4th Of July Crafts

Today I wanted to do a craft time and I figured the 4th of July would be a good theme to go with since it's coming up fast. I tried to explain as best I could to a 4 year old what the holiday meant, then Emily made a flag and some fireworks.

This Week In Pictures

We haven't had any main events happen this week, so I thought just post some pictures from things throughout the last week and tell a bit about them. Enjoy!

This week we...

...went to the dog park (3 times). This is Emily's favorite dog there because she can actually pick him up and hold him. He's fairly patient with her and sits there looking frightened (as if a Chihuahua has a different look) until she moves her arm and he runs off to his mommy.

...drew some chalk art; This is Emily's owl.

...saw this red-tailed hawk just sitting on the house watching us after we finished drawing. It was really cool to see so close!

...went to the playground by our house where Bella loves to dig huge holes in the sand (I keep refilling it and she digs it out again) and Emily met a couple of new friends.

...found this empty fallen bird's nest that I wish I could see how tiny the eggs are that fit in it. Emily has recently discovered roly-polys and she was laughing so hard holding these two in her hand and feeling them crawl around and tickle her.

(Somewhere in here I donated blood, but don't have any pictures of it.) Mommy got a hair cut.

...went to Laguna Beach to see how Bella would do with the water. She didn't like it, but was all too happy to run away from it with Alex and to dig a few holes in the sand.

Elizabeth and Addison

Yesterday Emily and I were able to meet up with my friend Elizabeth and her adorable baby girl Addison at The Block for lunch.  It was nice to catch up and to meet Addison; the last time I saw Elizabeth was at her baby shower, and Addison is 6 months old already!  Emily loved meeting her after seeing her in pictures for months.  So did I, she's so stinkin' cute!

That's my girl!

A Long Fabulous Weekend

I hope everybody had a great Memorial Day/3 Day weekend!  We had the best weekend here, and it was pretty much like a 5 day weekend for Emily and me.

We started off on Thursday with a day at Disneyland with Emily's Grandma Suzanne.  It was really busy but we're lucky enough to have passes so it was ok that we just ate lunch and went on 3 rides over the course of the day.  Thanks for coming with us Suzanne!

Friday we had a great little play date at the park.  The kids ate lunch there and did a little Memorial Day craft of painting and gluing big popsicle sticks together to make a flag; they're so fun to watch!  Then we finished off that day with meeting our friends Brandon and Jessica and their kids at Chuck-E-Cheese's for some greasy pizza and play time.  I also made my first angel food cake that day.  :)  It was fun to learn a new recipe and it came out sooo yummy!

Saturday was great!  My nephew, Colin, had his 5th birthday party and it was awesome!  After all, who doesn't like a Boot Camp party??  As the kids showed up they all got their faces painted and to put on camouflage vests and head bands (seriously adorable).  When everybody got there they got in line and were taught some things by their drill instructors (Sean and Brendan, my 8 year old nephews) such as - saluting, marching and jumping jacks.  Then it was off to the front yard to the obstacle course!  Around a tree, weaving through cones, army crawling under strings, hopping over hoola-hoops and over and under some pipes they went til they finished and grabbed a grenade water balloon and ran to the back yard to throw it at the target that was drawn on the wall.  After that it was time for "drill sergeant says" and then inside for some tank cake that my fabulous sister-in-law made and present opening.  Of course Emily decided it was a good idea to wear a dress to that kind of party but she sure didn't let it slow her down.  Great party, Cherie!

After the party we came home so I could frost my angel food cake and take it to a family BBQ at Nick and Suzanne's for an early birthday surprise for Suzanne.  We had the best grilled salmon for dinner and as always, great company.

Sunday morning was fantastic for me because I got to use my Mother's Day certificate at the spa!  Such a relaxing morning with a massage and some time in the hot tub, and the weather was perfect so I drove home with the top down and enjoyed the cool breeze.

Monday I did a little Memorial Day sale shopping at Michael's for some cake supplies, then we were off to Tina's house for some more BBQ and fun.  We took the kids to the little water park in Ladera Ranch and I love it there!  It's perfect for parents to just sit and watch their kids go crazy in the shallow water.  We had the best BBQ ribs dinner that everybody pitched in on then went home full, happy and tired!

