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.