Projects...

"Hey Mom!  Let's find a project to do!"  

This is what I heard the very most during the early summer weeks.  I love when my kiddos get their creative juices flowing.  They get along so well and keep themselves entertained for hours...a total win-win!!!  

So far we've made glitter slime, bouncy slime, raced balloon rockets along zip-lines, raced balloon lego cars, pictures out of colored rice, painted multiple watercolor masterpieces, but I think the only one I managed to snap a picture of is this lovely marshmallow catapult.   

Ethan read that if you let it sit for a day or two, the marshmallow joints harden a bit, so it catapults a bit better...so we were all banned from touching it for 2 days!   But what do we find as it sits???  Little nibble marks from a certain little girl.  She just couldn't keep her hands (or her teeth) off this thing.  

Appendicitis

So, in case you have ever wondered if a person with absolutely no hair on their head has to wear a hairnet in surgery...the answer is YES!  And here he is laughing at me for wanting to document such a trivial thing!  

Steve had decided to start the summer off with appendicitis.  Poor guy!  Had a few complications, but he's doing well.  Thank goodness for 24/7 Tour de France and World Cup coverage...otherwise he'd be miserable!

Wishes

Liv:  Mom, I want to type something.

Me:  (handing her the laptop) Okay.

Liv:  Will you help me write it?

Me:  Sure.

Liv:  Okay.  I want to write "I wish I could be a fly."

Me:  Do you mean "You wish you could fly"?

Liv:  NO!!!!  I want to be a fly!  Now, will you help me write it?


SOOO funny!  I love getting a glimpse into Olivia's  funny little mind!  Apparently, first thing on a Saturday morning is a good time to be a fly!

All Tied Up

Guess who has entered the ranks of official shoe tiers???  

Yep...that's right!  After watching Ethan learn this all important life-skill years ago, Olivia picked it up after me showing her just once.  She must have been processing the info for months now and was ready to go once she officially tried it!   Now she is tying everything in sight into nice, neat little bows!

 Got to love that she learned with my shoes!  Extra long laces proved to be super beneficial!!!  

Edited to add...
She actually accomplished this skill weeks ago...I just forgot to actually hit post on here so it was officially documented!!!  :)  The funny thing with this accomplishment was that she didn't actually own a pair of shoes that tied!  Only cute little sandals/slip on flats for this little miss!  BUT, yesterday, she picked out a pair of tennis shoes and could not be happier with her bright little feet!   I love her bright cheery bows!  So proud of this girly girl!

Spring Break

Well, since I am the world's very best mom...I am admitting straight up, that I did not snap a single picture during spring break - unless you count countless pics of science fair action shots from every single angle!!!!  

So this is a more documentary type of post...one, that just documents what we did, so that years from now (or even as soon as next week, since my kids have a knack of forgetting how amazingly fun we actually are!), I can prove to my kids that we did indeed do something great!  :)  

Spring Break 2014...camping, movies, hanging with friends, a bit of science fair homework...and lots of sleeping in!

The highlight:

We hit our favorite campsite with some of our dearest and favoritest friends and had the greatest time EVER!!!  Even though I always say I will never camp in the cold, the night temps dropped severely and we survived. We all slept with layers upon layers of clothing, hats, blankets inside our sleeping bags and we stayed toasty warm!  And who knew???  When you sleep with a hat pulled over your eyes, secured in place by your hoodie hood pulled tightly around it...you'll actually sleep in despite the blazing sunshine lighting up your tent at the crack of dawn!  Amazing!

We biked until our chains broke, ate amazingly well considering we were camping, relaxed, let the kids explore and run amok and just sat and talked for hours and hours!  I LOVE being away and disconnecting from everything!

RIP

You know how you can tell a situation's severity just from the tone of your child's voice...those moments when you can tell if it's a real emergency or just a regular old holler for help???

Well, the other night, I got the call...a real call for help...although there was something different this time and I couldn't put my finger on it!

I can usually tell exactly what's going on just from Liv's intonation and even from how she calls my name...as either as a statement or a question.  Funny enough, it's usually the question ones that are a bit more serious!  So when I hear a "Uh???  MOM?????" coming from upstairs the other night as Liv was supposed to be getting ready for bed, I ran up the stairs.  I found her standing in the middle of her room...in her underwear.  As I walked through the door...she just stares up at me with a blank look but starts pointing to her hip.  Her cute little undies/ are completely shredded on one side.  Since they were fine that morning when she put them on, I was quite amused, perplexed and a bit intrigued!  When I asked what happened, this is the conversation that followed:

Me - What happened to your underwear?

Liv - Uhhhhhhhhh.......

Me - I'm so confused!  How did you totally rip through the side of your underwear?

Liv - Well???  First I climbed up on my hutch to put in a CD.  Then when I was jumping down, I got stuck.

Me - You got stuck?

Liv - Yeah.  Well...I jumped, but my pants got stuck on the knob and I was hanging from the drawer for a while.

Me - (just envisioning my pipsqueak daughter hanging upside down by her underwear from the small knob on her drawer) - Uh, is that even possible?

Liv - (totally exasperated, though still slightly baffled herself) YES mom!  I was just hanging there...until I ripped free.

Me - HAHAHAHAHAHA!  (My mental picture got the best of me and I couldn't hold it in)

Liv - (now totally annoyed and done with the conversation, she starts to walk away) Well...it was really scary...and it DID happen.

Opera

Yesterday we took the kids an opera downtown.  It was a family showing of Rapunzel, a favorite story thanks to Tangled!!!  I don't think they really knew what they were getting into...but it was fun all the same!  Although, I think this is one activity that Garrett has now put on the top his "NEVER TO DO AGAIN" list!  Whenever I caught his eye during the show, I was usually graced with a lovely eye-roll, accompanied by a heavy sigh!  Poor kid took one for the team...Liv liked it and Ethan was entertained! 

But all in all, a great time was had my most!  :)