Feelin' Patriotic

Yesterday (after all the water fun described on the previous post), we decided to have some fun decorating for Independence Day! First we made Wild Flowers (which, ironically, is the only thing I have pictures of).

When I told the girls we were going to paint, Noelle started yelling "Paint!" and found her chair immediately. It was so cute! (and kind of funny) She clearly enjoys painting as much as her big sister.
I let them paint a few coffee filters red...

And then the same amount blue.

While they were drying, I let the kiddos paint a few other coffee filters in red AND blue and we made them into butterflies that now decorate Melanie's room.

I used the red, blue, and some white coffee filters, and turned them into flowers.

Some of them decorated the living room, and the rest are decorating Melanie's room. Then I took some of their art work (with red and blue stars they painted) and turned them into Pin Wheels for some fun accents. It's just a start, but I'm enjoying my patriotic decorations (and they go really nicely with the framed art from Flag Day!) I think the girls like it too, because they made it all.

Thanks Girls, for decorating our house so beautifully for Independence Day!

Water Fun

My girls love their water (and with it being 100+ degrees outside, can you blame them?) So when two fun opportunities presented themselves to us this week, we just couldn't say no.

Monday night we were invited to the Fairchild's house for family home evening and a fun pool "party" in the backyard. Melanie and Noelle both loved every minute of it... and I think dad did too.

The the next picture, I have proof that Melanie is a floaty stealer! Boy does she think she is funny!

And this picture was taken by Brandon, who was under water, looking up at Melanie. I thought it was cool.

Thank you Brother and Sister Fairchild for having us over! It was Great Food, Great People, and Great Fun!

On Tuesday, we headed over to the Ray's House for cute haircuts and a fun play date. I think I may have invited myself over to their house (oops) so if you guys ever want to invite yourselves over to mine, just know that the door is open! (Sorry Jen!)

Melanie had never jumped on a trampoline WITH sprinklers going before! I think she is in love (she has been telling me I need to get her a trampoline and sprinklers... but honestly, what would I water with the sprinklers? the rocks?)

At first, only the "big kids" were on the tramp and the littler ones played in this fun play pool (which reminds me of a pool/slash pad combo, very cool).

But eventually everyone went for a jump.

I was worried about letting Noelle jump with the big kids, but she did great and loved it. (she was giggling pretty good).

Thank you Jen, Katelyn, and Mack for letting us enjoy some fun in your backyard. We had a TON of FUN!

Charlie Brown at Bat

On Saturday, our family got to check out the new exhibit at the Arizona Museum for Youth... Charlie Brown at Bat. I'm not going to lie, Melanie was really bummed that the princess dress up clothing was gone. But I will say, they did have fun exploring the world of Charlie Brown and Snoopy.

The girls got to dress up as most of the characters from the Charlie Brown comics.

Nope, you aren't seeing things... there are two Lucy's ready to give Psychiatric Help! They were a little greedy too... openly counting their monies in front of us!

Back in Snoopy's house, I met up with Snoopy (Melanie) and Woodstock (Noelle)

Then they both dressed up like Peppermint Patty and jammed out on the piano.

Did you know the Great Pumpkin also makes visits to the Museum and not just at Halloween? Don't tell Linus... he thinks he does.

The other exhibit at the museum is about baseball in general, and I put Brandon right to work.

Look out Cubs, your competition is looking rather fierce.

Here batter batter!

Oh no... I think they decided on a career change... looks like Daddy put them to work too!

Noelle loves these chairs. It's a chair with a shade that goes all the way down. I peeked it open to get this picture. I'm glad that I did too. Check out how cute she is!

Did you ever play with Brite Lite when you were a kid? I did... but mine was never THIS big! Brandon and I had a blast playing with it (oh, and so did the girls).

Though Melanie still wants the fairy princess exhibit to come back, in the meanwhile, I think everyone really enjoyed the new exhibit. It was definitely a fun family day at the museum.

Summer Reading and An Indoor Activity

The Maricopa County Libraries have a summer reading program that is currently in full swing, and my kids have finished it! Last week we went to the library and turned in their completed programs, and collected some small prizes. What they didn't know was that they would get an even bigger, even better surprise. While they were napping, I went online, to the library's website, and ordered their big prize: A Free Book! (They received vouchers when they turned in their programs). Typically, the child would be able to pick out the book; however, I decided just to pick it out for them (mainly because Noelle is so young, and Melanie would have asked for a princess book, and they didn't have any princess books. I thought a surprise would be better than a disappointment).

And boy were the girls surprised today. We went to the store, and when we got home, there were packages with their names on them.

What's inside? I don't know!
BOOKS!

