Our public library recently celebrated it's 100th birthday! Each day for the whole week they had something special going on. Saturday was cake and an open tour of the entire library. Everyone was invited to dress as their favorite book character. So I got out the construction paper and my eyeliner and designed Emma's costume. Any guesses on who she is?


She is "Angie Ballnerina" (Angelina Ballerina)















April 2009

Daniel is in a jammies phase. How can I tell?
















April 2009

Cousins visit

It is so fun to live a block from the city library and park. In the summer the school district does free lunches for kids at a few parks around town. City park happens to be one so we make it to the park nearly every day for lunch. What's even better? Living close to cousins! We love it when they come to visit.

(Ok - I gotta say here. I took lots of pic of these 4 and while you can't see every one's face great in this one it's the best I had. There were apparently a lot of very urgent boogers at the moment! lol)


And when Aunts push the swings!


A lot!!
















April 2009

Craftin'

Our stickers, pom-poms, popsicle sticks, flower petals etc stash used to look like this:


Actually, most of it still does. But the kids rarely played with it because they couldn't see into the boxes and it wasn't very accessible. So I pulled out my old 'hair stuff' organizer (choke) and dumped out the few remaining rusty bobby pins and brittle hair bands, washed it out and filled it with a little of each thing. I put it on the floor to take a pic and couldn't get one before little hands sneaked in to play!

(oops, accidentally posted the same pic twice. Here's the right one.)














April 2009

First BBQ

The weather was so nice during the day so of course we had to bbq some spare ribs. However by the time the coals were ready it had cooled off a bit - hence all of the jackets! lol

Who cares about eating - this is the fun part!


Em just couldn't wait!
















April 2009

This is Em's Easter dress. She chose the fabric back in Febuary and then looked through my stash of patterns for one she liked. I lined it thinking it would be too see-through without but wish I hadn't as the lining makes it rather heavy. Anyhoo! She put it on and my does she look so grown up!














April 2009

It was a long day shopping - I had just found Em's bike that morning and the search for training wheels took us to three stores! We could have stopped at the first but both Tuan and I drew the line and cheap plastic Elmo training wheels. One of the places we stopped at was giving away free potted plants to each kid for a mother's day gift. While we completely wore D out, Em was just ready for Daddy to get the training wheels on her bike so that she could ride it!






May 2009

It's done!!

My sister Cindy sent Emma and Daniel a doll and some awesome clothes that she sews.
So I got online to search for some free patterns for additional wardrobe choices. In that search I found a great free pattern for this doll.


















So I had Emma choose her colors and got to work. (pic courtesy of Emma)

It was more work that I imagined but not too bad all together. I weighted down the feet and hands and bum. The most tedious was the hair. There are 200 strands of hair on that head! I counted! I made the skin tone and hair and eyes to match Emma.







May 2009















And here it is:


I think she likes it!

Emma's Easter Egg Hunt

I had the camera and they had the hunts separated by age so there aren't any pics of D's hunt. :o(

"Hey Emma - how about a smile for the camera while we wait for the hunt to start!"

"Huh?"


"Smile for the camera!"

"Ok - is this good?"


"Love it! Now go find some eggs!"










April 2009

This hairstyle brought to you by . . .

The book Stephanie's Ponytail

Listen to the author read it here.













April 2009

Can we keep it mom?

This cat decided to follow us home from a walk one night. It is very friendly and even puts up with kids sometimes less than soft handling. It was always around and the kids loved playing with it. However it was always running into the house and twice it got on the counter and started eating food (I distinctly remember calling Tuan after it went after some chocolate cake and I'm pretty sure my conversation included the words BB and gun LOL). But we didn't have to feed it (unless you count my chocolate cake I suppose) and the kids got to play with it so I figured it was a pretty sweet deal. Unfortunately our alley neighbor decided to feed it and keep it so the kids never see it anymore.


Emma especially loved it and misses it. I don't think we're ready for any kind of pet yet though.









May 2009

Right this minute

May 2009

Monkey Pull

Em and I were out garage saleing when she spotted this monkey harness/leash. She has created a game with it called "monkey pull", natch. She puts it on and instructs us to try to keep her from getting away. Lots of fun to watch and play for sure!










May 2009

Roasting Marshmallows

After the meat and veggies were grilled I couldn't stand to just put out the coals that took so long to heat up! So I grabbed some marshmallows and let the kids go to town roasting. I love this pic of them both blowing at the same time.









May 2009

I hope my stomach can still handle roller coasters like it did when I was a kid because I think Em will be dragging me along on every one she can find!









May 2009

Happy 4th of July!

Snapshot Sunday

My little girl is growing up

Yes, I know she is only 4 (4!) but in April she asked for her own bed. Last summer we got a toddler bed to use as a chair for the playroom. Finally she asked to sleep in it at night. So our room went from wall to wall mattresses to one queen bed next to her toddler bed. I was actually very emotional while we were getting it all set up. Besides Daniel being back onto our mattress with us (he and Emma slept on one queen mattress and Tuan and I shared the other) things aren't so different. She is still in the same room and right next to me. So I still have some time! lol

Right this minute

D putting together the space/planets floor puzzle in his space jammies and had to snap a picture.

Fun with tinker toys.


3/09

rainy day fall back

Painting nails is always good for passing the time. Well - at least 10 minutes of time! Although lately Emma has been painting her nails at least 2 times a day (often more) every day and the smell is driving me crazy!

Daddy

Two days ago Tuan had a deadline at work. Things weren't coming together as fast as he hoped however. He finally made it home at 10 pm just as the kids and I were heading to bed. They got 5 minutes of play out of him before he had to get back to work at home. The next day he came home 'for lunch' to nap. They wanted to be near him so much that they each chose a movie for their DVD player and watched it on the bed next to him while he napped. D ended up curled up next to him.

They really love their Daddy - he's the best. Not having him around for 2 days really helped them realize how much they miss him.



side note - Daniel calls Tuan "Daddy" at home and "Dad" when he's talking to him on the phone. I have no idea but find it adorable.

Of bears and fans and sandwiches

A photo essay.

Emma's stuffed bear somehow got stuck on the ceiling fan.

Perhaps if I stand on this stool I can get it off.

Nope - too short.

Hmm - maybe if I add a train station on top? Not quite.

I know! A snack. I'll have a snack.

Wait a minute - what if I turn the fan on?

It worked!


4/7/09