She adds a little sparkle

We spend a lot of our time during the summer in water. Knowing that summer is coming and camping at the beach next month, I wanted to make sure that they each have a couple of swim suits. We were at Target and Emma found one she really liked. It was pink and had more pink ruffles on it. It was her, just perfect. We moved on to the next on item on my list: church shoes for Logan. As we passed through the girl aisle to get to shoes for Logan, Emma stopped dead in her tracks. Turning to see what had stopped her, I saw them; the most perfect little shoes for her. She already had a pair out of the box and halfway on her feet before I could mention that we were here for shoes for her brother. "Mommy, they fit perfectly!" was her response to my impatient sigh. The shoes were actually 3 sizes too big. I don't think she saw that. The shoes fit her perfectly, meaning that they were pink, sparklely and very fancy-something Fancy Nancy would be proud to wear. I caved, giving her the choice between the swimsuit she needed and the shoes she wanted. I actually expected her to chose the swimsuit she had just been gushing about not 5 minutes before. To my irritated surprise, she chose the shoes. The choice to her was actually between the shoes she needed and the swimsuit she wanted. She has not wasted the money in any way! She wears them faithfully every day (and night), sometimes with socks, sometimes without.


Even Logan has taken a liking to them! Ok, so he will wear anyone's shoes, these are just the pinkest shoes he's ever tried on!

What can I do? She does add a little sparkle to our lives!

Logan's new naptime routine

We moved Logan into his big boy bed a couple of weeks ago. Cameron convinced him one night that he wanted to sleep in his big boy bed. That was all it took. Logan decided at that moment
that there was no going back to the crib. Until the next morning...
I decided that I was not done with his naps and so he slept in the
crib for his naps for nearly two weeks. Then one day Cameron
suggested to his brother that he take a nap in his big boy bed.
Darn kid! Logan agreed with his brother and refused (screaming
hysterically at me when I tried to put him in the crib). When I
could understand him, he was shouting, "big boy bed! big boy bed!"
What do you do then?! We told him he is a big boy and now he wants to be one! So for a few days he just did not take naps.
By about 3:30 every afternoon, he reached his point of expiration. But instead of falling asleep, he just turned into a bear. So the next day we tried a new trick. I gave him his passifier and his blanket and put him up on my bed to watch the movie he can't live without (Go, Diego, Go when Diego saves the elephants from an evil magician-Logan has this thing for elephants). After a record setting 3 minutes, he was passed out (he literally fell over when he could no longer hold his eyelids open!) I thought this certainly had to be a fluke, but tried it the next day. Amazingly, I got the same results! So we now have a new nap time routine!

movie night

Andy was camping this weekend with the youth, so we had a movie night. This was such a special night for the kids that I decided to take some pictures. I just thought this picture of Briley is hilarious. She is so intent on the preview for the movie Spiderwick. The preview was really scary for the kids. Logan even stopped shoving popcorn in his mouth! Cameron was terrified and so he was covering his eyes, but still curious enough to peek!

Easter

I couldn't help taking a few pictures of the kids all cute and dressed. Ok, so I took over 50 pictures in about a minute and half! But I got a cute one and I didn't have to do anything in photoshop! My dad sent the little wind up rabbit Briley is holding. She felt it was an important addition to their little portrait!







The kids had a great time with their Easter egg hunt this afternoon. They found jellybeans and Rolos in most of their eggs. Logan only picked up about three eggs. He was really in it for the candy. As soon as he found an egg, he opened it, ate the candy, bailed on the egg and moved on!




Briley had a great time chasing after eggs. She is getting so big so fast. But she certainly still enjoys running around the backyard picking up eggs!
Emma was so great at sharing her eggs. When she saw that she had more than Cameron, she gave them to him as she found them. Or she pointed them out to the boys so they could pick up their own eggs.


Cameron really got into finding eggs. Most of his pictures were blurry because he was so fast and paused long enough to toss the egg in his basket and move on!

A new Easter tradition

We started a new Easter tradition this year. I hate coloring Easter eggs and then, what do you do with them all? The kids were grossed out by the dye that bleeds through the shell and so no one eats them. It seemed so wasteful. So we decided to do Easter cookies this year.


I don't know why I thought it was a good idea to give Logan his own bowl of frosting and spreader. The only reason that frosting made it to these cookies is because I put it on!



He really got into decorating his cookies. Ok, so he just ate some of everything rather than decorate!!
This was his plate of cookies when he was all done.



Cameron had a great time decorating his cookies. He had his own little bowl of frosting and after two cookies told me he needed more frosting. Those two cookies had about an inch of frosting each. So he had to take some off for his other cookies and then Briley gave him her extra frosting.Cameron actually went to bed with tummy ache later that afternoon. I kept telling him to quit eating so much or his tummy would hurt later. Does that make me a bad mom that I still let him do it?!

You can tell from this picture a little bit just how thick the frosting was.



Needless to say, they both had to go in the tub when finished!




Emma decided that the spreader wasn't necessary. Her fingers did the trick!

Here is her plate of cookies-a little less frosting than Cameron's, but not much!




Briley did great with hers-perfectly frosted and sprinkled!




And here is the mess left behind...
They decorated and bailed on the cleanup. I guess that makes them smarter than me!

My favorite hobby, revisted

In case you have been wondering where I have been and why there hasn't been any updates for a while, I have found a new hobby! I have been scrapbooking for a number of years now, but I have branched out into digital scrapbooking. I love it!!! It is so much faster (once I figured out a few tricks-some on my own and some from a friend who braved the waters first). This is just one layout, but I have done several others. The files are large so they take a long time to upload. So there is only one sample for now. I will share others in future posts.

The beach (even in the winter)

I had a photography moment while watching my kids play in the water. The texture of the sand and the water and even the building's reflection just caught my eye.


I love this one. My purpose was the pattern in the sand, but there is a bonus. I just love the fisherman in the corner, almost as though he is an afterthought, but still part of the scene.Again, I was struck by the patterns of the reflections in the water, including Emma's.
Is this not the happiest boy in the world?! He is never as happy anywhere as he is at the beach...
The beach has really become a personal playground to him. He stands here and just stares at the waves, mesmerized, then he breaks from his reverie and runs like crazy in circles so the waves can't catch him.
This little boy is in heaven at the beach. The water, the sand, the seagulls...why is it when we are young we are so convinced that we can catch sea gulls?


We have been to the beach often enough that I am beginning to look for more creative shots. Unfortunately the picture was a little blurred but it almost adds to the effect. I wanted her silhouette as she chased the retreating waves. This picture makes me think of childhood, the carefree feeling...

What the rest of us do

So Andy is a busy guy and trying to balance the most important things in his life can be a challenge. So, we try to support him how we can. The kids love the beach anyway!
We went down to the beach one day after Briley got out of school. The wind died rather suddenly and so the kiters make their way out of the water. Briley is retrieving a board for someone who had taken his kite to the beach to land it. He left his board in the water and she was worried that the surf would take his board.
Andy comes to visit usually and hang out with the kids for a bit before returning to the water. In the mean time, this is what the rest of us do while he kite surfs.


Cameron has told us that when he is a big boy, he will get to kite surf with his daddy. He is actually really excited for that day. I think this summer Andy is going to put him up on his kiteboard so he starts to get the feel of the board and the water. 3 isn't too young, is it?! (oh, and he is building the Great wall of China-do you see the resemblance?)

Kiteboarding

Andy has been spending a lot of his free time kiteboarding. It is much like wakeboarding but without the boat! So much cheaper for us! It is quite chilly so he is in a full wetsuit and generally stays in the water until he can't work his fingers.This kite is actually a borrowed one. His kite is in the shop. He was trying to avoid another kiter who was not paying attention and his kite dropped out of the air. A combination of an overinflated kite and rough surf popped his bladder and ripped the kite. He almost had his back in time for this day until the guys repairing his kite realized that the wrong bladder had been shipped. So they let him borrow one from the store...
You can see some of his gear in this picture. The wind had died (enough to keep hi kite up to walk into the beach but not enough to surf with) and so he was walking in. I will not pretend to understand all his gear but I do know that he is in a harness with a safety release (that was important for my peace of mind!)

Just for fun

Briley lost another tooth. This one she yanked out herself. Her first tooth (a little over a year ago) her aunt had to bribe her with $5 to get it out and now she won't leave a loose tooth alone until it's gone! She also recently has taken to getting her hair curled on Sundays. It makes her look so old!
Emma takes Logan for rides on her back while crawling around on the floor. He thinks it's great fun and laughs hysterically. So the other two now take him for rides as well. We had some friends over for dinner the other night and they have a newly turned one-year-old son. He walks mostly but suddenly decided to crawl. We heard their son screaming, came around the corner to find Logan on his back! Apparently anyone on all fours is in need of being ridden!
Cameron recently discovered something out of his sister's closet that he just can't live without. He loves Briley's pink kitty-cat rainboots! Check out that grin!