summer camp!!

Sam wrapped up his 9-day summer camp at the end of June. He was sad to have to miss 3 days of it due to strep throat and pneumonia, but we made sure he got to do what he was most looking forward to: archery! He thinks he's freaking Robin Hood now. :)

He had a blast at this camp...the complete classic summer camp that included crafts, capture the flag, archery, canoeing, fishing, hiking in the woods, etc, etc, etc, etc! We were invited for a fun show on the last day and then our camper showed us around the camp.

He will definitely be attending next year, along with his sis, who was too young to attend this year. Such a great program!

what a fun day it was...

Grace's birthday party was one of the best ones, yet. Kind of made me wish Sam had the option for a park birthday party, but February weather prevents that!

Grace wanted a party where they could play soccer, play t-ball, have their faces painted, do a craft and play on the playground...and she got just that! Since past birthday parties were getting a little large, I started the "you can invite the number of kids that equal the age you're turning" rule that my mom had with us when we were kids. It worked out great (that is, after Grace's nail-biting decision of who to invite that almost made me give in and let her invite more...almost). The small group played well together, no one got left out, and Kris and I had an easier time keeping track of everyone. That will definitely be the standing rule from this point on.

Oh, and the cake was a big hit! Grace had drawn a picture of what she wanted a couple of weeks ago and actually had me and Kris sign off on it...a binding contract!! She is a big fan of all the cake baking/decorating shows that are all over tv right now, so she insisted that we use fondant on her cake. Seriously, I don't know if fondant even existed when I was a kid, but if it did, I definitely had no idea what it was!

In true diva fashion, she kept the celebration going beyond the actual birthday, when we headed north to MI on vacation and she squeezed in a birthday celebration with Kris's side of the family. Posts on that will be coming soon!

Giveaway at Kuzak's Closet!!

Who doesn't love a shopping spree at Target? Head over to Kuzak's Closet today for their Sister Sister Sunday linky party to find out how you can enter for a chance to win a $25 Target gift card!

Sister Sister Sunday

toy review -- Legos!

Legos might, quite possibly, be the best toy ever. Can I get an "amen", moms? Some might not believe this statement, but you have to understand that the conditions must be right...the Legos must be contained to a Lego table up and out of the major foot traffic of the house (because those little plastic corners have been known to yield a four-letter word or two in this house as they were jamming up into the bottom of a foot) and, if building a specific set, the kid must be old enough to follow the directions on their own with little help. Because, then, and only then, can a mother retreat to the basement to camp out in front of an HGTV marathon of House Hunters, knowing that several episodes later she will find her 6-year-old still enthralled with the nine separate Lego scenes he's been working on. These days we see a lot of this around the house:

The Lego games don't rank as high on my list...a little complicated when you actually play the game by the directions. But, the boy still gets a ton of imaginary play out of the particular game he requested from Santa, even if we don't actually play the game all that often. He had to build a pyramid with a bunch of mummies and treasures before we could actually play and now I see him playing with it several times a week. And really, how can I knock a game that includes a king that my kids claim is wearing "the french fry crown"?

God bless Skype

Opening a birthday present from Grandma Pat last week,

as Grandma Pat and Grandma Debbie watch :)

toy review -- Melissa & Doug Cupcakes!!

Birthday celebration post is coming when I pull the pics off the camera, but thought I'd jump in first with a toy review...as promised. :)

Melissa & Doug has been popping up everywhere in recent years and they are doing a great job at providing fun, make believe toys for young kids. Grace received this fun toy for Christmas this year and has been having a blast with it. It's a cupcake set of wooden cupcakes, a pan, wrappers, frostings and icing tubes for decorating.

She even decorated a set for her brother on his birthday. :)

My only warning to parents is that the icing tubes are actually dry erase markers and DO NOT come out of fabrics...so, make sure your little bakers are working in a supervised setting and on a hard surface that cleans up easily!

Purchase one for your little baker here.

tea is served...

Grace recently received a royal invitation to a princess tea party at her friend's house. No birthday...just a "just because" party. How cute is this?

After a few days weighing her options, Grace decided to go in her Sleeping Beauty dress. I offered to put her hair up and she quickly corrected me by letting me know that Princess Aurora had her hair down and just curled under...so that's what we did:

And check out the treats that were served (along with apple juice "tea", of course!)...

