Park Play Date

Today was more like summer weather than spring.  It reached 80*, as did yesterday, which is pretty warm compared to what we've been use to, but we're not complaining.  We met up with several moms and kiddos for a play date at the park.  It is so fun to meet up with everyone! 

 I joined a mom's group when Miles was 15months old.  The group is structured differently now, but we still hang out with a lot of the same people.  There have been many babies born, some on the way, and many were tiny babies when we joined.  It is so much fun watching them all grow up and play together while we sit and chat...and brake up the occasional fight.  A lot of middle names were brought out today, if you know what I mean, but they all played together really pretty well and we had a great time catching up!

Isla took a few minutes to warm up (she's been playing shy lately), but then explored with the best of them!  She's really been hamming it up for the camera, as well.

Miles was hard to capture today.  He was off and running with the big boys the whole time.  He had a blast and was exhausted when we left.  His cheeks were pretty darn pink!

Isla liked the motorcycle side car.  My little climber plays it on the safe side at the park, which is nice.  I'm guessing she's more comfortable at home and that's why she loses her fear of heights/falling???  At the playground, she is far more cautious, but still explores.

She was soon joined by Ryan, who just turned two.  Ryan has a big brother who is a year older than Miles.  Ryan loved driving Isla around :).

Then Isla hitched another ride with him in the swing.  That is Kelly in the background, Ryan's mom :).

They enjoyed the tandem ride for a few minutes, then I think they felt a little squished and wanted out.  We had a fabulous day at the park.  We brought plenty of snacks, water, sunscreen, and iced coffee and stayed for three hours!

I also snapped a quick pic of our "pretty piggies".  I bought some kid nail polish for Isla's toenails.  I LOVE IT!!!  She does to :).  It is water soluble, so it will rub off in the tub and I touch it up frequently to keep her piggies pretty.  If you ask her about her piggies, she'll hold her foot up for you to see.  I had to completely repaint them a few days ago.  She sat down on the stool in the bathroom and held out each foot for me to paint.  She will even keep her hands off to let it dry.  Such a girl.  Makes my heart sing :).

Home Improvements

With the nice spring weather, comes some yard work.  Last year, we (my Dad) did a lot of work on our sprinkler system to get it up and running post dog.  This weekend, Ben's parents gave us a new lawn mower since the dog did a number on our old one as well!  Goo news!  The mower works great!  So do the sprinklers, but we haven't had to turn them on yet due to all our rain, which is nice. 

We've done quite a bit of clean up in both the front and back.  The kids can now play in the yard.  We have quite a bit of work to do in our garden area in the back (boxed in area on the right side of this pic).  We hope to actually grow vegetables this year!

I've also one some work in the front.  It looks so nice and clean now, if I do say so myself.  After a lot of raking and some mowing, it's coming along.  We need to do some grass seeding some day...

In each of the flower beds, I put some planters with geraniums.  I added bark to clean it up a bit and I love how it turned out!

Spring Day

We've actually been getting some nice spring weather here. A little hit and miss, but we'll take what we can get! Most of the nice days have fallen on my days off (not while I'm sleeping), so that is nice. The day after Easter, I took the kids downtown to meet Auntie Annie and Grandma Mo for breakfast before Anne headed home. After breakfast, we went to the park since it was nice and sunny. This was Isla's first real experience with a play ground. Everything was just her size, so she had a lot of fun climbing around.

Then we wandered over to the wagon park for a few rides down the slide for Miles.

We also took a peek at the falls that are pretty full!

LOVING the spring weather!

Easter 2012

I'm a little behind, obviously :).  Here are pictures from this Easter!

We spent the day with my family as Ben's parents went to North Dakota to be with Danny for his Easter break.  We spent Friday night out at The Hunger Games with Auntie Annie, who came from Bellingham for the holiday.

We started the day meeting my family at church.  Isla had a great time snuggling with her grandparents.

Dancing.  Wrapping herself in her blankie.  Warming up to Auntie Annie.

Bruce Wayne (aka Miles) spent the morning in the nursery playing.

After the service, we went to my parents' house for brunch and an egg hunt.  Isla enjoyed the chocolate :).

And enjoyed showing off her first black eye.  We're not sure where she got it, but she's a climber.  Climbing with no sense of fear = falling quite a bit.  Frequent falling = frequent bumps and bruises...usually on the noggin.  Thank God for skulls!

