Carnival Day

I was just looking through some of my pictures and realized I never posted about some of our "important" events. You know, like Carnival Day! So just for a quick recap, we were lucky enough to have a traveling carnival set up directly across the street from us. It has become tradition for us to take the kids over for a day of fun-filled activities.

Brooklyn's favorite things were the big blue slide (shown) and the huge obstacle course. The obstacle course was one of those two story netted courses with punching bags to go around, bridges to go over, slides to come down..... you get the idea. She loved it. She didn't love the dragon roller coaster so much. Which just happens to be one of Abby's absolute favorite rides. We have the pictures to prove it. Abby began going on the dragon roller coaster as soon as she was able to be let on. Actually before she was legally tall enough to go we got her on by accompanying her. Fun you must be thinking. And it possibly would have been fun if I was one of Snow Whites seven dwarfs and didn't mind whiplash. But that's beside the point. Abby loves the thrill of scary rides. Brooklyn gets a thrill watching Abby on the scary rides.

Anway, Abby really wanted Brooklyn to go on the dragon with her and she started prepping Brooklyn for it days before we went. One day Brooklyn really wanted to go on the dragon. The next day she made her "I'm so scared face" if Abby mentioned it. Long story short. Brooklyn went with Abby on the dragon and two times around began yelling to the carni let her off. He stopped the ride just for Brooklyn. And off she came with a huge smile on her face. "I did it. I went on the dragon!" She conquered her fear and that was enough for her. She never went on the dragon again.

The Big Blue Slide (Brooklyn and Abby)

Here's Abby on the parachute swing. This ride looks harmless enough until it really starts going. And once it goes you begin wondering how such a good mother like yourself could have ever let your little girl go on this ride. But Abby loved it and really, how many children have ever been thrown off these kinds of rides?

We were able to go to our Pancake Breakfast in the morning, hit the parade, come home and walk to the carnival, walk home for lunch, walk back to the carnival, walk home for dinner and walk back to the carnival. Hey, if you're going to buy an All Day Pass you've got to use it!! Until next time Carnival!

The Wonder Pets

I don't like pets. Not really. I don't mind dogs - as long as they aren't mine. I don't have a problem with cats - as long as they don't rub their backs on my legs. And they're hairless. Which makes them considerably less desirable. (I have allergies). Goldfish seem kind of pointless, what with having to clean the fish bowl to prevent death. Just one more thing on my "to do" list. No thanks. I have no stomach for gerbils, hamsters and guiena pigs. Too close to a rat in my book. And the whole "they eat their babies" thing. I don't want to have to deal with that.

So anyway, back to the point. My children will probably never have a living, breathing pet. Sometimes I get sad for them. They love animals. But then I get over it! But here's the thing. I did it. I found them a great pet. We actually inherited it but still.



Here it is. It came from my insect, bug, nature loving neighbor. It's a cocoon. Soon to be a pet:)




See, really, I have to do nothing with it. Just watch it for a little while and dream of the day that it emerges from its cocoon and flies away! (I never said it would be a pet for long! That would require buying a home for it. And food. And possibly cleaning a cage? I don't really know. But I don't have to find out!)


Anyways, did I say we were waiting for it to hatch? Well, surprise! It did hatch and here it is!




It's actually not a butterfly. It's a moth. I don't know the official name of it but it's pretty cool looking.




Check out that body. Pretty amazing. And BIG!




And here is Abby taming her new pet! Brooklyn was a little scared of it. I really didn't think it would ever hatch. (This one hatched at my neighbors house. The one in the other pictures is the one that we took care of.) We have two more cocoons and I know for sure one is gone. We're still waiting on the other one but we're losing hope. So the girls were thrilled to wake up and check on their cocoons and find a moth sitting in the box.


And then we put it in a nice safe corner of the yard and the next time we checked on the moth, it had left to find a new home! See how easy was that. A pet for a day! The girls weren't even heartbroken. They were just happy they had been able to play with the moth for a little while!

Long Live the Mohawk.....

