Minnie's copy-cat

The ladies are heading to Disney World with their Anna in 9 weeks so I guess some practice is in order.  Andy and I will be in Napa running a half marathon with friends. We are so happy that their grandma gets to share the special memory of going to Disney with them for the first time. 

R is for Reid

Fairy Garden Party!

The girls celebrated with their buddies Cora and Hazel at Cora's 5th birthday party, a fairy garden party theme. It was so cute and Cora and Hazel's mama went above and beyond the call of duty with adorable wings, tutus and wands for each girl.

Fun at the zoo!

Interesting article

Years and years ago, before we had kids, I read an article that talked about how not responding to babies' needs- i.e., using the "cry it out" method of sleep training or doing other so-called non-traumatizing parenting behaviors like isolating a newborn in their own room or locking a child in their bedroom because they keep coming out- can cause disruption in the development of the section of the brain that relates to empathy. That resonated with me and I decided that we would do a more natural parenting style. Yes, our kids don't sleep and they still wake up and they've never really been good nappers. But they are also confident, with big personalities, engaged in the world and very verbal. Natural parenting always seemed right to me. So I love when I see articles that corroborate our choices, even when they come out of Notre Dame. :)

http://research.nd.edu/news/36692-modern-parenting-may-hinder-brain-development-research-shows/

Lollapalooza!

The School of Rock All-Stars played Lollapalooza so we were given Artist's passes to the event- which would have gotten us backstage everywhere and we totally didn't take advantage of it, which was really sad! We wanted the girls to have the experience so we made it a family outing. They loved the music and other entertainment. The children's area-Kidapalooza- had all kinds of fun things for children to do, including getting their hair colored. They were both excited to have purple and pink hair and neither was willing to have it washed out last night!

 Reid is standing in the kid's karaoke area, getting ready to sing "we are young" by Fun. However, there were some technical difficulties and it didn't come on right away so the woman was chatting with her. She asked her "do you like to sing?" and Reid replied, "No, I don't like to sing." Then she walked off stage and that was that.

Ready for her first day of dance camp!