Going bowling

Amy needed to get out of the house today (she's had cabin fever a lot this winter), and wanted to do something fun for the girls, and once the word "bowling" came out of her mouth, Maddie didn't want to do anything but.  I have a feeling she felt it was easy as it is on the Wii.  For the record, it's not.

 

 

At this point in the game, Sam was doing just as good as Amy!  Way to go Champ!

ST-RIKE!

Random Pics from January & February

 

  

  

  

Valentine's Day

Maddie had a lot of fun at pre-school giving & receiving valentines (and candy, natch).
The girls were excited to open their cards on Valentine's Day. 

 

 

Children's Discovery Museum

While we were off between Christmas and New Year's, Amy decided we should take the girls to the Children's Discovery Museum in Normal.  The place had a lot of themed areas, and overall was a pretty cool place for kids.

This water area was like a raised pond on a table.  there were jets of water where you could add pipes to move the water to other areas.

There was a pizza restaurant station where they could take telephone orders, make pizzas out of cloth materials, cook them in the "oven"....

And deliver them fast!

They had a water paint area where they could paint on the clear walls around the area and then clean it all up.

Dr. Sam has her smart-looking glasses on & is ready for her patient.

Checking out her patient's heartbeat.

Dentist Maddie is intimidating her patient with that giant toothbrush!

Christmas at G&G Hoehne's

After going through the gifts at our house, we got all dressed & headed over to Grandma & Grandpa Hoehne's to open gifts there & have our usual Christmas morning breakfast...yum.  I'm hungry for date bread just typing this...

She can hardly stand waiting any longer.

Sam decided she didn't have time to get dressed & wore her pajamas over...

Jewelry...ah, teaching her at such a young age.

Can you say "new favorite dress"?

BATH TOYS! BATH TOYS!

The big gift at the end...a scooter!

Christmas Eve & Morning at our house

On Christmas Eve, we spent some time at Grandma & Grandpa Hoehne's with the family...then back home to get the girls in bed so Santa would come by.

All dressed up for the party!

Christmas goodies for Santa...plus some strawberry milk...yum!

Putting out the stockings...hoping they'll be full in the morning...

Christmas morning!  Yay, Santa came...he came!  That's the refurbished dollhouse in the background under the blanket...it was a big hit.

Tearing into it...Maddie was excited to get her Easy Bake oven.

Giving the new fleece a hug...soft!

Not to be outdone, Maddie hugs her fleece.

Sam took a flying seat to try out her new couch.

Maddie has been begging for a cat, and since I'm allergic, it's not happening (not anytime soon).  So, we thought she'd be super excited to get this "Fur Real" kitty.  It moves, meows & purrs when you pet it.  It was a hit.

Christmas in Iowa

We spent our Christmas time with Papa & Margaret in snowy Adel, Iowa early.  Sledding, feeding & petting the neighbor horses, seeing Santa, and of course, opening presents all made for a good time.  And this year it wasn't us that ended up in a ditch!

The girls getting pulled behind the tractor for a fun ride!

Papa Bob & Sam taking a quick ride down the hill.

Maddie with Santa doing his mall duty in Des Moines.  Sam wasn't feeling it, so we don't have a picture of her with this jolly guy.

You know, I'm not sure the girls are ever so well-behaved as when they have a boat-load of presents waiting to be opened!  They got spoiled as usual!

Random November-December 2009 Pics

Here are some random pictures from the last 2 months of 2009.

Sam playing dress up...um, gypsy dress up.

Maddie at her tumbling class.  I'm not sure she learned much, but she did enjoy it.

Murphy must have had a cold nose.

More dress up...bling bling.

Maddie & Great Grandma Baker playing Candyland...

Maddie just before her pre-school Christmas show
starts...

The four of us after the show.

Halloween 2009

I started the day trying to track down a place that still had some pumpkins left.  The night before apparently we were too late for 2 crates at Kroger's that arrived that evening!  So, after about 7 calls, I found someplace that said they had some.  So while Amy & Maddie were at tumbling, Sam and I went for the pumpkin.  They literally had 4 left.  I grabbed the best one and after Maddie drew up a face, we carved it up.

Got Maddie this Princess Jasmine outfit for her birthday and she just loved it.  Slight freak out just before we visited the family when there was a tear in the tulle in the middle of the outfit and Amy's stitching job didn't work.  Dad came to the rescue with super glue & scotch tape!

Sam used one of Maddie's old costumes...the lady bug.  She enjoyed getting into it and everything, so that made it easier, cause when she doesn't want to do something, believe me, she lets you know.

So, we went & saw some grand-parents & great-grandmas and then hit the trick-or-treating on our block.  It was a warm day, but when the sun went down, it got rather cool.  Sam kept saying that she was tired, but wouldn't take me up on my offer to go home with her right then! :)
They had a blast, and we ended up with a big bag full of candy. 

First Day of School dinner! - The Hoehne tradition lives on

So, when I was growing up, my brother & I used to get to pick a place to go out to eat on the first & last day of school. Usually we would just rotate, as I'm sure we could never agree. I thought it'd be fun to do with my kids now too. Maddie's first day back at preschool is tomorrow, and she chose Chuck E. Cheese. Amy & I were a little less than thrilled. Maddie kept talking about how good their pizza is, even though she's never had it! Well, I talked her out of the dinner there (by bribing her to pick one Monday night instead), but we still went to play games for a while.






Sam was a bit intimidated by all the sounds & games (& scary robot creatures on the stage), but eventually got into it. First thing Maddie headed for was the tube maze. She also enjoyed a lot of the little rides, including a horse race one in which she sat on a horse. Let's just say she wasn't winning any trophies, but she was having a blast.







They gave us so many tokens for $10, that it took over an hour and a half to go through them all. At the end, I was just dumping them in these machines that just give you the tickets for prizes. At the end, we ended up with just over 200 tickets...just the right amount to get 2 rings...one for each girl. No fighting! :)