Friday, June 25, 2010

They're Back!

Ben was away for a work thing earlier this week, Monday through Wednesday evening...The girls and I really missed him. We're so glad he's back!

While he was gone we had a lovely dinner at Russ and Stephs...W and Sam played piano!
I sewed a bit more this week...I made this super cute baby dress for a friends new baby.
See how the straps tie up? It's not been gifted yet...but I don't think she's a blog reader. And I'm assuming she's too busy with her new baby girl to read it anyway! Hope to drop it off soon.
The girls and I went to a playground on Thursday. We packed swimsuits to wear in the spray park, but turns out it was closed. =( It was a super hot morning, so it was good that we got there early. Sam's LOVES swings. That's almost all she wants to do at the park now. I suppose it's better than chasing two girls in different directions.
Katie was over here on a spinning...seat-thing. (wearing boots, her choice)
But then Katie wanted to swing too. Usually I tell her she's too big for baby swings, but I didn't see any other swings at this playground. ( I think because there are a couple of bigger kid parks right close by)(Greenfield)This afternoon, I took the girls for their first bike ride of the season...maybe Sam's first bike ride ever? It wasn't long but it was great. We stopped once to check out a garage sale, but found nothing good. No kids things. Ben and I often joke that really, they should be called "Garbage Sales"...but I keep hoping to find a diamond in the rough. Not a bad time killer for an afternoon. (we'd already gone to the park earlier, before strollercize)You know who else is back? SAM...we've had her first happy day in what seems like forever (but may actually be only two weeks or so). Whether it was her stomach bug or teething or something else, she's seemed really grumpy and surly lately. Hard to please, needy...all that. Today was the first day in ages where I heard her giggle spontaneously. And where I felt I could do something to try and make her laugh without being afraid I would actually tick her off. It's so nice to see that smile again! I think because she's been off for such a significant period of time, I kind of forgot what was normal for her. THIS is definitely the normal I like to see. It made the day so much easier and less draining. Let's hope the rest of summer is as fun for all of us. Ben's last day is Wednesday, so we're counting down.

Enjoy your weekend!

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

A small conversation

Mom: Do I tell you girls often enough that you're wonderful?

Katie: We're always wonderful and we're always BAD that we can't share!" (exactly as she said it, smiling and confident)

We start laughing and Sam grins too.

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Father's Day/Ben's Day

Hello!
No pictures today...

For those that are worried, Katie's face cleaned up the other day easily with a wipe. What looked like marker was actually "Dry Erase Crayon" that we'd had some samples of. What a monkey!

We had a pretty good weekend. Sam has been throwing up a bit off and on since Friday, including another one this morning. Thought we fixed the problem by getting her new milk (I remember once when Katie was younger we fed her bad milk that had her sick for a few days...thought this was similar) but perhaps it's a mild stomach bug. Her spirits are pretty good and she's sleeping well, so I shouldn't be worried.

We had the grandparents and Auntie Andrea and Uncle Sheldon over for Father's Day BBQ pizza lunch on Sunday. It was a very hot day and nice to sit outside. The girls even got in the little pool.

We were also celebrating Ben's Birthday (which was actually yesterday), so the day was really all about Ben! Such a wonderful dad and husband, he's not hard to celebrate! I honestly don't think I could be as good a mom without him. And the girls adore him...can't wait until he's home with us for summer.

I also managed to do some sewing this weekend again (yes, I am a bit obsessive when I get into something I like) and made another purse/bag. And cannot stop thinking about what else I can sew. Any ideas?

Katie's downstairs watching a show (I'm pretty sure...), Super Why and perhaps we'll add a few minutes of soccer afterward. Hard not to. Enjoy your day!

Friday, June 18, 2010

Skin Art and Other Things

Katie's balloon wings from the market last weekend.
Dairy Queen ice cream cones.
These are children's size but we could have split one 4 ways it was so BIG.
A photo of the beautiful BBQ pizza we made. (the one I gushed about)Proof that crayon will melt to the bottom of a hot coffee cup.
This is my favorite coffee mug ever. Huge and Tinkerbell. If I remember correctly, it was a gift from Grandma Lill years ago. I use it almost every day. Katie with a house she built out of laundry. If I can only get her to start helping me match socks like the article on kids doing chores says a three year old should be able to do. (in the paper today)
Speaking of socks...is it weird that I loathe socks all winter (due to the annoying job of matching) and now that it's summer, I don't have to wear socks I should be rejoicing? But all I can think about is how I now know how crumby my floors are and how I wish I had socks on and didn't know?

