Violet Jayne.  A vision in polka dots.

Love the looks on both of their faces here.

Jonas thinks they're pretty entertaining, too.

Hey, Twink.

Did chasing Daddy wear you out?

Who, me?

Nah - I'm fine. Just wanted to see how this table felt on my cheek.

My family. :)

After living here with no baby swings since he was 8 months old..

Jonas is finally big enough to sit in the big kid swing.

He freaking LOVES IT.

"Look, Jonas!  You can also do it like this!"

WEEE!  I'm SWINGING!

All that playing wears a Twink out. Look at those red cheeks.

Jonas is still going strong.

What?  Take a break in the shade?

Which sounds more fun to you?  Laying in the shade, or PLAYING?

Yeah, I thought so, too.  (He's doing our sign for "frog" here, because there's a picture of one on the bottom of this slide. So. Cute.)

More playing at the park! Yay!

What the?

Ok, this is a great show of sibling love and all... but what the heck is the Twink wearing?

Oh. My.

My eyes! My eyes!

Three and a half year olds who insist they don't need a nap...

may find themselves passed out cold on the couch when they thought they were just sitting down for a minute.

They're sure to keep an eye open, though, just in case anything interesting happens.

Mom?  Mommy?

Oh! There you are!  I need more peanut butter and jelly, PLEASE!

Here it is, folks.  The start of the obsession.

Who could have predicted what would come from this one game?

Joe sure is handy to have around.

Look at this!  He's great with grocery bags, too.

Moon!

Uh, oh.  Bridget's Dad had the bad luck to fall down, and the children swarmed.

In this house, we refer to this as a PEOPLE PILE!

Keep this manly wearing-all-blue-kicking-a-ball image in mind when you see the picture I took on the 11th.

Nice use of foreshadowing, Mom!

Are you kidding me?  They're big enough to play catch?  What happened to our toddlers?

Jaynie and Bridget.

BFF

Yeah.  I hear "clomp clomp clomp" coming down the hall, look up, and see this.  Being the good mom that I am, I immediately ran for the camera.  Kiddo, I sure hope you're prepared to behave yourself as a teenager.  Mwah ha ha.

Party for no reason, take 2!

You can read all about this here.

Who needs a reason, anyway?

Look at that smoochy face!

And this one! Delicious!

Speaking of delicious, bring on the chocolate cake!

Poor Beckie.  Jonas chocolated her for REAL.

These three closed down the place. If it weren't for little brothers that needed naps, they would've gone on "partying" until dinnertime. :)

Something's missing here. (Hint: check the feet.)

BOUNCE HOUSE!

Here we are at the Day for Kids.

Again, all the details have already been blogged here.

Behold the chubs on this kid.

They're mesmerizing.

Can't. Look. Away. From. Thighs.

A  nice job faking jump roping for the camera.

Why is it...

..that she held still for this process as a three-year-old...

..but this year couldn't be bothered? (I'm speaking from the future here.)

Mmmmm. Chocolate.

VJ's first sack race.

On your mark... get set....

GO!

Back home, my girl helped me make banana bread.

Cutest helper ever. :)

What the heck? I thought you were playing with blocks?

Eh.  That requires, like, effort.

Leave me alone. I wanna see what Steve got in the mail.

These are "before" pictures for my craft blog.

But I think they're totally cute enough to put here.  Look at that face!

The last sleepover.

Two little princesses navigating their way through the "spooky forest" (our hallway with all the lights off.)

Ok - Ariel nightgowns, Ariel blanket, Ariel doll... let me guess what it is you guys are watching...

Hmm.  Sleeping Beauty.  Didn't see that one coming.

Yes, I realize this photo is really hard to see. But you have to click it and give it a chance - this is how two little girls share a queen size bed.  Hysterical.

Ok, girls.  You woke me up, now look perky so I can take some pictures.

Mooooom!  It's barely 7am! How perky do you expect us to look?

Here you go, Ms. Jenn!  (That Bridget.  What a trooper. )

The girls immediately get back into last night's costumes.

This, in case you can't tell, is a "Princess Violet" dress.  Get it?

Hey! What's going on? Bridget is here when I wake up?  Did I miss something?

This was very very cute.  They announced to Joe that he was the (Witch? Shark? One of those. I really should've done this within a year of taking the pics.) and then ran screaming from him.  Somehow, the balcony was safe.

Is he coming? I don't know! Go check! No! You go check!

Step 1: shove plastic pear in mouth.

Step 2: hold very still while parents laugh and take pictures.

Step 3: push on cheeks while blowing and SHOOT pear directly at father's head.  Laugh with mother.

After only 72 hours of travel, we made it to DC.

The kids immediately start measuring the backyard, to make sure there's enough room for all of them to play.

Ok, now back up!  More... more...

Jonas!  Rhi! Give me some smiles!

Oh, man.  Nice job guys!

Would you look at this gorgeous kid?

Look at those eyes!

Ok.  We're getting a little deer in the headlights here.

Everyone can feel safe playing on this swingset.

The Twink tightened all the bolts while she was there.

Ah jet lag.

It's a bitch.

The kiddos wake up in time to dance in the sprayer.

