A Swallowed Tooth, Dinosaur Day and The Renaissance Festival!

Stanton lost his first tooth! It was a monumental day!
I wasn't home when he figured out he had a loose tooth, and kooky as it may be, I cried a whole bunch cause I wasn't there when he realized it (and also cause he's growing up and going to Kindergarten and cause Noelle is almost in a booster and before I know it she'll be married and Winston doesn't seem so babyish anymore and pretty soon he won't even need a pacifier and he and Stanton will be on missions. It's just starting to really hit me that they won't be little forever) but anyway, I was there the next day when Stanton was eating popcorn in the book aisle of Target and he lost his tooth and swallowed it!
The first thing Noelle said was, "Ew. Does he have to put his poop under his pillow for the Tooth Fairy?" Then she said, "That's gross. Sorry I said that."
I think I made too big of a fuss over how cute he looked with his missing tooth and how funny it was that he swallowed it because he said, "Okay, can we just stop talking about it?"
I tried to stop talking about it, but I couldn't cause he just looked too cute!
He was very happy the next morning when he found $2 in a fancy blue satchel under his pillow.
After the lost tooth, we did a fun experiment I found on a beloved little website called Pinterest. We blew up balloons with a water bottle and baking soda and vinegar.
It was so cool! They were clapping and cheering.
We just kept blowing up balloon after balloon cause it was so fun to watch!
It even worked with balsamic vinegar and baking powder. Our hypothesis was correct.
A couple days later we had Dinosaur Day!
We woke up and made dinosaurs out of playdough. I was pretty pleased with how my green and yellow giraffe/dog-looking Brontosaurus turned out!
Then we used our culture pass to the Dinosaur Museum. We hadn't been there in a while, so it was fun to go again.
Winston's favorite part was the panning for gold. I think between the 4 of us, we found .08 cents worth.
That night, we had a special dinosaur dinner with Daddy and Grandma and Grandpa. Noelle set the table, pretty much all by herself.
The 2nd favorite activity of the day was using hammers and screwdrivers to excavate the little dinosaurs that I froze in a block of ice. Now Stanton wants to be an archeologist.
Noelle still wants to be a ballerina-astronaut, or a cop.
Then we made dinosaur feet and stomped around the family room. Everyone kept falling.
And after all of my preparations, their #1 favorite activity of the night was the game Robert came up with in 2 seconds...Tryranosaurus Wrestling.
All of the dinosaur themed activities that I stayed up until midnight planning, were not even nearly as fun as pushing each other down with tiny arms.
And on Saturday, Daddy got us free tickets to the Renaissance Festival. I think we might have had a good time????
I still haven't decided.
It started out nice. Noelle hit some rubber frogs.
I learned how to stick juggle.
Winston drank a lot of lemonade during the fire-eating demonstration, and then even more lemonade during the whip cracking demonstration.
And Stanton and Robert did some archery.
So far, so good. It was just as fun as I'd remembered it. Until...

THIS GUY.
We laughed when we walked through the fairy-tale castle full of strange princess-ish manequins and weirdly creepy trolls and goblins.
We shrugged our shoulders when we walked by the shirt-less men in velvet pants pouring water bottles all down their knee-length hair.
We discretely took pictures of the family wearing masks with falic bird noses, and we got a kick out of the cackling "princess" who left Noelle speechless.
However, when the devilish jester with spikes on his face and a shark on his parts put his arm around me, we decided it was probably time to leave.
Of course, we got a picture (for memory's sake) but we headed home immediately after that.
So, in a nutshell, I would say we had a good time at the Renaissance Festival, I think? If nothing else, it was a memorable experience, but our tickets are up for grabs for next year.

Fun Thursday, Fun Friday, Fun Saturday, Fun Sunday!

On Thursday we went to the Superstition Dairy Farm's free day! It was so fun! I think I had just as much fun as the kids! Winston and I got to hold a chicken!

We got to pet bunnies and feed sheep.
The kids got to play with rocks while we waited in line for the hay ride. I love that kids think rocks are fun. I think kids are fun!
The hayride was cool! We learned that these poor lady cows produce 9,000 gallons of milk a day. That sounds "udderly" miserable!
After the hayride we went to the milk bar to sample the different milk flavors.
Stanton had butterscotch. Winston and I had banana cream mixed with chocolate and Noelle had cherry-vanilla.
None of us got strawberry because when I was little my Dad told me that strawberry milk was pink from the cows getting milked so much that their udders bleed. Even though I know now that it's not true, it still scarred me a little bit.
After our milk, Kennedy, Noelle and James played a lot of ring around the rosies.

