Pea Pod Tents!

This is something that I meant to blog about the whole time we were in the US and somehow never got around to it.  I think I was waiting to get a picture of both of the girls in theirs and that never happened so neither did the blog post! 

Anyway, we LOVE our tents!  These are Pea Pod travel beds by KidCo.  I was first introduced to them by my older sister and, I have to admit, I thought it was a little strange.  You put your baby to sleep in a tent and then zip them in???  Really?  But, oh man, am I a believer now!

After going on vacation with my sister and her family last summer and seeing how well my nephew slept in his we decided to go for it and buy tents for our girls.  We knew that we had a long trip to the US coming up and that during that trip we would be traveling quite a bit and sleeping in several different places and these seemed like a good option for our kiddos during that time. 

The girls LOVE their tents!  During our time in the US they only slept in their tents even when a bed or a crib was available.  It was great because no matter where we were, it was one consistent thing that they could count on.  I think it helps too that they're enclosed so the kids feel safe and secure and they're not staring up at the ceiling wondering where they are now.  We'd read a book, sing our songs and put them inside.  Katie slept with a pillow and blankets but Carly just wore her sleep-sack and was just fine. 

One of the great things about these is how easy they are to set up and take down.  Also, they're small and light - at least compared to a regular pack-n-play.  Now I'm starting to sound like a commercial! :-)  But really, we LOVE these things!

I don't have a picture of Carly sleeping in hers but here's one of Katie zonked out in her tent.  Carly's is a little smaller and bright green.  They both have air mattresses – one is self-inflating and the other came with a pump.  That reminds me – great customer service!  As I don’t think these were meant for CONSTANT use over the course of several months, Katie’s mattress started to leak air (could that have anything to do with the bouncing the girls did playing in there???).  We called the company and they had us email them a picture of the mattress and they sent us a new one within 3 days!  Impressive! 

So, anyway, we LOVE our tents!  Have you heard of them before???

Row, Row, Row Your Boat...

A section of our local park  has a small lake in it (isn't it beautiful, by the way?  So... brown.) and there are row boats that you can rent for a half hour.  We'd never tried them out before so a few weeks ago we decided to give it a try.

The first thing that Katie said was, "And lifejackets - So we can be safe!" Quoting Dora the Explorer.  Of course, this isn't America, Sweetheart, so there were no lifejackets in sight.  Let me tell you, it was a bit of a challenge to keep little Miss Little Sister IN the boat!  She did NOT want to sit still!  She and Mommy only lasted 20 of the 30 minutes before it was time to abandon ship. 

Not that much would have happened if she had fallen in - I think the boat was a foot and a half deep and the water was about 2 feet deep.  We wouldn't have even needed to jump in to save her - just get a shoe wet.  :-) 

This is a little hard to see but there is an airplane landing that you can see between the trees.  That's life in the big city!  Rowing boats in the park with airplanes landing overhead! 

A stop in the park and then on to home!  It was a nice adventure trying something new! 

 

Hibernating

Hello to anyone out there who actually checked this blog after 2 months off!  I haven't intentionally been neglecting this poor blog but copmuter problems and life have made 2 months get past me.  Sorry to the grandparents who have been missing pictures of the kiddos!  I'm working on it!  :-)

Just to get me started again here are a few pictures of the girls and Jonathan bowling! We were in Germany for about a week for our ourganization's all Europe conference that happens every 2 years. The hotel we were at had an indoor water park and a bowling alley! Not bad! It rained most of the time we were there so it was fun to have some indoor activities durring our free time.