TEAM SHAFER: Day 6 - Adventures in Babysitting

Adventures in Babysitting - Day 6 (12 Oct)

School Ops!...no, not just any school operations. We're talking about pre-nursery school for these two precious smarties. I didn't even know that they made school for such pee-wees!!! And of course, we had to turn this little memory into a photo op. I want you to pay attention to the rain boots, matching umbrellas to their color coding, backpacks, etc. Does anyone want to tell me what a two year old needs a backpack for? I'll tell you, they each have a Hello Kitty lunch box in it with their mid-morning snack....keep in mind mid-morning is about an hour or so after they finished breakfast. Hahaha!

Now the girls going off to school creates some great iMan time; and today, he was donning his Indiana Jones hat from Grandma. What a total cutie! He has the most intense level of concentration I've ever seen in anyone when he is focusing on something....TV, puzzles, playing with his trains or cars, books, etc, etc.

Since it was a total rainy day, we tapped into the video collection. Here's also a great view of Marc & Kelly's beautiful living room and the awesome picture window they have to their neighborhood. What an awesome place to be a little boy growing up.

The girls' pre-nursery school is a whopping 3 hours long, so we soon mobilized the gang to recover the Dynamic Duo. The iMan is always excited to have a reason to grab his umbrella also. Grandma had previously given him this one with these cool windows to see out of and he just loves it!

Check out the iMan peeking into his sisters' classroom. He loves them so much and gets so excited about things like this.

Grandma showing a little luv to Bella Bella...

Now, I don't think I've talked about the girls and their car seats. First, they want to be so independent about everything and that shows up in their favorite line of "me do it". They have to climb into their car seat on their own, and then buckle their belt on their own...well, at least they insist on trying. Ava usually follows "me do it" very quickly with "need help". The iGirl is a different story...she leaps tall car seats in a single bound and bends steel seat buckles with her bare hands. Seriously, Bella is an animal buckling her seat. She actually rivals Isaac's concentration every single time. So cute!

Look at the Dynamic Duo's rain boot situation a little closer...what a couple of divas.

After the school pick-up, we headed into town and hit the butcher shop, bakery and pet shop. The Crew just ate it up. They also ate up the thick cut of baloney and the roll that each of them got from the butcher and baker. Isabella passed up the baloney though after a discerning once over...I don't think processed meats are in Bella's future.

The Crew was totally captivated...after the fish and rabbits and guinea pigs, then we got to the birds and these adorable Love Birds that really grabbed their attention.

This is a good depiction of how it goes with The Crew in full tow...

Back at the casa, it was time for more food (go figure) and I had perfected my pizza skills from the day before. Check out my attentive helpers...

And the excitement with our finished pie...

Major taste success...the iMan finally realized that pizza was the way to go after he took a pass from the day before.

I think these two bought into the whole pizza pie concept long ago...

After the girls went down for their nap, the iMan and I took advantage of the skies clearing and headed outside to play catch. He's got wild looking form and quite a wind up, but he actually has a tight spiral!

We are an action-packed babysitting operation and we've been planning to do so many things with The Crew for months. One of Grandma's items in her bag of tricks was making chocolate covered frozen bananas with sprinkles for the kiddos. Step one was freezing the bananas and she had Helper #1 assisting...

And given our challenges with bananas and The Crew over the last several days, we had one heck of laugh over who would end up with this banana that had a couple of bruises on it. To be continued...

Even the iMan seemed to know that this bruised banana was going to bring trouble...hahaha

Trash day also brought a little entertainment to the mix...

Then we had a little post-nap snack before we headed out on our next adventure. Are you noticing a trend around food consumption with The Crew???

So we were off to Maastricht about 7km down the road and found a parking spot right next to the best gelato shop that mom had been to on her last visit. We had one of the funniest and most memorable moments. I pulled out some apples when we arrived and everyone in The Crew wanted some. Well, the two girlies quickly changed their minds about 30 seconds later...WRONG ANSWER!!! There are only two threats with the girls that have immediate results...time out and ice cream. I quickly commanded that there would be NO ice cream for them if they did not finish their apples. Isabella jammed that apple in her mouth so fast and announced "ALL GONE" in the deepest of longshoreman voices. I started rolling...hahahaha. Then I noticed that Ava's apple was gone too and I accused her of throwing it away. She was quick to defend herself with a booming "NO" and I asked her to show me. Check out the next photo...

We could not stop laughing. The personalities of these two girlies is just amazing. If you think you've seen it all, dream on and bring your A-game!!!