cousins

 greta and ellie at selma's birthday party.  these cousins are 11 months apart, about as different as two kids could be, and the best of friends.  i grew up with my cousins as my closest playmates and i'm glad these girls have each other. 

bubble bath!

i think ellie's got the right idea!

coney island

the kids and i went to coney island with grandma and grandpa hansbauer, aunt tina, and the ford cousins (jacob, hannah, cassie, and ellie). this is always a fun trip to do right before the start of the school year....and this year, greta joins the crew of kids headed to school!! (more on that in another post). here are a few pics from the day, and a short video of ellie and greta on the "froggy jump".

gymnastics

thought i'd share this picture of greta and her cousin ellie on picture day at gymnastics. i wish i knew how to make it bigger. i love this photo...it makes me giggle everytime i see it. i'm not sure why....maybe it's their leotards. or their pigtails. or how they are posed ever so carefully on that little ladder.

anyway, we are in austin texas for sxsw....joe has been busy taking part in some of the 'interactive' sessions of sxsw, which means the kids and i have been hanging out and enjoying the beautiful weather. so far we've done lots of playing at playgrounds, shopping (and eating) at whole foods, and yesterday we enjoyed a kite festival at zilker park. we'll get back to blogging and posting photos soon, including one of otto's black eye he got the day before we left!

rolling on christmas eve

here's that video of greta and her cousin ellie on christmas eve. they are about a year apart in age, and i think it's only going to get more fun the older they get. this particular 'rolling' event was definitely sugar induced....greta had a piece of chocolate cake and then was hand-fed a few cookies by ellie just before the rolling commenced.

Greta and Ellie - Sandbox Fun

I think I might need to build a sandbox in our backyard...

Greta and Ellie

We went up to my parents today... mostly so that my sister and nieces and nephews could meet Otto.  I didn't get any pictures of that, but did get some photos/video of Ellie and Greta playing together.  

There is going to be years of mischief coming from these two... here is the first glimpse... I'm pretty sure Ellie is doing the Thriller dance...