Such a good dad!

Tonight my sis, Melissa, and her 3 kiddos came over for tacos for dinner then for a quick paper airplane flying session over my balcony. More on the paper airplanes later, but all that to say my kitchen floors paid the price for the taco dinner. Everyone left and I gave Emilia a quick bath and asked Chris to get her hair and teeth brushed so I could start on my kitchen floors. After about 30 minutes of complete silence, I went back into the bathroom to see what was taking so long and found this...

Ohh, Chris, you looks so pretty!

Emilia was quite proud of her masterpiece!

He even willingly let me take a photo!

Now for her turn!

The best dads are the ones willing to play beauty parlor!

Day at the park

Today was the perfect day for a picnic at the park so after breakfast, Emilia and I packed our picnic and her tricycle and headed to the park near our house. She is quite the social bug and always makes a friend or two while we are there and this time she picked one little boy in particular to pay attention to. When I say little, though, I mean that he was simply shorter than her, but actually almost a year older than her. She then proceded to treat him like he was SOOO much younger than her and insisted she hold his hand to help him up on the playground stairs and even stood at the bottom of the slide to "catch" him. I apologized to the mom, but she didn't mind and neither did the little boy, Nick, so all was well. I tried to tell Emilia that he was older than her, but she kept commenting that he was little. I think this is a battle we will fight for awhile since Emilia is so tall for her age, but hopefully she will learn not to pat the shorter kids on the head... it is a bit condescending!

Taking a small break to enjoy some string cheese!

"Moosey" even needed a break

Thumbs up! It was a good day!

Loving the weather

It has been so nice to have a nice mild August... of course this would happen the summer we replace our AC... oh well! So since it has rained so much lately, I have had no need to water the veggie garden. Emilia was getting quite worried about it and decided it was long overdue. Dressed in her favorite "lets go water the garden" outfit, we went and unnecessarily watered the yard and garden... fabulous use of natural resources! GO GREEN!

Love the matching boots!

She is actually smiling because she just filled her rain boots with water!

Must feel nice! She spotted one of her favorite neighbor's, Jerry, out working in the yard.

She LOVES Jerry... she even invited him and his wife to her party!

Done with the watering and off to play on her new playground.

She pretends her cabin is a Starbucks with a drive thru window... caramel latte, anyone?

Happy Birthday Catherine (aka Claffie)

Tonight was Claffie's 3rd birthday party at Chucky Cheese. Claffie and Emilia have been friends since birth.. literally. Claffie was even there when Emilia was born (although she was still in her mamma's tummy!) and her mom, Caryn, actually held Emilia before anybody since she was her 1st nurse! Then Claffie was born while Emilia was still in the hospital so the girls had their 1st play date while still in the hospital when we made a "pit stop" in Claffie's room on our way to "room in" with Emilia. That is simply when the NICU babies get to sleep in a room with their parents before going home.

Anyways, this was mine and Emilia's 1st Chucky Cheese experience, and we had a lot of fun. It was truly therapy. For anyone who knows what a germaphobe (understatement of the year) I am... you get it. I got a bit panicky as we walked in and I see all these kids running around eating food then touching these games with out even a bit of hand sanitizer in between... not even a napkin. I just kept saying... Its Claffie's birthday, Its Claffie's birthday... I can do this! My nerves were calmed a bit by seeing that many of the kiddos that were running around belonged to many of my co workers... I knew this because all the nurses at work wear their kiddos photos on their badges and somehow the better I know you, the less germs you child has. Weird, huh? Even if they have a snotty nose... if I know you then they are less germy than the kid that is a stranger's kid with no snotty nose. Like I said... THERAPY! I broke myself into the scene gently by going over to talk to Caryn. Emilia wanted to go to the games, and I told Chris to take her. I simply didn't want to be THAT mom that is using the disinfecting wipes on the video games and tokens. I simply clutched my bag tightly (that contained sanitizing wipes AND foam) and told Chris, "Go ahead." After talking a bit, the anxiety lessened and I was able to actually go over and play some games with her... and believe it or not, the place was quite clean! I actually won her almost 300 tickets between a basketball game and another random game that I became a bit obsessed with. I did, however use some spray hand sanitizer on 2 occasions, but in my defense... I saw a kid pick his nose and touch a game. After sanitizing both our hands I very discretely sprayed some sanitizer on the contaminated game as we passed by! Some mother will be thankful for that! We all had fun, though, and Emilia loved being able to pick out her own prizes at the end it all! It was also so cute to see Claffie open the present Emilia had worked so hard on... Emilia was beaming with pride when Claffie opened the puzzle Emilia had hand painted for her... and Claffie seemed excited about it and the scratch and sniff coloring book... Emilia does her own shopping now so I cannot take any credit! see pics...

Artist Emilia in action

Emilia chose the words for me to write in each letter.

Some of the letters she knows associated words to go with, but on the others,

she simply looked in her ABC picture book

or asked me for a few choices.

The puzzle pieces drying. She painted the background of each piece the same as the piece assocoated with it... okay I did help with that! :)

Final puzzle

Final mess

the back of the puzzle

a happy birthday girl

opening her puzzle

Happy 3RD Birthday Catherine!

Is this your chicken?

As Chris and I were getting ready to leave last night, we heard a rustling in the front bushes and peer out the front window only to see...

Umm... are you kidding me? I am very accustomed to seeing chipmunks and squirrels scamper through my flowers, but never a chicken and duck! I stepped outside to take a closer look...