It's completely natural by the way. I wonder if the way it's growing has anything to do with the "hair rubbing off incident" I've mentioned before. You know, the one where my little baby Jace had all his hair rubbed off on his first outing to church by a certain someone (who shall remain nameless - unless you want details and then you can just email me:).

Anyway, Darren wants to shave it off. I don't know what to do with it. I've never had a little boy before. What do you think? Leave it to grow into a really long punk rocker mohawk (is that called a frohawk?). Possibly a mohawk comb over? Or shave it down into an awful buzz cut? I don't know. Maybe I just need to play it up and get him into a black leather outfit.....

You are my Sunshine

I have an obsession with my skin. The other day I was reading one of my "mom magazines" and I stumbled across an interesting little tid-bit. I was reading about using sunscreen and how most people don't use the proper amount. This was interesting to me because in my attempt to thwart nature and have my skin looking "youthful and beautiful" for many years to come I slather sunblock on my face every morning. And yes, that was sunblock, not sunscreen or moisturizer with SPF - straight sunblock. Most of this obsession boils down to the fact that my skin does not look flawless, nor has it ever, and I believe sunblock will help. (Just go with me on this one.)

Anyhoo, back to my article. Apparently, I am not using enough sunblock and it does me little good to even put it on considering the vast difference in the amount I am supposed to be using. So I decided to put to use my newfound knowledge and the after getting out of the shower the other day I squirted the alotted tablespoon of sunblock into my hands.


As I stared at the puddle of sunblock in my hand, all I could think of was, "Hmmmmm, that does look like a lot of sunblock." (Especially considering I generally use about, oh I don't know, 1/4 a teaspoon. And for those of you who don't know there are 3 teapsoons to every tablespoon which would put me at needing about 12 times more sunblock). Courageously, I began rubbing my sunblock in.


Soon I realized my skin was no longer absorbing the sunblock. And I still had a fistful left. Well, I didn't want to wear sunblock if it wasn't going to protect my skin. So instead of "fingering" my face, I just plunged in and started "palming" my face with both hands. Now it didn't matter if I started second guessing this "tested" amount of sunblock. I was too far into it. Eventually I opened my eyes to a face streaked with white. I started to focus in on just the obvious white and gave it a good rubbing. Unfortunately, those white streaks were by now semi-dry and I stared in horror at the chunks of sunblock that began appearing. After I flicked those off I decided to just let my saturated face dry and attempt at smoothing it over with makeup. Hopefully my face wasn't ruined for the day.


And that's exactly what I did. And then I went out into the sun with my caked on mask knowing that I was protected from all rays of sunshine. I also know that I will not be doing that again!


So in an attempt to further pass on the education I received, this same article informed me that I was supposed to be using about 1 cup of sunblock for my entire body. And this was is supposed to be repeated every few hours.......


Meaning my big bottle of sunblock that lasts all year and possibly longer should last approximately 2-3 days.


So open your wallets this summer. Sunblock doesn't come cheap!!

Comings and Goings

We like having pretty lips at my house. No, like doesn't even begin to describe the lip infatuation. L-O-V-E is more like it. My girls have lip gloss lying all over the house. You know. A girl never knows where she'll be when her lips may start aching for some glossing. We have run into many problems with allowing the girls to have beautiful lips. Such as bright pink lip gloss being wiped on chairs, couches, clothing, dressers, little brothers etc. Nothing that hasn't been able to be fixed but still annoying. But not as annoying as the constant badgering I get if I confiscate all lip balm (which I have done before!)

So anyway, this is Abby with her beautiful lips. It's actually harder to see in the picture. Or maybe Abby just put on the right amount for once! Now moving on to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn loves to watch me put on make-up and loves to go through my make-up bag even more. She knows I have some old lipstick in there so the other day she thought she'd help herself while I was busy. I can't help but laugh everytime I see this picture. It's so Brooklyn.

In other news. The little man ( as I like to call Jace) has finally decided to start moving....... at 9 months old. (I personally think he was born with a lazy gene so this is a big triumph for him!) He's crawling people!! Isn't he cute!!

Which also means he's getting into trouble! Gotta love this stage!

What mom?

Finally....

