Paint Monsters

The girls and I decided to try a project we saw in Disney's Family Fun magazine this week. With all the insane heat lately, I've been looking for any fun ideas I can. They had a whole article on big paint projects and that seemed fun, so I went out and bought paint and a big roll of paper. I figured a big roll of paper made all projects more fun than a little piece of paper.

Here are some pictures of the project we wanted to try:






It just so happens that Target has those spiky balls in their Dollar Spot right now. Meant to be, right?

So, we taped paper to the ladder of the playset (which only kinda worked) and also just laid some pieces on the grass. It turned out that "stamping" the balls worked better than throwing them. It was also messier than I thought it would be, especially for Lily. Good thing it was washable paint. God bless washable paint. Seriously, what did parents do before it?

Anyway, they turned out cool! Today, Abby and I worked on putting faces on them...






We're not sure what we're going to do with them all yet, but I've starting cutting them all out.

Fun times. :)

Sharing

Nothing new to share this morning, so I thought I'd share some favorite things from Pinterest again. There is always something new there. I regularly change what I'm looking for on there: food ideas, Halloween costumes, bible verses, rainbow colors, or whatever seems to show up a lot....

I found this after we watched Tangled.... except this is real. Lanterns. Soooo cool.

Source: nikdaum.com via Carrie on Pinterest

I really want my nephew Jacob, or friend Renee's son to be this for Halloween. Seriously, some baby I know HAS to be this.

Source: prettykittyknittycity.com via Carrie on Pinterest

My sister and I played Guess Who endlessly when we were little. Abby got it as a gift for Christmas (I think?) this year. How fun would it be to replace the pictures with people you know?

Source: madsmemories.blogspot.com via Carrie on Pinterest

This is hilarious if you've seen Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1. If you haven't, move on. (speaking of which, I really want to see Part 2. BAD.)

Source: liesandcomplaints.tumblr.com via Carrie on Pinterest

I so want to do this. It is an oatmeal container covered with scrapbook paper and such, repurposed as a headband display. Too bad we don't eat oatmeal. Matt does sometimes, but it's the instant packs. Bummer.

Source: thegainesgang4.blogspot.com via Carrie on Pinterest

This link apparently is a recipe for homemade Olive Garden breadsticks. Yummmmm.

Source: fullbellies.blogspot.com via Carrie on Pinterest

Seriously, can I get a mirror like this for home, and, oh, yeah, our trip to the Children's Museum

So, who wants to help me steal this mirror from the Children's Museum? We can trade it back and forth every time we need a self esteem boost. :) Nothing like feeling tall and lean. Ah, if only it were true. Legs that went on forever....

Anyway... back to reality. I made a last minute decision to go to the Children's Museum this morning.

We hit the Dora and Diego exhibit first hoping to "warm" Lily up a bit, as she gets a little withdrawn when we do stuff like this. Basically, Abby drags her everywhere. She (Lily) talks very little and is on the grouchy side about just about everything. Pretty fun, right? On the flip side, she didn't want to leave when it was time, either. Go figure.

She loved this thing. She sat up there and pulled on those handles until her heart was content.

She finally let Abby get up there with her.

I whooped Abby in tic tac toe.

On the way out we stopped at the Info Zone library they have at the museum and got some library books. It is a super nice branch of the library. They had a fun green screen play area that I thought I was going to have to drag Abby off of.

This one was right before she got chased by a dinosaur. Very funny.

May the odds be ever in your favor

Another movie about a hit books series (trilogy for those of you that don't know) that I love. Fun. Plus, if you haven't read it, you must. I even made Matt read them and he loved them too.

I have to admit that I've been following their page on Facebook and the casting news is fun to keep track of. Some surprising, some spot on, some I have no idea.

They just released this movie poster. Very cool. I can't wait. How about you?

Wordless Wednesday

Connect Four!

What do you do when the heat index is in the 3 digits and you (the parent) are feeling kinda crummy?

Game night!




I'm actually quite impressed how well Lily us doing on taking turns.




We also have Memory (Backyardigans and Toy Story versions) and Kerplunk waiting in the wings should we need them.

Weekend Update

No, this is not the Weekend Update of Saturday Night Live. I'm just not that funny, unfortunately. If only I had Seth Myers writing for me. -but weekend update it is...