Pay attention family - this is the boy she plans to marry.  Possibly just because it means that cute blond girl would then be her sister.

Bye bye, D.C.  It was fun.

My little traveler.  Headphones, check.

Juice, check.  Flight from D.C. to Orlando?  No big deal. :)

Again with the jet lag.

Poor little bud.  Fell asleep on Daddy instead of nice, comfy Mommy.

Another one bites the dust.

After his very refreshing Dad nap, Jonas is on the run!

He climbs!

He slides!

He looks freaking adorable!

Would you look at that face? 

This is the place where dreams are made, people!

Little bonding with Mr. Matt at the big Lego store.

Well MOOOOooom!  Who else would I ask for help with building stuff?  Geesh!

WE'RE HERE!

Mickey ears for the boy, CHECK!

Mommy?  Can I take this hat off now?

Welcome to the Bibbidi Bobbidi Bootique.

Where if you are not paying attention, they will put long fake nails on your three year old.

Look how happy she is, though.

This was maybe the finest 30 minutes of her young life.

Look at her! She's like a superstar!

Jonas continued to try to swing everyone's attention back to him by being super cute.

Look at these squashy cheeks, Mom!  Don't you want to kiss them?  Or at least take some pictures?

Sorry, honey.  It's time for the big reveal.

They turn her to the mirror, and at first she's just stunned.

Then she gives them a smile and applause.  Well done, Fairy Godmothers-in-training.  Well done.

I think these are supposed to be post-makeover shots of the Princess.

Yes.  I can see that she's posing waaaaay over there.

Nice shot of the castle, but maybe we could zoom in just a tad?

There she is!

Yeah!  Makeovers ROCK!

Still happy.

Still obsessed with the nails.

Turns out that getting motion sick automatically makes you the designated photographer - like being pregnant makes you the designated driver.

Hey! I spent 5 billion dollars on a makeover this morning!  Why the heck does this kid look so moody?

Ah.  It was right about now that the nails started to fall off.  Stupid press on nails.

Taking a 21 month old to Disney World is just about as fun as you'd think it is.

After a couple of character meetings...

... including the number one highlight of the trip... (LOOK at that FACE!)

We broke for lunch.

Surely that's not a picture of someone handing the baby a potato chip?

Dammit!

Potato chips knocked him right out.  Or it could have been the heat.

Belle took that opportunity to ride some rides that are not for babies.

And pose for maybe my favorite picture of the day.

When eating a giant ice cream cone...

...in the 95 degree heat...

.. it's just best to take the princess dress right off.

Love this one.

Here she learns a valuable skill - what to do when your melty ice cream cone has a broken bottom.

He's up! You didn't think he'd sleep through ice cream, did you?

Poor kid is so hot - ice cream is not enough.  Bring on the wet napkins.

Ok, I realize it looks like she's talking to a trash can here.

But that's because it was talking to her, first. This was right after it asked her for a hug (and right before I wiped her down with anti-bacterial wipes.)

I took 17 pictures of them sitting in this thing.  This was the best one.  They're so cooperative.

Huh.  What's this hole?

GAH! It's where the water squirts out of!

How the day ranked - #1 most exciting was meeting Belle.

#3 was the makeover.

And between those was this hug from Ariel. We love Disneyworld!

Back at the water park, someone hasn't learned a lesson yet.

Gah! Got me again!

My eyes!

Ok, I wasn't there, but looking at this picture it almost seems like Mr. Matt was ENCOURAGING him to look down into the hole.  That can't be right, surely.

After the Ariel moment, VJ joins in the fun.

And immediately gets soaked.

I kept hearing other parents yelling at their kids not to get so wet, which I did not get.  It was so hot - had I not been wearing a white skirt I would've jumped in, too.

Aunty Suz took these pictures.

And I'm grateful for this one, even though right after it was taken the Twink fell off that windowsill and bonked her head.  Good times.

No pants!  Apparently, Disney doesn't have a dress code.

Speaking of dress code - time for a quick wardrobe change for some final pictures...

There it is.

Ah, Disneyworld.  We miss you.

Day two started off with a bang!  Look who we got to play hide-and -seek with!

Practically perfect in every way.  Oh, and Mary Poppins and Alice are pretty cute, too.

Next it was Simon says with Minnie and Daisy...

Then duck duck goose with Peter Pan and Wendy.

Turns out, duck duck goose is kinda boring.

The Twink suggested a game of hide-and-seek...

Wendy thought it was such a good idea, they went off to find a hiding spot together.

I know I've said this before, but would you LOOK at that FACE?  This was like the greatest 2 days EVER.

Ok - not sure about the face she's making here.

Now she's hamming it up.  Jonas thinks she's hysterical.

There's the scrapbook shot!

Um...

Ah.  It's a 3D show.  I thought maybe that was some kind of crazy princess accessory she'd talked Aunty Suz into buying for her.

After all that, we had a quick wardrobe and park change.

We found Stanley in Animal Kingdom.

Turk was there, too.

But the real highlight of the day?

Lilo and STITCH!

Jonas was so freaking excited.  It was a great last 5 minutes of our Disney trip.