Miles was VERY excited for the egg hunt.  While we were at The Hunger Games the night before, he "practiced" hunting for eggs at my parents', making my mom hide plastic eggs so he could find them.  When he woke up Easter morning, he came in our room and said, "Mommy, Mommy!  I see footprints!  I see footprints out the window in the street.  They're from the Easter bunny!  Do you know what that means?  It means while we're at Easter church, he's coming to lay his eggs for us to find".  The kid cracks me up!

Ahhh...some spring flowers!  Auntie Annie did a great job hiding the eggs.

Isla was happy to be outside with her little basket.  It took her a few minutes to catch on, but she eventually got the hang of it.

Miles started in right away.  He put several eggs in Isla's basket to help her out.  He especially thought the pink and purple ones were for her :).  Such a good big brother!

The kids also played in the sandbox with Auntie Annie.  Isla loves digging in the dirt.

Then we enjoyed a wonderful brunch of ham and au gratin potatoes (from scratch!) an asparagus.  It was all wonderful.  It was a beautiful, sunny day.  We even got home in time for me to head out on a 9 mile run for my half marathon training!



Changes and Growing

All that cleaning of the craft room was to make room for Miles' old twin bed.  The twin bed had to come out so a new bed could go in!  BUNK BEDS!!!

Mile is beyond thrilled and has thanked us for the bunk beds about 10 times since this afternoon (which is when he got home).  I didn't want to just switch the beds out, but wanted to update this room and make it a space for both kids to enjoy.  I wanted to cover up that macaroni yellow and went with a light green.  I've been using Olympic One paint with all my painting the past few months.  In all other rooms, I've only needed one coat with some touch ups.  This  room needed two because of the orange  it was before!  Just the new color brightened the room and made it feel bigger.  THe painting of the room required the kids to be out of the house, so they were at Grandma and Grandpa M's for the night so I  could paint and prep.

Ben and I did a little shopping and got a new light fixure, some sheets for Isla, and some random things for a few projects.  We cleared the room out with the exception of the mattresses and began painting.  Then I replaced the light with a fun chandelier to add a feminine element for Isla.  I even went so far as to vaccuum and steam clean the carpets (it was GROSS!!!).  If you're wondering how I have time for all this, well, the kids were gone for starters, and I was up till 3am cleaning and working on projects to put the room together.  The beds were delivered and built this morning.

I used the old crib rails for safety rails for Isla.  It makes a nice enclosed space for her, but I can still get in and snuggle :).

The valance and roman shade were both made by me a few years ago.  I painted the bird painting last night.  It was inspired by a print I found on www.pinterest.com my latest obcession.  In fact, much of my inspiration was found there :).

The book slings and button letters were also found on Pinterest.  I love how the button letters turned out!  That is a cursive "I", if you can't tell :).  I already had the fabric for the slings, paint, and canvases, so all I needed for these projects as the brackets, dowels, and buttons!

A close up of the button letters.  Miles was sorely dissappointed that his was an "M" and not a "B" (ya know, for Batman!).

Miles' old dresser, which became Isla's dresser, got another make-over.  I wanted to recreate the bird print on canvas and kind of used that as inspiration for other accents in the room.  Therefore, there is kind of a bird/nature theme, if you can call it that.  I used Miles' bed quilt for my colors, since that won't be changing...ever.  It was made by Grandma Sara.  She's going to make a similar quilt for Isla using the same block pattern and colors, but different fabrics with some girlier prints to them...and maybe some pink :).  The tree on the dresser was inspired by a pin I found on Pinterest!  Are you surprised?  :).  It also got knew pulls.

The idea for the crate with diapers and wipes in it also came from Pinterest.  It is currently hanging on nails, but I think I need to screw it into the wall and probably into a stud...ya know, in case Isla decides to try to hang from it...

This framed bird print has been sitting on the desk in my craft room for years.  My brother's wife, Heidi, painted it for me as a Christmas present many years ago.  I've always loved it.  While I was cleaning that room, I realized that it would be perfect in the kids newly decorated room!  I'm so excited to have it on display.  The other knick knacks were also in my craft room...an old glass knob from a power line, a pretty bell that my big sis got in India for me, and a tea cup and silver spoon, that I beleive was a gift Ben got as a baby.

Miles is always  set on having a light on at night.  He had stolen my lamp, but I was anxious to have it back.  Also, there is no where to put a lamp in here, unless  I get a side table to put next to the rocking chair (wich may or may not happen in the future).  So, I got him this clip on light for his bed.  He loves it!

Last, but certainly not least, Miss I sleeping in her new "big girl" bed.