Brother sister "love"

Two kids. A brother and a sister.  Sometimes they are loving, nurturing, sharing, hugging, kissing...you get the picture.

The big sister is such a great helper and tries to help "brudder" know where to stand and how to pose.

Sometimes, she tries a little too hard to get the busy brother to stay still.

But, poor little gal can't hold onto her 28 pound brother.

He runs away. And, she just keeps walking with him.

But, sometimes she has him captive.  For instance, when brother is getting ready to eat dinner she has a captive audience.  (Side note: Notice he's stripped down to eat? Yep, it's a necessity these days.  He likes to rubs carrots/bananas/avocados/etc in his ear/hair/leg/behind his back...)

Now, sister can finally tickle.  Sometimes he likes it. Other times he doesn't.

Sometimes this is the scene in our house at 6:30am.

Playing so well together..birds chirping...all is well in the world.

And,then this happens when I try to get them to play together while I make dinner.  What you can't see if that brother pushed the entire things over on sister.  Sister started crying when she fell. Brother got mad because he wanted to other seat.  Mommy put the entire thing upstairs and...

she let PBS children's education come to the rescue for about 5 minutes.

This concludes the saga of brother sister "love".

More zoo photos

As promised, here are some more zoo pictures!

I gave Bella the map before we started and here she is pretending to be Dora.

We walked reaaaaalllllyyyyy slow for a loooonnnngggg time reading this map.  That's ok though. We had all the time we needed!

We played on the merry go round, which she loved!

They had a dinosaur exhibit where the dinosaurs moved and made noises.  She is a huge fan of "Dinosaur Train" on PBS so she was pretty excited to go into this.  However, this is the face she made the entire time.

They even had a fake helicopter to get in.  But, once she got in there the controls started talking like it was a real exhibition. I'm glad I was standing right there because she quickly jumped out!

Right before this picture was taken, we got to feed a giraffe. Y'all, it was so cool. Those things are huge and had the longest tongue ever.

She wasn't too sure about the giraffe and his "scary long tongue" but now she's ok.

I absolutely loved taking this little gal by herself to the zoo.

I had to snap this picture.  It might be one of my favorites.  We were holding hands while walking through the zoo when I looked down and saw her just smiling.  Yep, I melted and told her she could have that pony she's been asking for. Just kidding. But, I was close!

After a LONG morning at the zoo, we took the tram to get to our car.  The little miss sure was sleepy!  I will always treasure this trip with sweet Bella.

Olympics 2012

I love the Olympics. We don't watch too much TV in our house. But, when it's Olympic season, the TV is on all the time. Now with the kids, the Olympics take on a whole new meaning.  I printed off lots of maps and we would look up the countries as they would be on the podium or competing in the sports.  These maps and discussions we would have while coloring the maps took on some pretty great life lessons that I desperately want to pass onto my kiddos. 

It was a great lesson on how God loves the whole world, not only America and how He doesn't love America more than the other countries.

It was a lesson on how we have been given opportunities, money, and possessions that lots of others in the world do not have - we need to be thankful for those.  But, what are we, as the Smith family, supposed to do about it? How do we use all of that for the good of the world? 

It was a lesson to show Bella where the kids we've adopted from World Vision are from and who represents them in the Olympic games. 

It was a lesson to cheer on all contenders, regardless of what they look like or where they are from.

We talked about the symbolism in the Olympic rings and the colors of the rings. 

We talked about loving our neighbors, even if they lived in Somalia or Iraq or Libya or Europe.  We talked about how to we extend that love to our neighbors if we can't physically hug them?

We talked about God making each one of us special, lovable, and with a purpose.  We talked about how we are all the same and just because we live in America doesn't mean we are better. 

We sang "Jesus loves the little children" and talked about John 3:16. 

It was surreal to discuss these things with a 3.5 year old that would talk back and say things like, "Where do they live?" or "What do they eat?".  I answered honestly and we talked through the answers.  But, little children have a way of bringing into importance the things of life.  Questions like "do they have enough to eat where they live" and "what does their house look like" makes me question why I just spent $5 on a Starbucks coffee or $15 on a new shirt I didn't need when that money could have gone to those parts of the country. Out of the mouth of babes...

We also had fun those two weeks!  I printed off the maps of the world and after the kids colored them, she went to pack her backpack up.  We then set off to travel the world.  We went to Africa first in her room - hence the fun animals!

We made our way to China (JT's room), across the ocean (in a boat in the living room), and to our house again. She insisted on being called Dora the whole time.  When we got back "home", we made Olympic cookies. They were sugar cookies in the colors of the Olympic rings. So much fun!  Then we colored the Olympic rings and hung it on the front door.

Lastly, we made gold, silver, and bronze medals for all of us and practiced our podium poses. 

JT even got in the fun.  If these pictures had sound, you would hear lots of "YAYYYY" going on.

I'm so thankful for times like these to teach my kiddos that world is much smaller than we think. I'm hoping these lessons will stick to them.

Summer recap: July-August

July was full swing summer-time for us.  We had a routine. It was hot. We played in the water and gardened. It was hot. Again, we didn't "do" too much. I had grand plans for the summer to take the kids to all types of places and experience all sorts of things with them.  But, it was hard to even get out of the house sometimes with their nap schedules. Plus, I was outnumbered in arms needing to keep them from jumping into lakes or running away in the store. So, we stayed "put" at home.  Memories are made with people though, right? And, memories we did make!

JULY-AUGUST

JT became obsessed with his sister's chair and was very proud of himself for being able to sit in it.

I took the kids to Duke Gardens for lunch and to play (read: run and play a lot so you'll take a great nap).

My parents came to town!  Granddad is showing Bella the birds outside.

Neena is the bath-giver-extradonaire!

We went to eat in the fun-9th street district of Durham.  They have a bookstore that we always go in. So, of course, we had to show the parentals.

Dad and I built my garden area!  I will devote a full blog to this so stay tuned.

The ladies.

We played dress up alot!  Dancing and singing usually ensued these ensembles.

Academic princess. Love.It!

Grammy and PawPaw came to visit.  Sweet JT gave Grammy lots of kisses this day.

We gardened again.

JT got busted this day!  We had whipped cream on our dessert one Sunday afternoon and he found it when he woke up from his nap.  It got really quiet in the house, which is always an indication you're about to find some mischief happening.  Look at his face - He knows he's busted.

Daddy came home from work which usually meant wrestling matches within .5 seconds of him walking in the door.

And then smothering with kisses.

JT and I went running one Saturday morning since Bella was sleeping in like a normal person.  We returned to find her reading with her Daddy on the front porch swing in their PJs.