How do you get grumpy with someone this happy and cute?

Bronwyn is in THAT stage. 

The one where she's getting into everything, pulling things apart, 

pushing boundaries and generally just being curious about things.

 I remember this time with Aftyn. I had such a hard time!

I know kids are kids. I also know that they are curious. 

This time around, I'm going to strive to laugh more. 

Even while Bronwyn might be standing in the time out. 

I know Heavenly Father has blessed us all with an amazing world 

and we want to see and do and learn everything. 

I don't want to squelch her curiosity, I just want to reign it in a little.

We sure love this girl and her funny personality.

Snow*Snow*Snow

A few hours before it quit

A little later than the first two pictures. It snowed this hard all morning! Which would explain why we ended up with about 20 inches, I heard.

It finally stopped.

And well, proof that this little girly likes to color. She knew she was in trouble, so she obediently stood there while I asked her if she had colored on herself. And took pictures to document her naughtiness.

This one makes me laugh. She looks guilty.

Last Weekend and our day trip to Boston

We were lucky enough to go to the Aquarium and see them feeding the otters and brushing their teeth. The girls loved it!

A replica of one of the Boston Tea Party ships. Oddly enough, named the Eleanor.

One of the Bostonians who helped in the re-enactment of the Boston Massacre, oh, and one of Aftyn's good friends, Daxton.

The British soldiers

Yup, those are "dead" guys on the ground. 3 were killed in this square and 2 later died of their injuries. History re-enacted in the same place it really happened. Cool!

         We had a fun little day trip last weekend to Boston. There was going to be a re-enactment of the Boston Massacre and one of our friends called and invited us to meet up with them in Boston. So we did! We ended up just missing the kids version of the re-enactment but we got to see a few of the shows they do on the streets down in Boston and then walked a whole lot. We walked to the Aquarium, past the ships in the harbor that were part of the Boston Tea Party Museum, and had some yummy dinner at South Market. We saw the official re-enactment which was so neat,the actors really get into character!  We had a few grumpy people who wanted to take up some of the space my friend and I reserved for our husbands while they were gone getting us some Mike's Pastry's. Oh well. We all survived and had a fun and memorable night. We didn't even freeze too badly! What a fun night to remember.

A Much Needed Day of Fun

We went with a few friends to the Higgins Armory Museum here in Worcester. They have this fabulous floor all decked out with hands-on things for kids! We've been here a few times over the past year and we mostly come because it's free through our library!

Seriously. Does it get any better than building your own castle out of big kid-friendly blocks?

        We had lunch with our friends, who somehow avoided being in any of my pictures here, and then decided to go and see Bancroft Tower here in Worcester that looks a whole lot like a castle!

Bronwyn fell asleep on the way over so you won't see her in any of the pictures since I left her in the car to sleep.

What a fun fun morning we had!

Aftyn's Preschool Time

This is why I started taking these pictures. Aftyn was coloring a color by letter picture, and kept wiggling her toes in a cute way. You can see a little of what her toes were doing on her right foot, which would be the one we see on the left.

Did you notice, she's a leftie? 

Silliness from our girls

Bronwyn started it by putting on a pair of Reed's socks she found while I was folding laundry

Aftyn had to join her when she saw how silly she looked.

Our 3rd Sunday of no church. We were a little stir-crazy to say the least. We were getting ready to go for a Sunday drive.

I love this coat from a family in our ward. Aftyn feels like a little lady in it, she curtsies and everything!

Mother of the Year Award

Oh, some days you just want to do a little better.

   Aftyn climbed out of our car today, while I was holding sticky Bronwyn away from me and was preoccupied by a strange truck parked near the entrance of our building with a person leaning into the truck talking with the passengers. Classis drug deal pose and so it made me uncomfortable to have to walk by with my kids.

Poor Aftyn and her muddled mother.

Aftyn had somehow entangled her feet in the "straps" of an empty plastic bag, hadn't noticed because she herself was distracted by the lovely lollipop in her hand, and had been walking through the parking lot to the entrance of the building when, not surprisingly, she totally tripped because of the plastic bag and worst of all to her, broke her lollipop all over the ground. Completely distraught, she began crying while I found us standing in front of said truck, only then becoming aware of what had happened with Aftyn and the bag and really wanting the safety of the inside of our building away from the inhabitants of the truck and the man leaning into it.

 I quickly managed to untangle Aftyn's boots and hugged her, but with our proximity to the truck, I just wanted out of there so I grabbed her hand and crossed our little "intersection" of roadway in front of our entrance, thankfully putting some distance between my girls and I and the dumb truck. Once I got us inside the door of our building, Aftyn took off running as she usually does for the elevator, completely unaware of the mother's complex that was rearing its ugly head inside of me. I felt SO bad that in that instance when she fell FLAT on her face on the pavement, I couldn't react with more genuine concern for her and her injuries.

Sometimes as moms, I guess we just have to give ourselves a break. We really are just doing the best we can do. I can't wait to be able to LOOK BACK at our time in this neighborhood. And laugh. And be glad we made it through safely.