We started our weekend on Friday with Zoo-polooza at the zoo. They had a band playing and were open late. It was fun. The weather was perfect, and train rides were free for members. Can't go wrong, right? We warned the girls ahead of time that we would not be seeing all of the animals, so we picked just a couple to check out. It wasn't as busy since it was technically after hours, which was nice.

The girls checked out the fish in the "Oceans" building. This is a bubble window that goes "into" the aquarium. Kind of cool.

After the train ride, Matt splurged and took Abby on the zoo's rollar coaster. Which she, of course, loved. They are in the very first car which you can kind of see in the bottom right part of the picture.

The girls and I also saw the new Winnie the Pooh movie on Friday, so the girls have been very interested in some of my old Pooh books. Here is Lily "reading".

This next picture is funny. We just got home from the grocery store (about lunch time) and Lily, of course, fell asleep in the car (If you take her anywhere around 11-noon, she falls asleep). I woke her up and left her standing in the kitchen while I went to bring in the groceries. I finished that job and asked Abby where Lily was and all Abby can remember is Lily was taking her shoes off on the stairs. Yup... Dead asleep.

Also, a small prayer request.... I've really been struggling with my migraine headaches. If you have a prayer list, could you add that to it?

ChalkTown

We finally made our Chalk Town. It is so cool and we had lots of fun thinking of things to add to it.

Epic

Yesterday I gave you a brief preview of a cake I was working on.

Last night, we ate it at a farewell dinner, cleaning party for our very close friends, Dan and Pam and their kids, who are moving. Yesterday the movers packed up the house and we brought in food, a card table, lawn chairs, and cleaning supplies to end the day.

It was a lot of fun.

It was bittersweet.

It was hard to leave.

But, the cake? The cake was EPIC!

Boom!

*The words "Epic" and "Boom" are dedicated to Dan. I will miss hearing them regularly. :)

Tidbits

I put the sprinkler out for the girls yesterday. Abby embraced the opportunity to shake her booty in the water to enjoy the break from the heat.

And more booty shaking refreshing cooling off.

And just to prove how different they are, Lily avoids the water at all cost.

I am so proud of myself. Lissy and Mom are you looking closely at the next two pictures?!?!? French braids in Abby's hair by moi!!!

Lily insisted I braid her hair too, but I knew she wouldn't be patient enough with me, so we just did something little. She then insisted on a picture too. Demanding little thing.

One of my other projects today.... Another version of a rainbow cake! It's for something special tonight, and I'm pretty sure the guests of honor won't see this blog before they see the cake so I think I'm safe. Fun, fun fun!

Ten on Ten

What is Ten on Ten?

Take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours on the tenth of each month. Document a day of your life and find beauty among the ordinary moments!

Hello July! I'm a day late, but you can thank my friend Kathy for reminding me, -and then reminding me again. Geesh, some people. :) I skipped June completely, and can you believe that I actually had it on my calendar in June and I still forgot to do it?!

If you look closely, you will see water droplets clinging to my freshly watered plant. We had heat indexes in the 100's today, so my plants got lots of water today.

We straightened up the chairs on the porch. The girls are sitting in their favorite of the chairs. Lily loves the blue one and Abby the red.

Our lunch, I'm winning Supermom awards here, I'm sure. One of the girls' favorites though: Mac and Cheese and then mix in a can of drained tuna. Yum.

Finding "silly" things in the Highlights "High Five" magazine. This was the first time Lily really participated. She giggled about the Mommy vacuuming the grass and the snowman in the yard (she found the snowman all by herself).

No, I'm not just showing you that I did some laundry. I'm showing you that my laundry consists of big girl underwear for a certain 2 year old in our house. We aren't all the way there, but we are making good progress!

Another page from the "High Five" magazine...

... that we are doing:

(We didn't do the chalk part yet, but the stencils are ready. It was just too hot out today.)

Dinner! Doesn't it look yummy? I caved and ordered pizza. Bad Carrie. But it was so good. The girls and I polished off the whole thing (Abby ate as much as me!). So bad.

We watched this little gem while we ate. Love it. (and so many good one-liners)

"You will not cry or sneeze or barf or fart. No annoying sounds."

"It's so fluffy!!!"

"I have pins and needles that I'm sitting on."

"Lightbulb!"

A true sign of summer at our house. Flip flops EVERYWHERE. As far as I'm concerned, I can not own enough flip flops or tank tops. Do not argue with me on this one, you will not win. :)