Fuzzy Caterpillars

No, not real ones! I would probably have a heart attack if I started seeing big fuzzy caterpillars in my home. Nope, these are cute homemade ones.
Elise was reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar recently and I had the bright idea to make caterpillars with the kids. All it took was a handful of large pompoms and a few googly eyes.
Parker and Elise chose some pompoms and handed them to me in the order they wanted. I hot-glued them together and added a couple eyes and they were ready to play with!   :)
Super quick and easy and they're still being played with two weeks later. Here are the caterpillars we made (Yes, I made one, too!).

Family Visit

Elise making herself comfy on top of her cousin

I'm SO happy that my parents could come out for a visit this summer! And to make it even nicer two of our nieces, whom we hadn't seen in about 6 (?) years also came. They all arrived on July 1st and were able to stay for two whole weeks! The last time my parents came down Elise was only two months old. Now that she's 18 months older and full of energy, she kept her grandparents amused (and busy!) every day they were here. She warmed up pretty quickly to them and her cousins and spent the entire two weeks being carried around and receiving all the attention a little girl could want!

I don't know if Parker remembered his Grandpa and Grandma from their last visit, but he knows them somewhat because we Skype with them every couple weeks. Hopefully he's old enough now to form some lasting memories of their visits. Needless to say, he had a great time with everyone! We let him join in when we all played board games and he had a blast. After our company left, Park was a bit disappointed that we no longer had enough people to play some of his favorite new games--Imaginiff, Wits & Wagers and Apples to Apples.  :)

My parents at Ripley's

We tried to see some of the local sights while my parents and nieces were here… We went up to San Francisco to walk around Pier 39 and, while there, also went to Ripley's Believe it Or Not Museum. We were hoping to ride a trolley over to Lombard Street but the lines were so long we decided to skip that and take a boat tour of the bay instead. Good thing we opted for the boat ride--both girls loved it! Though I've been on the ferry to Alcatraz Island many times before, I had never been on the bay tour and sailed under the Golden Gate Bridge so I enjoyed doing something new myself, too!


Our other tours / excursions included the Winchester Mystery House, the mall, San Francisco Zoo, bowling and Great America. Our nieces don't have the big amusement parks we have here, so we wanted to take them on a few roller coasters. Well, technically KYLE wanted to take them on the roller coasters. I used to like them but not so much any more. Now I'm content to go on small rides with Parker and Elise.  :) We'd heard Great America was a good park for both big rides and kid ones so we wanted to try it.  One of the girls loved the roller coasters and went on several more with Kyle. The other didn't like them so much and came to hang out with the rest of us. All the little kid rides were right next to each other, so Parker had fun going from one ride to the next. There were a couple that adults could go on too, and we took turns riding with him but most of them he had to ride himself because of size limits. He didn't seem to mind, though! The funniest one to watch was the bumper cars. When Parker would get bumped he would let out the biggest chuckle like he was thoroughly enjoying it but after, as we were walking away, he would give a rather disgusted scowl and ask, "Why would they DO that?? Why do they keep bumping into me??"

Clearly he doesn't understand the concept of bumper cars. So the next time he went in that ride I got a great little video of him in his car, off in one corner by himself, turning circles. Love it!

 Elise tried a few rides but wasn't a big fan yet. She preferred walking around or watching from the stroller… or eating from whoever happened to have food at the time.  :)

Parker found his twin at Great America!

Over all, it was a wonderful two weeks! And, as always, it went by way too quickly. It's always hard to say goodbye knowing we probably won't see them for another year. The kids change and grow so fast that at times I wish we lived closer so they could see their grandparents more often (and yes, I wish I could see them more often, too!). However, the Lord has blessed us in so many ways just where we are--our children, our home, our church family, closeness to Kyle's family, Kyle's job, etc., etc that I can't really see a reason to complain or want to move!  Unless….  maybe the answer is to convince my parents to move HERE…?  :)

The Dress Fits!