This weekend while at Wal-Mart the girls and I were in the hair aisle looking for pretty clips and such. I must have been looking pretty hard because I had no idea that Abby (who was right next to me) was trying out the hair brushes.

Did I mention that they were the small, round hair brushes. You know, the ones that should be banned from anyone trying until they have had a class on properly using them! Yes, well Abby has not had that class and nor have I. The poor little thing had a huge clump of hair wrapped around that brush and it was practically stuck to her skull. I was not alarmed when I saw her. I did not yet know the power of the small round brush. After my initial assessment I went to work.

And kept working.

And working.

And then I started my panicked laughing because I was imagining my little Abby with a huge bald spot and horrible haircut! Really,I thought there was no hope and was seriously considering grabbing the scissors that hung nearby. But it was so much hair. And so close to her scalp. I couldn't do it. So I did the only thing I could think of. I started begging the passersby to help.

Luckily one women felt bad for us and did help. She mentioned that her daughter had done the same thing:) In fact I was in awe at the clumps she grabbed and just started ripping out. She was really pulling so hard I was surprised the hair remained intact. But she accomplished what I could not.

And Abby was free. *Sigh of relief!* And no, we did not purchase the brush!!!

Easter Egg Hunt

Who doesn't love an Easter Egg Hunt? I know my girls have a great time looking for those brightly colored eggs. We were lucky enough to have two hunts this year and it's a good thing we had both planned. The city Easter egg hunt started at 9 in the morning and is for ages 0-12. We do this hunt every year. We met together and then they divided the kids into 3 age groups and took them to different parts of the park to hunt. Unfortunately, as the older kids (7-12 year olds) were being led to their part of the park they passed through the 4-6 year olds hunt site. And they proceeded to pick up all of the eggs. Poor Abby was so sad. She had been so excited to hunt eggs. She showed us how fast should could run and was dreaming of all the eggs she was going to get. They didn't even blow the whistle for her age group to start. There was absolutely nothing left to pick up. They ended up doing another hunt just for her age group later that day. That didn't make Abby feel any better so we took her to the Donut Shop right after to cheer her up. Nothing like an all day sugar high!

Brooklyn was able to do her hunt. She filled her basket without any problems but she was also the oldest in her age group. We'll see how she does against the older kids next year!!

Later that day we went to my parents house where their neighborhood put on a hunt for the kids in their neighborhood only. They had a bazillion eggs and not many kids so we ended up with a sack full of candy. These pictures are the ones from the neighborhood hunt. I thought it was great. The kids had lots of fun and they really didn't have to fight over the eggs because there were PLENTY!

Abby wasted no time in getting started.

Here's Brooklyn just getting started. She began by gathering only the colors of eggs she liked best. I had to convince her to come back for this ugly green one!

This is Abby running through the field for about the 3rd time. This is at the end and all of the eggs had been picked up but Abby didn't want to quit!

Jace hung out with Grandma and watched while I took pictures. He even got to pick up an egg and it had a quarter in it!

Brooklyn with her stash. By the way we emptied their baskets several times so they ended up with a lot more than shows.

And afterwards we were given sugar cookies and drinks. Who could ask for more? Really, this was the best Easter Egg Hunt we've ever been too!

The neighborhood kids.

Resting after all that running.

Happy Easter!

Snow!

Last week we got a good Spring snow storm. Nice, wet snow perfect for making a nice, fat snowman! Grandma showed up just in the nick of time to watch Jace so I could impart my snowman making knowledge upon the girls! We rolled and rolled the bottom until we could roll no more. I know it doesn't look that big but trust me, that snow was heavy! And we were rolling up a slight incline. Anyway, I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I realized I had to make a big second ball of snow. You know, one that I would have to actually pick up. Without throwing out my back. Well, let's just say when duty calls, I perform. No matter what!

This picture was right before we put on the face.

Our completed snowman!

I think he looks pretty good. The next day was incrediby warm and our snowman melted. Abby took the opportunity to give the licorice (snowman's mouth) a try. Needless to say it was soggy and disgusting and only took one bite for her to figure that out!