The Doctors Wife

One Fish, Two Fish, Sassy Fish, Blue Fish

Yesterday we met a sweet friend at the aquarium, and man was it busy! When we pulled into the parking lot, Hannah said, "Look Mommy, everyone is at the aquarium!" And oh gracious, everyone was! 

These little sweeties did really well, especially considering the crowds. David is still new at being "free" and not being in the stroller, and he was so good.

 
 We had a great time and ran into more friends while we were there. After an hour, I had reached my limit in the crowd. I am not a crowd person and it was seriously insane. The kids had been so good, but then Hannah got mad that we were leaving, and she started to pout. I told her she'd better straighten up or I'd take her picture, but that didn't stop her. We are in some new territory with her attitude, and she is really trying to push her limits. Please tell me that it's going to get better, because at the rate that we're going I'm not sure that I'll be able to make it through her teen years!

Diane, here is photographic evidence of the sass.  That is some serious sassiness going on. Hannah finally came around (after we got home) and was back to her sweet self. David is ready to go back and see the turtles again, but I think we may have to wait for school to start to avoid the crowds, and hopefully we'll avoid the sass the next trip too!



 

Super

Love this boy!

David and the Beanstalk

David has been obsessed with the Max and Ruby episode where Max won't eat his beans, so Ruby tells him the story of "Max and the Beanstalk." Obsessed. He begs to watch it multiple times a day, and I find myself giving in at least once, because he is just SO excited about it. (Plus, when David says beanstalk, it sounds like "beanstomp" and it is so cute that I can't resist!) I decided that it would be fun to plant "magic" beans and grow our own beanstalk. I mixed up glitter and dried beans and put it in a little pouch (I think an from an Anthro gift card) and we "planted" the beans. When the kids woke up the next day our magic beans had grown...

They were so excited! I just free-handed the beanstalk and cut out leaves from green poster-board and used painters tape to attach them to the wall (that way the walls won't get messed up and no sticky residue will be on the wall). This was super easy and I did it while I watched Toddlers and Tiaras. That is a show that I will occasionally catch, and I am thinking that I may have to add it to the DVR line up because seriously? That is 10 kinds of crazy going on and did you see that mother who thought that her daughter screaming at and hitting her was cute?! Anyway...David was super excited, can you tell?

(Oliver would like to be acknowledged...and would also like a belly rub...and perhaps some bacon)

Unfortunately our beanstalk was too high for the kids to climb, and Mr. Brown Dinosaur only made it about 1/4 of the way up before having to come back down.

(Hey, where's my bacon?)

This was a super easy project and the kids had so much fun with it. We measured how tall they were against the beanstalk, and of course we watched Max and Ruby.  

We also used these play-dough mats, and this kept them busy for at least an hour. I had a few letters/cards to write and I was able to get all of it done while they played.

I had a few other things that I was planning to do with the kids, but my plans were sidetracked with an impromptu trip to the eye doctor to have a "foreign object extracted" from my left eye. (two words that don't belong in the same sentence, eye and extracted) Luckily the offending object was  removed and after some amazing numbing drops, all was right with the world again. This was a fun way to start our weekend, (the beanstalk, not the eye doctor) my parents came to visit on Friday and the kids were super excited to show Grammy and PaPa their beanstalk. Hope you had a great weekend!

