North Carolina

Summer vacations have been redefined for me post children. There is no longer the expectation of a relaxing time. It is all about the kids, their schedules and their general happiness. Throw some jet lag into the mix and it's kinda zombie town in a foreign environment. That being said, our first family trip with the whole family was a (mostly) good one.

I won't deny it - we brought out the big guns for the plane rides- two iPads, two iPods, two smart phones, lots of snacks and plenty of toys. The hardest thing was trying to keep Leeloo on a lap. Now that's she's mobile all she wants to do is explore. Luckily her brothers were nearby to distract her. However I think this may have been her last fight as a "lap child". She is totally ready for her own seat.

 After a drive to the airport, a three hour flight, a four hour layover, another three hour flight and then a two hour drive we all crashed. But the next day - we were ready!

Leeloo's first cart ride:

Learning about this fishing thing in Nana's pond.

The jet lag was a killer. This was all three kiddos around midnight - no sleep in sight!

It was warm during our visit. Luckily there is always super yummy ice cream to be found.

There is also the coolest playground I've ever seen, called Camelot.

Most of the action wore the chiquita out.

We had plenty of opportunity to explore different places. Her is the young one in a whole new backyard.

And nobody lets her be bored.

Once again with the sleepyness.

Nana had all sorts of fun toys.

And big lakes that we had to keep Leeloo from jumping in.

The kids decided Grandpa's office was the place to be.

There was also plenty of iPad time.


Ripley also loved Nana's door.



By the time we were ready to fly again she was exhausted.

But her brothers perked her up.

 All in all - a week passes too quickly.

Walks

Fourth of July

Like the majority of our holidays these days, Fourth of July started in the park. We took balloons and flags and bubbles and let the kiddos loose. There's something about having a little one that makes the holidays a little more shiny. Everything is new to them, and in the chiquita's case everything is super exciting.

Balloons are great location devices for wandering children.

All the little ones were donning stripes.

I am absolutely in love with Leeloo's little sailor dress. Too cute!

And the back of the dress is even cuter!

Ripley and her friend chasing bubbles (cause that's what kids do).

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Later that night we went to a park up the street for fireworks.

Two years ago I was pregnant. Last year the chiquita was asleep. And this year she looked like this:

Just a little excited.

She was occasionally interested, but mostly she wanted to jump on mami and eat snacks.

All and all it was great. Next year she may even be ready for sparklers :)

Favorites: Apps

In the rose colored glaze of pregnancy I swore I'd never succumb to this screen driven culture with my children. We were going to read and build and explore our imaginations all day long. After a year and a half, we do read, and build, and explore, and then I have to make lunch, or be on a plane for hours, or just have a quiet moment. For those instances, I have to confess, the iPad is my savior. Lately, I've even begun to justify it - it's educational, and fun, and she's reading, and learning. But I'll call it plainly - my crutch. She loves it, I love it. We are a modern family.

Here are the goto apps of the hour:

Endless Alphabet 

By far the app of the moment. Chiquita loves being able to match the letters but she also has the patience to watch the animation/definition afterwards. I love the cute characters and great vocabulary. Yay for spelling with monsters!

Petting Zoo 

The app that started it all. Besides a couple of sad fireworks apps, this was the first one I downloaded specifically for the chiquita. There is a lot to like in this one: music, animation, animals, and it's totally interactive. Leeloo really enjoyed it when she was first getting acquainted with the iPad.

Toca Boca 

We have a bunch of these apps. They are not only faves of the chiquita, but her brothers love them too. Occasionally I even catch D playing them after the kiddos have lost interest. It must be the great characters and their reactions. Either that or all the different options and combinations you can come up with. We have:

Toca Hair Salon 2 In which you can cut, style, wash, buzz, color and primp the hair of all sorts of characters.

Toca Fairy Tales In which you can design outfits for fairy tale characters. Leeloo likes that you can layer patterns on the fabric and not just have to choose one color. She also likes the masks and hat choices.

Toca Kitchen Monsters In which you can choose food, prepare it and feed it to monsters. Simple? Yes. Straight forward? Yes. Fun and adorable? Absolutely.

Toca Doctor In which you play simple little doctor games. Fix a broken leg, zap cavities, follow the digestive tract. We only have the free version, so I'm sure the is even more fun and enjoyment to be had.

PBS Kids

Leeloo loves this app. I mean LOVES. She can easily use it to surf favorite shows like Curious George and Caillou. I know, I know, a year and a half and she has favorite shows? It's a fact jack.

Another Monster at the End of this Book

This is a wonderful interactive story with Elmo and Grover. Not only do the words appear comic book style, but some pages add tasks to add the kids to the story.

BeBop Blox

This is from the same company as Endless Alphabet and Another Monster. It's very well done, interactive and fun. It took a bit for the chiquita to understand, but now that she does she loves to watch the little blocks pile up to make a shape.

Lazoo: Squiggles

There are lots of drawing apps, but this one switches it up a bit. After each scene is complete there is a "Go" button to animate it. There are a series of different scenes as well as blank screens and stickers. Lots of options to make Leeloos sribbles come to life.

Sago Mini Soundbox 

Balls that bounce, multiply, hatch into animals, and make sounds while you touch them. Another simple app that is entertaining for at least ten minutes (an Ageternity in toddler time). 

Agnitus: Games for Learning

This is one of the newest apps we have. Most of it is too advanced for the chiquita, but that doesn't stop her from trying. It's a cute app filled with shape, color and memory games. 

Daddy's Day

The majority of my gifts are photo related. It's what I love to do and those who I love have to suffer through it (haha).  So naturally my first thought for Father's Day was a picture of the kids for D's office. After two shoots, many outtakes, and some photoshop, I finally got a shot that was framable. Happy Daddy's Day D! We <3 U!

Parklife

I'm trying to move past the convenience of taking smartphone pictures. It is so handy but the quality is never that great - especially if you like to go back and edit like I do. However, lugging the digital cam is annoying too. Maybe I should stop complaining and just take more pictures :)

The chiquita thinks she's a big kid at the park. She climbs up to the tallest slide and goes down. She also decided yesterday that she could swing on the big kids' swing all by herself! A year and a half. Crazytalk.