Throwback Thursday - Rainbow cake edition (Feb. 2014)

While I think I've noted elsewhere that Winter 2014 was a particularly snowy and cold winter, it's good to note that again as we take a look back at some more winter pictures. It's also interesting as we've had a particularly beautiful summer--not very humid, perfect weather almost every day--apparently, a cold winter means a beautiful summer, and I'll take it. But for now, we take you back to February, when mommy and daddy were keeping the girls busy indoors...

…With bed snuggle time!

But also, we went to the DC Children's Museum one weekend, and though it was tiny, there was plenty to keep them busy!

Liora and Kaya...drove a truck!

...Got to see cookie monster! (That's the blue blob immediately in front of Liora; this look is just so joyful!)

...Climbed through an indoor obstacle course. Liora here is helping her sister through...

...Then moved on to driving a firetruck.

And lastly experimented with different car tracks.

I'm not quite sure where we got the energy that day, but ON THE SAME DAY, we made this crazy rainbow cake, with pink sparkle frosting:

We continued to enjoy that cake as the cold winter wore on and on… :)

And then we went to sleep, with tigers as our pillows.

Cascade Lake, MD

Two weeks ago, we took a family day trip up to Cascade Lake, north of Baltimore. It's a 6-acre lake with water slides, floats, and a water park on the property. We thought it sounded calm for our little ones and closer than the 2.5 hour drive to the beach, so we decided to check it out.

It was pretty crazy, honestly. Very crowded and loud. But, Liora loved the short water slide (sorry, no photos of that) and while she went down that dozens of times, Kaya and I walked around exploring things. She did not really want to go into the water.

Look at this sweet bathing beauty!

Liora with her flat Ariel (a little person we're supposed to take places and take pictures with)

Kaya practicing her selfie skills.

Liora practicing her swimming skills.

Kaya did eventually go down the water slide too, and braved it well about three times before she decided she was all done with that.

So, after some lunch we headed up to the little water park area. This was much more Kaya's speed.

Then we rounded out the day with a stop for ice cream!

Throwback Thursday - Frozen Princess edition (Winter 2014)

The winter of 2013-2014 was one of the coldest for us ever! It also snowed a lot. The one year I didn't start the season with snow pants, and we get snow all the time. Go figure. This was also the winter of ELSA AND ANNA of the Disney movie Frozen. (It was also the spring and now the summer of ELSA AND ANNA, so there's that).

Suffice it to say, we spent a lot of time indoors and some time out of doors in the snow, trying to enjoy the snow and embracing our true ice princess talents.

One snowy morning we had breakfast on the tray.

We fed our squirrels a lot, and right out the back door. It made for good viewing pleasure for the kids...

…and the cats...

…and sometimes kids AND cats.

We had a lot of dress up times. It's nice when you're kids like to be princesses. They started referring to mommy and daddy as Queen and King, and we decided we could get used to that.

Kaya actually hated the snow. Poor girl. We kept trying to get her out there. In this photo, she is crying. Snow effects by google.

So we brought it back indoors for some more tiara-wearing princess fun.

And this cutest Valentine's photo ever!

This was also a Winter Olympics year! Couple all of that ice with the ice from Frozen, and you have at least one little girl who thinks the whole thing is magical.

Here's Liora doing her ice skating routine.

Here she is actually ice skating, her first time.

And here is our very own doubles team!

Happy Independence Day 2014!

We had a super busy, fun Fourth of July this year.

First, the girls were patriotic for the parade at their school:

Then, on the REAL 4th, we started off heading to our neighborhood bike parade. The girls got to climb in a firetruck and take part in some carnival games. They also got the all important popsicles!

Liora with her block buddy, Christina. Photo bomb by Kaya!

Checking out the fire truck.

The Sonoma Road "Mafia" minus Kaya, who started to have a meltdown.

She needed a rest in the stroller, a hug from ducky, and some applesauce.

Later that day, we headed over to a friend's house for a BBQ. We were tasked with bringing a fruit salad. Adam said, "challenge accepted" and made this awesome watermelon shark.

At the picnic, loads of Liora's friends were there. They spent hours having lots of fun, and getting some wagon rides from best friend Lexie's older brother, Anderson, and later the dads.