Matching Cousins

These two girlys enjoyed wearing matching pink dresses:
And the boys didn't want to feel left out, so they found matching outfits too!

That evening, all decked out in matchy clothes, we enjoyed a trip over to the neighborhood duck pond.

Just one of many fun things we got to do this past week. Dear sister, I miss you already and you've only been gone half a day!

July's Ten Things

I'm linking up with Emmy Mom again with Ten Things to Smile about this month! She has a really cute button, but I couldn't get it to work. July went really fast, and it was a great month. Definitely lots to smile about!

1. Swimming parties with cousins
2. Homemade Ice cream

3. An air conditioner that works!

4. My birthday

5. Feeding the ducks

6. Going fabric shopping with my sister-in-law

7. More fun with more cousins

8. Going to a concert downtown with my father-in-law

9. Playing in the backyard

10. Spending time with my sister!

Our Garden

Sometimes when it's too hot outside to garden, planting a garden inside is a great solution! Especially when you have a helper who can label all the produce that will be growing:

And here are the happy gardeners. They did such a great job tilling the dirt (no rocks in this soil!) and fertilizing and watering it. The food just grew at amazing speeds. And in this garden, the potatoes come pre-cooked with butter already on them!

It was a fun new way to play with the play food. And Ethan and Madeline had a lot of fun.

And me? Well, I had a lot of fun too, of course! Especially because there were no weeds to pull!

Pioneer Day

This week, we had fun getting ready for the neighborhood's Pioneer Day Parade. We turned Ethan's red wagon into a covered wagon:

The kids were excited to be in the parade this morning

It was lots of fun with big banners, fire trucks, fancy cars and . . .

BIG tractors!

Happy Pioneer Day!

All Boy!

Here are just a few examples from the last week of how Ethan has reminded me (again) how very all boy he is:

• After playing Barbies with his cousin Kate, and Madeline for TWO minutes, he threw the Barbie down, threw his hands up and said in an exasperated way, "I just can't play Barbies anymore, they are SO BORING!"
• He was wondering around the house when he came up to me and asked, "so, do you want to play lion attack?"
• I heard Kate say in a sad voice, "All Ethan wants to do is play with blocks and I'm tired of doing that!"
• He made up the following song/story during lunch today: There was an old man that lived in a shoe covered in honey. He couldn't get out of his bed because he was sticky. Then a tiger came and ate it. The end!"
• Oh, and here's one visual example too:

Boys are fun!

Fun with Cousins

We've been busy the last couple days playing with cousins, and so spoiled the last few months because of the number and length of cousin parties. We'll be sad once all the summer fun is over. I'll probably have more time to edit and post this weekend, but for now, here are three random pictures.

Crazy Bandz
One of my very cute nephews!

cute and matchy

Skirts

This week, I've taken the time to sew myself a skirt. I can't remember the last time I actually sewed something for myself to wear, and it was really fun. There is just something so fun about picking out whatever fabric you like and making it into anything you want! It's so addicting and this might be the start of my skirt kick:

Because, after I finished mine, I didn't want Madeline to feel left out, so I made her a skirt too:

Madeline's skirt came from a free pattern from oliver + s, called lazy days skirt. It was SOOO quick and easy and I'm sure you'll see more like this in the future, because seriously, is it not super cute?

Maybe on Sunday, I'll snap some pictures of her wearing it!

sigh . . . I heart sewing! Just like my mom!

Sprinkler Slide

Ethan's new favorite way to cool off:

$9 sprinkler: totally worth it!

Wheeler Farm

Today we celebrated Ethan reading 200 books by going to Wheeler Farm with Mimi and some of Ethan's friends from his old preschool class.
There are a lot of birds roaming around at Wheeler farm:

This one had a major attitude:

and the baby ducks were so cute!

We saw the other animals too

and rode on the tractor/wagon ride

Ethan with his two preschool friends

Madeline rode the wagon ride too!

Then the kids got to ride the ponies, which was what Ethan really wanted to do to celebrate his reading:

They both really liked it!

It was a great morning and it ended with a lovely picnic lunch!

Good job reading Ethan! I'm proud of you! And thanks Mimi for setting up all the fun!

I Made Madeline

The kids spent a good part of the morning building with Legos and blocks. Ethan made a helicopter and flew it around the house:

And Madeline spent 20 minutes building and building and when she finally finished, she stood up and with a proud smile on her face said, "Look! I made Madeline!"

That's quite the self-image! :)

My Birthday

I woke up yesterday a little before 6:30 to the sound of Ethan singing from his bedroom. "It's mom's special day, happy birthday! Blow out the candles!" It made me smile and I thought that if I had to wake up that early on my birthday then that was a good way to wake up.

The kids were more excited than I was, particularly because they had gone shopping with Todd the day before and picked out gifts for me all by themselves. I was a little excited to see what they had come up with.

Madeline picked out a lovely star sandwich cutter:
And Ethan picked out this bright pink pillow:

He could not contain his excitement over this pillow. He was jumping all around the room and I told him how much I loved it. "It's the perfect present for you Mom!" He said over and over. I'm not sure where the idea came from, but he said it's for my couch and that I'm supposed to take naps on it. I seriously loved having them pick out gifts for me. It made my birthday fun.

The present from Todd made my birthday fun too!

Watch out if you're ever around me now, cuz this baby is going EVERYWHERE with me! I'm excited to always have a camera on hand. You never know when a good shot opportunity will come up. The video camera on it is pretty nice too!

And I was spoiled with this cake:

If you've never tried a cake from Nothing bundt Cakes, you should! Mine was lemon . . . soooooo good!

And now I'm 27 - I guess I have three more years to be young.

Thanks everyone for the wonderful gifts and wishes.

Treasures in My Yard

Tonight was an enjoyable evening. My camera, the kids, and perfect weather.