All treats were prepared by Grace's friend's mom. And since the invitation came from a little princess, I guess that would make mom the Queen, right?

Grace was so excited and had a great time. What a fun idea for a little girl gathering!

Baby Beck!

In June, we received an exciting phone call: Kris' cousin, Sara, announcing her pregnancy. The twist, though, was when the baby was expected to arrive: the end of August! The whole family was pretty surprised that we didn't have to wait a full 9 months for the next addition to brood... including Sara and Ken! Somehow that lucky girl made it roughly 25 weeks without knowing about the little munchkin growing inside. Imagine their surprise when they had an ultrasound a few weeks later, thinking they were 8-10 weeks along, and found out they were actually 29 weeks along!

So, fast pregnancy = fast shower planning! The shower was held last weekend and Grace and I roadtripped up to MI to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Beck. Sara was then 35 weeks along, so they are pretty much down to any day, now, at this point, being only 1 week away from "full-term"!

Grace has a personal requirement that she holds herself to for all baby showers: she must buy the baby a teddy bear. Not a bad requirement, Gracie... For Baby Beck, she even decorated her own gift bag to hold the teddy bear. Look closely and you'll see the baby holding an umbrella with a shower overhead (and I swear she came up with that all on her own...no prompting from me...I was so surprised when she said that's what she would draw!):

Grace and Mama Sara

This trip was a much welcome bonus visit with some of Kris' side of the family for the year. Grace had fun cuddling with Grandma Donna and playing with Samantha, Meaghan and Uncle Bruce during the shower.

And Sherri (soon-to-be Grandma!) rocked the shower hostess role with her fun games and by passing out our favor and reading it to us. For all you parents out there, check out this book...will definitely come in handy in a few years in this house!

It's available here. And after Sherri was finished reading the story to us, she passed out a pop quiz for us to complete in one minute just to make sure we absorbed all points of the story. Thanks to her, we were all able to celebrate the upcoming arrival of Baby Beck, and were educated on how he/she came to be at the same time! :)

Can't wait for the big news on the teeniest family member...due to make his/her debut within the next month!

rainy day

Just a few pics from a finger painting session last week. I usually prefer to do this OUTside, but due to rain, we set up studio in the kitchen. A good time was had by all :)

duck, duck...

The kids' sitter has been taking them to feed the ducks at a local park periodically throughout the summer. Sam and Grace LOVE doing it so Kris and I decided to take them on a Saturday so we could find out what all the hype was about.


They were right...it was fun! There are a gazillion ducks at this park and as soon as anyone steps on the bridge with bread in their hands, they flock from all over the park. There were even some teeny tiny babies, but they were darting around too fast to catch them in a pic.


While it was fun, I'm trying to curb going too frequently...the family bread budget never took ducks into account :)

Easter eggs!

We dyed Easter eggs with the kids this morning. This was the first year I've been brave enough to do it. They loved it! I knew they would...they both love their art projects. They loved it so much that it looks like they'll be heading to mass tomorrow with green, pink and blue fingers. A few pics:

Excited Grace waiting to dye eggs

Impatient Sam waiting to dye eggs

Sam decided to decorate this egg to look like the Earth...
complete with land, the ocean and purple fish in the ocean :)

Happy Easter everyone!

the nude period

Recently, I got fed up when I threw out another set of bath squirters because, instead of squirting water, they started squirting some disgusting, black nastiness out into the tub. This has happened after a few months with every set of bath squirters we've ever gotten. So, after the last set, I went out looking for some other bath options. We already have a set of water flutes that Sam got for Christmas which dry out nicely, but the whole scenario gets old when I'm constantly adjusting the water levels in them and sitting next to the bath reading a card of music so I can tell the kids which color flute to blow in at what time to successfully play Old MacDonald. (I completely regret my decision to ever show them that the music cards existed...they would have been just as happy without them!) So, when I noticed a set of bath crayons while browsing one day, I was pretty excited at what that might mean for bath time in our house.

And I couldn't have been more right. The kids are now producing their finest artwork on the walls of the shower instead of on paper. I'm a little sad that the masterpieces get washed down the drain at the end of each bath, but at least I have their complete cooperation while I'm washing their hair because they are completely distracted by what they are working on. They say every artist goes through stages...as you see below, my children are in their Nude Period.


Sam's first mural:

He even wrote everyone's names by himself!

Grace's first mural:

Too busy to take time out to smile for the camera!