Gotta brag for a moment

Okay, so this is my blog and I can brag if I want so here goes. I am so impressed with the way Rylee can swim. I really didn't notice how advanced she was until we went to Sesame Place and strangers were commenting about it. I was standing at the bottom of one of the waterslides watching her swim to the side and a few of the other parents were watching her and asked me how old she was. When I told them that she was four they we amazed at how well she can swim. Then that night at the hotel we were in the pool and there was a family from Phila. there as well. The father was watching Rylee and asked me how she learned to swim so well since his 8 year old can't even swim like that yet. Honestly, she has been taking lessons for a few years now but it just seems to come natural to her. Believe it or not she even kind of likes doing butterfly which is that "love it or hate it" stroke. Of course, I was a swimmer myself and butterfly was my stroke so I would LOVE it if she got into swimming but that will only happen if she asks, I'm not going to be one of those pushy parents. Anyway, here's a picture of my little swimmer using her arm strokes! Look at her go!

End of summer vacation

Another summer is over and I have to say it was a busy one! The girls loved going to the local amusement parks and we topped it off with a mini vacation to Sesame Place last week. For those of you without kids, Sesame Place is located in Langhorne, Pa, just north of Phila. and is a "Sesame Street" themed amusement park for younger children. It was perfect for the girls! Rylee is of course out of her Sesame Street watching days but Elmo is Avery's hero right now so it was the perfect time to go. We got the two day pass so we had plenty of time to spend in the park and Rylee absolutely loved staying in a hotel with a pool. We had "Breakfast with Elmo and Friends" on Friday morning which was great. It gave Rylee a chance to get autographs and pictures with most of the characters without waiting in line and the characters came around to every table while we were eating. Avery wasn't too keen on seeing the characters up close but she liked watching them from a distance. Anyway, here are a few pictures from our little adventure.

Waiting for the daily parade to start

Avery in the wading pool

Rylee going down the waterslide

Rylee standing on Sesame Street

in front of the Sesame Street fire station

Rylee's first autograph, Super Grover!!

Rylee in the front seat in the biggest coaster

Where has summer gone?

Wow, this summer seems to be flying by! I guess it's time to update once again. We have been having so much fun lately taking day trips. Avery is having a blast in the pool now. She was afraid of it in the beginning of the summer but now she has no fear just like Rylee. Below are a few pictures from some of our adventures.



The girls at Dorney Park. It was a perfect day for rides.





Rylee's hair for "wacky hair day" at school.



Rylee and Bailey on their first camping trip with me. We
went to my parents backyard just in case they didn't like it.

Rylee and daddy at "The Boardwalk" at Hershey Park.

Outside of Chocolate World.

Taking the tour in Chocolate World.

Eating lunch at Hershey Park.

Rylee at her first Phila. Phillies game with Dale.

Avery at "The Boardwalk" at Hershey Park.

Click on this photo for more detail. This is "The East

Coast Water Work" at Hershey Park. AMAZING!!!

Thanks for stopping by and checking our blog out. I'll update again soon. We hope you are all having a great summer!

Ocean City, NJ

Well, we are back from our long weekend at the beach and it was great! We left Wednesday evening and got to Ocean City, New Jersey around 8:00. We quickly unpacked the car and headed for the boardwalk for a few rides and of course some Kohrs Bros. ice cream. Thursday was a little chilly so we spent a late morning cruising the boardwalk on a surrey and then shopping. We all took naps and went to Atlantic City for the evening. In A.C. we went to an AWESOME place to eat called the Rainforest Cafe. Wow, the girls loved it. The whole place is decorated like a rainforest and they have animated animals all over, there's even a "thunderstorm" every 1/2 hour! After that we walked the boardwalk for a while before heading back to Ocean City. Friday was still a bit chilly but we went to the beach for a few hours anyway. Both of the girls had a great time on the beach although Avery wouldn't go near the ocean. That evening on the boardwalk Rylee rode her first big rollercoaster and has been addicted ever since! She was going on anything that they would let her and even getting upset when she was too little for some of them! Saturday was a perfect beach day and Rylee and I took advantage of it. We were all on the beach for a few hours but Dale took Avery back around 1:30 for a nap while Rylee and I stayed in the sun. Man, I'm still paying for it though, my fair skin got burned good even with sunscreen on!! Sunday we got up and packed up before going to the waterpark for the morning. We had so much fun there and once again Rylee was going on the big kid slides!!! Poor Avery must have been tired from her big vacation, she fell asleep within the first four blocks of the trip home and Rylee followed her a few miles later. We got home last night and of course Rylee already wants to go back. She will just have to wait until September when we go back for another long weekend. Well, that's the story of our big weekend at the beach! I hope you are enjoying your summer, I'll write again soon, right now six load of laundry and an empty fridge are waiting for me.

