Happy 1st Birthday Allison and Samantha

We had the girls 1st birthday party this past weekend.  Cake, balloons, gifts, and family we had a great time.  There were days this milestone seemed soooo far away (like at 2am feedings).  The first 6 months were definately tough but it has been such a wonderful and rewarding experience to watch these tiny babies turn into such cute little ladies with lots of personality :)  I am looking forward to all that is to come in their second year with these little girls, as I know it just gets better and better!

A pink number 1 ballon for both the girls

A lavender cake for Allison and Pink for Samantha....one chocolate and one white :)

Ben was a big helper with opening gifts

Fruit and Veggies to go in their shopping carts

New shopping carts for the girls.....and big bro Ben likes to help push them around too, or I should say crash them :)

Driving their new shopping carts!

Helping Samantha blow out her candle!

Allison eating her cake!

Potty training has begun

Ben has to be potty trained for preschool this fall so we thought we better get started.  It has been a little over a week and he is doing great!  I created a chart for Ben to put stars on every time he is successful.  At the beginning we did a prize after he got a certain number of stars.  After the first week he doesn't seem to care too much about the stars and prizes anymore, he just knows this is what we do now.  The hardest part now is keeping the girls out of the way.  They hate to be locked out of the bathroom but if I let them in they get in the way, trying to stick their hands in the toilet, etc.  I look forward to the day he can do this without my help, but in the meantime I am THRILLED with how well it has gone.  He caught on very quickly! 

Look....no hands!!

Allison's new trick is to stand up...not needing to pull up on anything.  She can stand up, squat down and then stand back up.  It shouldn't be long before she takes a few steps!!  Samantha is not far behind.

Playdate on a rainy Friday

We had a playdate today with 5 kids under the age of 3.  Hard to get them all to sit still....here was the best pictures I was able to capture.  The babies are a little less than two months apart and the big kids are only 6 weeks apart :)

Staloch family campout

Let me start by saying no, we did not campout.  This was the annual Staloch family campout and it was up in Coon Rapids up near one of Chris's uncles house so we went and visited them for a few hours.  It was HOT.  Ben ran around playing soccer and checking out PaPa's tent.  He had a hotdog but he favorite was the pickles and apparently relish as well :)  I brought the girls dinner and everyone watched while they ate in their little highchairs.  The only thing that was hard is the girls really wanted to crawl around and there wasn't any good grass around.  Keeping them on a blanket was next to impossible.  Next summer will be much better when they are walking....although I know then I will have to chase 3 kids instead of one :)



Ben and PaPa watching a little game of ladder golf



Daddy and Allison

Feeding the girls



You can't tell how dirty he was but he was so dirty he went straight to the tub when we got home!



4th of July BBQ

We were at our neighbors over the 4th of July weekend for a BBQ.  We ate brats and burgers, potato salad, red white and blue desserts, had a few summer drinks, the kids played outside together.   The night ended with a awesome fireworks display thanks to one of our neighbors who took a little trip across the border for some of the "good ones".  One of the best parts was we were able to put the girls to bed at a reasonable hour and bring the monitor to the neighbors yard (I couldn't believe it worked from their yard!).  Sounds like a good reason to have more summer drinks at the neighbors :)

The girls in their 4th of July attire.  I know they aren't smiling, but at least they are both looking at the camera...hard to do!

The kids really had fun, despite the lack of smiles in pictures...they just don't like it when you interrupt their fun.

Ben says "Happy 4th of July!"

The girls having a little snack...you couldn't put your drink down on the table or they would grab it.  Daddy almost lost his beer a couple of times...you think he would learn :)

Daddy's little girl (one of them that is:)

Fireworks!

First pool day for the girls!

We had the girls out in our little kiddie pool twice over the holiday weekend since the weather was finally warm enough!  (I picked out their cute little swimsuits long ago.) They loved it....Samantha seemed to be a little more brave than Allison but that seems to be in line with their personalities.  I think next summer we will need to upgrade to a bigger pool for the 3 of them :)

Allison squinting in the sun.

Really hard to get them to both look at the same time!  Especially when they are busy playing.

All 3 kids playing together, and daddy is in there too supervising.

Samantha showing off her teeth

Ben's big boy bed

We transitioned Ben to his "big boy bed" this week (toddler bed).  He has Curious George sheets to go with the rest of his monkey theme.  He has done great, sleeping really well for both naps and at night.  We told him he had to stay in his bed until mommy or daddy came to get him and so far he is!