indoor play

With winter approaching and more inside days ahead of us, I found these indoor play ideas a helpful resource to keep handy. I especially like number 1--make a racecar track out of painters tape and a sharpie. Next rainy or freezing day we get, I'm making one of those for Caleb. I bet he'll love it!

A few of those ideas are also good for school...have an Indoor Field Trip and play store with your kids, assigning real prices and use real money to buy/sell. Kids generally love this, it's great addition, subtraction, and money practice, and you can easily cater it to your child's math level.

One of my kids' favorite indoor fun activities: baking, cooking and preparing meals. Just the other day Maddie and I read a story that mentioned how the little girl and boy helped their mommy prepare lunch sandwiches. Maddie wanted to make lunch just like the story, so Maddie spread on the butter, Caleb put on the meat, I put on the cheese, and the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.

maddie's birthday party with friends

The morning of the party, Maddie and I decorated and prepared gift bags for her friends.The girls arrived, and we began by using leaf and acorn cookie cutters to cut salt dough into fall shapes.

Braden then took the girls outside for a treasure hunt. Thirty-five chocolates were hidden out in the yard, and the girls had to find all 35 pieces...which gave me about 35 minutes to clean up and prepare for the next activity...

...which was making fall lanterns: paint water-thinned glue on a jar, cover the jar with tissue paper squares, paint over everything with a layer of glue, let dry, put a tealight inside, and you have a lantern!

Now it was time for ice cream sundaes! The girls each got to make their own, and we stuck a candle in Maddie's and sang 'Happy Birthday'.

Each of the girls had kindly brought a gift for Maddie. Karis wrapped hers herself...which meant it took Maddie, Karis and me to open it. (Kid-wrapped gifts are the best! )

Then Daddy did a spontaneous dance party with the girls. He had them doing all sorts of silly things...getting down low, jumping up high, clapping behind their backs, turning around in funny ways. They loved it!

Last of all, the girls painted the salt dough ornaments they had cut out at the beginning of the party...

...and I gave each a ribbon hanger. Maddie hung hers on all our doorknobs.

The girls played in Maddie's room for a few minutes, waiting to be picked up. The party went well, especially with Braden there to help. This is the first party with friends that Maddie has had, and since she plays with Caleb all the time, I think she really enjoyed spending an afternoon with a few girls.

maddie visits hawaii - episode 6

Maddie is working on making a miniature Hawaiian quilt for her doll. Because of Maddie's skill level, I had to improvise quite a bit with this one. Instead of quilting the design, Maddie is embroidering the design. I chose a simple linen with a larger weave, so she would be able to pierce the material with a plastic tapestry needle. Maddie and I looked at pictures of traditional Hawaiian quilt patterns. They are often floral and leaf designs made in a snowflake pattern, with 8 major branches of repetition. So we chose parts of patterns we liked that I simplified and drew onto the linen in a snowflake pattern. Maddie is now embroidering over the design, and she's actually doing much better than I thought she would. She seems to have a bit of a knack for embroidering.

qotd

While out and about in our car today, Caleb noticed the van in front of us had one rear windshield wiper. He also noticed out our front window that we have two. "Mommy, how come sometimes caws have one wipuh wedge and sometimes dey have twoo-oo?"

how caleb plays 'house'

Ni-nigh, T-wex.

more happy birthday maddie

When Braden and I got married, I told him there was one custom he was just going to have to accept: Sunday nights I do not eat dinner, I eat popcorn. That's what my family did growing up, and that's it. Early on I'd have to fix Braden some leftovers before we had our popcorn. That soon turned into "I'll just have a bowl of cereal with the popcorn." And after a couple of years, he adapted to just eating popcorn. Fastforward a few more years, and now he's hooked! Sunday night we feed the kids dinner, put them to bed, and then we make ourselves a big heaping bowl of buttery popcorn and watch a movie together. Now what does this have to do with Maddie's birthday?

Well, probably 6 months ago on a Sunday night, Maddie asked when she was going to be able to eat popcorn and watch a movie with Mommy and Daddy. I told her, "When you turn five, we'll have a special night where you can stay up late with Mommy and Daddy, eat popcorn and watch a movie with us." Boy did she love hearing that! She has remembered that for months, bringing it up every now and then, and checking to make sure that on that night she would be able to eat the popcorn OUT OF THE BIG BOWL, ALL BY HERSELF. Yes, Maddie, really, you will!
The Sunday after her 5th birthday was her big night. After we put Caleb to bed, we got comfy in our pjs, Braden made an extra big bowl of popcorn, and the 3 of us snuggled into our bed, ate popcorn and watched 'Bolt' (except we skipped all the scary parts, as Maddie will most definitely tell you). And Maddie ate popcorn OUT OF THE BOWL, ALL BY HERSELF. Yes, really, she did!

maddie visits hawaii - episode 5

We made a kukui nut necklace...only we didn't use kukui nuts. We gathered acorns from my parents' yard and my dad drilled holes through them. We learned our lesson from last year's experience gathering acorns (read that adventure here) and we picked them off the tree, and then I also left them in a 170 degree oven for 20 minutes or so just to be on the safe side!

family party for maddie

On Maddie's actual birthday Bubbie & PopPop and Nonna & FaFa and LaLa, Gair & Tarrah all came over to celebrate. Caleb helped LaLa carry in the cake.