Now that our hot weather has arrived I pulled out the white cherry dress I made for Elise last summer. And it fits!! It's just the right size and looked super cute on her. But then again, I think anything would look cute on this little girl…

I'm so glad she can finally wear it.  :)

Nail Polish Box

Last weekend we spent the day with Kyle's family. One of our nieces and nephews had a ballet recital  Saturday evening. But earlier that day their Mom planned a small surprise party to celebrate their older sister's upcoming 16th birthday. I tried to remember what I got for my 16th birthday… I won't say how many years ago that was, but I will say it was long enough that I don't remember the gifts.  :) 

So what would we get a 16 year old? I remembered that over the past few months she had posted a few pictures of elaborately painted fingernails, saying she thought they were cool. I wasn't sure if she had ever tried doing it herself but I found a nail art book on Amazon that had some great designs. It would be the perfect gift to make into a gift basket! 

Kyle said it sounded like a good idea so I ordered the book and then picked up several nail polish colors to go with it. I went to Michaels and found some very fine, tiny paintbrushes and a couple dotting tools. And finally, I bought a simple nail care set and a package of cute nail files. I didn't want to just drop it all into a bag, and I didn't like the idea of a basket for this either…   Then I saw some cake boxes at Michaels that were the perfect size so I bought a set of them.

I put some tissue paper in the box and started laying out the small items in the bottom. After I covered those I laid the book on top and crumpled more tissue paper over it. Once the lid was on I tied it with a piece of ribbon. It's simple but I loved how it turned out! 

And the birthday girl? She thought it was very cool. Before we went to the ballet a few hours later she had already painted her nails!  :)

Birdhouses

My sister-in-law and her kids paint mini birdhouses every year and hang them in their backyard. It's a super cute tradition and it's fun seeing the kids' creations. So I stole her idea.  :)


Joann's and Michaels have all kind of little birdhouses for $1 each. When the kids and I were out one day we picked up four of them and a pack of paintbrushes. Parker couldn't wait to get out the paint and get to work! I prepared a couple small paint trays--one for the guys to use and one for Elise and me. Parker did a good job of covering his house. I like how the paint blended to make a pretty, marbled look.

Elise was having a good time, too. I tried to show her how to brush the paint onto the wood but I think she was more interested in dipping her brush into one paint color after another. Which meant I had to work fast on my own house before the paint all ended up as a muddy mess.  :)



We set them outside to dry for a few hours in the sun--it was really hot that day so it didn't take long. Later Kyle hung them up in one of our trees. And now we wait to see if any birds move in!
I love the touch of color they add to our yard!

Vacation!!

We finally took a vacation! :) Last year Kyle took a week off but we stayed here to take day trips and do local things and it didn't turn out so well… Kyle ended up working the first day and the other days he had to take phone calls and answer email so it wasn't really a vacation for him. This summer we decided he needed to actually go somewhere so we headed to Southern California for a week of sun!
We spent the first two days at Disneyland. The last time we went was just after Parker's 1st birthday, and since he liked it then we figured he would love it now that he's older.

We were wrong.

Okay, he actually did like it, but only after we made him go on some rides! We started out on the jungle cruise boat ride. It seemed to go okay. But when we stopped for lunch afterwards, he started asking me, "Can we not go on any more rides?" and "I don't want to go on the boats!" Poor kid--it was going to be a long two days if he hated the first ride that much!  :)

Fortunately, after a few more rides he found some he liked and started to enjoy himself. Actually, he totally surprised me by wanting to go on the rockets. I was sure he would get scared as soon as they took off, but he was determined to go on it so I took him. And he LOVED it! As soon as we got off he asked if we could go again. He would have gone on it a third and fourth time if we let him, but I thought Kyle and Elise had sat watching long enough so we moved on to something else. By the end of the day both kids were exhausted and slept very well. The second day was the same--Parker not wanting to go on rides, but after we took him he loved them all and wanted to ride again. Elise did okay, too. She seemed to like most of it--until she got tired.