Both girls were super excited about their new book. Way to go girls! I'm proud of you for completing the summer reading program.

After finding their new books, I decided to do a fun, indoor activity.... we made crayons.

I suppose it would be more correct to say we recycled crayons and made them into cool new crayons! First we had to take all the papers off and break them into small pieces... My girls are pros at that. Then we put the pieces into some fun molds.

While we ate lunch, the molds were in the oven, slowly melting the crayons.

And then they cooled... and now they are super cool, fun, colorful, crayons!

Fish and Flowers!

You never know what color you are going to be putting on the page when you pick up one of these babies. They are full of different colors! I love them! (Though I will admit, they make your hands messy!)

Swim Lessons

Our family has been engaged in... SWIM LESSONS! The girls have done two sessions of them at the Fremont Jr. Pool and today was their last day. (I'm not doing any more sessions this summer).

Melanie is really good at swimming on her own, as long as it's a doggy paddle. (Now that she knows she can do that, she has a hard time with learning new arm movements). She can float on her back all by herself, and she loves getting into the water. In fact, she has become quite independent in the water (which is both a good and bad thing). I love watching her enthusiasm. She is truly a fish! (Though she thinks she is turning into a mermaid, not a fish!)

Noelle too loves the water. She is pretty good at everything, except blowing bubbles (not going to happen!). She can even climb out of the pool all by her self! She is turning into a regular little fish herself!

Here she is climbing out of the pool! Don't you just love her little bathing suite. It's too stink'n cute, if you ask me!
And Baby Brother is quite a swimmer too. He is more of a synchronized swimmer, doing somersaults and different kind of kicks!

Check out his little feet in the water! Aren't they cute?

Lessons Learned

This may all sound like common sense, but sometimes we have to learn our lessons the hard way.

Lesson 1: Noelle, if given the opportunity, likes and will drink juice (Melanie doesn't and won't).
Lesson 2: If given juice, she will drink... and drink... a lot!

Lesson 3: Swim diapers are amazing, and will allow your child to play in the water without having accidents... really nice! (already knew this, but thought I'd restate the obvious as I had been thinking it while she was in the water.

Lesson 4: A dry baby doesn't necessarily mean a dry diaper... so putting street clothes over the bathing suite may still result in damp pants, especially while sitting... no biggie.

Remember that juice... remember that she drank a lot. Well... we went to a taco joint for dinner and the owner decided to offer her juice (which I was planning to turn down, but he was being so nice, I couldn't). And she drank it all... More and more juice, and then 2 glasses of water... all had to come out sometime, right?

So here we are, walking back to the car, and Brandon points out that there is water "squishing" out of Noelle's diaper and down her leg. I notice wet foot prints, and still don't put 2 and 2 together, thinking that it's just water. Pick her up, against my body, and realize she is really really really wet, DRENCHED! hmm... and smells funny.

Lesson 5: Swim diapers do not (I repeat DO NOT!) hold Niagara Falls in!

We got her home and she was just covered... everywhere... dripping... no gushing! I grabbed a towel to wrap her in and still had to wipe the floors. Needless to say, she got a pretty good shower tonight, and mom learned her lesson. Well, at least temporarily (I can easily see me doing something similar to this again if I'm not thinking).

Flag Day

Yesterday was FLAG DAY! So we HAD to decorate! I asked Melanie what color the flag was (and told her to look out the window at our flag). She came back all excited "Red... and White... and Blue!" Then I asked her what shapes she saw on the flag. "Stripes and stars, mommy!". Very good! So... we made stripes and stars, and used our red and blue paint.

I made both the girls two star stamps out of potatoes. They were extra fun to paint with.

Noelle was a messy painter. Brandon thinks it's probably because it was a potato stamp, and she wanted to eat the potato (Noelle is my piggy!). Needless to say, she was COVERED!

But she still had fun!

And our final projects! Melanie did a really good job on the flag. And the other star pictures make for some fun framed artwork around the house!

A funny side story. I called Brandon up first thing in the morning and asked him where he stores the flag (typically he remembers to put it on display; however, yesterday he was rushed). He directed me to the shop outside, where I found it literally hanging on the rafter. hmm... Brandon is 6 feet tall... I am merely 5 feet tall. Slight problem. So I tell him I'm putting the phone down, and decided to climb onto a plastic lidded bin to get the flag. I put a little of my weight on it... and it seemed fine. Then I put all the weight on it... Reached up... reach.... reach.... reach... and as soon as I had it in my hands, that plastic bin completely gave up on me and bent it. wow! Luckily, I wasn't hurt, and the flag didn't touch the floor, but I don't know who was more traumatized, me or the bin of kitty litter (thank goodness it turned out to be kitty litter and not something fragile!)