Father's Day fun

Many of our blogging friends did sweet tributes to their husbands on Father's Day, made Facebook photo albums chronicling pictures of their kids with dad, etc...I thought I'd keep ours unique by waiting until a week and 1/2 later to post it....
The girls had picked out a couple totally random gifts for Adam and decorated posters for him, too. We spent the morning visiting some friends a couple hours away, so we did "Father's Day stuff" when girls woke up from naps in the afternoon.

All week long we practiced a "Happy Father's Day" song (tune of Happy Birthday-I know, i know, I'm so creative). Elise sang it well when Adam came downstairs, but Ainsley clammed up. She's cute, though. For HOURS afterwards, she was singing "Happy Birthday to Father's Day...Happy Birthday to you." So, she kinda got it.

Elise spent HOURS on this poster. She worked on it during rest-times all week long and was SO proud of her coloring, the writing, her own creativity, etc...it was precious.


Mitchell was asleep the whole time, but, whatever...he would've just eaten the wrapping paper anyway. This is him saying Happy Father's Day to Adam. You can tell he's excited about it.
Regardless of how random Adam's gifts were and how silly the song sounded, we think he knows how much his kids ADORE him and how I think he's quite possibly the greatest thing ever. =)

starting young....

I have a friend here who makes GORGEOUS baby carriers (check her out at etsy under the name ObiMama)! They're sooooooo well made, beautiful (mostly organic/fair trade/etc/etc...fabrics), and good prices, too. That's my plug for Jen's wraps. ANYWAY, I have a breathtaking wrap that's khaki-colored linen and black dupioni silk....so gorgeous...and Mitchell loves being toted around in it... The girls talk about it all the time and think it's so cool when I load him up to head into Target, Kroger, etc...so it shouldn't have surprised me when they ran into the kitchen last weekend like this:
I know people don't believe me, but that really IS a smile on Ainsley's face...
I had tied the baby blankets up to be used as princess capes a few days earlier, but Elise must've figured out how to maneuver them into their very own ObiMama wraps!

After the first picture, I told Ainsley, "smile bigger, sweetie!" This was the result...precious.

SWIMMING, SWIMMING, SWIMMING

Once again, we caved and got a backyard inflatable pool. Re-read my last blog about WHY we built a huge swingset and now apply it to a public pool. Not even mentioning the gross heat(ok, not as gross as when we lived in SC, but still HOT and MUGGY), but it's just a bit overwhelming to be at a big pool trying to chase the girls around a pool deck, catch them as they jump in the water, and continue holding a 9 month old who SO wants to be crawling around on his own. So, we ended up with a 8 foot diameter pool with a filter and cover...and the girls (and mommy) LOVE IT! Even more so than last year because thanks to swimming lessons, they're way more independent and confident in the water. Elise is actually SWIMMING, which is really cool and Ainsley doesn't get upset or panic when her face goes under. It's a blast. We've been outside in the backyard for about an hour and 1/2 EVERY DAY for the last 3 weeks... everyone sleeps better, the girls are playing well together, Mitchell's monitor sits next to us while he naps upstairs...it's great. So here are a few pics from the last few weeks. Mitchell has only been in 2 or 3 times and he's kind of so-so on the whole thing. I would be, too, though, with the amount of splashing, shrieking, jumping, bumping, etc...that Elise and Ainsley create =)


This is actually a smile...=)

She closes her eyes, counts to 3, and "dives"...

The Big Build

Memorial Day weekend, we bought (what we thought was) a good-sized playset for the backyard. With three kids currently ranging 9months old to 4 1/2, I just CANNOT get out of the house as much as I'd like...going to a park these days is almost impossible...Elise wants to do all the 'big kid' stuff. Ainsley wants to do everything Elise does, so I have to keep a CONSTANT eye on her. (although she's insanely coordinated, so there are actually some things she does better than Elise! BUT, she's not even 2 1/2, so...I'm following her all the time!). Ainsley also LOVES the "Game" of Hide-From-Mommy-and-be-really-sneaky. I hate it. She's a good stinkin' hider (is that even a word?...) and it really scares me sometimes when she disappears. Mitchell isn't happy just being in my arms anymore- he wants FREEDOM! So, at parks, I'm constantly trying to keep him on a blanket, pull wood chips/grass/bugs out of his mouth, run back to help Ainsley, fix a scraped knee by Elise, run back to Mitchell b/c he's crawled onto the (HOT) pavement and is crying, give him some Cheerios, search for Ainsley hiding under a slide, then pick up Mitchell b/c he's exhausted since the poor guy NEVER gets a full nap- i feel like we yank him out of bed for something every naptime. Sounds fun, right?!! And then there's packing/prepping sippy cups, snacks, sunscreen, hats, potty emergencies while there...PHEW. Can't wait to join us, right?

So, From inside SAMS CLUB, this playset looked great. It had the elements we wanted, was a 'reasonable' price as far as these things go, and since Adam is great at this stuff, we knew he could assemble it all in a few days' time and we'd be up and running! yay.

