First sunburn of the year

Yeah, summer is coming! Today (yesterday really since it is now past midnight) was a great sunny day so while Olivia was at a birthday party, I decided to wait for her in the car (with the doors open) so that I could enjoy the day and work in peace and quiet on the baby blanket I’m knitting for my sister’s soon-to-come baby boy. I had a great time and when we got home, Olivia looked at me and said “your arm is all red.” Yep, only the arm on the door side, with a nice farmer tan line and two white marks, one where my watch was and one where my arm was bent due to the knitting. Very glamorous…but who cares, as long as warm weather is just around the corner!

Dear Mom and Dad...I mean Tooth Fairy

As you may know, on February 18th Olivia lost her first baby tooth, but what you probably don’t know is that she has been very vocal about the fact the she, being a big knowledgeable girl, doesn’t believe in the tooth fairy (Santa Claus, Sure, but the tooth fairy… come on!) So the tooth fairy didn’t leave anything under her pillow; she can’t if she doesn’t exist (this really made sense to me at the time). Olivia didn’t say anything so I figured I was in the clear, until a few days ago. I was ready to get into bed when I found a note on my pillow that instructed me to go look under Olivia’s pillow and this is what I found under there: There wasn't anything in the envelope but the back of it told us she knew exactly what she wanted put in the said envelope.

She knew what she wanted and she got it. Tyler and I talked and we decided that it really wasn’t about the Tooth Fairy, believing in her or not, it’s about a little girl losing her first tooth and parents giving her a little money but really saying “Good job you’re becoming a big girl”. She got $5 and it the morning we got the biggest hugs. It was $5 well spent!

Kites

For FHE today, the kids (and Tyler) flew kites for the first time this year. It’s so funny to watch them fly their kites. I for one think that after 5 minutes it’s kind of boring but the kids could do it for hours on end (if it hadn’t gotten so cold), they run, they laugh, they (try to) make cool tricks with their kites or they simply lay down on the grass and admire the picture on the kite. It is so cool to be entertained and to love something so simple and cheap ($3 at Wal-Mart). Tonight there was no fancy game technology, no TV, no bundles of money for an enjoyable time simply the great outdoors, a kite and a little imagination. We heard no whining, only giggles, oohs and ahhs. They had the time of their lives. The kites in action.

Olivia admiring her kite.

As you can see her kite-flying pose hasn't changed much between 2005 and 2009.

Henry loving every minute of it.

Olivia's Barbie kite.

Henry's Spiderman (what else?) kite.

Both my precious kids flying their kites. Isn't great when the outdoors and simple things like kites have as much appeal as the Wii or TV? I love it!

Bath time sibling rivalry and silliness

Almost every time Henry is in the bath he’ll call for me to come see him and I find him in a version of a bubble bath beard. I try to be enthusiastic every time even though bubble bath beards all tend to look the same and every few month I even take a picture because I do like to see him so pleased with himself. (The picture below was taken in September of last year.) But this last time I was in for a surprise and he was more than pleased with himself. He had used Dora’s lifejacket as goggles and thought he was extremely clever. It was definitely worth a picture. I love when my kids use their imagination, come up with a new silliness and are so pleased with it.

Of course, as competitive as she is, Olivia had to top her brother’s bath time performance and decided that adding the colander, which I use as a bath-toys-catcher, as a hat would be perfect. I have really cute kids!