Happy Fourth of July! (The Finale)

We topped off our fun-filled day with a gathering at the Warta home. They have a beautiful backyard and the weather was perfect. We all had such a great time! The kids played and played and we had a chance to visit with everyone. We ate until we were ready to pop and then ate a little more. Sydney and Sam got to try sparklers for the first time. Sam got to try one, but after his attempts to put out the flame with his hand and then trying to chase down the sparks flying off of the other kids' sparklers, he was strapped into a booster seat and given a popsicle, where he could safely watch. They really enjoyed the fireworks...they even clapped and cheered. We got home late and everyone fell into bed exhausted from all the day's activities. But, boy did we have fun!!!

Happy Fourth of July! (Part 2)

After the parade, we headed to Ellis Lake to see Grandma Billie (my mom). She was working at the Cardboard Boat Races. We hung out for a while and watched kids build their boats. We weren't able to stay for the races because they interfered too much with nap time. But, that's OK...our trip to the lake held two of the kids' favorite things...lots of dirt and lots of ducks. Sam wanted to go right into the water to see the "Quack Quacks." He got pretty mad when I wouldn't let him get closer, so he sat down on the cement to watch the ducks get fed and would inch forward on his bottom every so often, peeking over his shoulder to see if I had noticed...that little stinker! Sydney pretty much stayed in a big pile of sand/dirt for most of the time...that little girl is definitely not afraid to get dirty.

Happy Fourth of July! (Part 1)

We started off the day by joining in the Fourth of July Children's Parade. We spent quite a while decorating the wagon for the kids to ride in. However, it was quite breezy and the flags kept hitting Sam...so he took matters into his own hands and tore them off! John and I wore some silly, but festive felt hats. You will notice that not one picture of me in one of those hats appears on this blog! But, notice the picture of Sam wearing my hat and pointing his finger like Uncle Sam...I thought that was really funny!

Two Little Monkeys...

At some point of almost every day, the kids jump on Sydney's bed while she sings "Five Little Monkeys" at the top of her lungs. I'm usually close by, yelling "Be careful!" Their response is usually ignoring me or saying "Ok, Mommy" while they smack into eachother, the wall or both! On the night that I took these particular pictures, they were ready for bed, just finishing their nightly snack of Cheerios and milk when Sam ran into Syd's room, threw himself onto her bed and started jumping as fast and as high as he could, while yelling, "Dyney! Wa are you?" And so the fun began... When they were hot and tired and sweaty, they plopped down onto Sydney's pillow and finished their snack.

Making Rainbows

Sydney was watching the Baby First Channel last week and they were showing how to make rainbows out of cereal. She bugged me for days about buying Froot Loops so we could "make the rainbow project togetter." So, here's how you do it...

FRUIT RAINBOWS

What you need: Froot Loops (or generic equivalent), flour and water, cotton balls, Q-tips, construction paper (large size), markers, lots of paper towels and/or wipes to clean up messes and hands

Directions: Use markers to draw a large rainbow on a piece of contruction paper. Separate cereal by color. Mix flour and water together to make paste the consistency of thin oatmeal. Use Q-tips like a paintbrush to apply paste to the color/line of the rainbow that you are working on. Place cereal one at a time on the paste, patting lightly to keep in place. After all the colors are finished, place paste at the end of each side of the rainbow and in a few places in the "sky." Apply cotton balls, pulled slightly apart onto the paste to make clouds.

Note: The paste makes the paper wet, so to prevent the paper from pasting itself to the table, I put some wax paper under the project while it dried.

Above: Sydney pulling cereal apart. I bought generic cereal and later wished that I had just spent the extra money on real Froot Loops. Most of the cereal was stuck in large clumps and we had to try to break them apart without crushing the circles. It added quite a bit of time to the project.

Below: Sydney would sneak cereal into her mouth every so often. She thought she was being so sneaky! This was the first time she had tried this type of cereal and she asked if she could have "Froot Woops" now instead of Cheerios. I told her, "No way!"

Mommy, take my "pitcher!"

Sydney loves to have her picture taken. She will put on a hat or necklace, or will do something that she thinks is picture-worthy and yells, "Mmmmmooooooommmmyyyy! Come take my 'pitcher'!" Her latest photo shoot included her Sacramento Zoo hat. I took about 30 pictures, but when I quit she cried and said that she wasn't done looking pretty yet. Silly girl!

Daddy and the Kids

I finally had Daddy and both kids all together in one spot the other night, so I tried to get a nice picture of the three of them. Of course, getting all three of them to look at me at the same time was impossible! Sydney couldn't move very much because she was getting her nightly breathing treatment, but Sam was crawling all over the place, trying to get a wrestling match started.

Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day came and went and I never did get that perfect picture of John and the kids to post on the blog...the kids were sleeping, one of them was crying, it was nap time, it was time to go, "oh no! I forgot the camera..." Just another typical busy day. Daddy didn't get to relax very much and didn't get pampered very much either. But, his response to my apology at the end of the day... talking about how much love he gets from us every day and that he doesn't need a holiday to make him feel special. The kids and I are so blessed to have such a wonderful, understanding, hard-working, loving father/husband.

Happy Birthday to Me!

I turned 31 on Saturday, but Saturday wasn't the only day we celebrated. It was a four day event! On Thursday, we went to dinner and then to The Phantom of the Opera at Broadway Sacramento. On Friday, I got a manicure, we got an ice cream cone and then went to see Indiana Jones. On Saturday, we went to the Sacramento Zoo, I got a massage, we went to dinner and a few minutes after we got back, friends surprised me and we had yummy ice cream cake...that sneaky John had it all planned! On Sunday, we went to my parents' house for Mexican food and chocolate cake. I'd have to say that this was a really nice birthday...I feel really spoiled! Thanks everyone!

We took a train ride (in the caboose) at the zoo!

Swimming Lessons

The kids just finished their first week of swimming lessons; they have one more week to go. Sam and I are in the Parent and Me class and Sydney is in Level 1. This is Sydney's first year taking lessons without me in the water with her. She is doing great and absolutely loves it! She wants to put her swimsuit on two hours before we leave! Oh, did I mention that the lessons are at 9am and it has been freezing?!Sydney before we left for the first day of lessons. When lessons are over, they both get snuggled up in their towel.