Children's Museum and Fall Drive

Last weekend, we went for a little family trip to the children's museum. It was Mike's first time going there.

Nora got to participate in a fun activity. First, they had the teacher read the book "Purplicious", which includes a part about mixing colors to make new colors, then the kids got to paint on bubble wrap, and then press it onto paper to make lots of little circles. They also tried mixing some of their own colors.

Evie's favorite place to play is the 3-and-under area. She especially liked the "bird's house" and the little phone inside. (She is wet from playing in the water play area earlier)

She also had fun looking at the different board books they had there

Nora's favorite part was the little grocery store. It was a little busy since it was a Saturday, so she waited for her turn to use a cart - the basket just wouldn't do.

Check out

Evie decided to do some shopping

Riding the horse together

Nora gathering some eggs

Sam had a good view of all the action - safe in Daddy's arms

Evie decided to mail some onions

Playing with the big xylophone

On Sunday, we went for a little drive up the canyon to see if we could see any fall leaves

We did see some, and they were very pretty. Unfortunately my camera ran out of batteries, and the best leaves were on the second half of the drive.

Just reinforcing the message of my last post: Evie + Markers = TROUBLE

At least this time it was a washable marker, and she only drew on herself.

This is a picture from yesterday. After Mike gave the girls a shower, he wrapped them up like this and sent them in to me in the kitchen. I thought they looked really cute!

Oh Man...

"You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance." - Franklin P. Jones

I had a not-very-fun surprise this morning. I walked into the nursery to find Evie with a black permanent marker (aka "the scary marker" at our house), and she had scribbled all over the front and side of the white dresser, and the front of the white crib. AHHHH!!! (Note to self: wait until Evie's nap to try and do the laundry). I immediately tried to get it off with rubbing alcohol, since I had been able to get some marker out of clothes that way. It lightened it up a bit, but did not get it all off by a long shot. Panicking, I consulted my friend, Google, and read that someone had had success with baking soda and rubbing alcohol. It took a lot of elbow grease, but it did the job! It didn't even mess up the paint finish. I love you, Arm and Hammer!!

The side of the dresser after cleaning with just rubbing alcohol:

The side of the dresser after the baking soda and alcohol treatment:

AHHHHHH!!!!

Whew! Much better!

I didn't take a before picture of the front of the dresser, but it was by-far the worst. Here it is after:

Life with a 2 year old - Another day, another adventure.

Back to School Time

Nora is really enjoying her preschool, and Evie enjoys having some one-on-one time with me while Nora is at school. Sam is growing like crazy, and we always get comments about what a big boy he is. I can't believe he is almost 4 months! He loves to "talk" to you, and it is so cute.

Evie's way of eating raspberries

This is one of the random pictures Nora took that I found on my camera, but I thought bedhead Evie was pretty cute.

Nora loves finding dandylions

This is the card that Nora made for Mike for his birthday. I love her drawings!

This is a picture of Mike on the front:

Inside she drew Mike's iPhone (the brown thing on the top left - it has the button on the bottom), Mommy (the girl in purple), our 2 cats, and on the right is a birthday cake with candles.

This is a self portrait that Nora drew at preschool

This week we decorated a shoe box for Nora's "shoe box library". This is something her preschool does, and I think it's a cute idea. At preschool, they make little books, and then they bring them home and keep them in their shoebox, so they will have a little box of books on their level that they can practice reading with.

Nora reading one of her books

Lately Nora has been asking to hold Sam a lot. He really likes her and smiles at her, which always makes her say "Mom, Sammy likes me!!" Here they are watching some TV.

Sitting on the rocker and looking at books

Just for fun, I tried out this free pattern and made Sam some little booties from some extra fabric pieces I had.

Mommy sure loves monkeys!

Sam is doing very well with his physical therapy for his torticollis. His range of motion in his neck, and his neck strength have greatly improved from the stretches and exercises we've been doing with him. They also measured his head, and despite our efforts to keep him off of his flat spot and giving him lots of tummy time, etc. his head shape has not improved. We got a referral to a plagiocephaly expert, and Sam will be evaluated to see if he needs helmet therapy.

Here is Sam sitting in his Bumbo seat. He is able to sit in it for quite a while since he has gotten very good at holding his head up.

This is Sam's newest exercise that he is supposed to do - side play!

Here are a couple of pictures that Nora took while we were doing Sam's exercises and playing with him

Woah, it's a double birthday, all the way!

Reece and Mike's birthdays are just 17 days apart, so we had a double birthday celebration for them this year - with 2 cakes.

Mike and fam with his cake

Beth and Reece with his chocolate cake

Evie washing the dishes after dinner

Later that evening, we played a game of "Ticket to Ride"

Getting pretty intense...

That must be why he usually wins...

Grammy and Nora

The train routes

Nora still loves to take pictures!

I'm a little late in posting this - it was in August, but better late than never! Happy birthday to two great guys!

Sam's 3 Month Portraits

I took Sam to get some portraits done today, and at first he kept crying and doing "the lip" and I was worried that we weren't going to be able to get any pictures, but after a couple of minutes he was his normal, happy self again! The photographer kept saying how she was surprised how well he was doing with the tummy poses, so I guess all that tummy time is paying off

This pose totally cracks me up. It's so silly, but he still looks cute.