Friday, January 27, 2012

Wee Read

I've really been meaning to capture some video of the Wee Read that Lucy and Olive attend at the library because it is so cute. In between the books, the librarians have these little action songs that everyone sing and the girls love it. Olive is especially fond of the movements - she is such a dancing girl and has some good rhythm. But pictures will have to suffice for now.

Olive, getting ready for some marching or swinging or whatever they were doing.

Since Lucy was still sick, she was pretty cuddly with me for the whole story time but a book about her favorite Kipper got her out of my lap. Each week, the librarians choose a theme and all the books they read center around that theme. This week, it was about bears. Last week, it was about cookies and cakes and they got treats to go at the end. They were a little disappointed that there were no treats involved with the bear theme.

See those ruby slippers? They were $3.88 on clearance at Target. Just had to slip that in there. But Lucy legitimately needed some new size 7 shoes. She has the same exact ones except in solid gold without all the glitter that are her favorite but are getting a bit small (and beat up).

Do you like how she dresses (and undresses) herself? She is wearing that outfit for the second day in a row but I figure it doesn't matter if the same people aren't seeing her. She absolutely loves that dress and is quite a big fan of those leggings too. Yeah - we don't care much about matching in our home. I try to let Lucy pick out what she is going to wear everyday so I let go of matching a long time ago. Just no bathing suits in winter.
 
I usually take both girls to Wee Read by myself but Emily didn't have to go to work until the afternoon so we were able to meet her there.

And of course, Lucy absolutely adores her Auntie Emily. I have no idea who that kid is lying next to Lucy though.

After the librarian's finish reading, there is kind of an open reading sessions where they bring out lots of bins with books and the parents just read to their kids or the kids read by themselves.

I know I am biased but I think that Lucy and Olive are some of the best behaved children there. A lot of the other kids aren't even listening and just wandering around but there are others who are screaming or crying or getting into things they shouldn't. I try now to judge but I can't help being proud of my girls.

We spent the rest of the day at Emily's while she went to work and Lucy was in heaven with all of Olive's new birthday toys. Olive might have been a little possessive at first but soon was sharing all her toys. This shopping cart is a favorite with plastic fruit you can "cut" with a knife. I love how the girls take such good care of their dolls and stuffed animals - wrapping them up so carefully in blankets and making sure that they get in on all the fun and action. Hopefully, the way they take care of their dolls are a reflection of how their mommies take care of them (besides when they drop them or bang their heads against the wall).



Sick Days

We've had terrible colds all week. So we've been taking it easy in the evenings. Which means we watch movies and tv.

Damian's girlfriend's son is one of Lucy's favorite people. She's always so happy when they come to visit and sad when he has to leave. Maybe part of the reason that she likes him so much is that he has helped her figure out how to use her Uncle Damian's iPad. She knows exactly how to get to Netflix and stream her favorite Kipper or Dora the Explorer shows. But Jet is also really good at sharing and has turned Lucy into an avid Power Rangers fan. She wants to be the pink Power Ranger, of course, and she often practices her fighting skills on us. I just wish I took this picture a little earlier when Jet had his arm around Lucy and she was cuddled up into him. It was so freaking adorable.

When Jet isn't around, we are trying to find other ways to entertain Lucy without too much effort on our part. Snack time turns into fun times when you get to eat it out of a cool, new stainless steel bento-style lunchbox. I actually got this in the mail for free from Clif bar as a Christmas present for being on their e-mail list or something. I just never broke it out because we haven't really gone out much with the holidays and weather and daycare. But just cause we don't go out, doesn't mean we can't use it at home, I realized.

So we filled it with organic raspberries and blueberries and pineapple and Lucy got such a kick out o it. She loved the little container on the inside and now always wants to eat out of it.

And this is also dishwasher safe, thank goodness!


Her new favorite thing is sticking her fingers into the raspberries and popping them in her mouth.


This lunchbox is almost exactly the same as this lunchbox sold on Amazon for about $15 and I got it for FREE (except I had to whore my name and address out to this company but I'm okay with that if they send me free stuff!). But really, I was super excited because I've been trying to switch over to glass and metal storage so I am not wasting plastic baggies and they are just so much more durable and long lasting than plastic and I don't have to worry about BPA or any other weird chemicals.

I'm so excited to start filling this with real bento-style lunches for when we are out and about once we move back into our house. Have you ever seen these egg molds?

So. Seriously. Cute! Mom - can you find some of these for me at the hyaku-en stores in Japan? And I know that I just said that I'm trying to avoid plastics and all but what kid wouldn't want to eat their hard-boiled egg if it was shaped like this!!!!

