Being a SuperHero is Tiring.

The girls have a new love - "The Justice League". I love that our girls are open to more than pink princesses. It has a lot to do with the Dad and his childlike nature and reliving his wonderful childhood again with his kids. Previously we were watching the Tailspin shows, but recently some friends came over and their boys brought "The Justice League" shows. Madeleine was captivated by Wonder Woman. The very next day she started asking me for some blue star panties and a red bra. Ummm...no - but I will give her the next best thing - the wonder woman dress. She still wants some star panties for some reason. And I have to tape paper stars to her ears...I sure do love these kids. Annora is as quirky as Madeleine. The sweater you see her wearing is a 0-3 month sweater in my "to be made into dolls" pile. She REFUSED to have me cut it and DEMANDED to wear it then and there. What the hay - I pick my battles, and this was not one of them.

I was asked today to make Annora a Hawk Girl costume. But think instead of a 4 and 2 year old saying it - which sounds a lot like "hot girl". (me snickers) Two days ago the girls watched a show and the green lantern said something like, "Why do I feel like a hot dog". This is what the girls heard, and kept saying and laughing hysterically over for the last 2 days. I love it. Tonight, Madeleine requested the hot dog show. I watched it with them this time. Guess what - Green Lantern ACTUALLY says (after being beat up) "why do I feel like a hockey puck". Ha! I love these kids and I love superheros. Poor Annora got zonked last night from all her superhero superheroing. After she fell asleep under the table naked I just let her be - don't wake a sleeping bear. :)

Proud Owner...

...of her new pillow pet! It's name is her usual "Pretty Princess (insert name of animal)". In this instance, a unicorn. She's been wanting one of these since we happened to let her watch Nick Jr. -not realizing that they have commercials for Sketchers and Pillow Pets every 10 minutes.

Last week while we were watching Maddie during swim lessons, Ryan decided that he would give Maddie a pillow pet if she held her head under the water for 5 seconds. (She's a face-in-the-water-phobe)Without realizing the power of the pillow pet, he told her this while she was in the water and BAM! She did it. We told her after lessons however that she had not been a good listener with her teacher(truth), so she had to prove herself obedient this lesson. And the teacher gave her a task as well - 3 dives. She did great. A bonafide swimmer. Maddie got to ride in the truck with her Dad to pick out her special friend. Welcome to the family Pretty Princess Unicorn.

Summer's Last Gasp

I'm glad we decided to head out for an adventure yesterday as it may very well be the last bit of summer we'll have this season. We decided on a hike, and I was thinking of something more the kids could do with us, so decided on Tumwater Falls. We'd never been, and I read that the salmon were running - sounded exciting. The hatchery was full of the largest salmon I'd ever seen. We saw plenty of salmon in the river making their way to the final ladder too! It was a good choice. We learned that Maddie is afraid of bridges and falling into water. We tried to get a good family shot, but Maddie was hysterically hysterical about being dropped in the water. We then had a nice picnic lunch and Ryan came up with an adventure all by himself. It was a surprise he said, so when we neared the destination off Reservation Rd. in Shelton, he had us close our eyes, then open them once we were in the middle of the High Steel Bridge. We parked the car and walked to the middle of the bridge and peered over. I think we'll be back for a nice hike sometime. It's gorgeous out there. -Surprisingly, Maddie did not get hysterical and actually enjoyed peering through the guardrail.

Can you see the worry on Maddie's face?Our attempt at a family photo with two ill-coping children.Long way down Dad.

Outdoor Playdates

I love getting the kids outside-someplace different than the backyard. We are so blessed to live in such a wonderfully rich area of nature. A couple days ago we had the opportunity to visit one of our favorite beach parks close to home - Tawanoh. We met some friends this time, which adds even more fun to the adventure. The kids inspected the rocks and oysters and clams. They showed each other things, ran with one another, and made up games and ways to play. We found a great picnic shelter that I have GREAT ideas for this fall and winter. It has a fireplace! Can you imagine some outdoor preschool!? And at the end of our visit there were hugs to go all around. Okay-at the absolute end there were tears all around, but I'm pretty sure it was because everyone had so much fun no one wanted to leave. :)

Tea Anyone?

Art Smarts

We love art! Thank you Kelly for the wonderful painting idea! -pudding paint turned body art. We came up with a new way to get paint on paper.














































This project I discovered through Crafty Crow was wonderfully colorful! I used water and a dab of artist watercolor to make liquid watercolors. They are so lovely that I've had a hard time dumping them out. They sit on our counter looking lively. We used some for coffee filter painting which we are going to make into flowers. I'd like to put the rest into spray bottles so they can each paint a bed sheet, but that means I have to remember to buy the spray bottles...which is unlikely.

