F.H.E. for the Highly Sophisticated

It has come to our attention that we suck at having Family Home Evening...so we decided to do something about it.

Last week was our first attempt. It was very short.

This week I decided to do something that (despite being equally as short) would be a little more stimulating for the girls.

Witness my artistic genius.

Now, I highly doubt the eternal truth of families being together forever truly sank in...but it was still nice. It's so fun to teach these girls anything at all. I'm glad for the chance to be able to teach them all I know about what is true and good in this life...and to teach it in a way they will be able to understand. I think sometimes we ALL need to return to basics like this.

I love my family!

Is there a connection...?

You know how some people say that you should be super careful with your kids and their environment? The same people who do hypoallergenic everything? And then you have those people who say that's not very smart because having hypoallergenic everything actually makes your kids more susceptible to allergies and colds because their environment is so sterile?

I don't profess to know really anything about anything, but I have noticed something. We know a couple that has twin girls who are 7 months older than ours. They are the hypoallergenic parents...to the max. They are the parents who purchased the infant bath that allows for a constant flow of water so the child never actually sits in their own dirty water. Now for a compare/contrast...

Our girls chew on shoes.

From the day they were born we haven't washed off the pacifier every time it fell. We've sat back on occasion just hoping that whatever Eloise had in her mouth was edible. We have a picture of Lucy just after feasting on straight dirt. And yet....after all these presumably horrible parenting techniques...I can count on less than five fingers the amount of times my girls have been sick. The same I can't say for the proponents of pure bath water.

Is there a connection? Who knows. Maybe keeping things more on the sterilized side is a better way to do things. Maybe not. Maybe we are terrible parents, but our girls are healthy as little horses.

And yes, I am fully aware that they will now get sick.

To Maine and back again.

At the beginning of June our little family tripped to the East Coast!!

We left early...I mean seriously early...in the morning on June 2nd with Grandma and Grandpa Ross in tow, got on a plane, and spent a wonderful 10 days in Old Orchard Beach Maine.

Why Maine?

That is an excellent question. You see, my sister Brooke and her family live there in this BEAUTIFUL and slightly eccentric house.

Our biggest excuse for going was to see my niece, Brett, graduate from high school.

Yay Brett!!

And then of course, we played on the beach. It took us all of five minutes to walk to it from Brooke's house. Awesome? I think so.

This is one silly Grandpa.

This was the girls' first visit to the "big blue wet thing."

They viewed it as sub-par I think.

Jim and Brooke wasted no time showing us around. At Grandpa's special request we toured Portland Head Lighthouse. It was beautiful!

One of my more particular favorites was this place. Flo's. It was smack in the middle of nowhere...just a little hot dog shack. Literally. I wish I would have taken a picture of the inside...Jim couldn't stand up straight in there!

Another favorite: Chris and I were able to get away for two days and go to Boston...without the girls!! This was my very first train ride which I loved.

While there, we visited Harvard and let me just say...that was a lot of brick to take in.

And this is for anyone who is a serious Gilmore Girls fan.

Using the T (subway system) we traipsed all over the city and found ourselves in Little Italy. These streets were so fun!

We ate at a little hole in the wall diner called Dino's. So good! I got baked gnocchi.

And now we arrive at our main reason for going to Little Italy...the pastries!!

This is a Lobster Tail from Mike's Pastry. Like Heaven in your mouth...which was quite sensational.

While in Little Italy we stopped by some of the spots on the Freedom Trail. This is Paul Revere outside the Old North Church. Apparently he's a Bruins fan.

It was SO hot, but we had fun anyway.

One if by land, two if by sea!

Twenty if by giant robot.

Here is our little bed and breakfast. It was so cute...in spite of our hostess's goal of personally keeping the Hello Kitty industry alive.

More Boston.

We took the water shuttle over to see the U.S.S. Constitution otherwise know as

"Old Ironsides"

They had a really fun museum close by that we went through and had a blast.

This guy has really cool hair.

Did I mention it was unbelievably HOT!!

This is on one of the lower levels of the ship. Nice cannon right.

After Boston, we returned to wrap up our trip with two more fun filled days in Old Orchard.

And to end...here is Dewey's. The place near the pier where we were introduced to the Deep Fried Oreo and the Fried Dough. My stomach will never be the same.

All in all, it was an AMAZING trip. Thanks so much to Brooke, Jim, and Co. for making us welcome and treating us to a really great time!!

Unfortunately I don't have more pictures of the rest of the family, but as soon as I do get some I'll post them so you can all see the kinds of shenanigans that went on!

The Nanny

and what a good one he is

these girls love their Grandpa

To sleep...or not to sleep?

Well, we know what Eloise's answer was.

and Lucy's...

and yes...she is totally out.

Happiness...thy name is confinement.

Don't Laugh

A couple of weeks ago Chris talked me into signing up for the free month of Netflix. How can you argue with free? But I was still wary. We agreed to try it out and see if there were enough movies and shows that we would genuinely want to watch, before we sold our souls to the company. The first week went by with no more than a movie or two, but the second week was a gold mine. We discovered the cartoon Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Now, before you die laughing...let me explain. We saw the M Night Shyamalan movie that was made in 2010 and weren't that impressed. I really liked the story, but I thought the acting was awful. After that we would hear other people occasionally say that the original cartoon was really entertaining, so we added it to the list of those things we'd 'eventually look into.' Anyway, we found we could stream all the episodes online so we watched the first one.

One week later we had finished all three seasons.

Some would call it obsession. I call it enlightenment. I can't possibly say enough good things about this show...along with the fact that if I ever meet M Night Shyamalan I will gladly punch him in the face. How could he ruin something so great? I'll be the first one to admit it's strange that I would like anything from the anime genre, but I really really do. It's not the traditional anime that sometimes makes me want to keel over and die, but rather a regular cartoon with some anime elements. But all of this aside...it is a fantastic story. I seriously don't remember the last time I got this emotionally invested in any show. Ever. Perhaps this declaration, instead of making you realize your own desperate need to watch this amazing show, will make you doubt my taste in entertainment along with my sanity BUT I will not be moved. It is one of the best stories ever written and I can say with sincerity that I am very glad Chris wanted to sign up for Netflix.