So, this top picture was Sunday afternoon...the rest of the pictures are all in reverse-order, but I really don't have the time or energy to cut-and-paste each one individually and make it the correct chronological order. So, scroll to the bottom of this post and then work your way back up! THANKS!



Finished enough to play for a couple hours Sunday afternoon! The girls are excited. Mommy is in love with the convenience and safety, and (now 4 days later...) we've already had 3 sets of friends over to play together! YAY for everyone! And, oh yeah, it turned out WAY BIGGER than we expected. Funny how it looked 'normal sized' inside a cavernous Sams Club...and it really is over 13 feet tall- it comes as high as our back deck off the kitchen! BUT, it's still great.

FINAL PRODUCT!!! A neighbor pitched in a couple hours on Sunday and I was able to help during naptimes, but that's all the help Adam had. He had to customize the right side(above) to accommodate our steeply sloped backyard. Good work!


We went to church w/o Adam on Sunday so he could keep working (uninterrupted). This was at 1pm when we got home. ROCK WALL is on! Yay.
This was 8pm-ish....ALL DAY LONG. 2 quick food breaks. Probably 11 hours of work.
About 1pm, making GREAT progress. All by himself. YAY for ADAM! BTW, it was the "hottest, most humid day in years" that our neighbors could remember. Awesome.
By about 10am, this was the scene...YAY, the actual assembling has begun!

I got the girls out of the house for a few hours that day, but they just wanted to WATCH every second...

Early Saturday morning, Adam got started digging out a spot to level the 'princess tower'.


308 pieces of wood, 1200+ screws/bolts/washers/etc....we prepped for a few hours on Friday night in the basement.

It's official...

Mitchell is crawling! He's been 'commando/inchworm' crawling for several months now, but on Friday he REALLY figured out the CRAWL. It's adorable- he's so proud of himself and LOVES the new-found freedom...although Mommy has to figure this all out, too. Man, I'll have to dust off the baby gate and really be on my toes again around the house. It'll be fun, though. =)

I love the determination on his face in this one...


His favorite destination these days is the bottom 'platform' of the kitchen table. I love this look of, "Hey, check me out...I'm so cool. I crawl now."


It's where he keeps going (and falling off...but that's how it goes, right!?)

I'm so pleased with myself...and my sisters love it, too!

"Shopping" trips this week

Afternoons are tough in our household some days...it's when Mitchell sleeps well, but the girls want to be awake and playing. It's when I'd like to be prepping dinner, but can't get 2 minutes of 'focused' time to marinade chicken and chop lettuce. It's also when I'd love to just be SILLY with my precious girls because I KNOW these days won't last forever and I'll always treasure this stage in life. It's also tricky when Adam is out of town and it's raining for the 7th DAY.IN.A.ROW. Really? Yes...Not constant thunderstorms and rain, but just enough that everything outside is soggy, grumpy, and 100% humidity. yay.
So, there was one day this week (Monday? Tuesday?...I really have no idea?...), I had the ironing board out. No, really, I did! Ainsley asked "What dat, Mommy?" Shhh, kid! don't tell people how mommy RUNS up the stairs to pull clothes out of the dryer AS THE buzzer sounds just so she won't EVER have to actually iron something! but it's true.
Anyway, Elise thought the ironing board looked like checkout lane at the grocery store, so we went with that. I made "Scavenger Hunt/Grocery lists" for she and Ainsley and they went shopping in the playroom, had to put everything in their cart/stroller/bag, check it off on their list, Elise had to "sound out" some of the words, an then bring it to me as the cashier. We'd run it over the scanner, make the "BEEP" sound, bag it in our reusable bags, and then put everything back in it's home in the playroom. I loved it. We had fun, didn't make too much of a mess, got to be a little creative, etc...it was cute. =)

Special note: Ainsley came over TWICE to the checkout line with a toy cell phone to her ear. She was "talking" to daddy once, a friend the other time...HA! Not like she ever sees me on the phone...whatever. Here's Ainsley on the phone:


Enjoy. She's so focused. Adorable.
She's so precious.

mimi's visit...

My (Erica's) mom was here earlier this month visiting and we had SO much fun! It was relaxing, joyful, and just GREAT to have her around. The kids played in the sprinklers, we planted tons of flowers/plants in the front yard, we went to the zoo, etc...here are a few quick pictures.
The first two are of a cool overlook spot of our wonderful city. Ainsley is such a little....uh...firecracker! You never know what she'll do. Really...love that face, though!



One afternoon was rainy and we decided to let Elise try her "gaming system"...which is actually hilarious b/c it's a pretty old LeapFrog system that someone gave us over a year ago. We've only gotten it out and hooked it up about 3x b/c we just don't care about that stuff. This was the first time we had it out in about 6 months and, for the first time ever, Elise was actually doing well at it! (Her uncle Kelly would be so proud. =) You can tell that Mimi doesn't quite "get it" though...