I mean, I guess I could order this myself off of Amazon because it is less than $5 but Brandon thinks it is wasteful and we are actually trying to get RID of stuff and not accumulate more but if someone got it for me or Lucy as a gift, then we would have no choice but to use it. (Hint, hint!)


While we are watching our movies, I'm also finally getting around to sending out some thank you cards for Christmas (sorry they are so late!). But might I mention that I also got those cool note cards for FREE from One Kings Lane after I ordered a fine mesh sieve for them for FREE (although I did have to pay shipping but I really did need a new fine mesh sieve and it is incredible quality so I justify the $5 shipping costs). Okay, I know, I am kinda obsessed with free and discounted things. I should get help for it...but seriously, aren't they cool note cards? They have little things embossed on the top of the cards like elephants, beehives, keys, and a topiary.

PS Mom - this is Lucy's favorite dress. She calls it her "Princess" dress and wants to wear it all the time. 

We watched Howl's Moving Castle (which might be one of my favorite Studio Ghibli movies because I love Christian Bale's voice in it (even though his character is kinda girly) and Emily Mortimer is so sweet. I enjoyed the movie so much that I read the book it was based on and sadly, it wasn't that good. But they did such a good job turning it into a movie and making the characters so much more likable.


And after we watch this movie, Lucy insists on being called Sophie (the main girl in the movie) and that Brandon is called Howl (the main guy in the movie). And apparently, they have clones because I am also Sophie and while Brandon is "Daddy Howl", Damian is "Uncle Damian Howl".

Anyway, we don't do much or at least haven't recently. But even when we are doing "nothing", it's still something special to do it together with family.




Saturday, January 21, 2012

Olive's 2nd Birthday!!

I want to take partial credit for this party because I gave Emily the idea to do an airplane themed party for Olive. Whenever we are outside (and even when we are inside) she has a super-sense when airplanes are flying over head. Maybe we are all just too distracted and don't even notice the sound of them now but it is adorable how excited she gets about them. But leave it to Emily to be super-ambitious with her planning - she went above and beyond and hosted a blog-tastic birthday party.

Despite the rainy, gray weather, there was a huge turnout at the party. Olive is obviously very popular. We were one of the first to arrive so I got to take some pictures of the awesome decorations.

Lucy and her ever-present snot running down her nose, posing with Olive's gift. She insisted on wearing her Tinkerbell outfit to the party.

I loved all the little signs Emily put together to coincide with the airplane theme. In the background, you can see that Megumi and her family made the drive down as well as Dasiuke. Her kids are getting so big!

Baggage Check for all the kids to drop off the gifts with a suitcase prop and everything!

Baggage Claim for the kids to pick up their goody bags. And do you see that invitation. Seriously. Adorable.

Loved this little girl's birthday shirt. Maybe she can wear it for one more year.

The awesome cupcake toppers Emily ordered from Etsy.

Lucy pretending to be sad...

But of course, she is really happy to be celebrating Olive's birthday party. We've been talking about it for weeks.

Emily prepared some great crafts for the kids - decorating foam airplanes with stickers and putting together glider airplanes.

Lucy was concentrating very hard.





Auntie Heidi helped out Olive while Jared took pictures and Emily was busy hosting.




Look at all the loot! It's better than Christmas!!

Lucy and Marlo were entertained by Brandon having a competition with the gliders to see which one could go farther.

Ready, set, GO!

It wouldn't be proper birthday party without a few tears being shed.

The adorable birthday cake being blown out with a little help from cousin Marlo.

Getting some "jet fuel" hydration. Lucy loved these little bottles.

And of course, she loved the cake and ice cream too.

Olive literally wanted to be a plane.

The happy family!

More cousin love from Marlo and Auntie Kim.

Lucy loving the balloons.

The pretty mama hostess putting the boys to work cleaning up in the background.

Cousin Love!!

So excited!!



So hard to get a picture with these three girls.


The girls wanted to get in on the cleaning action too.


Immediately getting into the goody bag for a pop-pop.

The crustiest face at the party,

Auntie Emily is definitely the favorite Aunt.

Olive sometimes has a hard time sharing her but she did great for her birthday.

I know these pictures are a little blurry but the look on Olive's face is priceless!



The girls were looking for a spider in the camera - an idea to get the girls to look towards the camera that kinda backfired...

As you can see.
We ended the party just hanging out in Emily's clubhouse and went out for burgers, fries, and shakes at Sammy's for lunch afterward (cause I had a Groupon there). Decent fries, okay burgers, terrible smoothies. But a great way to end a fun morning.