And the art continues...

I took the kids to Michaels looking for frames for the living room, but even though the kids were behaving beautifully, stopping and really comparing frames was not possible. What was I thinking? So we headed out and passed these fun garden stone projects on our way to the front door.

I've seen them before and was always interesting in trying them, so this weekend seemed like the perfect time.

We started the project by Rick and the kids mixing the cement.  

Next Loudoun smoothed out the cement. Daddy did this step for Avalon.  

Then I helped each kid put their handprint in their mold.

And finally, after much PATIENT waiting, it was time to put the colorful glass and stars into the cement.

I finished off their projects by writing their names and the year. Loudoun initially wanted to do this step, but by the third letter he was already out of room, so I cleared it for him and helped him out. Spacing is tricky, even for adults!

I say they did a fantastic job, huh?

Oh, and here's a gratuitous shot of Loudoun's eyes. There is never a day when they are any less amazing to me. Wowzers.

Putting crappy crayon pieces to good use

Thanks to this lady and her recommendation of this awesome post, I tried a fun CRAFT project with my kids tonight. The website says kids love to sit down and peel all of the old paper off of the crayons, and I have to admit...I thought they were full of it. My kids have the attention span of a knat and difficult paper unpeeling? Yeah right. But loudoun unpeeled EVERY.SINGLE.PAPER until he was done with EVERY.SINGLE.CRAYON because he was so excited to complete the project. So, after all of the paper was removed, we broke the crayons into the smallest pieces we could. I helped the project along by cutting the big chunks into smaller chunks.

Then the kids shared the plate of crayons tidbits and filled their own cupcake tins.

This of course was the FAVORITE part of the project, for obvious reasons.

Next the tins went into the oven at 275 degrees for 7-9 minutes. The kids were anxiously waiting near the oven for the time to pass as quickly as possible.

Once the timer went off and I pulled them out of the oven, we let them cool a few minutes and then took a toothpick to swirl each creation. After another 1/2 hour of cooling, we popped them out and VOILA!

You should try it...super fun and quick and easy. And hey....our crayon box got cleaned out. No more duds.

A little help here, please?

Avalon is on day 3 of being home from preschool. I left early on Tuesday to pick her up since preschool said she had a fever and had thrown up at naptime. Rick stayed home with her on Wednesday. She was burning up, barfed 3 times throughout the day, and was coughing a lot. I stayed home with her yesterday. Still pretty warm, not really barfing, but definitely still coughing and sometimes almost barfing from the coughing. Rick is home with her today. Fever is just about gone, but the coughing continues and so does the general not feeling well attitude.

The kicker? Rick kept Loudoun out of school today for HELP. He was not about to go another whole day alone with her. HA! He needs a 6 year old's help.

I love it. My family is all at home today taking care of a sick petunia, while I work. I'm ok with that.

Shhhhhh!

It's sleepy time!

At any given time, all babies are tucked-in, sleeping throughout the house.

I'm Loving Saturday Mornings

Despite having to get up early on Saturday morning, after getting up at 5:40 all week long, Saturday morning is one of my favorite times of the week. Avalon and I get up early together, throw on some gym clothes, put our hair up, cruise out the door and hit up gymnastics class. It's a mommy and me class, but she does most of the work (except for the few jumps I sneak on the trampoline). She listens to every single thing the coach says, lining up at the right time, sitting on the line at the right time, and taking her turn at the right time. This is the opposite of most of the rest of the week, so I am shocked every Saturday at class.

 

 

She loves the tumble trac, the zip line, the bars, the kiddy beam, actually, there is no part of the class she doesn't like. Except leaving. But she's even getting good at that part, because of what comes next.

GRAPES.

Every Saturday after class, we head over to Starbucks together. I of course get a very LARGE cup of coffee and we split a protein breakfast. She loves the grapes, I love the hardboiled egg, and we both love the apples, cheese and bagel with peanut butter. We've got the entire ritual down, complete with the table we sit at outside listening to select Starbucks blues songs, how we spread the peanut butter, which side of the egg we eat first (the side with more egg whites, of course) and when we throw away the trash. It's one part of the week that is not rushed one bit; I finish an entire venti and she finishes every last bite of her bagel. Anyone who has kids knows this can take.quite.some.time. But really? What else do we have to do at 9:45 in the morning?

It's the best way to spend quality time with my 2 1/2 year old and get a good start to our Saturday with the family. And it's a time when she actually eats. She ACTUALLYgets nutrition INTO her body. She still weighs 22 pounds and wears 18 month clothes, but hopefully all of these peanut butter bagels will change that.

Drunk rainbows

I am sitting here watching Oprah and today's topic is Intervention. One of her guests was extremely addicted to alcohol, and they keep showing this clip of the alcoholic mom, passed out on the front lawn, as her kids walk by her wondering what the heck happened to her. She tells Oprah how she wishes she could get back all the time she wasted, drunk and not there for her kids.

And no, I was never that drunk, but it is so freeing to know my kids will never think that about their mom. They will never have to come across me lying on the lawn, or stupidly blabbering away at a party, or passed out on my bed, hours before bedtime. They might think other things about me, but it won't be anything related to DRUNK! And that feels good.

You know what else feels good? Seeing these in the middle of a southern California storm (you kinda have to look closely):

Life is good.

birthday blast!

pre-party jumping fun (notice the sun is shining)

 
Well-placed lettering

rain on the way


Grandparents

starting to rain

therefore, the pinata is inside

bouncehouse is soaked! At this point, Loudoun is in outfit #2 of 3

Daddy changed outfits to root for his losing team

Soap box cars from Grandma entertained all the kids

Happy birthday, Loudoun. Here's to a great 6th year!