Target's Dr. Seuss Storytime

The girls and I had a nice little surprise at Target today. We were out of the house this morning to take Jamie to work, then I had decided to take the girls to Saturday morning storytime at Barnes & Noble. This isn't something we've ever done before, but I was trying to think of a different activity for us to do and thought this would be fun.

We had about an hour to waste, so I debated between taking the girls to breakfast at Panera Bread (I was craving a cinnamon crunch bagel) and going to Target. I left it up to Ella, who ultimately decided on Target. Why, you ask? Because she knows that Target has Starbucks, and she wanted a rice krispy treat. So to Target we went. I enjoyed a hot chocolate and the girls split a rice krispy treat. So we walked around for a little while, and made it over to the book section. I saw in the weekly ad that Target had Dr. Seuss books on sale and I wanted to get a copy of The Lorax for us to read before the movie comes to theatres next weekend. We were walking past the toy section towards the outdoorsy section when I could see a bunch of chairs set up and it looked like some type of storytime was about to begin. Turns out they were having Dr. Seuss Storytime and participating in Read Across America. What was the featured book? The Lorax! Both of the girls received adorable Lorax bags that contained a coloring page, crayons, stickers, fruit snacks, animal crackers and a Lorax mustache. It was great! They read two books before reading The Lorax...Green Eggs & Ham and Go, Dog, Go. Unfortunately, Kendall's attention span isn't quite long enough for Dr. Seuss books, so she was pretty much done before they started The Lorax. She and I walked off to the side to not disrupt the other listeners, and Ella stayed in her chair to hear the Lorax.

We ended up not making it to Barnes & Noble, but this worked out even better! As if I needed another reason to love Target!


Ella with her Lorax mustache

Kendall showing off our new reusable bags!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We hope that everyone had a great Valentine's Day like we did! Ours spread out over a few days, which made it twice as fun!
On Friday, our playgroup friends came over for a little Valentine's Day party complete with heart shaped pizza from Papa Murphy's, cupcake decorating, and valentine exchanging. The kids had a great time! Ella and I had fun making homemade valentines...the idea of course came from Pinterest. :)
On Monday night, Jamie watched the girls so Ronnie and I could go out on a date. (For those of you who didn't know, Jamie's Peace Corps service ended early and she moved in with us a couple of weeks ago...fun!!) Ronnie and I hadn't been out to dinner and a movie in a really long time, so we were really excited! And the girls were excited to have a movie night with Aunt JJ. We decided to go eat at Olive Garden. It was soooooo good. After dinner we headed to Meijer to get some movie theatre candy and then went to Tinsletown to see "Safe House" with Denzel Washington and Ryan Reynolds. It was really good. If you like intense CIA-type movies then we would recommend it!
On Valentine's Day the girls, Jamie and I headed to the Kentucky Gymnastics Association for open gym. We used to go there pretty frequently but it had been awhile, so the girls, especially Ella, were so excited! It was so fun watching them play. Ella is now one of the "big kids" there, running around doing all the big stuff without assistance, and Kendall of course wants to do whatever Ella is doing so she requires pretty close supervision! Both these girls have no fear! Toni mets us at KGA with Grace and the little boy she watches, so the girls also had fun "playing" with the babies when they weren't running around crazy. After open gym we all had lunch at McAlisters...3 adults, 4 kids, lots of noise. But it was a blast! Ella and Kendall love McAlisters. Ella suggested it over Chick-Fil-A (gasp!) and as soon as we walk in the door Kendall starts yelling "Pizza!! Pizza!" She loves their cheese pita pizza. After lunch Ella insisted that Grace come over to see her new Princess Closet that she got for Christmas, so we had fun hanging out into the afternoon!
That afternoon we exchanged presents. We gave the girls books and some candy, and mom and dad had sent some candy and the movie "Horton Hears a Who". Ronnie and I decided to set a small price limit for Valentine's Day this year, since we will be the proud owners of a boat within the next couple of days. I was very excited to receive a new Willow Tree figurine...this one entitled You & Me...which is very fitting since the Lifehouse song "You & Me" is our song. I appropriately gave him a new (and super sweet) pair of swimming trunks since he will spend a lot of time on the lake this summer because of the boat.
Here are a few pics!

Going on a date! I don't think we've had an actual "Valentine's" date since the girls were born!

Ella can swing forever!

Hang on, Kendall!

Love these girls!!

Elmo ABC's for Kendall!

Fancy Nancy for Ella!

Ella and Grace

It's a Grace sandwich!

Fun with friends!