Laundry Love

I used to be one of those people who abhorred ironing. I loathed it, and avoided it to the detriment of my dry cleaning bill. For anything that couldn't be sent to the cleaners, I was a steamer girl.  A couple of months ago I pulled out the ole' iron and was trudging along when I noticed that no matter how many times I went over something, it never did become quite crisp and wrinkle free. Time for a new iron- I was ready to shell out, thinking perhaps that better equipment would make the task of ironing wee little pants and dresses more bearable. I started looking into Rowenta, and was surprised that lately the reviews are not so good, as in really not so good; so I began to look at what was getting good reviews and found this. Oh ya'll!  I may be an ironing convert. It is so good, and so easy, and so much faster. I actually don't mind ironing now. Plus it is not an expensive iron, and ya'll it really is the smoothest thing ever, it literally glides over the clothes doing the work for you. My Mom was skeptical despite my giddiness (I totally called her after using it the first time) but then she ironed a shirt at my house and now she understands my hype. I had some friends over for lunch a few weeks ago and the subject of ironing came up and I actually got out the iron. ( I know, I have reached a new level of sad and lame- high school/ college me wouldn't even recognize me now) Anyway, loooong story short, I love this iron and if you are in the market for a new iron, I highly recommend this one. 

Do you know who else loves to "iron"? Hannah loves to look at "magazines" and would beg for this every time she "read" the PBKids catalog. Well, her wish came true, as this was one of her birthday gifts and every time she sees me get out the ironing board, she (or David) runs and gets hers. I saw this a while back on Money Saving Mom, and knew that this would be perfect for Hannah. I didn't use the patterns, I just winged it. This was a very easy project, (I did it while Mike and I watched Master Chef). I added a few buttons, trim, etc. for embellishment and I thought for a quick, easy project it turned out pretty cute. Yesterday when I got out my ironing, Hannah got hers out and I presented her with her own laundry. I set up the line for her and she was delighted- she (or David) would "iron" and then she would pin it to the line. She had a great time and it kept them both out from underneath me while I got the ironing off of my to do list!

 

I think this is a really cute project and it really doesn't need the ironing component, (but I knew this would keep my little helper occupied while I got the ironing done) and was so easy. You could also step it up and make it a matching game, or work on color recognition with little ones. Love it when I can get something done and the kids aren't even aware of it! ; )

 

Hot Hot Hot!

It is so hot here. It is awful, can't do anything outside hot. We were at a birthday party for one of Hannah's sweet friends over the weekend, and one of the mother's who was visiting from Georgia commented that the heat here is so much worse, her words were "stifling" and "oppressive."  I couldn't agree more. We have pretty much avoided being outside, except for trips to the pool.  Today we ventured out to run some errands, and when we got home, I found this little man cooling off while I was bringing in things from the car. 

Silly boy- I can't say I blame him! Hope you are staying cool!

Summer Reading

We read a lot of books at our house, and this year we participated in our library's summer reading program. Hannah was so excited- after 4 visits, and 8 books you got a medal, after 20 books, they also got a little inflatable plane. Hannah was so excited about getting her medal, and talked about it every time we went to the library. 

Yea, I know...and this is the best picture of the two of them. One of them either had their eyes closed, or crazy eyes...at least this is just dazed eyes! But I promise that they were both excited.

They both LOVE the planes! This is "blue airplane"

And this is "America, the Red Airplane" 

I'm so glad the kids got to participate this year- I think it will be a fun tradition! 

Here are a few of our current favorites:

The Monster At The End of This Book

Chicken Bedtime Is Really Early

Llama Llama Mad At Mama

Harold And The Purple Crayon

The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Harry The Dirty Dog

Happy Reading!

*Crickets Chirping*

So lately I just haven't had any blogging mojo. Life has just been so busy, and as much as I love the documentation that blogging provides, I have struggled with finding the time. Also some of the fun of blogging has been sucked out by meanie comments, emails, etc.  and I have just been feeling a little done. But, on my little unplanned break I have found that I am ready to try being more regular, the things that I have always loved about blogging, I still do. I am not even going to attempt to back date the past couple of months, so I am hoping to just jump right back in. And if you emailed me, thanks- things are fine, and no I'm not pregnant. ; ) (I think the last time I took such a huge break I was pregnant, sick as a dog in bed) I can't believe that summer is almost over- Target already has their school supplies out! I am hoping to squeeze in a lot of fun over the next few weeks, and hopefully will find some time to share some of it!