11.11.12: Soccer play date

Daphne/purple, Fiona/blue, Stella/pink, and Peter had a park play date.  Nicole was super thoughtful and brought four soccer balls.  The girls had so much fun chasing after the balls in the giant grassy field.  Soccer games are definitely in our future. 

11.10.12: Fort

Using the couch, chair, curtains, pillows, and blankets Stella, Daphne and Fiona made their very own fort.  They were sure to bring their camping supplies (magnifying glass, binoculars, kleenex, and flashlight) to their adventure.  After this picture was taken I was 'encouraged' to leave their fort to let them play.

11.4.12: Licks

The girls and I adventured up to Nene's house for a long weekend leaving Brant behind to work.  This was only the second time I have taken the 2.5 hour drive by myself and I am happy to report that it went much better this year compared to last. 

 

One of their favorite things we did while we were there was to visit the zoo and aquarium.  They loved the zoo because you can endlessly feed the giraffes (where endless = the number of quarters your parent has with them).  Fiona/pink and Stella/gray were really excited to have the giraffes lick their whole arm.  Daphne/pink liked feeding the giraffes but wasn't so sure about the licking.

 Stella sticking her tongue out like the giraffe.

Fiona pretending she has food even though she doesn't (she really liked the licking).

After thorough sanitation, we continued on our adventure throughout the zoo.  Daphne's favorite part was the map.  She loved consulting the map before we visited any animals.  Here she is showing Stella and Fiona our path around the zoo thus far.

 

The girls were also very excited about going swimming.  Our final attempt at using our own pool was in late September where Daphne refused to get in, Stella would only stand in the water and Fiona would go in for two minutes and then get out - all informing us the water was too cold (and I totally agreed).  Thankfully Nene's neighborhood has a heated pool so the girls were excited to show off their swimming skills.

 

Nene also acquisitioned these large paper boards from costco's recycling pile.  We assumed they'd be great to color on, but instead the girls turned them into books.  They wrote stories on the walls of the books and hid behind them.  Who knew cardboard could be so exciting?

10.31.12: Halloween

Official Halloween photo just minutes before heading out to trick-or-treat.  You can tell by their faces that they were very excited.  Fiona/blue, Daphne/green, Stella/pink raced from house to house getting as much loot as possible.  When presented with a plethora of candy to choose from what do they select?...whatever was in their favorite colors.  It was pretty hysterical because they haven't eaten any candy before so they ended up with favorites purely based on packaging.  Fiona ended up with a large amount of Crunch bars, Daphne Reese's peanut butter cups (orange and purple are also her favorite colors) and Stella Skittles (red aka dark pink in our house).

Upon returning home they spent a while sorting their candy, lining it up and trading with each other.  We had some very worn out (but happy) girls by the end of the night.

10.31.12: STELLA and FIOnA

Today Stella figured out how to write an S all on her own and thereby accomplished her ability to write her own name, legibly.

Fiona learned how to write an N on her own - the remaining challenging letter. Now all three girls can write their own names.

Next we move onto writing our last name.  This may take a little bit, nine letters is a lot for a three year old.

10.29.12: Pumpkins or drums?

This year the girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) drew their own jack-o-latern faces on their pumpkins and then Brant and I went to work carving them.  We tried to get the girls to clean out their pumpkins, but they kept calling the insides...gross.  The girls were really excited to see the faces they drew carved.  They got even more excited when they learned the fun noises the pumpkins made when you hit it with the spoon.  Not sure if they were more excited about their carved pumpkins...or new drums. 

10.28.12: Marrone/Robertson Halloween

This year we celebrated our 2nd annual Marrone/Robertson adventure to the zoo for trick-or-treating.  As you can see, the girls were crayons (fiona/blue, daphne/green, stella/pink).  Brant and I were paper (or white felt painted by the girls in their crayon colors).  The crayon hats were short lived as expected but they carried their own color coordinated pumpkins most of the time this year.   We even painted fingernails and toes to match crayon colors.  Nicole was a vet, Peter an astronaut and Dan a NASA repairman.  All costumes homemade and all turned out great. I can't believe we have lived here long enough to celebrate our second Halloween already.

10.27.12: Mesmerized

What could possibly have the girls so mesmerized?  Their very first video game, Sesame Street.  Daphne, Fiona and Stella were in complete shock and couldn't even finish their cheese.  Then they learned that they could be 'IN' elmo's world and the shock turned into gigantic smiles.  Thanks Debbie!

 

10.22.12: Walking Nene

It has become a tradition when Nene comes that she always brings balloons (and takes them away upon her departure).  With balloons come strings and with strings comes the desire to 'walk' people around the house.  I don't understand it, but the girls (stella/peach, fiona/purple, daphne/pink) love it.  They walk, run, and skip around the house all while holding a string with an adult (and occasionally each other).  It is by far their favorite thing to do and typically goes on for 30+ minutes before the adult gets tired of walking in circles, never the girls.  Nene has now mastered the art of getting walked by everyone at the same time - a true feat considering they must all agree to go in the same direction at the same pace.

10.21.12: Who is the party for?

Today we went to the children's museum with Nene and arrived to a party getting setup outside.  Daphne asked me who the party was for and I suggested she go and ask someone setting up the tables (I knew there was a special event going on today)....so she did, right after she tapped the stranger on her bottom to get her attention. 

 

After spending sometime inside the museum, we went outside to discover hula hoops, balloon animals, puppets, clown noses, glitter stars, ice cream, bollywood dancing and tons more.  Below Stella/blue, Fiona/purple, Daphne/orange proudly showoff their color coordinated balloon dogs.