Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Summer Fun...so far!
Looking back at the number of pictures I've taken over the last two weeks has made me realize that my anxiety about my kids growing up right before my eyes has turned me into an obsessive picture taker.
I pull out my camera anytime anything even remotely cute or fun happens, for fear I might forget a single detail of my life.
Lucky for me, my kids like getting their pictures taken, but I may be becoming a little obsessive. I'm having an intervention with myself, right at this very moment. I'm gonna dial it back a bit from now on.
Until then, I can't let all of these darling pictures go to waste...
A couple weeks ago we had a "Tea Party/Tough Party!"
Noelle had been begging to have a tea party, and I kept forgetting, so when I finally remembered, I decided to go all out.
We invited Stanton, but he RSVP'd a big, giant NO when he saw us in dresses sitting at a table full of ponies, princesses and tiny cups.
So, I split the table in half and threw him and Winston a tough party at the other end, full of dinosaurs, dragons, footballs and swords.
We dressed fancy, and they dressed like brave men!
We sipped sparlking cider from tiny tea cups, and they gulped it from giant soda mugs! Winston even chugged whip cream straight from the bottle, proving his manliness!
The party was starting to die down because it was hard pleasing both crowds at the same time, until I made up what they thought was the most hilarious game on earth...I name a person, and they say whose party they would've been invited to, the tea party or the tough party. Their favorite part of the game was that Noelle had to answer in a boy voice, and Stanton had to answer in a girl voice. It was a big hit, especially because Noelle's boy voice sounds like a growling lion.
Grandpa happened to be working from home that day, so he added to our party by providing live music. he brought out his warrior drum, and they had a very musical concert/parade.
That day we also got to go on a tour of Honeymoon Sweets Bakery. They have the most giant mixers you've ever seen!
Noelle said it was kind of boring, except for the pretty wedding cakes, the yummy desserts and the cool, giant mixers. That was pretty much everything, so I'm glad she liked it.
We've also been loving our Science Center pass! This time we went with our friends Marc and James. It was a super good time!
We also went peach picking with Hannah and Claire. Vertuccio Farms is one of our absolute favorite places to go, and peach picking did not disappoint! We had such a good time!
I only wanted to pick perfect peaches, so I was conflicted whenever I would pick a bruised peach from the tree. I didn't want to put it in my bag, but I also didn't wanna throw it on the ground, so Melissa, being the dear friend that she is, let me put all of my undesirables in her bag. That's what I call a true friend! She is such a peach!
We went back to her house and made pizza and some peach smoothies with our combined 20+ pounds of peaches.
After lunch, the kids were playing aliens outside. They were coloring their arms, legs, faces and hair with chalk. We were so impressed with their creativity. It was very adorable to watch!
That day we came home, and while I was putting Winston to bed, Stanton and Noelle set the table with fancy napkins, bowls of goldfish and fruit leather. When I came downstairs, they told me o go in the other room because they were throwing me a surprise party for being such a nice mom. It made me cry (:
When it was finally time to go in, Stanton had cut tons of pieces of ribbon and strewn them all over the table, and Noelle had made a nesting doll centerpiece. They also turned on the radio so I could listen to my "cowboy" music, and they filled one of Grandma's present boxes with two pictures they'd colored for me, a penny and my driver's license. They had also brought down the game "Guess Who," and they let me go first.
It was by far, one of the sweetest memories of my whole life!
That night we went to our first round of swim lessons. I couldn't find my swimsuit, so Robert had to go in the water with Winston for the "Mommy and Me" class. At first I was sad to have to watch from the sidelines, but after witnessing Winston's 30 minute long protest, I wasn't so disappointed that Robert got to be mommy after all. Stanton and Noelle loved their classes, and I'm so happy to say that Stanton can now swim!
As much as Wisnton dislikes his swim lessons, he sure loves swimming at home! Daddy takes them almost every single day, and twice most days.
We had a fun, family Friday night in the other week. Robert Red Boxed Alvin and the Chipmunks (2 days later we found a dead chipmunk in our backyard, not the best timing) and Noelle and I did manicures, pedicures and facials with the homemade chocolate masks I made for Grandma's birthday party. Noelle loved her facial, until she saw what mine looked like. Then she got pouty and wanted it removed immediately. She really perked up though when I soaked her toes in a bowl of water and painted her fingernails all different colors. She said it was "so relaxing."
Stanton wanted something boyish to do, so he and Daddy lifted weights during the movie to offset our girliness.
Winston mostly just stuck cutips in his eyes and dipped his hands and arms in Noelle's foot water.
