So it Begins...

Baseball season is here! Chris is seriously like a little kid at Christmas. He is going to tailgate at the home opener here in Arlington tomorrow, and then the whole fam is going this Sunday to see the Rangers play the Red Sox. Gianna was really excited to wear her Giants jersey to preschool today, and then insisted she wear it to bed too.

This Girl...

... is going to be the death of me.

I took this picture of her at the St. Patrick's Parade after getting clonked by an overeager necklace-catcher. She was more scared than hurt but a thin mint did the trick.

Anyways, G is going to be the death of me because, well just read about what happened at church yesterday.

I let Gianna walk in front of me on the way up the aisle to communion. There was a woman in front of her wearing a dress that showed off her curves. (I promise, it was tasteful for church, but sometimes you just can't hide it when you have a well endowed derrière) So if Gianna is walking by herself behind this woman, where do you think her eye level was? As soon as she got a good look, she turned to me and said, and I quote, "mom, her bottom is so big." I was absolutely mortified! Thankfully, I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder as soon as I heard the word "bottom". (there have been times when I know she is about to ask me why that man is pregnant, so I have pretty good reflexes in these situations.) I don't (and I hope) think that she heard Gianna say it, the first time, that is. Then, after communion while I battled fits of giggles and thoughts of OMG, "how rude?", we walked back to our pew. This woman was sitting right behind Chris and as soon as we came near her again, Gianna asked me "mom why is her bottom so big?" I wanted to just melt into the pew and never be seen again. There was no way this poor woman didn't hear what Gianna said this time. All the while, Chris is completely oblivious to what was going on. I made Gianna sit on my lap until church was over, and as soon as possible, I bolted with her out of church. Once in the car, I told Chris what she said and we had a little chat about talking about other people's body parts isn't nice, and she could have hurt her feelings, yada yada. I just didn't know if I should have said something to the woman or just hope and pray that she didn't hear G. And if she did, I pray to God that she understands that Gianna was making an observation, and not trying to be rude! Like I said, death of me!!

Weekend in Pictures

This weekend was crazy busy! I got my hair did, we bbq'd with friends, Chris frolfed, and we watched R's kids since she had her baby late Saturday night! Xavier James was born 6lbs, 14oz at 11:02. PRECIOUS. I really want to put a picture up, but I won't, since he isn't my own baby.

Anyways, not time to blog, but here are some pics from this weekend (and some from earlier this week too)

Tuesday we planted potatoes. Why potatoes? Because durn Walmart didn't have any flower seeds for us to grow, so G picked potatoes. Should be interesting.

G found a caterpillar and carried it around for 20 minutes, calling it little fella, and look mom, this is my new pet! She made a little house for him and everything. Poor guy must have fallen "asleep" after all that, but Gianna just put him back in his house and that was that.

We met some friends at the park after school on Friday, and on the way home while we were walking around our alley, Chris came home and the girls got to take a ride in his car.

They car danced for a while.

We went to John and Sam's Saturday night to bbq. They had out their baby pools, which Elia could not get enough of. The cold front came through right around 5 and Elia still refused to get out. She was shaking, teeth chattering, so we finally took her out and she was not happy about that! Nothing Sam's queso wouldn't cure though.

Such a full, wonderful weekend! Can't wait till next weekend!

Spring Break Behind the Scenes

A lot happened in the past week at the Rowles abode. Nothing like a week off work to pack in as much cleaning, organizing, visiting, playing, and just general fun as possible.

Wearing crazy outfits:

Washing the car and bikes:

Hanging with Friends:

I love E's outfit!!

Museum at Fair Park

Since we had such a great time taking the train to the St. Patrick's Day parade last week, we took the DART again, but this time to Fair Park to go to the Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit. Chris had a half day, so we had enough time to get to the museum by 3:30. The train lost a tiny bit of its new-ness to the girls, and it was harder to keep them sitting still and not crazy. The Dinosaurs Unearthed exhibit basically made you pay extra on top of the general exhibits. Unearthed had keypads so you could push buttons and make the dinosaurs move... which is pretty cool(especially for toddlers) but in the end probably not worth the extra dough.

Not sure how Elia felt at first!

They got pretty obsessed with excavating the bones. They could have played there for hours.

After we did Unearthed, we went to the general exhibits were there was some excavating in the sand (again, coulda played for hours). In fact, we could have done just this and everyone would have been happy. We also went to the under 6 play area where they have a play farm. The girls loved it too.

After that, we took the DART to Deep Ellum and got some Twisted Root burgers. They have been featured on Diners Drive ins and Dives, and trust me, they did not disappoint.

A fun day!

Aunt Colleen's Visit

We had such a wonderful visit with Aunt Col this week. She babysat for us all day while we were at work on Friday, went to the parade on Saturday, babysat again for a date night on Sunday, followed us around at the Arboretum on Monday, hung out at the hiking park on Tuesday, and finally helped me host my church's playgroup on Wednesday. I was sad to see her go when we dropped her off at the airport this evening. The girls love her, and it shows in the pictures. We can't wait to see her again in June! Love you Col!

At the parade:

Gianna asked her to draw a pteranadon (flying dino) and so she looked up a pic on her computer and sketched it.

Hiking Park:

Hanging out:

Ain't she pretty? :)

Arboretum

Monday morning, we had a blast hanging out with G's bff Brynn at the Arboretum. They have everything all decked out for spring, including some amazing fairy tale play castles. On Mondays and Tuesdays they have a Mommy and me program which includes face painting, crafts, and music. After we got our faces painted, we spent the rest of the morning exploring the castles. So. much. fun.

I feel like it made G look like she was 30 years old. But so beautiful!

Elia did not like it at first and kept trying to wipe it off. Once I distracted her with goldfish, she was all good.

Gianna kept breaking out into song- I think she was inspired by the beauty of it all. Here they are in the Beauty and the Beast Castle.

Elia went to Tom Thumb earlier that morning and got the 'thank you' sticker.

Best pics of the two of them together. G is mid song in the 1st picture. I feel like the face paint on Elia gives her man brows!

The tulips were freaking gorgeous. Gianna and Elia tried to play hide and seek in the open field, but it being in an open field, didn't go as well as they wanted.

SO glad spring is finally here!

Pirate Treasure

Gianna is all of a sudden into Pirates after watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates a few times. On Sunday at church she kept ripping out pages in my journal and rolling them up into "maps." This inspired Chris into making the most awesome treasure map in the whole world. Gianna loves it, Boom loves it, and I think we might frame it eventually. G named all the different areas of the island.

In progress:

Close Ups:

Final: