this could take all day

text to my parents, #3

to my mom, who despises cooked carrots:

While eating dinner tonight I commented on how the cooked carrots just have a different flavor than raw ones. Dani pipes up and says, "yeah, they taste like POISON".

Wordless Wednesday: Mama, take my picture

dance recital 2013

We enrolled Daisy in a "creative dance" class this fall (at Northwest School of Dance) and she has been enjoying it greatly. Dani, however, is our girl with the attitude "if it's not my idea, I'm not gonna do it," so for months she refused my offer to enroll her in her own class. But in early February her tune changed and she was ready and excited to dance too. So enroll her we did and now I have two little ballerinas at my house.

This week is the dance recital they have been working so hard to prepare for. Last night was dress rehearsal and we were able to get a video of each performance.

Is there anything cuter than 3-and-4-year-olds attempting a choreographed routine? (Also you'd never know it, but Dani was having a huge meltdown when it was time to lineup. I have no idea how they calmed her down and got her smiling again, but her teachers are saints.)

Next is Daisy, and you must forgive the videographer for getting a bit distracted and not keeping his giggles under check. He's normally quite the professional. (And you gotta love Daisy's classmate and her singing. I totally understand how hard it is to keep from singing along, and we've actually been reminding Daisy for months that this is a dance number, not a singing one. Maybe next class should be musical theater?)

All video errors were definitely forgiven when I saw he had turned to camera mode at the ending pose and captured this beauty. There is so much awesomeness happening in this picture I have no idea where to begin!

Can't wait to see what happens in the performances this weekend.

a few MOPS gifts

Last month I was invitied to a meeting with a small group of MOPS leaders: our amazing Discussion Group Leaders (DGLs). While they have their own team lead, I wanted to do something to thank them for all their hard work so far this year. I had seen an idea on Pinterest to wrap nail polish in an easter egg so while at Target I snagged some bottles of polish. But it turns out the easter eggs I had wouldn't hold them. 

But with a bit of brainstorming and awesome digital skills from my husband, I was able to wrap the polish in a little celophane bag with a bit of twine, and include this adorable tag. 

Simple and sweet.

Another one of our moms was moving that week so we wanted to send her away with a little goodbye gift. I know that most of our Navy moms do not need more stuff when they are moving, but this mom was taking her family on an extended road trip on their way across the country, so with a little help from Pinterest and Target once again, I was able to put together a little road trip survival kit.

Gift giving is so fun!

scenes from the cell phone: random happenings

Daisy got a mustache at the library and happily wore it all afternoon, even to dinner at Panera. And yes, she got a lot of strange looks.

I thought I'd suprise the girls with a fun lunch so I stuffed Easter eggs full of lunch things. They were surprisingly underwhelmed. (One of my friends suggested it was because they weren't ALL filled with treats!)

Darin travelled to Florida last month for work and got to dip his toes in the Atlantic!

Dying Easter eggs is not my favorite activity, so I was happy to hand it off to the babysitter. The girls were so disappointed the next day when Darin wanted to make egg salad out of their hard work. So we were sure to take a picture so they'd be able to see them whenever they wanted.

 

Entertaining ourselves while Papa was doing some shopping, Dani was trying to stand like the manequin and asked me to take her picture.

*Sharing* my kindle in bed in the morning. I had to take a picture because this doesn't happen very often.

Darin bought these gourmet suckers from a student friend of his at Bremerton High School. We took these pictures to text her since the suckers were almost too big to fit in the kids' mouths!

Pizza night with friends. Look at all those kids! After dinner the boys went to one room for Jurassic Park, the girls went to another for Tinker Bell, and us grownups hit the theater room for a 3/4 showeing of Lincoln. (Long but great movie. Our girls were ready for home and bed before our movie was done. One of these days we'll get back over there to finish it...good thing we already know how it ends.) Thankful for these great friends of ours, and all their TV's!

Beautiful rainbow over Silverdale.

We surprised the girls after church this night in telling them we were going to get ice cream for dinner. Daisy's response? "Well, that seems unusual." (And yes, Mom & Dad, we did go home for popcorn afterwards.)

Thanks Kaufmans for the cheer-us-up gift card to ColdStone!

We finally got around to doing a bit of decorating and arranging in the kitchen. Darin put together this amazing command center for me and I had fun making magnets and pins for it. One of these days I'll lug my big camera into the kitchen to get you guys some proper pictures.

Daisy is still very nervous about riding her bike. So we walk alongside her, encouraging her all the way, while little sister runs circles around her on the trike. And then goes to the finish line to cheer big sister in.

Yes, the stick horse came with us to the post office today. And he and his rider made an awful lot of strangers smile. Job well done.

Miss Dani finally decided she was brave enough to try a ballet class for herself. (This picture was taken through the glass, can you tell?) We lucked out that she was just in time to be able to participate in the recital next month. Now I have two adorable ballerinas under my roof. 

Walking to pick sister up from school, my little mini-me brought along her camera and snapped all the way there and back.

 

WHEW...life is never boring around here, that's for sure.

text to my parents, #2

 

Today Dani handed me a rock she had colored with a marker and told me "when Grampa comes to visit this summer he can wrap this to make me a necklace."

 

To give a little background, my dad makes beautiful bent wire and wire wrapped jewelry. Two years ago he gifted both of my sisters and I pendants made from rocks our grandfather had polished and then wire wrapped by our dad. I wear mine quite regularly and Dani has taken a real liking to it.

the day she became a 1 year old

On a Saturday at the beginning of March we started the day with a little song (and some friends who had spent the night).

Yep, it was the first birthday of our sweet baby girl. We had planned a low-key, drop-in, birthday/goodbye party so it was very low on the stress meter for sure.

Someone was eager for our guests to arrive!

When family arrived we served up lunch and enjoyed some time together, before we decided we needed to give that baby some cake.

Think she's ready?

Yep, there's the girl we love.

We gave her a giant piece, but thought it was fitting that if she didn't have her very own cake, at least her piece would have her name on it.

She was pretty cautious at first.

But with help took a few bigger bites.

(Whoops, someone got a little too close to the action.)

Until she hit the custard filling, then it was game over. 

Guess no baby covered in cake pictures for us.

But I was determined to get some cute shots of this spunky and beautiful little girl, so Darin set up my backdrop in the garage.

And I think I've shown these already, but man when this kid smiles, you can't help falling in love.

And once all the family and friends had left, it was just the 5 of us for one more night. So we busted out the remote and did our best to capture this memory too.

We were so honored to celebrate this special day with you baby girl. We can't wait to see what your next year will bring.

ps: We miss you every day.


 

Simple Things Sunday, week 16

On Sunday we attended a lovely baby shower, and Dani was given a long piece of tulle that had been used to stuff a package.

On Monday she dressed up in her finest princess dress, asked me to pin the tulle to her head, and played "bride". She asked me to go outside with her to take her picture. 

Having little girls is so much fun.

Wordless Wednesday: teacher Dani

Simple Things Sunday, week 15

Saturday night found us at home enjoying "Matlida" for family movie night. Dani, snuggling with us on the couch, grabbed Darin's hat for a particularly tense part and told us to tell her when it was over.

Now that's an effective way of covering one's eyes!