Is that my kid?

Today Abi and I got to play with Alisse. Her mom had a funeral to go to so we had her drop Alisse off at the library to meet us there. We spent some time reading and picking out books and movies and having a little puppet show. After we left, I got to a stop sign and noticed both girls trying to wriggle out of their seat belts. I decided to get a picture of them before I fixed it. They were having the greatest time with each other giggling over everything.

I had promised Abi a trip to McDonalds where we would actually buy lunch instead of just a drink as soon as the toys in the Happy Meals were Littlest Pet Shop. We decided today was a good day for that so Alisse could come with us. Normally we wouldn't have gone the day after having eaten dinner out.... but we made an exception.
So here are Abi and Alisse when we first arrived. There weren't many people there. You'll notice the pretty red bow in Abi's hair.

Soon after this picture the place filled up. Abi and Alisse were up in the toys playing. Abi had taken her socks off and Alisse had brought them out to me. This drives me nuts. Last time we played there I put tights on her under her pants so she couldn't take them off... I think I have to keep doing that. Anyway, this little girl from the next table comes running out and grabs her big sister and says, "There is a little naked girl in the toys. Really. She's really naked!" I thought that was funny and then it hit me. That's my kid. I told myself, "No, it can't be. Abi always takes her socks off but she's never stripped in public." Then the thought came back. "That's totally got to be Abi. She loves running around in only her pull up at home." I kept telling myself no. So I started searching for a sign of her in the toys.
Then I saw long blonde hair. There she is. There- is that her arm. Was it bare? She was wearing long sleeves. There's a leg that looks like hers. She was wearing pants. I stood up and went over to try to get a better look. I was standing by the slide. Suddenly some kids come out of the slide laughing and looking behind them and then out comes Abi.
In only her pull up.
The place erupts in laughter. My face turns red. Abi says, "I'm nakey!" I grab her. Alisse comes out right behind her, Abi's clothes in her hands.
We never did find her hair bow. Oh, how I will miss it.

Dinner with Chuck

Our good friends Andra and Ben (and Alisse) invited us along on an outing to Chuck E Cheese yesterday. It had been years since I had been to one and my memories of the place left me thinking I would never ever go there again. I decided to try it though when they asked. Abi and I showed up a few minutes early and she posed for this picture...

Then we went inside to play. I was surprised at the cool thing to climb through that is kind of like McDonald's playplace (you can see it in the top left) and the toddler area because I didn't think they had any free things for the kids to play on. Abi loved the Toddler area..

Whack a mole was the first game she played. They have these slide cards now with your tokens on them instead of actual tokens.

I don't know how I got away without any pictures of Abi and Alisse together but it was a really fun outing. Abi kept saying, " I love this place." so we will probably go back sometime. The only thing she didn't like was Chuck himself when he came out to greet kids. (This is no surprise.) She hid behind this little wall when Alisse was hugging him and when he walked into her area she went screaming like a banshee down to the other end and wouldn't move. Every one in the place was watching her. It was pretty funny but as a mom I tried not to laugh to noticeably and retrieved her. Luckily he did not come out again.

Dr. Suess Day

It isn't officially Dr. Suess day until next Monday but I decided to celebrate it early for school. We read a bunch of my favorite Dr. Suess books and did some silly dancing to go along with it and then we read The Cat in The Hat and made Cat Hats.

Abi did not want to wear hers but Alisse loved it.

For snack we read Green Eggs and Ham and I made 'souper eggs' to give the a little more of a blob look like in the book. Souper Eggs are made with 6 eggs and a can of Cream of Chicken soup and are really good. It's one of Doug's favorites. Yesterday I realized I didn't have any Cream of Chicken soup so I used Cream of Celery instead. It did not taste as good but it was still pretty good. I added green food coloring. We had bacon for the 'ham'.

Both girls ate most of it.

We traced their feet and they colored them while I read the Foot book. If you can see the toes on the feet of the pink paper, you will notice that Alisse colored the ends blue because she had blue nail polish on her toes!

Then we read Bartholomew and the Oobleck and made Oobleck from cornstarch, water, and food coloring..

Abi wouldn't go near it. I wasn't sure why but a little while ago she finally told me she didn't want to get her hands sticky.. Alisse loved it!

...so I sent it home with her!

A little while after Alisse left Abi finally decided that the Cat hat was cool and then wore it for a while.

the headless Cat in the Hat..

When she did this all I could think of was those things dogs wear when they get surgery so they can't bite at their stitches!

Just for fun, here's a picture of Abi showing me how big of a mess she can make in the time it takes me to put on my socks.

Buckets

Doug kicked me out of the office... (just kidding, but he did ask me to move my craft room into our bedroom) and I ended up using the shelves in Abi's bathroom in our closet for my stamps. I needed a new way to hold her stuff that would be cute and I found these buckets in the dollar section at Target the other day. I hung them with some ribbons and stuck her things in them. I love it!