End of Summer Happenings

I feel like summer came to an abrupt end. I'm not sure why as my kids are not in school yet, so I don't feel that we were hit by the school-bus. The weather turned down its thermostat rather quickly I feel, and my outside to-do projects are slipping ever- so- quickly from my hand. My visions for my yard are a little foggy; or perhaps, I'm just not sure on how to accomplish my tasks. OR - could it be that I'm just a regular mom with tiny hands to hold and crafts to conjure that I couldn't possibly do it all? I think that is why summer is now at an end when I feel like it just began; I let it slip by too quickly while I was playing "race you to the big weed and back".

Near the end of this season we went blueberry picking with our sweet friend. I asked Maddie what she wanted to do with her berries and she said, "Make a pie!", so I made her pick all the berries for that pie, and she did! It was yummy.We've been enjoying our boat quite a bit, and decided to use it as our mode of transport to Olympia's "Sand In the City" festival. We drove to Harsteine Island, plopped the boat in the water and jetted off. I say jetted - Ryan would probably say cruised at a mediocre speed. At any rate, we were off and found ourselves spotting the capitol building about 20 minutes later. Unfortunately, we were uninformed about the docks being under construction, which wouldn't normally be a total catastrophe except that the lone dock remaining was "reserved for Sand in the City". We understood this to mean that we could dock our 15 ft. boat next to the behemoth yachts that were tied up, but once we tried they told us that we could not, they were saving the space for some other boat on its way. Ryan was able to let us out while manned the boat away from the dock. We learned a few things, so we were glad we went anyway, plus we got some cute pictures of the kids. Annora was out like a light after just 5 minutes in the boat.

Inspired

I discovered Jim's Pancakes this week, so had to give it a try. Ryan was pretty excited to try it out as well. I think we might be having some very special pancakes around here from now on.

My Friend and Me.

Sand In Our Nose

We love owning the Prius because even when we don't have any money, we have a bit more freedom to do something fun with the kids. So a couple weekends back, after I spent all our money on crumpets we went to the beach - a kids favorite playground. We haven't spent a lot of time going to the beach...it's not quite the same as the Oregon coast, which we love - but I can say that we'll definetely be going more often now that it's only a couple gallons of gas. Ryan got to dig his big hole. Annora was reminded how much she truly likes that grit between her teeth, and Maddie learned to dive for a frisbee. Oh, and I got to sit in the sand in the sun an d watch my family smile.

Super Mystery Adventure Day!

I'd been planning on taking the girls to the Tacoma Art Museum for quite a while, but with cars breaking down and other life getting in the way, it got put on the back burner. Also back there simmering with it was their first real teatime, which I had been prepping them for with our "good manner's" mini tea sessions in the playroom. Since things finally settled down, and I had a full tank of gas in the prius, and my Mom was free for tea, I quickly made plans for a BIG day of adventure that the girls didn't know was coming. I laid out their clothes for the day, and made them hair accessories that evening. I hid their "new" special vintage dolls in the car and made sure to get up early. We packed them a snack in their new purses, and off we went. The art museum was a bit how I expected it to go. They were curious, but were not enthralled. But it was a perfect museum for my little ones. It's fairly small, with only a few small galleries, a nice selection of artistic jewelry in drawers to open, and a wonderful art studio where anyone is welcome to create their own art with available supplies. Maddie and Annora very much enjoyed the Chihuly exhibit - I think that for this age, sculpture grabs the attention more. I think I will look around to see where I can find some more sculpture exhibits for us to look at. We did a lot of prep with some WONDERFUL books by Lucy Micklethwait and some other Can you Find it by the Metropolitan Museum. We did get to see from very interesting art - and I wasn't really expecting it - and I wasn't really sure how to talk about it with my 4 year old.

















Do you see what I mean? That's what art is about though. I love art.

















































So, back to the car we went where their special dolls were waiting for them in their car seats and we jetted down the road to meet Grandma for teatime. Maddie had very good manners and enjoyed pouring her own child sized cup of tea from her tiny teapot and nibbling her ham sandwich and scone. She used her napkin and used appropriate words. Annora was...well, she was Annora. And Annora is 2. So, that's all I can say. Upside down crowns and eating sugar cubes and spilling water just happens at 2. But we all had a great time, and I'm very glad we could share our experience with Grandma.

I was going to extend our day down to the zoo not far away, but the day was getting expensive. At the same time I wanted the kids to enjoy their time with Grandma a bit more, so we found the gardens next to the zoo and went to smell all the roses. We also were able to see some baby ducks and a turtle in the pond!

And then...it was time for bed.