Cars Party!

Hard to believe, but our little man turned 5 this weekend! He's been so excited for his party that he had been counting down the days for the past month. To make it easier in showing him how many days were left we made a paper chain and each night before bed he would tear off one of the loops.

I asked him what kind of party he wanted and without hesitation the answer was Cars. So Cars it was! I went on Pinterest for ideas and found a couple easy cakes and we started planning. Here's what we came up with...

Excited to help Daddy build his new present!

I made each of the kids a 'driver's license' to include in the treat bags

It was a fun party! A few guests couldn't make it so we had a total of six kids, including ours. But it turned out to be the perfect sized group (and I'm sure they made enough noise to make up for the ones who couldn't make it!)  ;)  For the kids we had a late lunch of finger foods/snacks and cupcakes.

After our first little guests left we had about 15 minutes before Kyle's family arrived for our second party. More snacks, followed by a pizza dinner and cake & ice cream! Sooo much food! I feel like I won't need to eat for the next three days. :/

It was great that both our friends and family were able to make it to celebrate with us! Thankful for such wonderful  friends/family who show so much love to our children.  :)

Easy Watercolor Painting

After watching me make a project using stencils and paint, Parker has been asking to paint, too.  It's been a little chilly though, for finger painting outside so I wanted something non-messy they could make at the table.

I saw a cool idea for kids' watercolor painting but we didn't actually have watercolors. However, when I took time to read through the directions, the author said she used water with a few drops of food coloring mixed in. Food coloring is something I had plenty of!

All we needed was watercolor paper, a white crayon, an ice cube tray filled with water  (and a few drops of coloring in each hole) and paint brushes.

I sat the kids down and put a towel in front of each of them to catch the drips from the papers. I have no idea how one little person can spill so much water from a single ice cube tray, but Elise's towel was soaked right through when she was done.

Anyway, I cut the paper into small pieces and used the white crayon to draw hearts on some, the kids' names on a couple, and then I tried to write out a couple Bible verses they've been learning on the last two. They couldn't see the crayon shapes, but when they dipped their brushes into the 'paint' and started coloring the paper the hearts and letters magically appeared--so fun! Parker was excited to see what was on his papers. Elise went through her papers quickly and then was happy to just keep dipping her brush into the water until every hole on her side had turned a nice, murky brown.  :)

Afterwards we left them on the towels to dry for a while. The yellow paint dried really light and made it hard to read all the words, but the other colors turned out pretty well!

The kids were excited about their paintings and Parker started pulling out a few to send to Grandpa and Grandma. Such an easy way for them to make art! Not much to prep or clean up, either... we'll definitely be trying this again!

Christmas Gifts

I remember thinking last September that I should post something because it had been awhile. I thought that again in November... and December...
So here we are in January and I'm finally getting back to it! We've had such a busy Fall and holiday season that I'm not really sure where to start!

It seemed like Christmas came and went really fast this year. I had a list of projects in mind I wanted to make--crafts with the kids, gifts, Christmas baking for friends, etc. but I didn't get around to all of it. I decided instead to just focus on Elise's Christmas gift and a few homemade items for Kyle's sisters and Mom.

Elise doesn't care for dolls but she treats her little stuffed penguin like a baby the way she carries it around and gives it a bottle. I even found her taking it potty one day! I decided she needed a diaper bag to help her take care of 'Waddle.' I had plenty of fabric and I used my own pattern--the same one I made for our friend a couple years ago.

Like the first bag, I made this one complete with a changing pad, wipes and a sippy cup/bottle.

But my favorite part was the diapers! I borrowed her toy and made three tiny flannel diapers to fit her penguin. Aren't they great?!  :)

 Along with her diaper bag I picked up a pink doll stroller. She LOVED the gifts! Definitely worth the time spent making it! Makes me smile to see her crazily pushing her stroller all over the house and changing Waddle's diaper.

For Kyle's sisters and Mom I tried something new--homemade soap and sugar scrubs. And they turned out great! One sister loves coffee so I made her a cinnamon hazelnut coffee scrub and soap. For the others I made orange creamsicle which actually smelled just like the ice cream. Yummy! Along with the soap and scrubs I made rice-filled heat packs, knitted scarves and big jars of chai tea mix--all things to keep you cozy! Everything was well received and I enjoyed making it so next year maybe I'll do something similar. I love homemade gifts. But I'll plan to start a little earlier, though... I think I started making all these things December 10.  :/  I actually finished knitting one of the scarves Christmas morning as we were driving to his sister's house. I tied the ribbon around it and put it in the gift bag about 4 minutes before we pulled up to their house. How's that for timing?!

It was a fun Christmas, spent with all of Kyle's local family. A day of visiting, playing games and eating waaayy too much food! But it all made for a wonderful end to a very busy year!

(Please excuse the blueberry-stained smiles!)   :)

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.