I love the expression on Maddie's face!

Maddie is the kid who responds ecstatically to every gift. She's a lot of fun to give gifts to because you know you'll get a good reaction! Here she is putting on the firehat Caleb gave her from his trip to the firestation with Bubbie & PopPop.

Caleb did a great job bringing Maddie every gift. Bubbie made her a world map quilt that she's been since sleeping with nearly every night. As soon as Maddie got it, she had to spread it out and find Hawaii.

One of the cutest parts of the night was when Maddie opened up her gift from Jess & Dave--a wooden doll bed. It was in 3 pieces and had to be put together. Caleb ran off, hollered from upstairs and quickly reappeared with his tools. He was ready to help Daddy put together the bed.

He got his screwdriver out and after Daddy put in a screw, Caleb would finish it off with his screwdriver. It was too cute! He watched everything that Braden did and copied him exactly. He was very serious about the job and felt very important putting the bed together for his sister.

And here is Maddie putting her new doll Faith into her new bed.

It was a very happy birthday!

madeleine's birthday

Here she is posing for me in her birthday crown.

And another pose. Oh yes.
And here she is again, showing the camera that she now has a FIFTH heart embroidered on her crown.

Fortunately for me, this year Maddie wanted a cake just like last year...almost. She wanted a banilla cake with chocolate chips around it on top and a M with chocolate chips just like my cake when I was four and star sprinkles on it too. Exhausted from Bray being out of town all week and launching straight into the wedding weekend, I was worn out by time Maddie's birthday came. I opted for ganache over frosting, but not only did it have little bits of poky unmelted chocolate in it, it was too thin. Not my finest hour. But the great part about little kids is that Maddie loved it--it was just what she wanted!

AND the big news of the day: Maddie announced her new favorite color for the year. It is a repeat from 2 years ago. Can you believe it?! It's purple again, although up to the end I really thought yellow was going to win out.

And so her tradition continues:

2 years: red

3 years: purple

4 years: white

5 years: purple

warm or hot?

Hey, Mom! Warm whymes with hot. God gave dat to me. He said, "Warm whymes with hot" and gave dat to me!

* more wedding fun *

Pre-ceremony preparations...Mommy and girlie.

Waiting for the bride.

Here comes the bride!

The happy MARRIED couple!

Waiting around during after-ceremony pictures.

The extra-large bridal party!

The reception had contra dancing. What is it? I'm still not sure. I kept being told 'I have no idea' or 'kinda like 1800's kind of dancing'--none of us really knew and were just a but surprised when it was suddenly announced that the bridal party was going to introduce the dancing. Oh boy!

We did it though and had fun in the process. Maddie joined in a little on the sidelines.

It was a fun, full weekend with lots of memories!

madeleine was an adorable flower girl!

So Maddie got to be a flower girl in Becca's wedding, and she was so excited! I had a friend come over to fix Maddie's and my hair. Maddie's hair is slippery and fly-away and hard to fix, and I was concerned it would fall out if I tried to fix it, but with my friend's help her hair stayed put--a success indeed! It was a special time for Maddie and me to have together, to get dressed up, have our hair fixed, paint our nails, be with lots of ladies and spend the whole weekend together. Maddie just loved it all! What a special memory. Becca, thank you for asking us both to be in your wedding.The other little flower girl was Sydney, a daughter of one of the groomsmen. She and Maddie are just a few weeks apart in age, and they hit it off the night of the rehearsal and dinner. They quickly became fast friends.The girls did a great job walking down the aisle, although the further down they went, the slower they walked until they were barely inching forward, the pianist launched into yet another refrain of music and the crowd started chuckling. The 2 year old ring bearer William finally had enough and walked right around them, bypassing them to the end of the aisle.

