You Are My Sunshine

We can't get enough of "You are my sunshine" around here.

The Three Amigos

When Dale, Lily and Rose get together, things get...loud.  There is so much running and scream-laughing going on that you can't hear yourself think.  It's good cousin time though.

The closet is always a fabulous cousin hideout.

My bed is another cousin fun time hot spot.

Snow Visitors

February 23, 2013

Guess who came to visit us?

My beautiful sister and her Lilybug, of course.  Who else would drive out to see me and my kiddos right after a major snowstorm?

We had been snowed in for several days and had not left the house other than to shovel shovel shovel.  Seeing Sara and Lily perked us right up.  There was only one thing to do; play in the snow.

My kids didn't understand that they were not wearing snow pants, and they went nutso covering themselves in freezing wet snow.

We were good and cold straight from the start, but we decided to build a snowman anyway.  It was fun and interesting to watch the children build together.  All three personalities came out.  Lily was super excited and gathered snow in a frenzy, Dale carefully sculpted and watched, and Rose wandered to and fro doing whatever she pleased.  I loved it!

The kids were so proud of their snow woman.

Isn't she pretty?

So Much Snow!

Once the snow finally stopped, it was time to start digging our way out.  It took me all day to shovel our driveway, doing it in small bursts, and I never did finish.  To top off our shoveling trauma, I left the kids' snow pants in Colorado with Daddy, because clearly that makes sense.  Good times.

Dale did a great job being my little helper.  He spent the whole time we were outside attempting to shovel snow off the driveway, because he wanted to be helpful.  He's such a good kid.

Rose, on the other hand, spent all her time climbing the mountains of snow surrounding the driveway.

Snow Day Painting

February 21, 2013

We knew it was coming, so we hunkered down with extra bread and peanut butter and crossed our fingers that the power would stay on...and it did!  The fabulous Kansas snowstorm was beautiful and surprisingly cheery, and we spent several days stranded in our house watching movies, cuddling, and making great art.

The kids love it when I bring out the paint, because we don't do it all that often.  I prefer the easiness of markers and crayons on any normal day.  Yet this day wasn't normal, so out came the mess.

I could not get Dale to take a picture any other way than with his hands up like this.

While Dale preferred to mix mix mix with the palms of his hands, Rose got creative with the tips of her fingers.

Here are the finished products:

Dale's piece.

Rose's piece.

Finding His Voice

Every once and a while I can coax Dale out of a song or two, and gosh it's so cute!

Giant Toes Playground

I'm horrible at remembering names.  I can remember little details about people, places and things, but if you ask me what it's called, I won't have a clue.  So we've started naming playgrounds by what they have rather than what they are really called.  I like it.  It works for me.  In Manhattan we frequented the "boat park," the "monster slide park," the "dude with ax park," and the "purple eagle park."  My kids know which park is which, so that's all that really matters.

Moving to Fort Collins will give us a whole slew of new and extra awesome playgrounds to rename.  On this day, we visited the "giant toes" playground, and it quickly became Dale's new fave.

While Rose ran from place to place like a little butterfly, Dale climbed everything in sight.

Getting braver.

Once Dale got to the top of the giant rock pile, he sat there for quite some time, pensively studying the scene.

Then Rose found him.

And here they are; the giant toes.  Aren't they awesome?  Oh yeah, this park is awesome, and we'll be frequenting it soon.

For the record, this playground is called Inspiration Playground, and it's at Spring Canyon Community Park. I won't remember that five minutes from now.