Here and There

Here are some bits and pieces from life lately.

Both Emmy and Natalie have been coloring a lot. It's a great activity to keep Emmy occupied for a little bit, and we usually do it at the kitchen counter where Emmy is strapped in and can't wreak havoc on the house with a marker or crayon.

She is licking up the last of her ranch after "drinking" what she could from the cup. How about eating some of that food on your plate Emmy?

I caught this sweet picture of her feeding one of her babies. And so prepared for anything motherhood might throw at her with that backpack and all...

We're not completely sold on the idea of being a mother. Fighter pilot and princess are also options.

We hung out at a friend's house one Friday night and rocked out while doing Just Dance. 

I must get a photo of Chico on the blog. This little guy sits in a corner of our neighbor's yard, a bit of a cast off, and the kids love to go see him. 

Before going to the "real" park one afternoon, we slid around at a skate park. Ruined our pants but oh well!

This is the scene when Nate gets home from work. Hugs come first, but it doesn't take long for things to turn into loving "attacks."

Soccer started last night.

Jansen was upset that his team lost. I am helping coach this year. It's a juggling act if I have the girls, but if Nate has them, I have a blast being on the field with the little kids.

Emmy's true loves right now. Baby Jaguar and Strawberry Shortcake. There is a doll somewhere under all that scented hair.

Jansen's Birthday Party

Jansen has been very excited to turn 7. He waited patiently while Natalie celebrated her birthday and had her party...and his turn finally came. My kids are pretty indecisive and unrealistic when it comes to choosing party themes, so I basically suggested/persuaded Jansen to have a "science" party. 

He chose an Oreo Brownie Trifle for his party dessert. The leftovers are sitting in the fridge tempting me each time I open the door. Problem is, it's even better a day or two later.

We started the party by making bracelets with beads that turn color in the sun. As they put the beads on, I told them a change would take place when we went outside in the sun. They made guesses about what would happen to the clear beads.

Here is the crew. It makes me a little sad to think that in maybe a year or so Jansen probably won't want girls at his party. For now, they are some of his favorite friends. 

We did a few activities here at the table like make instant snow, grow "marbles" in water, and experiment with waterproof sand. Those little condiment cups were AWESOME. I used probably 80 of them for different things during the party. 

Great friends sporting their safety glasses.

Dr. Nye wowed the kids with "elephant toothpaste." 

And with slime...

We even set a dollar bill on fire, but it didn't burn! :) I only trusted my husband enough to use a one dollar bill on this one. We talked for a little while beforehand about NEVER using matches or lighters by yourself at home. Just had to include that bit for any of the parents of children who came to the party who may read this. 

This one is called "magic milk paint."

We sat down for a little while and built structures using toothpicks and marshmallows.

Somebody was having just as much fun as the kids.

We headed outside after that for the Mentos geyser!

It was awesome.

We finished up with trifle and opening presents. This picture reminds me that I need to ask Jansen what he wished for. Or does that make it not come true?

Emmy slept through all the partying, but I took her for a few rides on the party decorations to make up for it.

I have a love/hate relationship with parties. They are a lot of work, but this one was really fun and definitely worth it. If anyone wants info or details about the experiments just let me know in the comments and I'll get the links, etc to you.

Labor Day

It escapes me what we did most of Labor Day. I do know Jansen was born on Labor Day 7 years ago. And I do know that we went up to Mt. Charleston in the afternoon. A few friends joined us and we had a picnic dinner. This is a picture of us driving towards cooler weather.

It was fairly crowded, but we didn't have a problem finding a parking spot or a place to sit and eat. At home we had to dig through our clothes and find some pants and long sleeves to wear. It certainly wasn't cold up there though. It felt awesome. Jansen and his buddy Weston spent most of their time wearing Proton Packs and fighting off ghosts.

We had a great time talking with friends and enjoying the cool air. I'm glad we got it into gear and planned this last minute outing.

I Can Still Smell Her

With all the kids' birthdays so close together, my mom decided to come down for a visit to celebrate. It worked out really nice because Nate was gone part of the weekend hiking Mt. Whitney. Hooray for not being alone with the kids all day on a Saturday! We just loved having her here...I mean, she's the type of grandma that will wear a Strawberry Shortcake accessory in her hair. And it was probably her idea.

The kids were introduced to the game Barrel of Monkeys. Gosh, Natalie has a long way to go in terms of being a good sport. Full on fits on the floor if things didn't go her way.

We ran errands together and went to the park. I'm thinking of putting this one in Emmy's modeling portfolio. I mean, the girl is looking good in that playground tunnel.

Jansen asked me to take a picture of him to show why he was "born for the monkey bars." 

The guest bedroom still smells like my mom (in a good way), so I miss her every time I go in there. Thankfully, I know she'll be back before too long!

Natalie Girl, Birthday Girl

Natalie is officially 5. Her birthday was August 29th. She really wanted to open presents before school, so we woke up before the birds and did a quick job of it. I did a little candy trail to her presents. 

As I looked through the photos of Natalie opening her presents, every one of them had one of my bras hanging in the picture. Luckily I found one I could crop and things were still appropriate for all ages.

She loves this stuffed German Shepherd we gave her. Even though she is my own flesh and blood, I am grossed out by her tongue-in-the-gap thing.

I love this picture from my phone. Her playful brown eyes and sprinkle of freckles really stand out. That night we had chocolate chip pancakes for dinner as per her request. 

We had a little party for her a few days before her actual birthday. She wanted an M&M cake and this one popped up on Pinterest. 

She chose Hello Kitty invitations, but the party was really all about making and creating things. She didn't realize until a few days before the party that it wasn't Hello Kitty themed. Oops. 

Like I said, we just made a lot of things...Shrinky Dinks, bracelets, paper towel butterflies, perler bead designs, etc. 

I thought Jansen might want to hang out upstairs and play on the computer or something. I was very wrong. He wanted to be right in the middle of the party, and Natalie was totally ok with that.

Cake time! She chose mint chocolate chip ice cream to go along with the chocolate cake.

She had a lot of fun with her presents that afternoon.

Here is a page from her scrapbook she worked on.

A few things about Natalie...

-She loves fruit. She eats a couple bananas a day along with a few other types of fruit. 

-She loves to snack as well. She is always wanting a little something to eat.

-She still likes me to rock her before bed. All this really entails is her sitting on my lap for a minute in her rocking chair. She also needs 12 kisses on the forehead before bed. 

-She sleeps with a sound machine on and a weird pink night light. I don't know how she does it. It's like a party going on in her room all night.

-Littlest Pet Shops continue to her favorite toy. She plays with them everyday and makes up "stories."

-She loves to go on bike rides, especially with dad.

-She loves the show Strawberry Shortcake right now. She also loves Wild Kratts and Diego. She loves computer time.

-She can read a little, and loves to sit and look through books.

-She only likes kindergarten ok, but doesn't complain a lot. I like that about her. She does what needs to be done.

-She is a busy little girl, always collecting, coloring, or cutting something up.

-She always wants to say the prayer at dinner or bedtime. I think this is because she can control the length of it. :)

Love you Natalie girl!