disney day with mckenon

 

 

happy birthday to my hubs

We had a great time with our friends and family who came out to celebrate Trav's birthday with us!

(Grandpa Keith, Yates, Abreus, Schvaneveldts, Oylers, Wallets, Simmons, and Gustafssons)

Happy 33rd To You, Trav!

Your three girls sure love you.

egg hunt playdate

Jen and I found out the ward wasn't doing an egg hunt, so we decided to organize one of our own. We kept it simple: everyone brought six eggs per child, then we hid them and the kids hunted. Super easy and super fun! (Thanks go to Jen and Jason for hiding everything.)

Here we are with all our friends.

Find That Friend:

Jason, Chelsea & Ellie (new friends we met at gymnastics)
Sarah & Ian with Libby, Diana & Jake
Natalie, Aaron & Eli (with Kapria :)
Leslie, Avery & cousin
Holly & Cohen
Maren, Madison & Collin
Marisa & Jenna
Crue
Laura & Zeke
Emily & Cailyn
Jen, Paiton & Ellie with Mila

spring decorations

We like to keep things festive around  here. But being on a budget means we have to keep things extremely inexpensive (or free). I went through our Easter items and found a few things we could hang up. It's nothing elegant or fancy, but we're enjoying our April look.

My mom gave us these cute buckets last year for Easter. Somehow we always end up with tons of buckets lying around the house. So I decided to decorate with these rather than add them to the toy bin. I love how they look up in the window. The felt bunny basket was in the dollar bin at Target last year. I grabbed a couple, then forgot to use them for anything. The bunny silhouette is from Party City. I did splurge and spent $6 on decorations this year. We'll reuse them for years, I'm sure.

 

I loved the simple, bright colors to add some cheer to the house. This set was $4 from party city. I'm thinking I can reuse for birthdays too. 

I wanted something for the table and then remembered the pink tablecloth I'd bought for Kapria's pink party. I'm so glad I got a reusable one and not a throwaway - it's definitely worth a few extra dollars to be able to reuse some things later. :)

Top: Girls' Easter baskets. We have a few extra baskets that I let them play with during the month, so I set these up high so it would be special to get them out on Easter day.

Top left: Do you have nesting dolls? I have found these toys to be a favorite of my kids. We have a few sets for different holidays, and they love playing with them. I got this cute animal set a few years' back on amazon, and this is the first year I thought to put them out for Easter decorations. I love the bright colors.

Bottom right: This is something I threw together really fast from stickers. I've had them since I was in high school! I never knew what to do with them. Then I thought, why not put them on a piece of paper and frame it? I used a frame that's been sitting in a storage box for months. Easy and free! 

So the mantle kinda looks lame, but I didn't have any money to buy something great. So I scavenged around the house for anything bright and festive.

See the bunny tree on the right? I got that at a white elephant party one December years ago - before we even had kids. Trav thought it was hideous, but I figured once we had kids they would love it. Saving it all these years was worth it. The girls love playing with the baby bunnies.

I used the word signs & pink frame that are normally in the girls' room to add some color. Maybe one day I can get some cute Easter statues. Or maybe not. I have a hard time spending real amounts of money on decorations. 

Happy Spring to you!

favorite books to read aloud

We were recently invited to participate in a book exchange. It's one of those chain types of things, where you send out one book to a specified child and email several friends with the letter who in turn send it out to several of their friends, and your kids are supposed to end up with 36 books. With how much we love books around here, I couldn't resist, even though I didn't expect to receive many. I figured if we even got 1 it would be worth it, and so far we've received 8. The girls love getting surprise packages, so it's been really fun.

Two of the books we received became instant favorites. Kapria and Mila both request them every day:

They especially love it when Trav reads them. He makes the best voices for each character.

Our other most-oft requested books right now are:

The girls of course didn't know that three of their five favorites were created by the same author/illustrator: Mo Willems. That man is a genius. He knows how to make kids laugh. And how to write something that adults can handle reading over and over. His books are funny and simple, without a ton of text. That's why Trav and I love them, too.