Other times we've been there we haven't seen many of the characters out walking around and I was hoping this time would be different. Fortunately we did see several and they were all characters the kids recognized--Pooh, Tigger, Lightning McQueen and a couple others.

The only way it would have been better is if we could have met Buzz Lightyear. He was there, but there was also a very long line to meet him so we didn't stop to wait. But Parker has told me countless times last week how fun it would be to meet Buzz Lightyear next time. Guess we should have stopped after all. :p

Next we headed to Sea World in San Diego. There was a pet show about to start when we arrived, so we made that our first stop. Once the dogs and cats started running around Elise couldn't contain her excitement--she squealed and clapped and giggled through the entire show. For me, watching (and hearing) her was more entertaining than watching the animals.  :) The rest of the day was spent touching the manta rays, seeing the dolphins up close, checking out the penguins and sharks, and watching Shamu show off.

Before we left SoCal we took a tour of Dodger Stadium--home of Kyle's favorite ball team. We were expecting a small crowd for the tour so imagine our surprise when we saw it was just us! Even better (or perhaps more awkward, depending on how you look at it) we had FIVE tour guides. They were training some new guides, so three of them took turns telling about the stadium while the other two just followed along, somewhat amused by Parker's questions about stuff he saw. It was pretty cool to get our own private tour to see inside the stadium and dugout and get a few pictures around the park.

Finally we headed back, but we didn't come right home. We went to Sacramento to spend a couple days with Kyle's family. We went to the train museum, which Parker and his little cousin thoroughly enjoyed. Then, to make it even better, we went on an actual train ride. It didn't really go anywhere…just a slow ride down the track for about 20 minutes and back, but the boys thought it was the best thing ever! Parker told me several times that day how much he loved riding the train.

And finally we came home! I love vacations but when you've been away for a week with two overtired toddlers and have been eating fast-food every day, well…it's nice to get home and back to our normal routine. And naps. This trip has showed me our kids are NOT ready to give up their naps yet.  :)

We were talking about the kids on the way home, wondering if Parker would be old enough to remember going to Disneyland and Sea World this time. He's three and a half, so maybe. Elise won't, but we'll have lots of pictures to show her later, and our own memories of how much she enjoyed it.  :) It was a super-fun week and I'm very thankful Kyle could get away so we could have some family time.

Easter Weekend

It seemed like Easter would never get here! I gave Elise her bunny slippers early so she's been wearing them for the past month. They're so cute on her little feet!  :)

I wasn't sure how much Parker would understand about the meaning of Easter. I tried to explain it to him but I don't think he really gets it yet. And that's okay--he's only three. Trying to process who God is can be enough for a little person. Add to that the story of how and why Jesus came to earth to die on the cross and the resurrection and it's probably a bit much to take in. We'll let him think about it for a while. We visited my sister-in-law's church on Sunday and Parker's class made these neat crafts--a tomb with the stone rolled away. I'm going to keep it for a while and maybe it'll be a good reminder for him of what the holiday is for. 

But we also wanted to make it fun, so we had an egg hunt for the kiddos. We did it on Friday since we would be away on Sunday. 

Parker and Elise waited in their room for a few minutes while I "hid" eggs around the living room. It's great doing it with toddlers--you basically just set all the eggs out in plain view and then you still have to show the kids where to look!  :) 

Parker found his pretty quickly. Elise, on the other hand, took her time. She would pick one up and look at it, then slowly open it. We had to keep prodding her to make sure she got them all. I'm not a big fan of giving little kids a bunch of candy so I filled the eggs with other treats instead--raisins, fruit snacks, socks, tattoos, stickers, etc. 

Friday afternoon we drove to my sister-in-law's house and spent that evening and Saturday with their family. It was a fun weekend of visiting, playing games, shopping and eating. And Parker and Elise got to meet their cousin's bunny, Princess! 