Sam has been seeing these Telus billboards around town and MEOWing loudly...she gets SO excited!Katie was playing the markers (highlighters technically) and produced some lovely skin art. Every other week I take markers away for this kind of thing and the next week keep forgetting why I did and bring them out again. Repeat. May I proudly present...my newest crafty project:My new purse/bag! Not that I need one (still diaper bag all the time) but it was so much fun to sew something so cute...I'll find a reason to use it. The pattern is here.

THIS JUST IN...

I KNEW she was being too quiet.
This is all your fault blog. =)

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

So Cute!

Yesterday I caught Sam doing the cutest thing! We were shopping (and bought a tent!) and as Sam was running around in circles and bending her knees she's babbling. I'm kind of ignoring the babbling because I'm really just busy trying to follow her around the store and not lose her and then I realize...the babbling...it's NOT babbling...it's a very fuzzy string of sounds that is actually "...and we all fall DOWN". She's singing Ring Around the Rosies! So cute!

She also must have seen us hang some laundry because I found a sock hanging on the freezer handle:
Katie moved our coffee/side table the other day and made a comfy desk. (She's sitting on the ottoman). I don't have the heart to tell her to get used to it because there's years of homework and studying coming her way down the road. She looks so cute and grown up doesn't she?And Katie took a nice picture of Sam while we were out for coffee last week. Maybe someday we'll make the blog a team effort. We had pizza for dinner yesterday...one of the BEST pizzas we've ever made. You MUST MUST MUST try cooking your homemade pizza on the BBQ grill. It was insanely good. I tried a new dough recipe which worked really well and was easy. Made sauce from scratch (including fresh tomatoes, but I think I'll use canned when possible because it's just too much work with the kiddos around) that really needed more flavour/spice (athough I really liked the texture). And had fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and fresh basil. YUM YUM. We actually did one pizza on the grill and one in the oven due to space reasons and the grill was far better. And FASTER...I had no idea it would be so much quicker. It wasn't exactly 90 seconds but maybe 5 minutes? I should add that we did get a bit of a dark crust on the bottom of our pizza...we made a mental note to turn down the grill just a tad...but it was still great.

Please promise me you'll try this? =)

Sam's napping, thank goodness! We had a great night's sleep last night...no one woke up...for the first time in ages (teething how I loathe you!!). But Sam was so cranky this morning (Teething, see previous parentheses!) I couldn't wait to put her down (for a nap). Constant tears, angry running, and back arching. So frustrating. Here's hoping a nap turns that frown upside down!

Going to a payground soon to play with friends...should be good...hope your day is good too!

Sunday, June 13, 2010

Another One...

The girls sharing the ottoman...see how Sam likes to climb?
We went to Ben's work last week to pick him up and the girls played with some chalk. Katie's just tall enough to reach the blackboard and Sam took chalk from the box and put some on all the desk seats. They both has fun. Ben noticed how tiny they look in a big empty classroom with huge desks...can't imagine them ever being as big as a high school kid!
We went to Tim's for coffee this past week.
I tried making a new snack. Ants on a log, cream cheese style (I have it in my head that I'm actually not sure what the true filling for this snack is...is it supposed to be peanut butter? Cream cheese? Cheeze Whiz? Or is it equally appropriate to use any filling? Hmm.). We had three each, Katie, Sam and I. (Sam was napping and in the end when she woke up didn't eat hers...she gave the kind of "ugh" face that happens before she even gets a taste!)
Notice something?
Katie has a special way of eating these:
She did eventually take a bite of two of the celery, but I'll have to either go real easy on the filling (whichever it is!) or wait a bit before trying this again. Can't have her just eating filling can I?Sam prefers deconstructed panini sandwiches. This weekend was a busy one. Saturday morning we went to the downtown farmers market and ran into Gram and Grandpa who were eating pancake breakfast. Two seconds later, we squeezed into their picnic table and joined them. Yum! Pancakes! The weather was lovely and there was lots to see. Katie got balloon fairy wings and Sam got a plain old nice balloon. We didn't end up buying anything...couldn't decide and had dinner plans anyway, so we didn't need food for that night.

Our dinner plans involved going to a party for Megan's husband Rob (D and M's dad) who was celebrating getting his PhD. The party was in the backyard and the kids all had a blast. (There were lots of people and LOTS of kids!)

This morning we had a lovely brunch visit with Russ, Steph and (not-so-baby-) W. Again, outside in their lovely backyard.

On the way home, we went shopping for lunch fixings and a new baby gate for the basement. The old one broke when I was running from the playroom to help Ben with the repaired microwave (free repair!!!) and the gate wouldn't open quick enough and my momentum had me fall right on top of it...broken slats and bruises everywhere. Feels very silly to buy a new gate at this stage, but we do really need it to keep the girls (especially Sam) safe while we fiddle with laundry or run upstairs to grab things.

