Painting with a friend

I was going to have Ava's birthday part 2 but I forgot my camera at home for her joint party with her cousin, so here are pictures from today :)

I set up a painting station outside and sprayed shaving cream on some trays, then I put some liquid water color paint in the shaving cream. The girls had to mix it up themselves...

they are a little unsure at first, but...

in no time they were loving it :)

and what play date would be complete with out making "soup" ?

some more color...

our chalkboard wall, the white wall is going to be magnetic

and a crazy cute baby

learn from your mistakes...

that's kind of what Gretchen did today ,

her and Ava were laughing and giggling in the pantry and when I went to check out what was going on I found half of my bag of straws from Ikea spilled all over the floor.

Ava picked them up (after I let them have a few more minutes total happiness) and I set Gretchen up in the living room with some saved spaghetti jars (from my favorite sauces from Trader Joe's) and I let Gretchen sort the straws.

she did so great and it kept her busy for quite a while :)

catch up (#1 the kids)

it's been a while, so I'm going to do some updates from the last few months...

Sydney and Ryan were in gymnastics class this year


yes, Sydney was able to climb all the way to the top

isn't this the cutest watermelon eater you ever saw??

Gretchen "helping" Dad mow the lawn

Ava's haircut

Ava played t-ball this spring...

in flip flops ;)

this was the closest we got to the tulip fields this year

Sydney decorated a cake in girls club at church

we studied ancient Egypt

School and cuties

Gretchen 15 months

We had my nephew over and I printed out some pictures from the Noah's Ark, While I read the story the kids colored, after they had to work together to put them in order.


I am one of the Kindergarten teachers at our homeschool co-op on Fridays and this was the craft we did for the first week
coffee filters, clothespins and pipe cleaners.
The coffee filters are painted with bingo doters filled with liquid watercolor paint.

A couple questions answered

I just wanted to let those of you who were concerned about Sydney from a few posts ago, don't worry, I don't remember what the problem was, but I guarantee you that within 10 minutes she was perfectly fine. That wasn't the first note that she has given me like that and I doubt it will be the last.

And about our garage(the room behind it actually, I don't have a good name for it yet) Travis re- roofed it last summer and he hand mixed and poured the footings himself within the last month or so.

Gretchen - 14 months

More one year old pictures

Some more pictures of our sweet little one year old

Here she is modeling her birthday gift from Aunt Worm and Beaver Steve

I made her little leggings to go with a birthday shirt that I sewed a 1 on

Here is her favorite stuffie... "Canimal" a gift from her big sister Ava, and her "blankie" in the background

7 teeth

has taken a few steps at a time but isn't "walking" yet

walks on her knees

great eater

our third "dangerous girl"

already has her own DS

likes to pull hair

loves baby Einstein movies

My baby turns 1

My baby has a baby!

Well, a baby doll. :)

Our little hippo

This picture is for Jupe.

What would I do without her...

Sydney is such a great helper for me, every newborn baby should come with a 6 year old sister! The other day Gretchen was freaking out, she didn't want me to hold her and didn't want me to put her down. Sydney was sitting on the couch and I handed Gretchen to her, a few minutes later Sydney called for me, Gretchen had fallen asleep on her lap.

What a little punk!