Here's the written list, in case you'd like to check them out for yourself:
Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late by Mo Willems
We Are In A Book by Mo Willems
Knuffle Bunny by Mo Willems
Bye-Bye, Big Bad BullyBug by Ed Emberley
Princess Hyacinth (the Surprising Tale of a Girl who Floated) by Florence Parry Heide

favorite k&m moments: feb 2012

favorite faces: feb 2012

one last february disney day

We met up with the Z family at California Adventure and had a great day. It was so fun to see friends from Utah and to get to know their kids. And what cute kids! June and Kapria were so chatty once they spent a little time together and they had a lot of fun on the rides. Isaac was okay with me as long as I shared snacks with him. Jeniel adored Mila and wanted to carry her everywhere. Normally Mila would love it because she loves when older kids carry her around. But for some reason she was being especially shy. I think David was the only one I didn't get to talk to much. But I love his face on the Monster's Inc ride. I wonder which monster he's staring at?

Anyway, we had a lot of fun and next time I need to get a picture with Erin!

bouldering

A new bouldering gym opened near us, and Trav was counting down the days until it happened. The grand opening day offered free climbing to everyone, so we headed down as a family. It was pretty crowded, but Trav managed to climb several routes, and the girls tried it out too. They are little monkeys and have hopefully inherited their dad's natural athleticism and talent for sports.  (And if they haven't, we'll make sure they learn it!)

Bouldering is rock climbing on large boulders or low cliffs without a harness or rope. Typically you have a crash pad below you to land on if you fall and spotters to help out. However, I think falling without hurting yourself takes a certain kind of grace and agility, both of which I I don't have. Hook me up to a rope and I'll try it. Take the rope away and no thank you.

disney day

We love going to Disneyland with Jen and her girls. Our kids get along so well, and Jen and I get to talk all we want and help each other out with kids running back and forth between strollers and making sure everyone is together. It is fabulous.

The big highlights of this day were joining in the Phineas and Ferb dance party, meeting Sully and Peter Pan, and playing in the fountain water. Jen was a good sport and went on the teacups even though she hates them. I love how happy the girls are in that teacup. And Ellie - looking so darling as she tries to open Mr. Rabbit's door. Too bad the Disney people don't open it anymore. Travis says they used to when he was a kid.

Mila is always nervous about the characters, especially ones that aren't human. She was terrified of Sully, and in the picture she's trying not to look at him.

Mila's reactions to the other characters made the fact that she talked to Peter Pan even more surprising. She was the only one who would answer him when he asked their names! Kapria and Paiton were so shy and just kept giggling. Silly girls were smitten with him.

(PS. Yes, this Peter Pan looks an awful lot like Terrance, whom we met a few weeks back.:)

I didn't get a good picture of it, but Kapria and Paiton sat in their own seat together on the Ariel ride with no adults. They were a little nervous at first, but then loved it when the worker let us ride twice without getting off. What big girls they are getting to be!

The time is going so quickly that we get to enjoy these fun family days, and I am loving every minute of it with my girls.

cookies

We decided to make cookies for family night. The girls were so excited. But when we pulled the chocolate chip cookies out of the oven they said, "Where are the pumpkin cookies? We don't like these!"

Oops. We'll be making pumpkin cookies tomorrow.

a visit from spiderman

andrew & sammy come to visit

 

imagination & the ancient arts

Kapria makes me so happy every day. She's always coming up with fun things to do with Mila. In one day they'll pretend to be mom and daughter ("No Shar, I wasn't talking to you. I was talking to Mila. She's my mom right now."), or girl and pet ("Come here, Sammy. Be a good cat and let me give you your medicine."), or prince and princess ("Will you please dance with me Prince Eric? I really like this song.").

Today Kapria decided they needed to practice "the ancient arts." You'd think she's been watching Kung Fu Panda recently, but she has not. I have no idea why this came up. She tied toilet paper as her sash, wrist, and ankle wraps. Then she got a set for Mila and tied them on for her. Unfortunately, Mila's didn't last long enough for me to take her picture. But Kapria was really excited to show me her skills.

Yep, she's pretty much the raddest kid I know. I adore her so much and admire her imagination. And now we need to get her into some martial arts classes so she can hone those crazy-amazing skills.

love day

Trav took the day off from school to spend it with us and that was the best gift ever! We loved having a whole extra day together.