On Sunday we got together with more of Kyle's family in Sacramento. It was great to see everyone and the kids had a blast playing with all their cousins and aunties and uncles. I'm so blessed to have such wonderful and caring inlaws! :)

Finally, here are a couple pictures of Elise in her Easter outfits.    :)

 Isn't she the cutest bunny ever?!

 

Cold Spaghetti

I read a blog recently where the author made a big bowl of cooked spaghetti for her little girls to play with, and they loved it. What a fun, messy idea for sensory play!

We've had a couple really warm days this week so I'm looking for more things the kids can do outside. I was already stopping at Dollar Tree this morning so I grabbed a couple boxes of spaghetti while we were there.

After cooking it, I rinsed it really well with cold water, then used my hands to mix food coloring into small bowls of the noodles. I rinsed it with a little more water to get rid of any extra color, then put the dyed spaghetti into my biggest bowl and set it outside for the kiddos.

I thought they would dig in, but they took their time, pulling out a couple noodles at a time and putting them on the ground. After a few minutes they began grabbing handfuls, with Elise flinging it behind her. They pulled it back and forth, putting it into the bowl and taking it out again, until it was a nice bright, mixed-up rainbow of colors.

After about 20 minutes Elise got bored and walked off to play in the yard. Parker wanted to join her but wasn't quite ready to leave his sticky mess so I let him play for a few more minutes before calling them in for naptime.

The best part is that cleanup was super easy--just dumped the spaghetti onto the plastic tablecloth the kids were sitting on and put the whole bundle into the trash!

I keep reading that boxes of dried pasta/rice/beans are fun for kids to dig through too, especially if you hide some small 'treasures' in there for them to find. Maybe I can try that for Parker and Elise next time!

Bunny Slippers

I keep wishing Easter would be earlier this year. I made something for Elise and I can't decide if I should keep it for an Easter gift or just give it to her now. In keeping with the holiday theme, I made her bunny slippers! Aren't they the cutest? :)

The pattern was from etsy. I actually made her a pair of these a few months ago but, even though I made her correct size, they barely fit. And the back of the heels were too short--the slippers kept sliding off her feet.

Well, I finally made a couple slight adjustments and they seem to fit much better. I made a bigger size, added a tiny bit of width to the back seam and then put elastic through the heel as well so they would 'hug' her feet and stay on. And it worked! Another difference in this pair is the lining. The pattern calls for two layers of fur, which gets a little hard to sew. I opted to line the inside of these ones with the same flannel I used on the ears--much easier to manage!

I actually made two pairs this time. One is for Elise and the other is a gift for her little friend (hope you aren't reading this, Ashleigh!)  ;)  Even better, we found these plastic Easter egg cases at Dollar Tree last week and they're the perfect size for the slippers!

I picked up a couple more of these egg cases as well as some smaller plastic ones to fill for Parker and Elise. Parker had fun hunting for eggs last year so we're going to do it again for both kids. I'm not a fan of giving candy to toddlers though, so I'm trying to come up with ideas for other fillers.... maybe stickers? tattoos? fruit snacks?
Any other ideas would be greatly appreciated!  :)

Stick Puzzles

I'm always on the lookout for simple art projects I can do with Parker. Given his love for puzzles, I knew this would be a hit! I even had all the supplies for it! Granted, we only needed popsicle sticks and pencil crayons, but still...   :)

First we taped 8 sticks side by side so they would stay together. Then we turned them over and drew pictures on the front. As you can see I'm pretty limited artistically, but Parker thought they were great. His drawings were a bit more abstract--I guess he wanted more of a challenge when putting them together later!   ;)

Once our drawings were done we took off the tape and mixed up the pieces so he could put them back together. I think I'll put a couple of these in our diaper bag so he has something to do next time we're sitting in a waiting room.