The next night we went on a double date with the Johnsons to this quaint little Italian restaurant we discovered in Phoenix called Ciabo and then to the Diamondbacks game. Tims' work had great seats! We participated in the wave, saw someone get proposed to on the jumbotron and saw a grandslam, in real life, which posed the philisophical question for me, "Which came first? The baseball grand slam, or the Denny's Grand Slam." Think about it?
Robert has also thought of a new item for my to do list...start a game of telephone, all the way around the stadium. That is so much cooler than the wave! My husband is such an inspiration!
One of Stanton's favorite parts of summer is that he gets to see all of his grown-up friends who go to school during the year. He was very happy that he got to play at the McDonald's play place with Tyler, Emma and Reagan. They were all rolling all over the filthy, greasy ground, having the time of their (no longer germ-free)lives, while Lynnae and I sat, gagging near-by. It was both fun and unnerving to watch.
The next day we had some friends over to swim and play. We swam like fish, and ate banana popsicles (which reminded me of when I was little.) Then the boys played baseball with a football.
The day after that we went to story time at the library with Marc and James, and then we went to a different library for a magic show after that. I love watching my kids faces during magic shows, so it was worth the drive to the Burton Barr library. I'm sure I would've loved seeing my own face too because I am pretty easily amazed. It was SO fantastic! Jolly Roger had so many tricks up his sleeve, plus he was funny and British, such a great combination! He had everyone, including baby Winston ooohing and awing and clapping and screaming!
We also had flower day that week. Noelle requested a more girly theme day, since the others were about dinosaurs and bugs. (She conceded that weather day was gender neutral.)
So, we went to Walmart for a garden section scavenger hunt. Most of the flowers there were dead, but we found 4/7 we neeeded.
Then we bought our very own basil plant and 3 cotton candy lollipops as a prize for being able to recognize Marigolds, even when they are shriveled up and brown.
We did some other flower themed activities, like making a cherry blossom tree out of popcorn and sticks from the backyard. (That's when we discovered the deceased Alvin the chipmunk. Robert made the mistake of saying, "That's what happens when they don't listen to Dave.")
We also tried to dye a white Fuji Mum through it's stem with red food coloring, but that failed.
My flower themed dinner was a big success though. Although, it took me so long to make, that by the time I brought it out to them by the pool at 7:15pm, they already shoved it all in their mouths before I even came back with the forks.
I must admit, I was pretty proud of my flower pancakes from scratch, first (successful)time ever, and I thought my bacon stems on my egg flowers were pretty genius as well.
Then for dessert, I got some edible flowers from A.J.'s. Luckily, I got ice cream too because the flowers tasted like a nasty bag of lawn mower grass! There was a lot of spitting going on after that taste test.
The next day we went to the Tempe splash park with Mari and Max. The kids had a great time, and Mari and I had an experience with a homeless guy that we will most certainly never forget!
After that we walked down Mill Ave to find the Lego building party Robert told us about,but instead discovered the most incredible place called Slickables! They have $2 ice cream sandwiches, made with your choice of any freshly baked cookie and whatever flavor of ice cream you can think of! It was such a great find!
We finally (after so, so much walking in the hot sun) found the Lego party. They were showcasing the world's largest Lego American flag, and they were starting work on the largest Arizona Lego flag. We got to help construct it, but threw in the towel after sticking on about 7 bricks because it was super complicated.
That night we went to Chuck E. Cheese with Daddy, and we cashed in a bunch of free token/ticket coupons. We hit the jackpot that night!
Finally Winston got to ride the train as many times as he wanted.
The next day we went to kiwanis Wave Pool, one of mine and Robert's favorite places! Stanton was tall enough and brave enough to go down the slide this time! It was such a blast!
On Monday we met some friends at the Phoenix Children's Museum! That place is so incredibly fun! They had so much fun with Drew in the fort room and the grocery store and the noodle forest. I wish I could create such a whimsical, magical place in my house!
Winston loved painting the giant rocket ship, but I think he and Annabeth's favorite thing was riding the bicycles through the car wash.
And finally, today we went with some friends on a free tour of Cerretas candy factory in Glendale. It was one of the most awesome places ever! We got to go in the back and watch the chocolate sliding down the conveyor belt and see them drizzling the icing on each one.
They had a 500 lb chocolate Santa there, and an 8ft tall popcorn bunny. They said they make enough chocolate each year to weigh as much as 74 African elephants.
We sprung for the V.I.P. tour so we could get extra samples and make our own chocolate pizza. It was so, so, so much fun! I seriously love it there!
Afterwards we met Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dan for a lunch/play place date. Winston looks forward to their kisses and their ice cream.
Out of all of these things, one of the things I want to remember most is all of the hilariously cute things my kids say and do on a daily basis! They have been playing the most imaginative make-believe games and having the cutest conversations with each other.