Then they all fell down...and then we played in the hay.
I wish everyday could be a farm day!
On Friday we went to the other place I love, the Scottsdale Train Park.
Believe it or not, Winston loves it too.
Saturday was St. Parick's Day, and even though I'm not Irish, I love St. Patrick's Day! It's my
7th favorite holiday!
We started out our morning finding Leroy the Leprachaun's green little footprints on our toilet seat, along with some unfinished business. Stanton and Noelle were losing their minds, they were so excited and laughing so hard. It was really fun to see them like that.
Then, we searched all around the house for Leroy, and we finally caught him in a paper bag. Noelle changed his name to Speedy, and we read him books and sang him songs. We couldn't see him (because if we look at him, he turns to dust) but we could see his bag moving, while he danced inside to our music.
Then we set him free in the desert, and I proceeded to answer multiple leprachaun questions to the best of my ability.
Q: If leprachauns are as tiny as a penny, then how come he left such big footprints on our toilet seat?
A: because leprachauns are unpropotioned.
Q: If leprachauns can't reach the door handle, how did Speedy get in our house?
A: He slid down a rainbow right into the chimney.
Q: How come Speedy doesn't dance to the music when I'm holding the paper bag?
A: Because he's out of breath and he's taking a little break, etc, etc.

After we released Speedy into the wild, the kids took baths, in regular, boring, white water. I was about to turn their bath water green like that river in Chicago, until Robert intervened and reminded me that food coloring would stain their skin. (Good thing he knows that sometimes I get caught up in the idea, and forget about the outcome.) They found the first clue in the tub, to the scavenger hunt that Speedy had left them, as a thank you for setting him free. After searching, in the fridge, on the bookcase, on the window, by the door, the kids found their last clue outside, with a leprachaun treasure for each of them.
Then they went on my "I'm Cereal-sly lucky to be your mommy" treasure hunt that I copied off of Pintrest, and found a box of Lucky Charms, since their life's biggest wish is for me to buy sugar cereal more than twice a year. It was a big hit!
St. Patrick's Day evening turned out to be even more fun, with the Elder's Quorum BBQ at our house, with so many fun kids for Stanton and Noelle to play with and green lemonade, green pasta salad and green popcorn, that did not turn out, even though I followed the directions for once.
Sunday morning I let Winston help make our breakfast smoothies. He loves blenders.

And then, afeter church, we made oaty-doodles. Stanton and Noelle were happy to pour every single ingredient. They even cracked the eggs.
Sorry friends we shared cookies with, I can't promise no shells, and I also can't promise that those beaters were not double dipped back into the batter, but I can promise that those oaty-doodles tasted goo-oo-ood!

Art Festival and More!

We went to the Scottsdale Art Festival this weekend. I love festivals and booths and art! It was so, so much fun!
We didn't venture in to the naked artist museum, but word around the festival was that it was just a semi-offensive half naked statue. We just took their word for it.
We did, however make our way over to the magician, who was actually magic!!!!
He asked Stanton to be his assistant (which may or may not have had anything to do with the fact that I was waving my arms and screaming, "Pick him! Pick him!")
Anyway, he asked for someone from the audience to borrow a hundred dollar bill, and then he asked a little girl to write her name on it. Then he folded it up in a bandana and asked Stanton to hold onto it, while he waved his magic wand over it.
Then he took it back from Stanton and opened the bandana, and it was gone.
Then he grabbed an ordinary lemon and cut it open and the hundred dollar bill with the girl's name on it was INSIDE THE LEMON!!!!!!!
Pure magic I tell you!
We tipped him 75 cents cause that's all of the cash I had, but the trick was actually worth far more!
There were so many oooh's and aaah's!
After we looked at all of the art, we headed over to the kid's art section, where we made lots of crafts...pinwheels, paper Aussie hats with corks to chase away the flies, boomarangs and koala/crocodile/turtle visors.
Then they did boat races.
Winston likes boat races!
After that Daddy joined in the hula hoop/parachute fun! he was lifting it up, while Stanton, Noelle and Winston were running under it. After a while they all 3 walked over to me, and Robert didn't notice and just kept playing with the parachute. We laughed a lot when he finally figured out that he was playing with it alone.
It really was a most excellent day!
Other recent happenings...
Stanton started coach pitch t-ball, with his friend Porter, and one of their coaches that does the pitching is a former D-backs pitcher!
Stanton looks so cute in his uniform. (Robert has corrected me multiple times that it is not a costume or an outfit.)
During his first game he carried the bat with him all the way to first base. It was adorable! It's so cute to watch!
Noelle and Winston don't think it's quite as fun to watch. They lose interest right around the second pitch of the game. Luckily, Porter's brother and sister are there to entertain them!
Hannah even came to one of Stanton's games to cheer him on! Oh, melt my heart!
Now, I am not the kind of mom that sets my kids up (or maybe that's exactly the kind of mom I am. I'm not sure.) All I'm saying is that Melissa and I have pictures of Stanton and Hannah holding hands from the time they were like 9 months old, and plenty of other pictures where those came from, and they would make for a super cute 5 hour long wedding video. I'm just saying.
Other big news, Noelle started her violin lessons. Oh. my. cute! She likes it so far, and all of that beautiful, screechy practicing makes me smile big.
She also had her "dance concert" that same day. All of the pictures turned out blurry, but she looked so darling dancing across the room. I can tell her teacher thinks she's funny because she smiles a lot whenever Noelle falls down or accidentally dances into someone because she's starring at herself in the mirror. My favorite part were her baht mahs, where instead of pointing her toe, she pounds her foot on the ground like one of those Russian soldiers. She really loves her little parks and rec ballet class, and I really love watching her!
We were lucky enough to go to the Scottsdale Mall with Grandma Curry on one day, and then Grandma Mary a couple days later. It made for a lot of fun grandma playtime!
Speaking of fun playtime, Grandpa Curry got his Darth Vader costume on one night and surprised Stanton with a battle, while Noelle threw balls at him. Winston even had his first lightsaber battle with Darth Vader. He really liked it, as long as he was sitiing on Grandma's lap, and we were all smiling.
Also, our grapes finally turned into raisins! It took almost 3 months. We put some grapes in a dish the day after Christmas, and this week they were finally wrinkly enough to be raisins. They tasted pretty raisiny too, and we didn't even follow a recipie.
And raisins aren't the only thing were growing. Our peas in a cup are growing really big, and our cactus in a plastic egg is finally starting to sprout.
I told Stanton that people might mistake him for the Incredible Hulk cause he has a pretty green thumb. He thought I was funny, once I explained the humor to him.

