Maternity Leave

Towards the end of my leave I got slack on pretty much everything except spending as much quality time with the kids as possible so the blog suffered.  We certainly stayed busy and here are some pictures I've found on my camera and phone to catch up a bit.

Olivia not only became a big sister, but a big girl as well so she got her first big girl bike!  She does quite well on it, but we will have to work on going up hill some more.

We went to tons of birthday parties.  I think 3 year old's have more of a social life than their mommies!

One of the birthdays was at Country Adventures which was a lot of fun for the kids!  Olivia had just recently seen the Toy Story on Ice and said she needed to dress like Jessie for this party.  The girl does not wear pants or shorts so this what she came up with to wear.  She now has told me she needs a cowgirl hat since she didn't have one to wear and had to make do.

They had lots of animals to pet...

Pony rides...

Olivia's favorite, the hip-hop (which is what she calls bunnies).

Just a little excited!

There were lots of farm animals...

And even a hay ride!

Abigail loved the hayride.  She loves to move so this was just her thing!

And hot dogs for lunch.

Afterward, we surprised Olivia with a trip to the Sparkleberry Fair!  She couldn't have been more excited when we pulled up and she saw the ferris wheel!

This ride was her favorite which bounced the kids up and down.

We even ran into one of Olivia's girlfriends from school who had just been at the party as well so they had a great time at the fair together and since then has asked her mom about going back to the fair, when explained the fair wasn't here that it travels she told her mom to just give her money and her and Olivia would find the fair!  Too cute!

We also had a visit from Grandpa and Darlene and took a trip to the strawberry field to pick strawberries.  It is worth it to go.  Fresh strawberries are so much better than what you can get in the store.

Of course my favorite helper helped me out in the kitchen making strawberry bread (can't wait until I have 2 favorite helpers to help me out!)

Abigail spent a lot of time playing on her play mat that she LOVES.  She mostly napped on me which meant I could only get stuff done while she was busy playing on her mat.

And since she mostly napped on me, we spent a lot of time in this position...

There was even some sister cuddle time.

I even took both girls out to the zoo.  Abigail mostly slept, but did watch her big sister ride the pony.  The pony was a compromise to not being able to ride the carousel since I couldn't go on with Olivia while I had Abigail in the stroller.  Olivia liked the compromise because she said the real pony was better anyway.

And once upon a time you couldn't bribe Olivia to get on these statues and now she has to get on each and every one she passes every time we go to the zoo!  BTW - this rainbow dress is her absolute favorite dress!  She likes it because it is longer than her other dresses (it is a size 4 where as most her clothes are a 3) and she thinks longer dresses are more like ball gowns which is why she likes them longer.  The only problem with buying longer dresses is they are big for her and are always falling down even when it has been worn, washed and shrunk a millions times!

We spent a lot of time in our bathing suits, washing cars...

Playing in pools...

While Abigail napped.

Playing in the sprinklers...

Again, while Abigail napped...

Abigail even got to join in on the water fun by going swimming for the first time!  She loves bath time so I had a feeling she would like the pool and I was right!

Olivia practiced her swimming.  She really wants to learn how to swim and is very brave in the water even without her floaties on but she isn't quite there yet.  The next sign up for swimming lessons is the end of June so we will be signing her up then.

Olivia also got to have a friend sleep over.  Actually, the whole family stayed, but it was still fun for Olivia to have a friend to play with and stay up late with.  They played one of Olivia's favorite games (dress-up) and watched the Barbie Swan Lake movie and they used their magic wands to change Barbie back into whatever she was supposed to be.

They stayed up so late that we had no problem getting them to fall asleep together and they slept in until after 10am!

And enjoyed breakfast before Megan had to leave.

While Abigail napped some more, we enjoyed ice cream at a local place in our neighborhood.

 Olivia even tried a trial class at the gymnastics place to see if this is something she would like to try out for the summer.  She loved it so she will be doing this for June and July for now.

Luckily Abigail didn't spend all of her time napping and while she was awake, we got lots of smiles and giggles out of her!

Such a happy little girl!

She also enjoys looking up at her mobile and hugging on her lovey.

Olivia also got a special date night with mommy to go watch a dance performance at a local theater.  She actually wanted Abigail to come also on her special night out with mommy which I thought was sweet but it was too late to keep Abigail out and wasn't the right venue for an infant her age.  But it won't be long before Abigail will be sitting right there with us :)

She thought it was funny to make silly faces for pictures!

During this time, the girls have definitely had time to bond as well.  I hope this bond continues to grow as they get older because right now they just can't get enough of each other.  It is hard being back at work, but I am glad for all the time I got to spend with my girls during my leave.  But while I am at work, I miss them like crazy and can't wait until I get to pick them up again.