They talk about things like, "What do you think is the most famous color?" or "Would you rather be in a war or get eaten by a polar bear?"
The other day they were playing reptile paleontologists, and a few days before that they were playing D.I. They put a bunch of their toys in boxes and Stanton was the store keeper and Noelle was the poor kid. Then she kept saying to Winston, "brother, brother come see. Someone donated all of their toys to us!"
I recently showed them their new favorite game though, where Robert and I say an emotion/action and an animal, and they have to act it out.
In this picture Winston was a mischevious penguin. Noelle is a happy, dancing giraffe, and Stanton is a stinky cow. He crawled around, making mooing toot noises. They get so riled up, and bump into each other and crack up laughing! It's priceless!
I want to remember how Winston asks Grandpa every single morning for some of his Muscle Milk, in his own made up grunting, sign language, and how he dances any time he hears music. Or how he woke up at 6am the other morning and I brought him in bed with us to try to get him to go back to sleep (cause I don't get out of bed until at least 7am) and he just layed there and alternated between petting my hair, picking the sunburn off of my arm and trying to pick my nose. Or when Noelle and I thought he was wiping our face with a wet wipe, but it turns out it was really a paper towel he had dipped in the toilet.
And how Stanton cuddles with me almost every morning on the couch when he wakes up and how he is such a slow, detailed story teller, when you actually get him talking. Or how he holds Noelle's hand when she's trying to roller skate in the backyard and how he explains things to Winston in the most loving, high pitched baby voice and how he wants so badly to be exactly like his Daddy. Or that he is always making up jokes, just like his mama, and how he always tries to trick me by putting toy snakes and bugs places.
And how Noelle randomly bursts into tears during lunch at Rubios because she feels so bad for thinking that my hair is the same color as poop, and then after I calm her down by explaining that it's funny, and it's just an observation, then Robert, trying to comfort her, adds that it's no different than saying her hair is blonde like pee, which makes her cry all over again for a whole new reason. Or when she asked me if it was my dream come true to see all 3 of my kids dancing without music. Or that she got a special pink best friend necklace with all of her tickets from Chuck E. Cheese and how she thought and thought out loud about each of her friends and who she wanted to give it to, and in the end she gave it to me, which I was secretly hoping for. It made me cry.
Or how Robert told me after we got married that the reason he took me to Applebee's so much when we were dating and made me order so much dessert was so he could plump me up so nobody else would wanna marry me and I would have to marry him. Or how he does 800,000 things a day to make my life easier, and how he is so patient when I am grumpy. Or how he is always telling me about interesting articles he read that get me so fired up about bullys or I-Pads in schools or capital punishment. Or how we play word games in bed, or how he just happens to be the funniest man I know and can crack me up laughing, even when I'm in the worst mood of my life.
I don't know how I am so blessed to have such a wonderful little family, but so often I feel so happy and thankful that I want to explode, but instead I just take a million pictures and type out every detail of our life so I can always remember.
I promise I will get out of my long post/anxious reminscing mode soon, and if I can't I will just make my blog private so nobody but me has to read all of my mooshy feelings (:
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5 comments:
I need a nap after reading that!! SOO many fun things - love it. Promise me you will still be doing fun stuff when I stop working so I can come along more!? I need to take more pictures.....you're the best!!
You seriously have one of the funnest families ever. I often think (especially after reading your blog posts) that I need to do more fun things like you! Miss you guys!
I think you are such a fun mom - I want to be more like you. Thank you for all of the good ideas! I just love you and your little family. I really miss you guys. Don't forget about me over the next 6 years :(
Moosh away hun :-) its all of these memories that will make your kiddos into awesome adults who are balanced, well rounded and always remember mommy and daddy on special days or just start laughing when they remember the MAHOSIVE mess they made for moms special surprise party xxx
Kimmie,
Don't you DARE stop taking pictures of all the fun things you do! And don't you DARE stop talking mushy about how much you love your kids, and your husband!
DON'T YOU DARE!!!
Your blog is one of my favorite blogs in all of the www, because you honestly enjoy your kids and your husband. You have such fun adventures, and you tell such fun stories! Don't you dare start editing yourself, because who you are is FANTASTIC, and so are all the stories/memories you share!
One of my biggest hopes/dreams is that someday I'll be able to be the kind of mom that you are, and that I'll find someone who'll want to marry me who won't ever get mad when I run into a pole (or a building, or drive off with a gas hose...because these are all things I've done, repeatedly) and I love-love-love that Robert never gets truly made at you for wrecking the car or getting a speeding ticket, or whatever.
Basically, what I'm saying is... I love your family. And I love your stories and your pictures and your rambly memories. Don't ever change; it would make me sad!
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