Okay, just checking. It really was a chicken and a duck! These two are partners in crime and I have seen them lurking two yards over since Easter. Because this is the same neighbor we have had dog issues with, I had chosen to ignore the 7 illegal pets they were housing as babies the week of Easter. I needed say nothing anyways because the babies were quite small and would climb through the neighbors fence that confines two dogs. End of story for most of them, except for this one chicken and one duck. Oh, and by dog issues, I am referring to the leash law that exists in Lee's Summit and the neighbor that insists that if I would like to keep her dog out of my yard I should put up a fence, but she shouldn't have to. Really? Last time I checked, fences were usually put up to keep things in, not out, oh, unless you are referring to the fence around my veggie garden that was put up to keep the deer out... anyway I digress. I do not have a dog. Fence your own yard! Her dog isn't nice or it would not be an issue. It comes into my yard and barks and growls at me and chases my nieces and nephews around trying to bite their ankles. Then it uses my yard as it's bathroom ... very gross! Hmm..okay.. the first few times it happened, my husband was really nice and simply walked two doors down and asked her to come get her dog out of our yard... simple request? Not to her. She thought since she had lived here longer that she did not appreciate us causing a problem. All her conversations have come with a bit of a drunken slur as well... I was told by another neighbor that all I had to do next time was take her a box of cheap wine and things would go much better! Finally we began calling animal control over the dog and she has done a much better job with the dog... so that leads us to the fowl that are frolicking in my flowers. I decided to be nice this time and simply ask her to get the frolicking fowl out of my flowers. Done! Maybe this was an isolated incident? Imagine my surprise when I heard a pecking on my front door this morning and open to find the new neighborhood peeping tom looking in my front door!

He tried to escape unnoticed, but due to the rain (and recognizable tail), he left wet chicken prints across my front porch and trapped himself in the dead end! Doesn't he know he is a bird and birds are supposed to fly? Or does that not apply to chickens??

Guess we will have to figure out how much of these feathery fowls are tolerable because PS: It is not legal to have farm animals within city limits let alone wondering the neighborhood. Guess I am on my way to get a box of wine... where do you get that anyway???

for old times sake...

Last night my sis, Melissa and I, went out for a girls night to see an old friend play in his band for the last time. I hadn't seen him in 8 years, so it was fun to catch up (as much as you can when he is on stage playing the drums)! I met Russ when I was 16 through my sis, Heather, and him and I were great friends for 5 years then kind of lost touch until we re-met on facebook! Was fun to see him and he gave Melissa and I each one of his drum sticks from his last show (pictured above). And no, he did not chew on them, but apparently this is what happens to them when you play! Such a great guy and he is getting married in two weeks! Congratualtions and best of luck, Russ!

Monkeying Around

So today was Emilia's final birthday party in which she got to invite her friends to go visit Savanahland. Besides her cousins, she chose to invite her friends Catherine and Myles. Today was actually Catherine's birthday also, so we had two birthday girls blowing out candles, and Emilia was happy to share. I was a little nervous about finding the place, but I did a virtual "dry run" on google maps and thought I was good to go, but about 3 minutes into the gravel road and a missing Saxton's truck, I turned around and went a different way. Turns out I was only about 2 blocks away from the place when I turned around... oh, and we found Saxton! Ten minutes later we arrived and the fun began...

Hannah and the baby chimp

Saxton

Myles was not sure what to think at first!

Lily and Heather

it's our turn!

I am talking, the chimp is imitating me and Emilia is not listening...

why do I feel like nobody takes me seriously? :)

At least the baby kangaroo liked me...

or maybe just my coffee breath!

And no Caryn, that is not a deer... it is a kangaroo! :)

Nathan

The 5 minutes the kids were actually listening during the tour...

it was very interesting, but not really geared towards 2 & 3 year olds.

Ironically enough, though, I think the little ones listened more than the older ones!

Emilia and baby Bella

One of the biggest highlights for the kids was feeding the deer...

I am sure it was a highlight for her too!

This look says it all!

I didn't think Emilia was going to leave her side!

Can't wait until she tries this with the deer that mingle

in our back yard! :)

Not sure what Garrett was saying, but Saxton seemed amused.

Knowing Garrett, I am not sure I want to ask!

The birthday girls blowing out their candles.

and making wishes!

Hannah and Hudson

best buds

birthday treats

Hudson always loves my cooking... good for my ego!

happy boy!

Emilia, on the other hand, did not seem to impressed!

her new watering can

Claffie opening her gift from Emilia

Looks like Lilybug enjoyed the treats!

showing off the paint

Emilia actually read her cards and let me tell you, according

to her they said some interesting things!

new chalk paint and chalk accessories!

Emilia was so excited about her new dino book and light bright!

Heather applying "attachment parenting" style "baby wearing"

with her new baby roo! Awe, such a good mama! :)

Just about the size of our bigger babies at work!

I thought he was so cute sucking his thumb until he stuck his slobbery

thumb in my mouth! I almost vomited... awesome. I will probably be

the first diagnosed with some new chimp flu!

At least Roo had no opposable thumbs to do this with!

Although a bit hot and smelly at times (both the animals and us by the end of it), everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. I thought I was bad getting us turned around on the way there, so my self confidence regarding my lack of directional skills was at an all time low... until we followed Heather home! Thank you, Heather, for getting us lost twice on the way home just to make me feel better... you are such a great sis to do this! Emilia slept through the drive home until the minute we pulled in the driveway. I pulled in the garage and turned the car off. One little eye popped open and I here,"can I play with my new birthday toys?" So it was back outside for chalk fun and then back into the AC (ahhh!) for some light bright action and book reading! Busy but fun day! Happy birthday Emilia (again)!