Museums, Baby Chicks and Geocaching...part 2!

We got a culture pass to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, so we brought a picnic lunch and headed over to the Civic Center (I spent a lot of time there when I was little so it's very nostalgic for me to bring my kids there) to climb on some statues and look at some art.
Turns out, it wasn't art, at least in my opinion, or in Noelle's very loud, honest opinion either.
There was one big room full of plain brown lunch bags turned upside down, three lamps sitting on a table with one knocked over and a microphone stand with a hairbrush stuck in it.
Now, I am very easy to please (Nicholas Cage is my favorite actor for goodness sakes. I don't have extremely high standards.) But that is not art! I have a very liberal idea of what qualifies as art, but lunchbags, lamps and hairbrushes. I don't get it!
And neither did Noelle. The fancy folk analyzing the position in which the hairbrush was placed in the microphone stand apparently saw something that we didn't. Noelle just kept saying, "I could make this. This isn't art. This is junky. My art is better, huh."
I had to agree.
It was fun though, and the doorman gave them a oragami robots, so that made it all worth it.
Stanton went through a short, little phase of listening to the Harry Potter book on c.d. He would dress up in his costume and open the book to a random page and stare at it, while he listened to the story on c.d.
I wish he hadn't grown out of that phase because he looks really cute with glasses and a lightning scar.
We gave geocaching another try. Robert's GPS on his phone wasn't working, which didn't really matter anyway because I don't even understand all of that coordinants mumbo jumbo. However, the maps and directions were really specific this time, and it was really close to our house, so I was sure we would find it.
Plus, we had Winston to point us in the right direction, and he was actually right. It was supposed to be under that bridge.
Halfway to the bridge, our fearless leader Winston just plopped down in the grass to relax. It was the funniest thing ever. He just kicked back and took a little break.
We ended up finding a tunnel under the bridge, and it was super creepy! We walked pretty deep into it, but once I saw the white bug eggs nesting in the corners and Winston ended up with a cob web in his hair, we had to turn back.
Sorry geocaching, finding the treasure is not worth catching Hepatitis.
I am pretty brave, but that place gave me the heeby-jeebies!
Stanton and Noelle were a little disappointed that we didn't find it, but they kept saying, "At least we found the first one."
That's right, at least we found the first one...
Anyway, our disappointment didn't last long because we found these blowy weed things that I have been telling them about that I used to love when I was their age and I lived in Minnesota, so that distracted us from our defeat. I also taught them how to rub dandelions on your nose to look like butter, so I told them it was kinda like we found our own treasure.
The next day our friend Liz took us to the Phoenix Children's Museum, which was so fun cause we hadn't been there since Winston was a teeny baby. And we just happened to go on the day that the Tooth Fairy was there, putting on a puppet show and giving out toothbrushes and floss.
Winston loved painting the rocket ship, while Noelle painted with watercolors and Stanton made a magazine collage.
We had such a great time! Thanks Liz!

And the other big news for the Curry kids is that one of the chickens Winston chases had chicks. He was beyond happy to chase the babies that couldn't out run him. He doesn't want to touch them. He just likes to get really close and peep back at them. I don't know what's more adorable than baby Winston with baby chicks! Spring has sprung!