Easter-ings

Egg Hunt

Sophie was like a MACHINE at the Easter egg hunt this year!  From the moment the kids were released Sophie was out in front with the big kids just running her little heart out and grabbing every egg in sight, not missing a thing.  She stuffed her basket with as many eggs as possible without falling out.  Tessa was much more relaxed and needed encouragement and direction.

Tessa was the only one who came and ate lunch with me on the blanket.  Dan was playing basketball and Sophie was on the playground.  Tessa wasn’t the most jovial companion, but she had her reasons…  Poor kid needed to go potty but there was no potty at the park (mom forgot to bring her small potty) and she was no where near as excited about going under the tree as her sister was when I first presented the idea to her.  She did eventually do it though, I was very thankful she didn’t go in her underwear (although that hasn’t seemed to bother her one bit the last few days!)

This is my girls’, especially Tessa’s, favorite activity at the park: climbing the slide!  It was freezing cold that morning, notice I made Tessa wear jeans under her dress but I couldn’t get her keep her coat on.  This is a common battle between Tessa and I, it’s all because she doesn’t want to cover up her “pretty dress,” and she wears a dress everyday.  She’s so funny.

Easter Morning

 

The princess lip gloss was a bit hit.  Sophie does a pretty good job putting it on, Tessa’s problem is her follow through onto her cheeks.  Plus she would continue application forEVER if allowed, after 10 min or so I have to take it away before she ingests too much.

So pretty!

Dan is a tease and Sophie loves it.

Getting ready for church!  I really wanted a picture of us all in curlers, so I decided to try the timer for this photo since Dan was in the shower. It is hard on my ego to post pictures of my chubby belly though, just wanted you to know the sacrifice I’m making. :)

I love these skirts their Grandma sent, I had considered making some for Easter but ran out of time.  It was an answer to my prayers to receive these in the mail!  They are exactly what I would have chosen.  Thank you Nina!!

 

I covered a couple old headbands we had lying around in white fabric and made felt flowers to glue on top, they turned out pretty ok.

I love these girls so much!  It was a good Easter.

Star Fest 2011 and bunk beds!

 

We know a guy… who can get us in for FREE to Star Fest in Denver each year.  I didn’t make it last year and really didn’t want to miss out this time.  We mentioned it to Matt and Cami and they were totally in!  Tickets to this even are NOT CHEAP, as in they start at $34 for one day.  Luckily, we didn’t have to pay a dime for this geek fest, on one condition… we “chaperoned” the youth (since it was their activity), our connection to the event is a generous bishop in our stake who runs it.  We only had 2 youth come and we had… oh 6 adult “chaperones,” plus our 5 kids. :)  These are those CRAZY youth that needed so much chaperoning, Amber and Edwin by a ghostbusters car. 

It was a good time.  I wish I had taken more pictures of the costumes, they are the best part.  Here are the few I captured.

I was too chicken to ask the Cyborgs for a photo, but the best part you can’t see!  The Cyborg on the left was pushing a baby in a stroller, not something you see everyday!

Darn it, I was sure I took more!  We saw an awesome girl painted like an Avatar, tons of sweet storm troopers, jedi, and just all kinds of different sci-fi costumes.  I will do better next time with the pictures.

Sophie thought Amber was the bee’s knees that day, I think it was because of her extra make-up.  She wanted to hold Amber’s hand the whole time, Amber wasn’t so keen on the idea.  Although she did oblige her a few times.   On the other hand, Sophie did NOT like any robots that moved or people masks.  There was no getting her near this sweet RD2D that could drive around and turn his head.

More robots, notice Sophie is no where to be seen.  Tessa looks a little leery of him, but it’s really because she had just got in trouble for touching the red thingy by his head that was rotating.  For the most part Tessa was indifferent .

There is a big section where you can buy all sorts of things.  Dan liked the swords things like that, but my girls managed to find unicorns and tiaras.

Ok, I have a confession… you probably don’t know what this is, but I do!  I was so excited to see this model of Battlestar Galactica!!!  Yes, it’s true, I watched the entire series on Netflix with Dan and LOVED it.  Never been so into sci-fi before I watched that show, but it’s awesome.  I was totally geeking out!

 

 

In the big atrium there are all of this indoor balconies that are decorated.  Notice the space ship peeking out of the balcony in the 2nd photo.  We joked how surprised people would be if they just came to stay at the Marriot for a business trip or family vacation to find it totally transformed like this!  That would be quiet the shock, to see all the crazy costumes and robots everywhere.

The Hilton across the street had the Comicon festival.  We went there last and the kids where already SPENT, Tess cried the entire time!  But we did get a free sketch by this artist for Sophie.  He was nice enough to oblige her non-comic book request of Rainbow Dash from My Little Pony.

There was no getting Sophie to be part of this would-be family photo, the masked character was too terrifying.  She just screamed, “Noooooooo!” and tried to run away.  Silly girl.  Although I must say it’s nice to have her scared of something for a change, the no fear attitude she usually has makes me pretty nervous most of the time.  Who’d of thought it would be robots and people in masks?

