Monday, April 30, 2012

Phillies Game

On Friday night, we went to the Phillies game.  We were there to support Autism Awareness and Jack as he threw out the first pitch.  We all had shirts that said "Jack's Pitch" on them, we tailgated before the game and despite the cold weather, a squiggly baby and the clock quickly inching its way past bedtime, we made it past the fourth inning. 

Ani Rose and her mama tailgating.  I wish I had a picture of how much of my hoagie this little girl ripped into.  She can seriously pack it away.


Norrin found a game to play while the rest of us ate.


And in true Norrin fashion, made friends and fit right in, as if he does this every day of his life :).


Norrin and his Da ready to go watch a Phillies game.


I was pretty sure Norrin was going to hang himself on the turnstile.  It was not his most graceful moment.


But once we were in and found our seats, Norrin began goofing off with his cousins.  All the friends and family were seated in the same area, so Norrin was pretty entertained for a good portion of the time.


Aunt Peggy tried very hard to keep Ani Rose entertained.


It took a lot of energy to try and change her focus.


And after a few more attempts at distraction, Ani Rose ended up right where she wanted to be...in her mama's arms.

Grandmom Meatball and Pop Pop Jodeph desperately trying to keep warm.  It was really windy and the setting sun was not helping any of us keep warm.


Ani Rose was also pretty happy in her Da's arms.


There was a really nice video on the big screens.  There's Jack and Conor :).


And there they are with the Philly Phanatic after Jack's pitch. 


Norrin got a pretzel that Ani Rose was pretty sure she wanted a piece of.


In fact, she insisted on a piece of it.


Luckily, her brother has learned to share...most of the time.


Clapping is her favorite skill right now. So, when the crowd clapped, she joined in.


I love, love, love this picture.  It makes me laugh every time.  She seriously looks like, "Uh, who's this homeless guy holding me?".  It got so cold, we all started looking a little less familiar to her :).


And as a last ditch effort to get her to hold still, we let her play with the ice in a cup.  She could have done this for an hour, but we were all cringing because it was not the kind of weather to be playing with ice cubes.  It actually hurt our hands watching her do this.  Seriously.


It was about nine o'clock when we finally started heading home.  It was perfect.  Just enough time for the kids to get the experience, we had no traffic to fight with and we were all in bed at only a slightly unreasonable hour :).

Tee Ball

I signed Norrin up for tee ball.  I didn't think he'd like it very much and I don't really think he does.  There's just too much waiting around for him.  Waiting for his turn at bat, waiting to catch the ball.  However, three of his friends from school are playing, its early in the morning and it gets him out of the house and into the fresh air. 

It also affords me a little bit of knitting time in the fresh air, which I love.  I love knitting outside. 


Norrin is on the green team.


He insisted on a red glove.  The quality is not the best, but he doesn't care.  Its red and that's all that matters.


Norrin's turn at bat.


And that's about the best distance he can put on the ball :).  Oh, well.  At four, its all about getting him out and about and enjoying the nice weather.

Monday, April 23, 2012

Ani's First Birthday

 Well, my baby girl is now one year old...or she's no longer nothing, as Norrin likes to say.  We all decided to take the day off and spend it together.  Norrin insisted I make rainbow cupcakes.  We also got a few little gifts for Ani- a stroller, an inflatable bouncy horse, some first birthday clothes.  Her favorite was and is the stroller.  I put her Elmo doll in it and she walks up and down the hall with him.  She hasn't figured out how to turn the stroller, but she likes walking with it and has even attempted a few steps on her own (for the record, she still prefers crawling).We had breakfast together, played on a playground while Da did just a little bit of work, then we all went to Grounds for Sculpture.  It was perfect weather and we stayed there until it closed. 

Rainbow cupcakes with rainbow sprinkles.




Some without the dark chocolate frosting for Ani Rose...I decided she didn't need the extra dose of caffeine and sugar.  She was wild enough on just the cupcake. 


What happens when I leave a colander with strawberries in front of Norrin Radd.  I think he only shared two with his sister and I got to nibble the leftovers...hmmm.



Ani and her stroller.

Happy girl.


At Grounds for Sculpture.  The peacocks are free to wander wherever and they let you get pretty close to them. 


Ani is such a little animal lover, so she kept making these high pitched squeaks to get its attention or declare her love or something of that nature :).


 This is a photo Norrin took.  I wish I could have taken a picture of him taking a picture.  He was so cute about it.  He followed that peacock so close, I thought he was going to step on his tail. 


Ani Rose ate and ate and ate...as usual.  The best part about this meal was that she ate while standing up.  It was pretty funny.


Ani ate more food than Norrin.  He wasn't happy that his pizza looked weird (they put slices of tomato and basil on top). 


Norrin's hunger didn't stop him from enjoying the art.

                                                  

Da and the birthday girl in one of Todd's absolute favorite sculptures.



Norrin climbed on every sculpture he could.  They had red plaques if they didn't want you to touch it and a green one if you could.  Unfortunately, Norrin saw green as the okay to climb over every sculpture like a little monkey.



Norrin snuggles= Mama bliss.

One of these things is not like the other...


Our smiling little birthday girl, Miss Ani Rose Milligan.

Monday, April 16, 2012

Outdoor Adventures

There were some beautiful days this weekend. We got out in the backyard and really soaked it up.


Norrin practiced hitting a baseball using the tee ball set that Pop Pop Fish bought him.

Ani enjoyed the wind in her hair.



And the warm sun on her skin.





She got a little ticked off with the camera in her face (look at those long fingers!).



She just doesn't have time for this nonsense when there's a whole world to explore.




I got a lot of free kisses at Norrin's Hugs and Kisses Store.




Not sure he was so willing to hand them out to Da.



And eventually we ended up inside and watching Norrin kick bad guy butt on his superhero game. Love his video game face.


Belated Easter Pictures

The results of one jellybean...oh, wait...that's her usual crazy behavior.

Lots of Easter egg hunting...






Lots of tree climbing...












And playing in Grandmom Meatball's backyard...





While his sister slept...



And slept...



A Monster knitted up for the boy...





And a bunny knitted up for the girl...





Happy Easter!