The Farm Life

The girls really lived the farm life this past weekend. We spent most of Saturday at Grandpa & Granny Thronson’s farm where they went on two tractor rides, saw kittens in the barn and played with all six of their Thronson cousins. They wouldn’t stop talking about their tractor rides; “Grandpa, tractor, trailer” were the words that I heard over and over. They were not too fond of the tractor noise when they first heard it a few months ago, but they didn’t mind it this time. They were happy to ride on the trailer and sing songs with their cousins.

We also spent part of Saturday and Sunday at the Suchy farm. The girls chased chickens and discovered mud puddles. They clomped in and out of puddles for about 30 minutes, laughing the whole time. They were covered in mud by the time they were done, but they loved every minute of it. They also saw all three of their Suchy cousins. Violet kept trying to wrestle with her oldest cousin Nicholas, who is 12 years old. Who do you think won? All in all, it was a pretty fun weekend for the girls.

Right now they are totally into dress-up, hide-and-seek, wooden puzzles, coloring, and singing songs. They have about four songs that they ask to sing – “farmer” (which means Old MacDonald and every time they say he has a “cow” on his farm), “boat” (which means Row Row Row Your Boat), “star” (which means Twinkle Twinkle) and “Bingo.” They also love Ring Around the Rosey, especially the part where they get to say “ashes ashes” and then fall to the ground.

They are very good buddies. When they are apart, they always ask for each other ("sister") or say each others names ("Wee-Wa" or "Bilet"). When they wake up, they usually ask about the other sister right away. Don't get me wrong, they are not always nice to each other and they are not always good at sharing with each other, but they seem to be aware that they have a special bond.

Violet, Olivia (who is crying because I put her down), cousin Emma, cousin Maya & cousin Alex getting ready for a tractor and trailer ride:Olivia & Violet after playing in mud puddles: Olivia & Violet going down the slide (in their words) "together:"
Olivia & Violet in their favorite hats:

Miss Independents

Our girls (especially Olivia) have become very independent. They already say the phrase "my do it" and "self" (meaning: I want to do it myself). This applies to anything, regardless if they actually can do it themselves...putting on shoes, changing their clothes, combing their hair, putting on a diaper...you name it. Violet usually lets Daddy or me do it, but Olivia has a little more strong will and insists that "my do it."

Here is a video from the other day. We were trying to get them ready for bed, and they decided to act quite goofy. Enjoy!

Motormouths

The time has come where we are wondering why we wanted the girls to start talking, because now we can't get them to stop! Olivia said her first full sentence last week. When we got home from daycare, we got out of the car and an airplane flew overhead. Olivia pointed her tiny finger up to the sky and said, "Right there's an airplane." I about fell out of my shoes. When did my little girl become so grown up? Her favorite sayings are "over there" and "right there" whenever she says the name of something she sees. She also loves to say "oh no" whenever something goes wrong. They both say their full names now - Olivia Suchy and Violet Suchy - which is quite funny.

Violet's favorite activity right now is to work on puzzles. She will sit and play with the same puzzle over and over, putting the pieces in the puzzle and then taking them out again. She has two favorites, a vehicles puzzle and a shapes puzzle. She is pretty independent and is content to play on her own.

We had a fun Labor Day weekend. My sister Nikki & her family came to visit, along with my parents. On Saturday morning, we helped move my sister Terri & her husband Aaron into their new house in Minneapolis. They have a very cute place, and we are happy to have them only 20 minutes away! We also went to Nickelodeon Universe in the Mall of America on Saturday. Olivia & Violet were just entranced by all of the people and activity. They just stared in awe at everything. The girls had never been on a ride, so I thought I would try it. I took them on the merry-go-round with their cousin Maya. They got a little antsy while waiting in line, but I managed to get us all on the ride without too much trouble. I put Olivia on a horse first, and she did not want any part of it, so we ended up sitting on a bench on the merry-go-round. I can't blame them for being nervous about what was going on! Once the merry-go-round started moving, they just loved it. They waved at their Auntie Nikki every time we passed by where she was standing. When the ride stopped, they kept saying "more" and did not want to get off. We also took all the kids on the train ride. Olivia & Violet just loved it and kept saying "choo choo" the whole time. They got mad when I made them get off.

Sunday & Monday were pretty relaxing. Our guests left on Sunday afternoon, so we made a couple of trips to the park, went on a few bike rides, and just relaxed. The weather was perfect. Olivia & Violet love to ride in their cart behind Daddy's bike. We put them in the cart with a couple of books, and they are happy to ride along. When we go down big hills, they have started putting their arms up in the air as if they were on a roller coaster.j

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Nickelodeon Universe.

Olivia, Violet, Maya, Alex, Evan & Owen in front of Nickelodeon Universe: On the train ride at Nickelodeon Universe: On the merry-go-round at Nickelodeon Universe: