Last month's adventures

In the past month or so we have done: a fun art project with bottle caps.  Connor's is a garbage truck emptying a blue can into the hopper.

 We did what we could to stay cool in a house without AC.

We played with the cousins' chickens.

 We hung out being goofy, had doctor appointments and got shots, and played some new games.

 On our drive to Utah we stopped at this state park which was celebrating its wildflower festival.  The kids played wildflower bingo, drew pictures with chalk, made a flower and played a tossing game with big bugs.

 

We enjoyed a 4th of July parade in Utah where they handed out free donuts out of the back of a giant donut truck.  There was also a bunch of candy thrown at the children, so they were quite happy.  I made Elise and Chloe matching skirts and Connor a pair of shorts to go with their new t-shirts.

 Connor and Colby got their faces painted at a 4th of July festival and all enjoyed a Popsicle on the hot day.  Elise enjoyed playing with glow sticks while waiting for the fireworks to start.

 We also had fun setting off our own fireworks and sparklers.  Chloe announced that the fireworks scared her and she went inside.

Peter enjoyed playing with uncle Rick's toy.  Peter thinks we need to have one too.

While in Utah we went to the Hill Air force Museum

 Played at a splash pad...notice the big blue pipe aimed directly at Chloe...she got wet when it turned on suddenly.

 We had family photos taken at this park.  We also fed the ducks a lot of bread.

 We went looking for a U-pick apricot area, and ended up buying pie cherries (we usually buy the cherries in November and there aren't any cherries on the trees then.  When we walked up there was a big sign that said these were not U-pick cherries and there were no exceptions.  After we bought a couple bins of cherries and some fresh berries the owner said we could pick a few cherries from the trees (we didn't ask).  They were set to be harvested two days later.  They were tart cherries and they melted in your mouth-delicious!

 On the way back Chloe devoured her basket of berries.

 Later that night we went to a birthday party for Great Grandpa who was turning 90.  The California O's went as the Things 1-11.  We are the parents of Thing 6, 8 and 11.  Us adults had matching shirts as well that said Parent of the Things, but we were told the night before that this was to be a Sunday best wardrobe and therefore our shirts wouldn't be appropriate.  We were quite bummed as we ordered the shirts specifically for this occasion.  After we arrived many people were in jeans, t-shirts and shorts.  Great Grandpa showed up in a Hawaiian shirt...our shirts would've been fine.

 Thing 1 carried Thing 11 the majority of the night.

 The next morning we drove the 12 hours back home and arrived about 15 hours later.  Gotta love Vegas traffic and a few pit stops to let the children stretch their legs and go to the bathroom.

While at home we introduced Elise to some peas.  She loved smiling and then the food went into her mouth and she didn't like it one bit.  But smiled again as the one feeding her kept smiling.

 Chloe said she wanted a pony tail like mommy's so I found some bands and tried putting her hair up.  I first tried pigtails and that was cute.  It lasted less than 5 minutes.  Then I tried one pony tail and that lasted a little longer.  I did one ponytail right in the front too, which looked awkward and she left that one alone the longest.  She has super fine hair and is a wiggle worm so these were her first hairdos.

 Connor cut up some banana slices to share for a snack.

 Elise managed to turn 5 months old when we weren't looking.

Our first week of summer break

Last year during the summer while Chloe napped, Connor and I would do a craft a day.  He looked forward to when she would sleep, so he could have some special time.  Now Connor and Chloe look forward to Elise's nap time.  Here they are making jelly fish.

Connor shows his jelly fish...we hung them over the banister to dangle.

Next we glued tissue paper to canvas and made turtles out of empty fruit cups and tissue paper.

The kids painted red, white and blue stars and I added them to the wreath I put together.  I was introduced to deco mesh wreaths at a Super Saturday event and have made a few since and plan on making one for each holiday/season.

Peter cut out these fun patterns for the us to paint. 

Chloe wanted a cantaloupe, so we painted her one today.

Elise turned 4 months old last week!

Friday Peter and I put wonderful film on this window which totally reduced the amount of heat that was let in.  Then his dad came over and they put film on our skylights too.  Not having AC makes our house downright miserable for a couple weeks of the year.  This film made the house tolerable today as it was 99 degrees outside.

 The kids also enjoyed some pool time in our backyard.

 

 Sunday we went to Sean and Amy's air conditioned house.  Chloe enjoyed cooling off in the fountain.  She's sure going to miss that fountain when they move next week.

This little girl continues to crack me up.  She often sleeps with socks on her hands and this night she insisted on having boots on.

My Quiet Book is finally done!

For the time being...the quiet book that I've been working on forever is relatively done.  My sewing machine had a hard time going over the thickness of the felt and the backing and sometimes 3-4 layers of felt, so some of these I cheated and hot glued together. 
The complete pages so far are:
*Mailbox that opens with a snap and contains mail, also the flag moves up and down.
*Clock with moveable hands and velcroed numbers.
* Pizza with toppings (toppings are stored between the crust and the cheese).
*Mr and Mrs. Potato Head and the bucket of parts.
*Ice cream cone (big blue pocket on front to hold parts).
*Head with hair to braid, put clips in, etc.  Ribbon holds clips when not in the hair.
*Dump truck that holds boulders and really dumps.
*Shoe tying
*Garbage truck-the back opens, the cans open and are velcroed on.  Inside each can contains trash for the truck.  Black-trash, Blue-paper, bottle, and Green-grass and a branch with leaves.  This was my favorite one to make and I know it's going to get a lot of use from a little boy who is still fascinated with garbage trucks.

In the works but currently on the back burner are:
*tic tac toe
*barn with animals
*street scene with cars/buses
*page with zippers, buttons, buckles, etc.
I also need to figure out how I'm going to connect them together.  I tried sewing buttonholes but the fabric was too thick and the thread kept on jamming...so frustrating!

 I got several of these ideas online and then used my cricut and several cartridges to make templates and then cut out the felt.

I got the dump truck pattern from this site:
http://www.imagineourlife.com/2012/01/03/dump-truck-quiet-book-page/

What we've been up to lately

Touching starfish at Sea World-this is Connor's favorite exhibit.  He also loves the pet show and the fireworks at the end of the night that run during the summer.

A couple weekends ago Peter and his dad started to demolish the shed on the side of our yard.

It looks roughly like this now.  Three walls were made of cinder blocks filled with cement and rebar...they are still up.

I thought this was an interesting way to sleep.

Peek a boo!

We recently purchased three new car seats and the boxes are so fun to play with.

Within the last month or so Chloe has been pulling herself up to everything.  She enjoys messing up the train track and therefore has been nicknamed Chloezilla.  Good thing Connor knows how to fix the track.

And here's a couple little projects I have been working on this summer.  I'm really good at buying cute fabric with grand ideas as to what to do with it, and then never finishing/starting.  For example-The Christmas stockings for last year that are not complete (the fabric is cut, but that's about it).  I also have really cute Halloween and Thanksgiving fabric that I was going to turn into placemats....that hasn't happened.  So...back to what I have accomplished-I bought cute girly fabric to make long bibs for Chloe (Connor has some awesome ones, but they are really boyish).  I finally sat down and cut the fabric, took it to my parents' house and sewed it, and now I just need to find some pinking shears to finish the edges(my mom's were dull) and sew the snaps on.  So those pictures will be up as soon as they're finished.  In the meantime I had little scraps of leftover fabric, which I turned into reversible car seat strap covers.  I also made a new binky on a string for Chloe.  Daisy, my parents' dog had previously chewed up three others, so now I'm making some spares.

While working on car seat strap covers Connor asked if I could make some for him.  I told him his car seat came with covers so he didn't need any, but I could make him a travel pillow instead.  As I was cutting out the fabric I told him I had enough left over to make a blanket for him.  He asked if it could be a blanket we take with us camping...I think he really enjoyed our camping trips this spring/summer.

Projects I'm currently working on/need to finish:
*Flowers for baby headbands as Chloe still hardly has any hair, made out of tiny scraps of fabric-started
*Ribbon flower headbands-not started but is super easy and really cute.
*Quiet book for Connor-started-will likely take a long time, but the pizza and the ice cream cone page are basically complete.  I'm hoping to have it done by his birthday in November.
*Bibs for Chloe-started
*Halloween place mats/table runner-not started
*Thanksgiving place mats-not started
*Christmas stockings-started