Growing and Good Mail

Yesterday Abi decided to get a bath and into her jammies early. She wanted to wear these ice skating bears pants and her princess jammies shirt again....

this shirt was long enough for her a month ago when she first started wearing it...

We also got a good mail package from Doug's parents. It was a belated Valentines package for Abi and they threw in some things for us to. Doug's mom sent me the rest of the fabric she used for the aprons she made for Abi and I last fall so that I can make matching chef hats and the neck ease thing for me. It is this semi circle cushion that can be microwaved or frozen and then worn. It has aromatherapy benefits as well. We were really excited about the books. Valentine is a sweet story that we had never seen before and Love and Kisses is one of our favorites but our copy died from overuse a long time ago so it was great to get a new one- especially one so big and sturdy. We decided the truffles are for Doug so that he had a gift in it too. Thanks Grammy and Gramps! It was so fun to get this. We love it!!

Blog Award

Thanks to Katie at Katie's Nesting Spot I have received my very first blogging award! I found her blog recently and it is great! It is full of fun crafts and ideas of things to do with kids as well as links to other great blogs with great ideas. She is also starting a blog with lesson plans for teaching children... you know that is right up my alley! I am so excited to continue learning from her and to be awarded by such a great blogger!

The rules of this award are:

1. Put the logo on your blog or post.
2. Nominate at least 10 blogs which show great Attitude and/or Gratitude!
3. Be sure to link to your nominees within your post.
4. Let them know that they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to this post and to the person from whom you received your award.

So, as much as I would like to nominate every one I have decided on the following ten blogs that inspire me in the areas of attitude and/or gratitude as well as in other ways!

1. Donna at The Doll Sweet Journal: She is a great mom, really smart, and into history as much as I am (and a little more I think!) She lives in New England and I get to see great pictures of the foliage and hear about her adventures to historical places on her blog. She has also been a great commenter since we found each others blogs and she feels like a true kindred spirit... someone I would want to hang out with all the time if we lived near each other.
2. Jennifer at The Petersons Go Public: She has a pretty well known blog but it inspires me every day. She has been through a lot and is an example of great attitude, determination, and strength. She is a great mother, a great writer, and a really open and honest woman.
3. Emily at the Vanny Gazzette: Part of this is knowing her in person. I have never known a nicer person in my life. She has one of the greatest attitudes I've ever seen and I feel fortunate every day to count her among my friends. She is an amazing mom and a true and loyal friend. Her blog is pretty new but hopefully she'll keep it up so we can keep looking at pictures of her adorable little boys.
4. BreeAnn at tbfankhauser Family: BreeAnn is true strength. She has a great attitude. Her blog is mostly a collection of fun stories from her every day life and her take on shows like The Bachelor and American Idol. It is fun and breezy and sweet. She is a mom and a step mom and I love to hear her love for those children and all of her family. She has been through some really hard things over the past few years and has amazed me with her attitude and gratitude for what she has.
5. Liz at Life is Simply Rosey : I have met her in person back when she owned my favorite scrapbook store in Utah but I don't know her. Funny story is though that her dad and Doug's dad are 2nd cousins or something so we are related in a round about way. Her take on life is simply amazing and her blog is uplifting and informative. She is another great mom that comes up with all sorts of great ideas on things for her children- my favorite has been her take on allowance and billing her children for things. It's such a great idea. She also runs a blog/website on fitness as she works out of her home as a personal trainer. It is full of great nutritional and fitness information.
6. Margie at The Adventures of the Hess: Unfortunately I never got to know Margie very well when she lived by me and have recently been realizing from reading her blog how cool she is! I wish I would have gotten to know her better while she was here. I love reading her blog because she is an AMAZING photographer. Every picture is breathtaking. I aspire to someday be able to take pictures like she does. Her children are just beautiful and she always seems so happy and grateful for them.
7. Karen at The King 5 News: Karen is my sister in law and I love reading her blog for updates on her and my brother as well as my nephews. In her most recent post she talked about the stroke she had a few years back. I know it has been hard for her to deal with that but she has always had such a great attitude about it and has inspired me more than she knows.
8. Stephanie at Dan and Girls: I have to mention my big sister because I can't visit her blog without laughing. Whether it is a picture of my 8 year old niece hunched over and dressed like a 100 year old woman on 100th day at school or the most recent posts of an activity at church where they had an eighties prom theme at their table and every one is wearing a mullet, I leave laughing. My sister is hilarious, generous to a fault, and has a great attitude about life. She is also the inspiration to me of how to be a mom to girls although I don't think I do as good of a job as she does yet.
9. Stephanie at Plain Jane Boutique: Stephanie is extremely talented and devoted to her children. I knew her in Utah but just recently discovered her blog. You have to check out her pink poodle Paris birthday party she threw for her daughter. She is amazingly creative!
10. Melinda at Life on the Go: I have come to know Melinda through her blog. She is an old friend of Doug's that he spent a semester in Nauvoo with in his college days. I have met her in person a few times but it is through email and her blog that I have discovered how amazing she is. She is the kind of woman I aspire to be.. spiritually and her attitude about everything. I think she would be right up there with Emily on the kindest people I know!
Honorable mention:
I know I'm only supposed to pick ten but I wanted to give a shout out to my mom at Sailor's Rest because she has inspired me more than anyone in this life. She was the best mom and is the best friend any daughter could ask for. Just like Lincoln said, " All I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." The woman is a grandmother and runs marathons! I think the count to date is 18. Is that right mom? You just don't update your blog enough!!! Ha.

