trouble.

Ainsley is totally & completely obsessed with dinosaurs. She wore this hat for 9 hours.

Max & Ainsley are still best buddies, even though they fight constantly. Here they are playing "swim lessons" wearing "goggles" & "swim caps" (aka-hats made by Granny).



Max will still do anything for a laugh.



Ainsley made it through a dental checkup without having a panic attack...



...and Max completed his first dental visit with no tears, no hesitation - it was a miracle! Ainsley prepped him for a month - big sisters are the best! (I'm hoping she'll potty-train him, too!)



Costco finally started carrying Diet Mountain Dew - making Brad a very happy man. 



I took the kids to a "Rapunzel" puppet show - Mommy should have found out if there was a "scary witch" because Max was NOT fond of her in any way. Now he is suspicious of all puppets - see above.



Ainsley made a worm puppet, named Andy, after the puppet show. 



Taking after his sister at age 2, Max reminded us about "safety first" & donned a bike helmet during lunch.



Ainsley still makes us laugh with her wardrobe choices.



Auntie Julie came to visit & brought these LOVELY tank tops. A "Muscle Beach" tank & another tie-dye frock are really things I wanted in their closets. Of course they both LOVE them.



Ainsley continues to show us her "creative" side - especially when she's alone in her room during "rest time." This particular day she decided to make her own kite & try to fly it with the wind from her ceiling fan. She couldn't understand why it wouldn't fly & was very mad about this & for some reason it was my fault. 



Another day she decided to make her closet into her clubhouse. You had to have an invitation to gain entry-it's very exclusive.  She slept there for 2 or 3 nights.



This is my personal favorite: Instead of cleaning up her room, Ainsley decided she would stack all of the toys on her floor in one basket & turn it into a castle for kids to snowboard in. Seriously? I had no response so I just took a picture.



We've also been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather. On this day Max & Ainsley were hitting our tree with tennis rackets & butterfly nets to "make it snow," then would attempt to slide in the grass on our saucers & toboggan. They couldn't figure out why they wouldn't go fast "like with regular snow."



Ballet cowgirl Woody - Ainsley still loves "Toy Story" & ballet & dressing up like Woody.



We celebrated Granny Thea's birthday by sticking 25 flamingos in her yard. It was pretty funny (but it was freezing out!)



Ainsley started the spring soccer season & is having a great time. We're not sure if she likes playing soccer or wearing her penguin soccer socks more (her team is called the "Princess Penguins").



We've had lots of fun visitors this winter. Max loved playing with Ronan Will, 2 yrs, who was visiting from California.



Ainsley & Max love baby Kaitlin Schorgl, born in January, who is a frequent visitor.



Ainsley even got to hold baby Rosalie, Ronan's little sister. It was so special to see Auntie Annie & her kiddos!



We are also pretty obsessed with firefighters!  Firefighter Uncle Rich has been writing us lots of letters telling us all about what it's like to be a firefighter in Northern California. He even sent us his badges-see above!



Firefighter Ainsley



No brother-sister firefighting duo would be complete without matching firefighter jammies, right?
Please check back more frequently - hopefully I'll be updating this more often!