a mini-vacay

sometimes it is nice to just get away. even for a night. even just a short drive away.just so you can flaunt your stuff somewhere else! forget the eating, this girl wanted to check in and hop in the giant tub. her only request from the moment we told her we were going to stay at daddy's work.

i could have easily just stayed in the room the entire night and day but, there was a waterpark to explore and a lazy river to do a ridiculous amount of laps around.....i could have gotten in a really good workout had we been going against the current!?!

there was also mini golfing to be had. it was a gorgeous day. perfect. no crowds really just us and the kids (when was the last time that happened?) with a little help from my caddy who scored a hole-in-one on the first hole!!! i also dropped one in one handed while holding not needed coats! beat that daddy! (watch out we can get very competitive)

even hudson had great form and control.

then back inside for a little more swimming. exhausting to say the least. and what was i thinking, i tried to stop at the store on my way home. i ended up carrying ava first while sleeping and pushing hudson in the cart and then putting ava back in when hudson fell asleep and was swaying all over the place. we should have just booked another night and all taken naps. then again, i probably would have been thoroughly exhausted the next day as well. and well, that is the way it is anyway!

good night.

oh no! ohhhh no!

it is official. there is mud everywhere and this little boy knows how to find it. i swear i only turned around for a second to answer ava and with his hands in his pockets this little man hit the floor! drama for a second, laughs all around.

did i forget to mention

just a few days ago. i was in shorts and scrambling to find sunscreen to slather on my babes. i had even washed the snowpants and piled them on the stack of things to be put away.....eventually....i totally thought i would have gotten to that before the need for them arised again! afterall, the calendar did say april.

what happened? we are completely blanketed in snow on april 19th.

old man winter should be tired by now.

so thankful for a warm cozy home.
i am off to bed. to dream of the summer days to come.

randomness of 2 kids

our weekend started out kind of girly. a and i made a tutu. visit vermillion rules if you would like detailed instructions. the only thing i did to help speed things up was to wrap my tulle around my cutting board and then snip the ends. voila! perfect strips ready for tying. http://vermillionrules.blogspot.com/2008/12/extremely-detailed-tutu-tutorial.html

don't you think this sweet pea is stylin'. somehow we have worn the halloween shirt more times than i can count in 2011. and love the purple smile from the 'purple mustache juice' that she constantly requests.

 we also stitched up a new dress for dolly from an oliver and s pattern. get yours here. popover doll dress pattern

 of course, our weekend would never be without the boy! all weekend he has had an obsession with this helmet. i love that he is safety first. there have been plenty of times where i thought about buying one of those baby helmets. sooo many cringe moments where you catch your breath and you think the worst and the moment passes and everyone is fine. whew!

i see you! he has also entered into another round of 'i do it'. maybe he hasn't even left this stage but, now daddy doesn't get to kiss him or me....'no, i kiss mommy' and he slathers the kisses on making sure that he gets both cheeks. poor daddy. he is still loved.

 we finished our weekend braving and bracing against the wind for an Easter egg hunt. they actually allowed the kids 20 eggs!! not prepared at all to bring this kind of load home. our pockets were stuffed!

we even got to meet the Easter bunny. although a is sure it was not him because there was snow (april fool on us yet again!) and the bunny had on his summer brown coat and there were circles cut in his eyes! it was just not him!

hope you had a wonderful weekend as well.

pass the crayons...please

 how we ever accumulated sooo many crayons, i may never know. how to shave and melt and make some disappear, that i know.

for this project all you need is an old pencil sharpener. it will get all gunkie so, you will probably want to keep it as a crayon only sharpener after this project.

some wax paper.

an iron.

some old crayons. if you have a hard time taking the paper off, soak the crayons in water, then peel the paper off and pat them dry with a paper towel.

ava did her share and then got busy cutting and pasting.

hudson loved mixing colors. for some reason he is a big fan of purple. he claims the purple towel after bath almost every night.

make sure you don't put too many sprinkles between your 2 pieces of wax paper. also, when you are ironing use a low setting and put some paper towels or a rag under and over so that the 'just in case' scenarios are covered.  i can just imagine a future of ironing my husband's shirts only to find them tye-dyed with wax. arghhh!

after they are melted and cooled check out the cool swirls and colors you have created by putting them up to the window. we then created kites to hang in the window. next up decorating the tail with some 'bows'. we are going to attach bows labeled with things that the kids have learned. ava's first is the alphabet and hudson has been adding his colors.

have a glorious day!

send it soaring.

an awesome day! some seriously beautiful weather. perfect winds for flying a kite, running, jumping, rolling down hills, and laughing 'til the cows came home. followed by some storms and a very quick ride home in a downpour on a rhino. whew!!!

blue skies all around.

even daddy was home to enjoy the day with us!! yea! hurray!

spring has sprung! there is mud to be found here and there and everywhere.

i am pretty sure that all of this white stuff is gone...cruel but wonderful april fool's trick. the snowman we rolled together was the only remaining snow the next day.

and, by the way. i celebrated my 30th!