Thanks to all of you for your inspiration and friendship!

Happy Mardi Gras-Fat Tuesday Day!!!!

In school today we celebrated Mardi Gras. The girls got to use dot painters, glitter glue, and star stickers to decorate masks I got off of skip to my lou.

You'll notice that Abi is wearing a big belt.... she dressed herself in a really weird way today. She wanted to keep her pajama top on, put some yellow overalls on over it, and then tied on a belt of Doug's over that... it was crazy.

I wanted to make a King Cake for dessert tonight but it turned out that Doug wasn't going to be home so I decided to do it for school instead. I didn't have all the ingredients or time to make a traditional one so I looked up a traditional cake recipe and then added a few things. It was also missing the little plastic baby because I know I have one but I don't remember where it is- I think it's in the basement with the baby shower decor.
The recipe we used was
1 cup sugar, 1/2 cup butter, 2 eggs, 2 tsp. vanilla extract, 1 and 1/2 cup flour, 1 and 3/4 tsp. baking powder, and 1/2 cup milk. You mix the sugar and butter together and then stir in the eggs one at a time, then the vanilla, then the flour and baking powder. Then stir in the milk until smooth and pour it in the pan and bake for 30-40 minutes at 350 degrees.
I added 1 tsp. nutmeg and 1 TB cinnamon to give it more of the flavor that I thought King cake should have. I also poured it into a bundt cake form to make it have the circle shape. I made the icing with 1 and 3/4 cup powdered sugar and 2 TB water and then separated it into 3 bowls adding food coloring to make the gold, purple, and green colors and then poured it over the top.
I separated all the ingredients before school so that the girls could do it entirely by themselves. I was only in charge of the mixer.

They each got half of the ingredients to add into the mixer.

they were so excited to be making a cake 'from scratch' by themselves! I liked it too. Surprisingly, I had never made a cake like this before. I have always used boxed cake mixes.
Here the girls are checking out their cake cooking...

the finished product...

They posed with their masks on before eating a piece of cake... they loved it!
It was really good. It tasted kind of like the spicy cake in apple crisp I used to have as a kid. I was surprised how much we all liked it.

By the way, they earned the beads by helping clean up toys!!

Did you see this? Yay Kate Winslet!

We didn't watch the Oscars this year- unfortunately it was on one of the channels that doesn't come in on our tv but I did find this acceptance speech and I think its great. I haven't seen the movie she won for but I love Kate. Through the years she has been in so many of the movies I have loved.... Sense and Sensibility, Titanic,Flushed Away, the Holiday, and especially Finding Neverland. I think this is one of the cutest speeches ever.



I would also like to say I am really glad Heath Ledger won. I think he deserved it.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!
Is this not one of the cutest things ever!

Shedd Aquarium Day

Today we went with some of our playgroup friends down into Chicago to Shedd Aquarium ( if a month has a fifth week they like to go do something instead of having play group at someones house)
This was the first time I have gone to a place like this without a stoller for Abi... she was so tired by the end of it but it was really nice.

Sara, Abi, and John excited to see the first fish...

the group

Unfortunately, the Oceanarium was closed so we didn't get to see my favorites- the dolphins- but we still had a great time checking out all of the amazing ocean life!

With that part being closed, the main cafeteria area where you can sit and eat overlooking the lake was also closed. I hadn't packed a lunch thinking we would get the little personal pan pizza hut pizzas that we have gotten on our trips here with my mom. We had to settle for overpriced lunchables but Abi still loved it and was quite proud of her 'cracker sandwich'.

Abi and the Iguana.

This girl had a Corn Snake out to show all the kids and talk about it with them. Abi is usually pretty shy with everyone so I was quite surprised when the lady asked what colors it had on it and Abi was the first one to say "Orange!" We ended up getting a little corn snake toy at the gift shop. I'm trying to nurture that interest in snakes since I like them so much!

They had this little camping area set up for the kids to play in. Abi and Sara kept fighting over the eggs. They don't usually fight over toys with each other so I was surprised.

another group shot... don't you love John's pose. He is such a cool kid. Abi was trying to get out of the picture to go hide.

Hmmm... who could be hiding behind this fish? Those boots kind of give it away.

Abi, Gabe, and Sara checking out an exhibit.

This picture was toward the end when all the kids seemed to be getting a little tired and ready to leave so I thought it was great when they all (except Garrett) jumped up here and just stared into this exhibit for a few minutes.

On the way to the gift shop Abi wanted to finish her chocolate milk from lunch. It was nice to just watch the big tank for a minute.

Getting to run!

We love Chicago!!