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.  :)

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!

Canada Scores!!

Is it just me, or is anyone else happy the Olympics are finally over? Nonstop coverage for the past couple weeks has become more than tiring. Unlike Kyle, who likes to watch all the events, there are only a few I really care to see. I watched a little of the snowboarding and ski jumping but my main interest was in hockey. I know, I know, I can watch hockey almost any night of the week so why choose that sport out of so many others? Not sure... although it's always fun cheering for our favorite NHL team, it's different when all the best players come together to form an all-star lineup called Team Canada. The win is so much sweeter when it represents your country as a whole rather than just a city. And since hockey is Canada's game, it's always a big deal to see them play in the Olympics.

So our home was a house divided last week--just for fun, of course! Kyle somehow convinced Parker to cheer for Team USA, so I dressed Elise in her little Canada shirt and we had our own cheering section of red and white. When the USA and Canada hockey teams finally met, it was a tense two hours! As you can tell by the smiles, this picture of the guys was taken before the game...

Canada beat the USA--and went on to win gold--in both mens and womens hockey! We were so excited to see them win!! And in the process, I won a dozen cupcakes in a friendly bet with someone. Ah...the sweet taste of victory.  :)

 In celebration of our win and to cheer Kyle up I made a Canadian dessert called Nanaimo Bars. Chocolatey, custardy goodness in a pan! I think it helped.  :)

Elise's Birthday - Part 2

On November 16th we had Elise's birthday party! We had invited several families from church, most of whom had little ones Elise or Parker's age. A few of them weren't able to make it because we changed the date but we had a fun time with the ones that could be here! I changed the time from lunch to dinner but we had the same menu to keep it simple--a 'make your own sandwich' meal, along with fruit, veggies and chips.We had gone out earlier for pictures that day so I didn't know how much time I'd have to put together a hot meal in time, and I had already bought some sandwich toppings for the week before.
Since the kids aren't big on sandwiches, I cooked some chicken nuggets and fries for them.

I was hoping to get some pictures of the party, but I was too busy getting dinner out and then chatting with our friends that I didn't think about it! Oops. But we managed to get a couple of Elise opening presents and a few of our family and her cake. Elise did really well that day! I was expecting a meltdown part way through but thankfully she had taken a good nap in the afternoon and there was enough going on around her that it kept her occupied.

Just realized that the gift opening pictures are on Kyle's phone, so here are a couple that are accessible right now.  :)

Trying to keep with the bunny theme for party favors, I filled carrot shaped bags with small bunny graham crackers. Elise and her little friends got a carrot and a small wooden bunny-shaped puzzle (no picture, sorry), and the older kids got a carrot and a disney jigsaw puzzle.

Hard to believe Elise isn't a baby any more! She's now an active little girl, trying to walk everywhere, climb on everything and copy what everyone is doing!
I think we're in for some very busy days ahead.  :)

Elise is One

Our baby girl turned one year old last weekend! Hard to believe our little Elise has been a part of the family for a year already. I'm so thankful for her each day. Every time I go in to get her after a nap and see her standing in her bed with her little stuffed puppy and her fuzzy baby hair sticking straight out I just want to hug her and never let go! And I love how talkative she is, always babbling to us and sometimes even cracking herself up.  :)

We had planned a party for her last Saturday, but the birthday girl came down with a bad cold earlier in the week. Then she shared it with me and Parker. So to avoid spreading their little germs to all their friends, we postponed the party for a week. I was disappointed we didn't have it on her birthday, but I'd rather be safe than get everyone else sick. And at this age she doesn't know the difference anyway. We didn't do too much on the 9th. I decorated the kitchen a little, and made a batch of cupcakes so she could at least get a taste of birthday cake.  :) I wrapped up her quiet book, too, so she'd have a birthday present to open. 

Here are a few pictures of the day. More to come after her party this weekend!

Not sure what to think of the candle

Finally decided she liked it! 

How do I get this goodness in me??

Opening a present after dinner. She happily played with it until bedtime!

 Ready for bed in their new matching penguin jammies!

 Our birthday girl

then.....

and now! 

                                   

Elise's Book

I mentioned earlier that I was making Elise a quiet book for her birthday. And I'm happy to say that I finally finished it! Ok, I guess I should say I'm almost finished it. The only thing left is putting in the eyelets so the pages can be put on rings. But I'm having Kyle help with that and he's not free until the weekend. So I'm done everything else. And I'm SO happy it's finished. I really wanted to make her one but it's a big project. Hers took longer than Parker's partly because I now have two little people needing attention rather than one, and also because I didn't have patterns for most of the pages. I had to draw them myself. I like how it turned out, though!

Rather than the bright yellow bumble bee cotton I had picked out for the inside of the cover, I changed my mind and used a light pink butterfly print instead. But it had yellow butterflies on it so I kept the pale yellow fabric for the pages. Pink would have been better but the thought of going back to Joann's and buying several more yards of fabric, washing/drying it, pressing it, cutting out eight more pages and ironing them all onto interfacing made me tired. Hence the reason I went with yellow pages. :)

Before I show pictures, I should ask you to disregard the sloppy writing. It's the only part of the book I'm disappointed with. When making Parker's book I wrote out the words in a water-soluble marker to make sure the size and spacing were right, then traced over it (or beside it) with a permanent marker. Sadly, the water-soluble blue ink did not wipe off completely so most of the pages in his book have faint blue letters under the words. I didn't want to make the same mistake with hers, so I used only the permanent marker and made it as straight as possible. Not great.  :(

Anyway, here are the pictures of her book:

The last page is a mini flannel board with felt shapes. For some reason I couldn't come up with anything else to put on that page. The flannel board might work out well, though... if Elise gets tired of making pictures of ice cream cones or hearts, it will only take a few minutes to cut out and fill the pocket with completely different shapes.

So that's the big project I've been working on! I wish I could have done a better job writing in it but I'm not about to start over because of a few crooked words. Thankfully I doubt think Elise is going to notice. She'll have fun playing with it.
And that's all that matters.  :)