Keeping Busy

I've been having trouble with Blogger. I wasn't able to post the last few times I tried. Anyway, this is what we've been up to. I made a tub of a variety of beans, cups and spoons for W to play in while A is at school/camps etc. I did not intend for them both to play at the same time, but they had other ideas. I had to take a quick phone call and this is how I found them, having the time of their lives.


One afternoon this week A spent a little over an hour cutting pictures out of a Halloween costume magazine. When W woke up he saw her and started screaming, "I cut, me do!" I decided to let him try with my help. He did not want my help!

Drawing with chalk has become a favorite night time activity for both kids.


On Friday we went to the park with A's friend Ellie. They played at the wading pool, had lunch, and rode the carousel.





Today I took A to the fair to see her friend Wyatt play drums. She got to go on stage twice to play. She has been begging me all night to join the drum line.

Those Summer Nights

Every once in a while Alice falls asleep during her quiet time and she gets to stay up late. The other night was one of those nights and Brad suggested that they watch a movie outside. Alice was thrilled. They rounded up her sleeping bag, the portable DVD player, and Brad's book, then headed for the back yard. When I checked on them, they were both perfectly content.


After the movie we all caught fireflies. It was a perfect ending to a perfect evening.

Tonight after dinner the kids did some finger-painting. Oh what a mess, but oh what fun!

Beatin' The Heat

SO far this year we've been a little spoiled by "the coolest summer on record", but the temp. got into the high 90s this weekend. It was hot, I mean stay in your house hot. Because our children tend to get a little cranky when left inside for too long (and so does their mama), we had to go out. And this is what we did to beat the heat...
Brad braved the grill. This would not have been my choice of activity, but we gotta eat! Extra thick pork chops, beer can chicken, and corn on the cob, YUM.

I thought the hot weather called for ice necklaces. Super easy to make, and fun to eat? The kids thought they were too cold to wear, but they really enjoyed eating them.





Will played AT the water table.

Alice decided to play IN the water table.

And when it got so hot we couldn't take it anymore, we turned on the sprinkler.

We danced, jumped, and posed. Alice definately took the award for the best pose. The girl has spunk!

We'll give the dance to Brad.




I'm taking the jump!

And that's the way we BEAT THE HEAT!

Spontaneous Fun and Camping Too!

We decided to take the kids on their first real camping trip last weekend. Fun was had, however more fun will be possible when Will is another year older. We went with Dallas and Laura and their boys who are 3 1/2 and 16 months. I don't think we quite understood how big of and undertaking it would be to get ready to go. There were tents, sleeping bags, and countless other necessities to buy prior to going. Then there was the packing. I was very proud of my packing idea. I found a large rubbermaid tub to put everything small in (e.g. flashlights, paper towels, matches, tablecloth). When I went to look in the basement to find such container, there were mouse dropping in it, which led me to wash the tub out in the back yard. (We had a little mouse issue during the winter which has since been taken care of. It was tough to explain to Alice how we got rid of them. Of course I hate to talk about it too..) Anyway, this is what happened when I filled the tub with soap...






For our first trip we decided to take them to a camp ground which had a bath house, playground, etc. It will be a while before we are able to hike to a site, mainly because of all the gear. We took Will's pack-and-play, which weighs a ton on its own.















There was quite a bit of monitoring involved when taking 2 one year-olds on a camping trip (fire, road), and the temperature got down to the 50's at night, but overall it was a good first trip!