While I was involved in bridal party pictures, many of which did not include the two cutest girls there, Braden had some fun taking pictures. Maddie and Sydney were just adorable! Those little flower girls steal the show.One funny story: at the rehearsal dinner Becca and Seth were thanking each member of their bridal party and giving us each a gift. Becca thanked me and Maddie, and Maddie walked up with me to receive our gifts. She was so excited to get a gift and asked if she could open it. We said yes, and she opened the gift, saw a locket and 3 rings and exclaimed, "JYEW-OLS! Mommy, she gave me JYEW-OLS!" Laughter all around. Maddie wore two of her 'jyew-ols' for the wedding.

cozy fall night

Today was the first cold, rainy fall day where all you want to do by time evening comes around is eat a warm filling dinner and get in bed and watch a movie or read a good book. Coincidentally I had the perfect dinner planned for tonight: roasted pumpkin soup, kielbasa and popovers with apple crisp for dessert. Boy did it hit the spot!

wedding weekend

This weekend my friend Rebecca got married to her new hubby Seth. Maddie and I both had the honor of being in the wedding. It was a fun but exhausting weekend, as we made three trips over three days down to where she lives, well over an hour each way! But it was worth it--I wouldn't have missed it for anything. More to come...

seven years

One thing I had wanted to do for our 5 year anniversary was to get dressed in our wedding clothes and take pictures. However, our 5-year came and went and that never happened. I thought maybe I would wait until our 10 year anniversary, but had second thoughts. Maybe I should just wear the gown while I still fit in it. Why 'tempt fate' so to speak, who knows what 3 more years might bring? :) So I asked my friend Jonalee if she would take some pictures, and she did, and they are just lovely. I have such talented friends! Last year Megan did our family photos, and this year Jonalee and Kristen took photos of Braden and me. What gifts these pictures are! Thank you, Jonalee!

apple picking

Monday was an awesome fall day for apple picking. The apples were just HUGE! I think it must be a good year for apples.Caleb and Maddie each picked one apple and immediately sat down to eat it.

(You can always tell when Braden gets behind the camera.)

Caleb had the most fun stuffing rocks in his pockets. His pockets were bulging and his pants were threatening to slide to the ground at any second.

And of course I had to continue my tradition of buying one ridiculous pumpkiny-squash of some sort (this one's called 'pink banana'). Two ladies stopped me to ask me what in the world I was going to do with it. Why roast it and eat it, of course...and freeze A LOT of puree for pumpkin bread and such.

(So I guess I'd better go make some pumpkin bread and finish off those last two portions of frozen puree still sitting in the freezer from last year's 40 pound pumpkin!)

please come home

Dear Daddy,
We've had a good time while you were gone, but just like in the past, we're ready for you to come home. Four days is just a little too long without you. We really begin to miss you, and Mommy says it's just long enough for 'stuff' to happen. Like we were playing outside yesterday and the grass really is a bit too long--our baw got wost in it one time. Then there was Mommy's garden arch that blew all the way over. It was SOOO windy! She managed to put it back up, but just between you and us, you might want to take a look at it. I don't think she staked it all the way back in the ground. Did you hear about your car? It bwoke. Poppop dwove it to the shop. He says it's 'the master cylinder for the clutch'. Of course we still have our car so Mommy's still been able to drive us everywhere. She's been out to lots of stores two more times looking for shoes for herself and me for the wedding we're in on Sunday, and she STILL can't find any! Caleb has been good sometimes, but he did sneak into my bedroom and used my markers to color all over my throw rug. I cried, but Mommy says not to worry, because she can wash it. Caleb, maybe you should tell Daddy about the OTHER thing you did, you know, in the bathroom? I was goeen poopie an' I did a BIIIG poopie in the potty and da handle bwoke off an' I dwopped it in the potty. It was a askident. Mommy couldn't see the handle though and we had to leave and so she left it for later, and then we came home and Caleb went upstairs and did ANOTHER poopie in the SAME potty! Mommy can't see ANYTHING now. We got to stay up late one night, and we've been waking up extra early every morning. I wike to get up urwy! Mommy doesn't seem too impressed with our early rising and she seems a little tired. This morning she let us watch a movie while she took a long hot shower. She said she has a headache. I wonder why? We love you, Daddy--I wuv you!--and can't wait to see you this afternoon!
Love, Maddie an' Caweb

indoor p.e.

"I can't do popscotch!" he said.But Maddie showed him how.

maddie visits hawaii - episode 4

We made 3 Hawaiian recipes that I found, though I'm not so sure about the authenticity of Hawaiian 'salsa'? BUT we did use a papaya, which does grow in Hawaii. Maddie took a picture of me cutting the papaya open. Neither had seen a papaya before, so I had them guess as to the inside color. Caleb said bwackkk! (his favorite color right now) and I think Maddie said pink.We cut up papaya, yellow pepper, tomato and kiwi, and added olive oil, chopped basil, vinegar, sugar, coconut, salt & pepper, and you're now saying, "And that's Hawaiian?" Yeah well, like I said, probably not the most authentic of recipes, but we did talk about fruits that grow on Hawaii while we were working. (I guess I'll have to do a bit more research on recipes before our Luau.)

Maddie and Caleb used butter knives to cut the fruits.

Let's see now, Caleb, can you open your mouth just a little bit wider?

However unauthentic it was, the kids had fun making it, they loved eating it, and if nothing else, they now know what a papaya is! :)