And, of course, here are some pictures from the weekend!

Turtle Fountains

Emily and I met up with a couple of new friends at the Spectrum today for a morning of fountain play and lunch.  The weather was perfect for it, and it was a lot of fun chatting and watching the kids go crazy in the water; they loved it!  I'm excited to be getting involved in some MOM's Club activities.  It's nice for me to know more moms in the area and they're full of cool info on fun things to do around here!  Plus Emily just loves people, and getting to play with kids is always at the top of her list.  Thanks to Teddi for the invite!

Colorado

I thought I'd give a little recap of mine and Emily's trip to CO last weekend.  We had such a great time!

The first day it started snowing about half an hour after we got to Jen's house, and Emily was sooo excited!  She played in the snow a little, and mostly Jen and I sat around and talked a lot and laughed like crazy, what a perfect day!

The next day was Dakota's birthday party with his little friends (he turned 3) and I made the pirate cake for it.  The house was done up really cool in pirate decorations and each of the kids got pirate hats (which just happened to fit my pea-head) and swords; they went on a treasure hunt, ate pizza, and sang happy birthday.  Unfortunately the snow was worse that day and a few of his friends couldn't make it, but little did he know how lucky he was to be surrounded by adorable little girls!  :)  We also went sledding for a little bit, but it started raining and the wind was blowing it right in our faces, so we decided it was time to go back and warm up.

Sunday was Dakota's family birthday dinner, and I helped Jen learn how to make homemade lasagna which turned out very yummy.  There was a lot of Wii and good conversation that day.

Monday morning it was time to fly home, and we were ready to be with Alex again.  Emily is always a big hit in airports; she flies well and people think she's cute.  Well, most people.  We had just gotten through security when there was a man next to us that had a rather large stomach, and here's how the conversation went:

Emily: "Mommy, that man has a BABY in his tummy!"

Me:  "Oh my...no Emily, he doesn't."

Emily: "Then why is his tummy SO big??"

The man had a less than amused look on his face, but luckily didn't say anything!

Then we're standing in line somewhere else and there's a lady with short, boy-length hair.  Luckily she was on her phone and didn't hear when Emily said, "Mommy, that's a MAN, why does he have a purse??"

Silly little girl.  That about sums it up though, we got home and gave Alex hugs and just about melted in the almost 100 degree weather! Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the trip...

Emily's New Bike

We went for a walk the other day, and I realized Emily's bike was breaking and it was so small compared to her, so we decided it was new bike time.  She's in love with her new Dora bike; I think it's so funny that it came with Backpack and Map to put on the front of the handle bars!

Old vs New

Ready to go!

She stopped at the park and gave me the thumbs ups to show me she was going to go swing for a minute, then was off for some more bike action soon after. :)

Pine Cone Bird Feeder

Emily and I had a craft afternoon earlier in the week when I decided since Emily loves watching the birds so much, we should make a bird feeder.  Being the silly person that I am, I refused to make a post about it until I could actually catch a bird using it on camera. :)

Emily calls every bird she sees her birdie, and is always saying, "I wish I was a bird!"  So I decided to make a bird feeder out of things we already had around here, besides the bird seed that I made a special Target trip for (yay for it being on clearance!).  I told Emily we were going to take Bella for a walk and go on a pine cone "hunt", then I gathered the rest of the stuff.  I recommend news paper (for containing the mess), thread or string (to hang the pine cones), peanut butter, bird seed, a couple of spoons or spatulas, and bowls for the PB and bird seed.

All you have to do is lay the newspaper out, pick out some pine cones, put some PB in a bowl (so you're not getting gross pine cone stuff in your PB if you have to re-dip your spoon) and put some bird seed in a bowl big enough to roll your pine cones in.

Tie up your pine cone on a string, then take a big spoonful of PB and spread it all over your cone.  Put the sticky pine cone in your bird seed bowl and either roll it around or use your hands to scoop and pat as much bird seed as you can get to stick to the PB.  Hang it up outside somewhere and wait for the birds to find it.

We saw some eating off of ours the day after we put it up, but they have some kind of ultra-radar so getting a picture was the difficult part! :)