Fancy Nancy in Williamsburg!

We have made it an annual tradition to take the girls to Fancy Nancy in Williamsburg.  It's a simple little lunch and story at the Yankee Candle Factory, but it's something fun to do during the winter and the girls LOVE to dress up for it.  Since Ellie missed out on the Circus the week before, I decided to take Ellie to the lunch and she was one excited little 23-month old.  She had a huge smile on her face as we made her all fancy and she thought she was such a big girl going to the lunch.  At the Fancy Nancy event, the girls loved their cupcakes, had a little photo shoot, read a story with Mrs. Claus and walked around the Yankee Candle Factory.  There are a ton of things to do at the Yankee Candle Factory and the kids had a blast exploring after the lunch.  Here are some pictures from our fun day:

All ready to go to Fancy Nancy!

Miss Madelyn insisted on wearing her hair in a bun with a tierra!

Little Miss Ellie all fancy!

Madelyn and Cora had matching fancy dresses from Target!

Nana and Fancy Ellie!

Our table!

Fancy Ellie all ready for her lunch.  I love her little pearl bracelet in this photo!

The girls couldn't wait to eat their cupcakes.  It was Madelyn's favorite part!

There were only a few families at the lunch so we had our own private reading of Fancy Nancy by Mrs. Claus!

Madelyn and Cora were really into the story!

Little Joshua all dressed up in the vest that Pop wore as a little boy.  He was such a trooper and realized that this is going to be his life going forward!

Adventures of Jack, Madelyn and Ellie!

Aunt Kristen and Cousin Jack came down to visit us last week while they were on their February break.  It was a really fun visit and it was so nice to spend some quality time with them.  Since Bill was out of town most of the week, Kristen and I kept the kids extremely busy.  We started off the week playing the the snow (1st real snow of the winter for us) and ended the week with a picnic at Maymont in 75 degree weather.  During the week, we also took a little trip to Ashland to see the trains, went to Kangaroo Jacs, and visited the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.  We were very sad to see Kristen and Jack leave on Friday but we are looking forward to seeing them again this Summer when we spend a week in CT!  Kristen and I took quite a few pictures of the kids during the week and I've also included a couple of cute videos Kristen took of Ellie during their trip:

All ready for the snow. Jack wasn't prepared for our snow storm so he had to borrow some things from our girls!

Ellie wouldn't even walk in the snow and clung to Aunt Kristen the entire time!

Madelyn and Jack enjoyed sledding down the little hill on the side of our house!

We went out to play very early because the snow was melting fast!

Buddy enjoying a little snow ball fight with Jack!

Ellie enjoyed blowing bubbles in the garage!

Madelyn insisted on building a snowman and I'm obviously not good at building a snowman. This is the best I could do and it was a pretty pathetic snowman!

Sweet cousins!

Ashland Train Station - We took a trip to Ashland to see the circus train but it ended up being delayed. However, the kids loved walking around Ashland and watching the other trains go by.

Waiting for the trains!

Who knew Ashland could be a fun place to visit!

Waving to the conductor!

Kangaroo Jacs!

Fat Tuesday Party!

Aunt Kristen was prepared with all the party supplies!

Bill joined us for some pizza before heading out of town!

Making a drum at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts!

Our little Wednesday playgroup minus a couple of kids!

Feeding the animals at Maymont on a beautiful 75 degree day!

The kids loved the big colorful fish and ducks!

The kids also loved having a picnic lunch by the pond. It was a great day!

It was a long walk back to the car and the kids were really tired at this point!

Little Ellie was pretty much done after all the walking!

Madelyn and Jack at the Bears!

Circus Time!

Nana and Pop have made it an annual tradition to take the grandchildren to the Circus. Last weekend, the Circus was in town so Madelyn and Cora were so excited for their big day. We thought Ellie was a little too young to sit through the show so she stayed home with Mommy and Daddy. The poor little thing was so sad when everyone left that she cried for 10 minutes.  It looks like Nana and Pop will have three little girls to take next year! 

When Madelyn got home, she was so excited to show us the $22 light up wand that she got from the Circus.  Leave it up to grandparents to spend that much money ($44 for 2) on a pink light up/spinning princess wand!!!

All ready to leave for the Circus.  Poor little Ellie had no idea they were leaving her behind in this photo!

Madelyn showing us her new toy from the Circus!

Busy Valentine's Day!

We had a very fun but busy Valentine's Day!  The girls started out the day opening gifts from Grandpa and Vera and Mommy and Daddy before Bill headed out of town for the week.  Madelyn then ate a quick breakfast before heading to preschool for her Valentine exchange and party.  She came home with so much candy and loot from her party and enjoyed sifting through everything with Ellie.  After lunch, Madelyn and I assembled their new 6-foot cardboard castle which takes up half of our kitchen.  I swore I would never own something like this, but they absolutely love it and it will hopefully keep them entertained for the next couple of weeks.  We then headed out to Ballet and then went over to Nana and Pop's house for dinner and more gifts.  Since Pop and Bill are out of town, us girls celebrated a Valentine's Day dinner together! Despite a few tantrums from both girls, we enjoyed a delicious meal of Chili, cornbread and Valentine cupcakes.  Needless to say, the sugar high ended just in time because I had two very tired little girls when we arrived back home tonight!

Sisters on Valentine's Day!

Ellie loves to get her picture taken and then look at the photo.  She made me take about 5 pictures of Madelyn and her standing next to each other before school!

Opening all the Valentine's and candy from preschool!

I found Ellie behind the couch eating a lollipop that she stole out of Madelyn's Valentine bag!

The monstrous castle we gave the girls for Valentine's Day.  Madelyn colored it for about 2 hours today during her "quiet" time!

Valentine's Day dinner with Nana!

Snowflakes and Basketball!

Madelyn and Ellie (especially Madelyn) have been waiting for snow all Winter.  I actually think they had given up like the rest of Richmond, but we were finally able to see some snowflakes this weekend.  It was very short-lived but it was really pretty to see and hear the Thunder Snow on Saturday afternoon.  Madelyn was running around the house screaming for Ellie to come down and see the snow because Ellie was just waking up from her nap.  Madelyn also said that she wanted to call Grandpa to tell him that we got some snow in Virginia.  I'm always telling her when Grandpa gets snow in Connecticut.  The girls were really excited but a little disappointed when it was practically all gone by the time we got outside.  Maybe we'll get a little more next time so they will be able to use their new sled from Santa!

After the snow excitement, we headed to UR for a men's basketball game with some of our friends who are also Spider fans.  Since we didn't get tickets ahead of time, we ended up sitting in the nose bleed section because the game was packed.  Despite the bad seats, we had a great time watching the game and the girls enjoyed eating LOTS of junk food for dinner.  Ellie was pretty young the last time we went to a basketball game so she was in awe of all the lights, music and Spidey.  It was a fun afternoon!

Checking out the Thunder Snow!

Very excited 4-year old!

All ready for the UR Game!

The girls and I sporting our new UR t-shirts!

Checking out the dusting of snow!

Ellie was cold and ready to get into the van. She had no interest in looking at a dusting of snow. I don't blame her!

Madelyn, on the other hand, would have played in the dusting of snow!

Some of our group before the game!

Ellie in awe of all the excitement at the game!

This is what Ellie did for most of the game.  She ate M&M's and popcorn!