<----- Rylee and Daddy on the big waterslide

<----Avery playing in the toddler area.

<----cruising the boardwalk in the surrey.

<---dinner at The Rainforest Cafe in A.C.

Crazy girls and a race!

So, I was sitting in the hallway folding laundry this morning when I heard giggling coming from Avery's room. That can only mean one thing, TROUBLE!!! I quietly checked in on them only to find Avery sitting in a cooler and Rylee pushing her around in it. What a bunch of nuts! I grabbed my camera and got some quick pictures before they realized that I was standing there.

In other Wenzel news, mama got a day away!! Dale went to the Dover race this past Sunday only for it to be rained out and the weather wasn't looking so good for the next day so he decided to come home. My mom called me Sunday night on her way home from Dover (yes, half of the family was there!) and asked if I wanted to go back down with her the next day and hope that it doesn't rain. Of course it rained most of the way down but once we got there the sky cleared up and the sun came out, it was perfect race day weather. We had a great time and even came home with a bit of sunburn. The girls spent the morning with Eleanor and Dale took a half day at work so he could come home to watch the race. It was a LONG day, we left at 7:30am and got back at 9:30pm but it was worth it, even with Kurt pulling that bonehead move in the pits and screwing himself for the rest of the race. That's okay, he's still our boy.

Happy Memorial Day!!

Hello everyone! I hope you enjoyed your long weekend as much as we did. Our weekend started off with the Wyomissing parade on Saturday morning. Rylee was in it and had a great time throwing candy to all of the kids, the picture to the left is of her and "Slapshot", the Reading Royal's mascot (our local minor league hockey team). Of course she is sporting her new bows, yes, I am still addicted to them! Sunday was a quiet day, we spent most of it at home catching up on the to-do list and then went to Dale's parents house for a cook out. Today (Monday) we got up and went to another local parade and then came home. Dale took the girls outside while I ran to get my hair cut. Well, I came home to Dale at the door and Rylee in the living room crying, she had fallen off of her bike and landed face first on the street. Oh, it's a LOVELY bruise, you know, the kind that doesn't look that bad until the following morning. Yup, it's gonna be a beauty in the morning! Anyway, after that drama (it's always something in this house!) both of the girls took a nap and then we ran to Walmart for a Slip and Slide, Rylee LOVES it and of course we had it going until the yard was a puddle of mud. Avery wouldn't go near it, we had the sprinkler out the other day and she didn't like that either. I'm sure she'll be running around in it when it gets hotter. Dale headed to Phila. for the baseball game this evening and I went up to my parents. We came home, did our sparklers and now both girls are in bed and I am patiently waiting for Dale to get home. So, that's our weekend in a nutshell. I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday. Good night!!

Rylee in her "favorite bows" that I made for her---->>

My new addiction...

Rylee is in a parade on Saturday for Memorial Day and I wanted to get her some cute bows for her hair. Now I usually order them online from this wonderful work-at-home-mom but of course I waited until it was too late so I decided to try to make them myself last night. OH MY GOD, they are sooo fun to make!! Rylee absolutely loves them(she wore them to school today) and now wants them in every color so I ran to Michaels' this morning and stocked up on ribbon. I think this may become my new addiction for a while. Anyway, here's a few pictures of my new creations. I'm going to work on baby "gripper" bows next. I have a bunch of them for Avery that I love but if I can figure out how to make them I won't have to spend so much ordering them from New England anymore! Well, that's all for now, I'm sure I'll be posting lots of pictures with Rylee wearing her new bows!!




--------->> Here are the bows that I made this morning, the red,white and blue ones are for the parade. I got a little fancier as the morning went on and started adding centers to the other ones. Yes, I ran to Michael's TWICE this morning, I really am that addicted to this already.

Rylee the swimmer

Rylee had her last swimming lesson last night, I thought I'd post a few pictures of her. Aunt Hope was home from Oregon for the week and got to see Rylee swim. Here's Rylee getting ready to go off the diving board.

Going, Going, Going.....

....Gone!! She has no fear!

Rylee and her favorite teacher, Allison.

First taste of summer!

