art festival

Today we braved the 85 degree temperature and headed to Panoply. It is an annual art festival held here the last weekend in April. The past two years it has rained and we haven't gone. This year it was beautiful (and scorching hot) but was so worth the trip. Neither Jason nor I are super artsy people. (I must confess my main motivation in going was the carnival type food available. I will go almost anywhere they have funnel cakes.) It was absolutely fantastic for the kids... arts and crafts everywhere. Bella and Amelia were the perfect age. They made stained glass windows, cardboard cutouts, noisemakers, disco fish, face masks, painted on easels and crazy hats just to name a few. The girls excitement grew at each station and they didn't want to leave. It was so much fun and is definitely something we will attend next year.

Our first stop..face painting of course!



Early Works tree. Each of the girls made a leaf that will be put on the tree.

a close up of the hand-made leaves already on the tree.

a few random pictures of craft-time.



The only picture I really got of Will. He spent most of the day in the stroller people watching.

the parade arrived about 2 minutes after the previous picture was taken :)

The best for last. These "statues" were throughout the festival. For me they are almost as bad as mimes and totally freak me out. Bella was absolutely fascinated with this one and couldn't get close enough. I would take a few steps back and Bella would pull me closer. We were literally close enough to touch her! Ugh! Of course Jason thought this was hysterical.

at last...

Last year Bella's absolute favorite item of clothing was her "stripe dress". Nothing fancy, just a simple knit dress I picked up at the Gap for less than $10. It was cream with bright stripes. It was cute but I never figured it to be a must have item for her. She wore it everywhere until late fall. (Sadly I can't find a single picture of her in the dress.) I finally had to draw the line. All winter she waited patiently for warmer weather. On each sunny day she would ask if it was warm enough to wear the striped dress yet. Every birthday party she attended, the Nutcracker, even Christmas she wanted to wear the striped dress. It occurred to me in mid-January the much loved dress would probably be too small by the time she was finally able to wear it. She had waited so patiently and I didn't want her to be super disappointed. I started the search for a suitable, approved replacement. I purchased several dresses and finally found the one. Every day without fail she has asked if it was warm enough to wear her "stripe dress". Today it is 80 degrees and she was finally allowed to wear it to school. Bella could hardly contain her excitement to get dressed. Of course she wanted her picture taken so here she is in all her "striped dress" glory.

***note***the original dress now hangs in Amelia's closet and she could care less about it. Maybe I will finally get a break from that dress!

Bella draws Bella

We never leave the house without a magna doodle. It is one of our absolute favorite toys and we have each of the three sizes. The girls especially love to draw on it. Lately Bella's art has improved greatly. When she tells me she has drawn a house it actually looks like a house now. This weekend she drew a picture of herself and couldn't wait to show me.

a typical day

When we found out we were having a little boy everyone told me how much easier he would be. Ha. I can't decide if they were flat out lying to me so I didn't hide in fear or drinking something I can't seem to get my hands on. Will was the best baby. So pleasant and laid back. He never cried and would entertain himself with his toys for an hour. I was a nanny in college and have been around little boys for awhile. I expected ornery and prepared myself for messes. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like this. That boy is a one man wrecking crew leaving destruction wherever he has been.

Today while I was cleaning up breakfast Will Harry Houdini'd his way into our "junk drawer" and came out with quite a prize. Permanent markers and highlighters. I confiscated the markers and made a mental not to reorganize the drawer. I knew I needed to see what was in there and move it out of his reach. While I was doing this task Will was quietly playing with his toys. All of a sudden I feel this wet goop fly across my foot. I look up and see Will directly below me holding a used coffee filter flinging wet coffee grinds all over the kitchen. Sweet. It's only 8AM. It took me a good thirty minutes to get the mess cleaned up. I decided to vacuum since I already had it out from the coffee. Will always chases after me while I vacuum so it is usually a safe activity. Today however he decided to empty the clothes hamper in the vacuum path. Of course I swept up a sock and it got stuck.

Before lunch time he decided to go fishing in the toilet, a favorite activity. Will can get through child-proofing like no child I have ever seen. It had been a rather tiring day and I decided to do breakfast for dinner. Easy and fast enough. I'm flipping pancakes and turn around to see Will, with the bottom drawer open using it as a step. In the three steps it takes me to get to him the eggs are already flying off the counter to the floor. Another day, another mess. So much for boys being easier!

Easter weekend

We hope everyone had a Happy Easter! We were busy this weekend. On Saturday we took the kids to their first (and last) egg hunt on the base. In theory it was a great idea but poorly executed. The kids were super excited about finding some eggs and pretty disappointed they weren't able to. It was mass chaos at it's finest. Especially in the 1-3 year age group. You had to wait in a long line to enter an enclosed playground. By the time most of the kids even entered through the small gate there were no eggs left. The first children through the gate had baskets full of eggs. Parents were putting the eggs in their children's baskets and barricading themselves around the remaining few egg piles so only their children could collect them. Amelia wasn't able to pick up a single egg and didn't really understand where all the eggs she saw while she patiently waited in line went. She was disappointed but I was proud of her for not melting down like the other children I saw.


Easter morning we held our own egg hunt. The girls loved looking for the eggs and Will liked stealing the eggs out of their baskets. He was definitely more interested in the candy inside! We were also adventurous and decided to go out for a fancy brunch. The girls love the book Tea for Ruby and always ask when they can eat somewhere fancy with the queen. The queen, of course, wasn't in attendance but they were still very well-behaved. The meal was delicious and the girls had a great time. The staff was amazing and we really enjoyed ourselves.



We finished the day at our wonderful neighbors Mr Troy and Miss Susan's. They held an egg hunt for the kids at their house. The girls were super excited and couldn't believe all the eggs they found. Will wasn't as interested in the eggs again and was more interested in the chocolate inside. He picked one up, opened it and took some coaxing to look for another one. It was a great weekend!



Last but not least, here is a picture of Will with his Batman Easter basket. I went to Target looking for a gender neutral Easter basket for the egg hunts. Will had other ideas. He grabbed Batman from the shelf and wouldn't let go.