Ah well...the weather's been incredible this weekend, we ate lunch and dinner outside with the girls tonight, put water in the one half of the sand table, mowed the lawn, did laundry/dishes and did a big bunch of cleaning in the spare/storage room in the basement. Feels wonderful. Counting down the days until Ben starts summer and every day is like a weekend.

Hope you had a lovely weekend too!

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Katie's New Friend

Meet Katie's new friend Leopard the Leprechaun.

Monday, June 7, 2010

Fun Weekend

Here are some pictures from Ben's "Triathlon" (they took out the bike component because it was so cold and a bit icy) last weekend:
The girls watching Ben swim, with Papa.
Ben swimming. We didn't stay and wait for him to finish the run since it was pretty chilly and rainy outside, but Ben says it went well.
I got Katie in pigtails last week, and this was the best picture I could get (with Ladybug antennae).
Sam was rearranging furniture (AGAIN).

Pictures from our super-fun playdate with my friend Megan and her adorable boys (D and M). Katie got her shirt wet at the playground, so took it off when we got back to their backyard...D seems to think it's odd, but I think Katie's got the confidence to pull it off. M and Sam had fun walking around. We went to another playground last week (I feel like we did a lot of that as the weather was pretty good.).Saturday we went into St. Albert for their Children's festival. We had fun listening to music and getting the girls faces painted. Lots of fun, but we were glad we got their early...it was starting to get busy around 11am when we left. Another playground, a relatively new one in Greenfield. Wood chips mostly instead of sand and some fun and interesting features (plastic bongos! climbing walls!). Today was a very busy day...I pre-made lasagna in the morning, went to strollercize, went to Gram's for lunch and a visit, drove home to find Sam and Katie both fell asleep in the car, left the kids in car and ran in quick to change out of my work out clothes, drove to my friend Pam's for a playdate. The timing was perfect as Sam woke up just as we finished our extended tour of the neighbourhood in time for the playdate. We had a lovely visit with Pam and her little guy D, who's about 14 months old. Then, home just in time to put the lasagna in the oven, eat and pick up Ben at work. We managed to fit in a quick trip to the library and then home for bed. Seriously, was that a busy day or what? =)

Through all this, I have a couple of observations: Sam has become a CLIMBER. She can climb up onto the ottoman with ease and into the little desk with aplomb. I don't think it'll take long for her to figure out how to push a stool or ottoman near something she wants to climb (like couch or kitchen chair). I'll let you know when I see her do it.

Also, 123 magic, the new discipline technique Ben and I decided to try at the recommendation of the Pediatrician is going fairly well...we've only been doing it since Saturday...and I don't think we're yet using it on every behaviour we want stopped yet...I guess we're used to "ignore" and other tactics. But, when we have used the counting, it's not working out too badly. Haven't yet had to really use it out in public and that'll be the real test. Stay tuned...!

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Three Times

Yesterday I ran three loads of dishes in the dishwasher.

The very same dishes.

It took me 3 whole loads to realize that the problem wasn't a broken soap dispenser but was instead some dishes getting in the way of the soap dispenser door.

I'm embarrassed and don't know if I'm angrier at the silly machine or myself. =)

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

Wednesday

What a great day so far...we had a playdate with Megan and the boys. We usually only see them at SS but for various reasons decided an extra midweek non-sweaty playdate was in order. The weather was lovely and we walked to a park near their house. We had a superb time just letting the kids play together. Fun fun fun! I may have a picture but not yet on the computer and I'm too lazy to get it right now.

Here's a picture of the girls and JoAnne's girls from our playdate at ChaptersStarbucks (I say it as if it were all one word, and I think you should too.) =)
Hard time getting the girls to sit still for a picture, but they're all in it!
Sam like to give herself cup noses.
Right before going outside to play in the backyard last week .
Other things...
- Katie sings now...makes up her own songs. It's funny and great and I love it.
- Sam does this cute thing where sometimes, when she gets angry and has a tantrum, she RUNS away yelling/screaming/crying. The sound of the footsteps is my favorite part. It's kind of funny...Ben had a hard time not letting her see him laughing when he saw it.
- The girls are still sometimes sharing a bed at night...Katie told Ben "Sometimes, when the Angry Giants come at night, I trick them by going to Sam's bed" (or something similar). Hmm...we did think she was having nightmares a bit...I'm very happy knowing she can comfort herself with Sam.
- It was a 5:30 am wake up this morning. I was NOT ready for that. I think I had three cups of coffee this morning and I was still bleary. Though Katie's sill napping maybe 2/3 days for the past week, I'm not sure I see her napping today. At least not yet, we'll see what she's like in an hour.
- Playgrounds are the thing these days...we went to one with Ben after supper...it was so nice to spend some time with him...he was so busy this past week I think we maybe saw him for 30 min a day. The girls love having him back. As do I! =)