Last night we gave Avery her first taste of summer and loved it. (Okay, so it's frozen corn on the cob, she doesn't know that!!) It took her a while to figure out how to do it but once big sister Rylee (a professional corn on the cob eater) showed her what to do Avery chowed down for an hour. She had her 15mo. check up this morning and is doing great! She's up to 22lbs. 6oz. and is now 31 1/2 inches tall, pretty much the same as Rylee was at this age. It's amazing how they are so much alike.
Her cut is healing well, hopefully with a couple months of vitamin E oil it won't scar too bad. Only time will tell. You would think that she has learned her lesson but I caught her on top of the coffee table again this morning. I am really starting to think that I gave birth to monkeys instead of children! I took Rylee out on her rollerbades again last night and decided to dust mine off and rollerblade with her. What was I thinking?? My legs are killing me today! It was fun though and I'll probably be out there again sometime soon. Well, I have to go wake Avery up before she sleeps too long and then doesn't want to take her afternoon nap. She usually doesn't nap in the morning but she got two shots this morning and I think that made her tired. Hope you're having a good week, I'll update again sometime soon!

POOR AVERY!

Well, it has finally happened, one of the girls needed stitches and it wasn't who we thought would be first! I really thought Rylee would break a bone with how wild she can be but Avery beat her to the emergency room. Avery has now learned that the couch is NOT for jumping and the coffee table isn't made of rubber. Yesterday morning the girls were playing in the living room while I was cutting veggies for a salad. The plan was to finish the salad, get a shower and then spend the rest of the morning at the museum followed by lunch at Wendy's. I was in the kitchen and heard a thump (not uncommon in this house) followed by Avery crying and Rylee screaming "Blood, blood everywhere!". I ran into the living room to find Avery covered in blood with it dripping onto the carpet. I grabbed her and tried to clean her up but she was bleeding too bad so I called Dale at work, he made it home in ten minutes and I grabbed Avery and headed for the emergency room. Needless to say, three stitches later she is all better. I ran out last night and got her some cool Elmo band-aids, I figured if she has to keep it covered for the rest of the week she might as well look cute! Anyway, the stitches come out on Friday as long as everything looks good. Well, that's our update for now, we never did get to the museum, hopefully we'll get there next week!

Spring is here!!

Ugh, after many teases along the way our warm weather is finally here and the girls are LOVING it!! Avery now looks at the back door and yells "out" every time she wants to go out to the sandbox. She also loves taking wagon rides and will even push the wagon around herself if needed. We went to the playground on Friday for the first time this year and they had so much fun. Avery loves just running around in the grass while Rylee makes friends with anyone who is there. Avery's newest words are "fish", "dog" and "eye-eye", which is actually Ry-Ry (short for Rylee). She's getting an attitude and has started pushing Rylee back when they fight. I think Rylee is in for it soon, she has been the boss up until now but that's about to change! Rylee is doing great in swimming, they taught her how to dive off of the side of the pool and the teachers are trying to get her to swim butterfly now! It's kind of funny, the same people who taught me how to swim are now teaching her so I know that she's in good hands. Well, that's the update for now. I think we are going to head to the museum tomorrow, it's going to be close to 80 so I'm sure we'll be outside most of the day! I'll try to take pictures so I can send some new ones out. Dale keeps bugging me because he needs new picture for his office but I never remember to take the camera when we go out. Have a good week and enjoy the weather, I know we will!!

Congrats Lynsee and Marc!

I'm sure most of you know that my sister went to Hawaii in January and married Marc. They had a reception last Saturday and everyone had a great time. The girls were on the dance floor most of the night and Rylee actually slept in until 7:30 the next morning so she must have been tired!! Rylee started swimming lessons this week once again. She is too "advanced" for her age group so they put her in the 6-7 year old class, go figure, she has my swimming blood in her! We are just waiting for the warmer weather to come. Last week we had a couple of days that were in the 60's followed by a snow storm the next day, lovely, huh! Well, it's my favorite time of day, naptime, so I better go get the girls ready. I hope everyone is doing well. I'll update again soon.

Okay, I guess I should get everyone up to date on the girls. As you know, they both celebrated birthdays last month. Rylee turned four and Miss Avery turned one. The party was so much fun and Avery dug right into her cake. Rylee is currently working on learning how to write letters and numbers, she loves practicing every night with either me or Dale. She's going to start another round of swimming lessons next month. She loves swimming and is quite good at it for her age. I'm hoping that one day she will be a swimmer but there's no pressure! Avery is a pistol! She's been walking since nine months (!!!) and has started talking up a storm lately. Her favorite words are mama, up, poppop, and uh-oh! She also has one heck of a temper, gee I wonder where she got that from? Anyway, that's the latest on the girls. Hope everyone is doing well. The ground is covered with snow here in Pa. but it's going to be in the high 40's today with "flooding" rain so it should make for a fun weekend! Have a good weekend! I'll update again soon!

The First Entry

Hello everyone! So, for some reason I have decided to start blogging. I don't know, it seems like a cool idea, we'll see! I figure it's a good way to keep everyone up to date with our family since the girls are getting bigger by the second! Hopefully I'll keep up with it so check back often for updates.