Sunshine, Rainbows and Lincoln Logs

A few days ago the sun came out, and the temperature rose...to about freezing...but it really felt like spring. The girls asked to get out their bikes, which we of course did, and then all the rest of the spring and summer play stuff came out too. Some outside play time and fresh air does a body good!

Sunbathing????

Maya came downstairs and asked me for a "back pony", which I did, and then wanted ALL these clips in her hair. I tried to talk her down to 2 or 3 of them, but to no avail. : ) I think we actually made a trip to WalMart with this hair-do also.

The letter of the week is R. R is for rainbows. Maya decorated her letter R with rainbow colored pieces of tissue paper and it went up on our letter wall. I found lots of other rainbow inspired ideas here.

Rainbow rice has been the suprise hit of the week. I colored plain white rice with food coloring and a little rubbing alcohol and mixed the colors all up for rainbow rice. The girls and the neighbor kids that have been over have spent a LOT of time scooping and pouring in this tub of rainbow fun!

Today, with a house full of kids, we did another rainbow craft - this time with colored marshmallows. First they sorted the whole bag into bowls according to color, then the idea was to make rainbows (go figure!) by glueing the marshmallows on in lines to look like a rainbow, but only 1 of the 5 pictures turned out actually looking anything like a rainbow. Oh well. They had fun anyway.

Can you tell who's picture came out as a rainbow? I'll give you a hint..it was NOT Maya's!

Some of you reading this have heard about the disasterous lincoln log disaster that happened the other day. Maya decided it would be fun to sit in the bin and throw all the lincoln logs all over the living room. Of course she decided to do this while I was in the shower so I couldn't stop her progress. Well, she had fun getting them out of the bin but wasn't thrilled (to say the least) about having to put them all back in! This video was taken several HOURS into the "cleaning up" ordeal. : )

In a nutshell

This is our life in a nutshell.

Dress up.

Maggie made this sign the other day. Translation: "Maya Brynn's Giant Mess".

This was the mess.

On account of such "mess", the moonsand is now in the garbage and will never be making another appearance if I have anything to do with it.

Daniel was over and we made homemade crayons. You know, when you take the nubs in the crayon box and melt them in muffin tins to make "new" crayons. They were fascinated with the melting. (Yes, Maya is wearing a swimming suit in the middle of February. Why not?)

Fun in the snow. We've got a lot of it. We still have what came down in the first snow of the year back in November. Warmer days are predicted for this week so maybe a little will melt and the huge piles lining everyone's driveway will go down so I can back the car out and not worry about hitting anyone driving down the street.

Snow angel!

Hi mom!

Maya's been staying dry at nighttime and has been collecting stickers on her potty chart. She stayed dry 3 days in a row to earn a new princess dress!!! She picked out this one, but put it on and wasn't happy because her "boob" was showing. It now has safety pins in the shoulders. Actually she made it 8 days in a row I think. Now she's working on a whole week with no accidents and then she gets to go to open gym - the prize of all prizes!!!!! Good bye pull-ups!

Maya got up on Saturday morning and made her and daddy breakfast. This is what daddy's bowl looked like. I think there were some Mini Wheats in there somewhere! : )

Mmmmmmm.

Our little dare devil.

I've been trying to upload another video, but haven't had success. I don't know what the deal is, but the girls have invented a new game. It's called Run, Jump, Straddle. It involves, running, jumping on couch cushions, and straddle handstands. You get the picture. I'll try to get another video. : )

Cousin time

My sister Callie, her husband Devin, and their 5 month old son Jacob just left after staying with us for a whole week. We hadn't seen Jakey since he was only a couple weeks old, so having them come out was awesome. The cousins got some major bonding time, and Maggie and Maya got right to work smothering their baby Jakey with loves and kisses.

Maya thought she was the queen bee when she was allowed to hold Jacob. Her holding skills weren't superb, but what can you expect from a 3 year old. Jacob didn't seem to mind.

Auntie Callie got suckered into playing Princess Yahtzee more than a few times. This has been her favorite game ever since Christmas.

Auntie Callie with all the cousins.

Maya doing her best to entertain Jacob. I thought she did a great job!

Maggie definitely loved having a baby in the house. (Ok, I did too), but it was nice to give him back at the end of the day. I'm still waiting for our neighbor Becky to have her new little one. I'd really like to be borrowing one on a regular basis!

Maggie's chillin' with Uncle Devin, Auntie Callie and Jakey.

Finally the time came for a cousin bath! The girls were super excited and I think Jacob had a pretty good time too.

Is he not the cutest?????

All clean and ready for bed.

Goodnight kisses.

Before they left today we did an impromptu photo session with Jacob in the cutest ever sweater vest that we forgot yesterday when we had an actual real photo session with the three of them. Look at that cute boy workin' the camera!

We had such a great time with them. I wished they lived closer so we could seem them more often. They hated the cold weather so I don't think they'll be moving here any time soon. Bummer.

Wordless Wednesday