french braiding attempt #1

I love trying new things with my daughters hair. This morning, before I took her to school, I had enough time to TRY frenchbraid piggytails. Honestly, I've never been very good at french braiding, but I wanted to try. I remember my daughter didn't have enough hair to do anything until she was around 3 years old. So! I took pictures to show that I tried, I really did. =) I think with more practice I might enjoy doing the french braids. Or I could bribe my neighbor Heather with cookies and she'll do it for me. hehehe.

zoo, haircut and a movie!

Saturday was my little sister Lydia's 3rd birthday! For her birthday we all met up at the zoo for a fun crazy time. The weather couldn't have been better, the crowds I could have lived without. I remember last year we met at the zoo for her birthday and it was 30 degrees. We only survived on hot chocolate and layers of jackets. :) Anyway, this year we had more family show up! I think most, if not all, of Kellie's family decided to come. Seems I only see them at the zoo. hehehe. I hate to admit that I don't know them very well, but it's fun to mingle and meet new friends. Here are a few pictures from Saturday. My girls are waiting in the wagon for everyone else to show up. We were there right on time. I hate being late, but I should have realized we were on DAD time. If he says one time, you have to add 30-45 min and that's the time he'll show up. :) That's exactly what happened. love you dad!

Next is a picture of my husband and Amy's husband Randy. We had to be sneaky to get the shot, they did not want to be in any pictures. But this picture is proof that they were very helpful in pulling the wagons around the zoo. Oh! I think our older kids were more interested in finding where they were on the map of the zoo rather than looking at the animals.

This is a random picture to show you some of the family that showed up for the party. :) It's not everybody. :) My dad brought pizza, sandwiches, and a butterfly cake for the birthday girl! We all pretty much met for food and to watch Lydia open her presents, but then we all went our own pace walking around the zoo.

This is just a cute picture I took of my sister and my dad.

I promise I took pictures of animals too!! The black bears were out lounging today. They were probably the highlight of the day with the animals. But that's about it from the zoo. One last random tidbit of information: My sister Amy has 11 days left for a guaranteed delivery of her little girl, unless she goes into labor early. :)

What else happened?? Oh, I decided to cut my hair! I have the before and after shots to kinda show you how much I cut off. This is about as long as my hair gets before I get that itch on the back of my neck to chop it off. I was not very photogenic with the front faced pictures, so they will not be shown. :)

Last of all, we took our girls to see the movie Monsters vs. Aliens. Overall the movie was cute and had some funny moments, but it won't be a movie I will buy. :) In my opinion the movie wasn't young enough for my girls. make sense? yeah it's a fun cartoon, but I don't think my oldest will get it until she's a few years older. BUT have you seen Bolt? I rented it last week and I loved it. My husband and girls liked it so much that we bought it and I think I've watched that movie over a hundred times. seriously.

The last 24 hours

To start, Friday night I met up with some of my old girlfriends from Challenger Elementary. Can you believe it's been 16-18 years since we've seen each other??! well...at least for some of us. Rosie planned it at the Cheesecake Factory, which is really yummy (I do not eat cheesecake, I had the strawberry shortcake! it was delicious!). We had such a great time, talked for over 2 hours, and even planned another "get together" in about 2 months when hopefully more of the girls will be able to make it. It's amazing how much we remember (or as I like to call it, selective memory) from so long ago and most of us have known each other since preschool. I know many are not fans of facebook, but in all honesty, it's the reason we've found eachother and are now keeping in touch. :)

Then earlier today my cute pregnant sister Amy (due in 3 weeks!!) and I met up with our cousin Anna for lunch at my mom's house. I wish we could do this more. I miss my cousin!! and I love it when I see her. But first, here's a CUTE picture of Amy and Mylee wearing silly hats that my mom keeps for the kids to play with. I think she should use it for her profile picture. :) Then we had to have a picture of Anna with all our kids. Why is it so hard for all the kids to look at the camera at once? at least Braden is being cute and giving his sister a kiss.The last picture we are starting as a tradition. My oldest LOVES taking pictures with my camera and she does a pretty good job when she's focused. :) AND it's just fun to take pictures.

Mod-Podge'n Weekend

I love working on projects and having something to keep my hands busy. This weekend I had 2 projects that I worked on. I was determined to improve/fix my girls little play table, and I wanted to make a treasure box for my little sister Lydia's 3rd birthday, which is later this month. Have you used Mod-Podge? I love using this stuff. I used it for both of my projects.

So I started off with the little table because it would take the longest. When you look at the pictures below you'll see my motivation with this project. My girls love to draw everywhere and I was tired of looking at the doodles on the table. :) I ended up tracing and cutting a lot of hexagons on a mix of papers. Since it was a beautiful day outside I ended up taking my table project outside to piece together with mod-podge. I knew it would take a while to put together, but I did not expect it to take 4 hours. In the end the table looks great (so far 3 layers of mod-podge on top) and I got a sunburn. I should've known better, I burn way too easily. Anyway here are the table pics.

BEFORE

AFTER

My next project was for my little sister Lydia, who is having her 3rd birthday at the end of this month. I've made a few of these boxes for family and they are easy to make. Last December I made one for my other little sister Leah's 4th birthday and she LOVED it. All you do is trace, cut, mod-podge. :)

BEFORE

AFTER

Disney On Ice

We took our girls to Disney on Ice this weekend. All I can say is the girls really enjoyed it. I thought it was great for little kids, but I was expecting something different. They started off with Mickey, Minnie, Donald, Daisey and Goofy who were going on a safari. So the first story was Lion King.

Then Mickey and gang came out and decided to take a walk on the beach, which introduced Ariel's story. This was one of my favorites. :) They had these starfish outfits that made me laugh (picture below) AND the way they portrayed Ursula was one of my favorite parts.

Next they did the story of Stitch, which was really cute. My oldest loves the movie. But in the ice skating it focused more on the love story between the older sister and her boyfriend.

Then Mickey and gang came out and decided to head to London where they did a number with a song from Mary Poppins. I'm probably missing something...or a movie they featured that I've already forgotten (yup that memorable for me).

I do remember the last movie they featured, it was Peter Pan. My daughter has never seen the movie. I think they just wanted to show tinkerbell, who really wasn't in it. My daughter knows Tinkerbell from her new fairy movie. I wished they had done something with the fairies, but it's not a girls disney on ice. They did have Peter Pan flying around

Overall it just wasn't what I expected. Some parts were really cute and creative, while others you just shake your head wondering WHY! It's great for kids and even better if the kids are familiar with the movies they feature, but I don't know if I'd take them back next year..maybe the next year after that. The things we do for our kids. :)

Just some fun pictures

My dad emailed me these pictures a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share. I love this kind of photography, it's fun and creative. =) Hope you like them as much as I did!