 

After we got back the kids had some much needed naps in their old beds, when they woke Dan and Matt got to work assembling their new bunk beds!

Sophie helped a bit too.

They were pretty darn excited! 

Fortunately climbing up and down the ladder has become less novel, because it made me nervous.  They’ve both fallen off the ladder once because they were trying to carry a toy at the same time.  No injuries yet though, knock on wood. 

I just needed to get another bed for Tessa or Sophie to free up the crib Tess has been sleeping in for the baby.  And I didn’t want to buy another toddler bed since Soph had nearly grown out of hers anyway.  And that room does NOT have room for 2 twin beds side by side.  Ahhh, apartment life.  Good news is that we can unstack the beds and put them side by side someday when they girls have a bigger bedroom.  I’m on the hunt for twin quilts (which are more expensive than I would have guessed), then I can get the rest of the room decorated to coordinate.  To sew them or buy them?  I look forward to that being done!

That night Dan and Matt headed back to the Star Fest because they hadn’t had enough, they ended up playing some big strategy game with a bunch of guys, they had a huge board with model trees, grass, lakes and mountains that had real dimension.  I don’t know what the name of the game was, Mech something?  While Cami and I prepared dinner.  All in all, a fun day!

2011 Resolution Space Organization: March

For March I went through all of the girls room.  A lot of what was accomplished can’t really be seen because the most progress was made with clothes that are inside drawers (where they couldn’t hardly fit in before) and toys that were donated out of the toy box so it can close again!  We had too many toys that “went” on the floor because there was no where else for them to be put away.  I hated that.  Everything has a place to be put away, for now. :)  We also moved Tessa’s crib into Sophie’s room, she had been in the 3rd bedroom previously.  That has proved a to be a bit of a challenge, they don’t fall asleep as fast as they used to, but that’s ok.  We wanted to free up the 3rd bedroom for baby brother. 

This after photo is out of date since we put up the girls bunk beds yesterday (which is why I called it after part one) after I get a few more things done in that room (like curtains, yikes! those blankets pinned up are horrid) I will post the real after photos.  There is a lot more “finishing touches” to do in this room to make it really done, but the hardest part is over and I am counting it for my March organization project since so much organization was accomplished.

You may notice we took the closet doors off, this is because they were DANGEROUS!  They were big pieces of wood hung from a track above and NOT below, so they were literally just hanging there.  More than once one of the kids pushed on the door while playing and had the whole thing come crashing down!  These things were not light.  So we took them down and put them in the storage outside.  I got a tension rod and a couple white sheets to sew into curtains but once I put them up I decided it was too much white with the white walls and everything in there.  So… I decided to buy a curtain rod and clips and try them white sheet/curtains in the living room:

I wish I had taken a picture of what it looked like before because it made such a difference!  I’m totally converted to curtains, never had curtains in any of our “homes” (apartments) before.  I feel like our whole living room looks much more grown up and sophisticated now that you can’t see the cheap apartment blinds.  The rod cost me $20, clips $10, and sheets $18.  I’m very happy about them, I love when you decorate something you like so much that you just smile whenever you look at it.  Do you have something like that in your house?  I hope your new year’s resolutions are going well!

big girl now!

A couple weeks ago on a Saturday while I was gone to work most of the day, Dan watched the girls.  And I don’t know what he did but Tessa suddenly became really interested in potty training.  She asked to use the potty (and did so successfully) several times throughout the day.  The following week she would ask me if she could wear underwear and I would just tell her that she had to use the potty first.  After a week of sincere interest I finally gave in.  I did what I swore up and down I would never do… I potty trained Tessa.

Potty training Sophie was a N-I-G-H-T-M-A-R-E!  She was very stubborn and even though she was “trained” she would have accidents on purpose to maintain control, show me who was boss, and to just drive me plum crazy!  It was such a traumatizing experience for me that I have refused to train Tessa up to this point.  And if she hadn’t been so persistent I wouldn’t have done it.  I didn’t like who I became when we were training Sophie, we were NOT friends. 

 

Tessa has been a BREEZE compared to Sophie.  I don’t know if it was my lower expectations or the fact that Tess was just more ready, but I’ll take it!  I think her older sister’s example was key to her interest in potty training.  The first couple days she went through several pairs of underwear a day but she would only start in her undies and finish in the toilet, not bad!  I am all for not scrubbing the couch or carpet!!  She still dampens her underwear at least once a day when she waits too long but she is doing really great.  I am so proud of her.  We’re on our 2nd week without diapers, and it’s pretty nice!  It will be a total 4 month break before we get back into diapers with this next one.  Not something I anticipated.

The first couple of days we kept Tessa pants-less so we could more easily see when she’s having an accident and also make her more aware of her…. uh, functions. :)  Sophie wanted to wear a pink shirt and under wear just like Tessa, so cute.  These 2 do most everything together these days.

By the way, hope those crib climbing pictures didn’t stress you out.  Tessa can’t climb OUT of her crib, just in, but we do have bunk beds on order expected to arrive this week.  Then they will seem like REALLY big girls!