Snuggles, Legs, and a Monkey

Harry getting naptime loves from Snuggles

Memma and her legs... she's SO tall lately!!

I made a monkey! Its an Amigurami... Loving it!! I need some practice, but they're fun to make. This guy still needs some eyes. :)

Pool Fun!

Miss Memma woke up early from her nap today, so we rushed out out to take advantage of the base pool on this extremely hot 94 degree day. Emma had her hair in curlers last night and they turned out super tight, so she ended up with piggies. Which was all fine and cute until she tipped over in the pool and got 1 piggie wet. So she had 1 stick straight wet pigtail and 1 super duper curly pigtail. She was pretty lopsided for a minute or two until she dunked on her other side and evened them out! :)

Harry caught Jerry today. Notice her trying to "hide?" She does that when the kids corner her, its hilarious!

Pizza Rita Tour!

Today our playgroup had a tour of the local pizza place, Pizza Rita. It was awesome! The kids got to tour the kitchen, make and pound pizza dough, and put sauce, cheese, and pepperoni on to premade crusts. Plus, they got to sample their work afterwards, so everybody was happy, entertained, and best of all, FULL!

Emma eating the cheese!! (and Anna putting it on the pizza!)

Kids in the freezer! He closed the door shortly after this and Emma was NOT okay with that idea!

Harry pounding dough

Harry spreading sauce on the pizza

Updates

Emma got curlers tonight... pictures of said curls to come tomorrow!

Harry got rocket ship pajamas. He refuses to sleep without them, despite the fact its 90 degrees outside. Thank God for air conditioners and free base electricity.

They've decided to be cows for Halloween. Thank you to Ebay and Sandra for allowing me to allow them to do this for a grand total of $7. I think that means I get to buy candy earlier, hence eating more of it before the last minute Halloween run??!! I'm not even going to pretend to lie and say that I don't do this!

Some kids found a frog at the lake. They let my kids hold said frog. BIG mistake, they dropped the frog countless times and probably gave him some sort of brain trauma. Poor frog.

Jay put Jerry up on the high shelving. This shelving is so high that I have to use a stepladder, not just a stool, to get things off of it. Needless to say, she was PISSED. However, since I came to take a picture of her, I happen to be the one blamed, not Jay. I know she's mad at me when I don't see her for about 4 days and the only time she comes upstairs is when I've fallen asleep and only Jay is out of bed. Yup, she's persnickety. I've been around for going on 6 years now and I've still to get in her good graces... Argh.... probably take me 6 more after this!

MORE Farm Fun!

We headed out to the Fat 'n Happy Farm last night with friends from our playgroup. Thanks Amber for setting this up for us!

Emma picking eggs!

Riding the sheep!

Even Anders got to love the llama!! LOL- He's SOO cute!!

All the kiddos! (at least those old enough to sit on the steps!)

Eva, Anna, Harry

Thomas, Joshua, Shane

Kai, James, Spencer

Emma, Ethan

Myann, and Bree

(missing: Katie, Molly, Anders)

Farm Fun

We had a birthday party at the ACS Ponies and Petting Farm today for a friend's 3 year old. What a great time! The kids had a blast petting, feeding, and riding (plus some general harassment!) all of the animals on the farm. Thanks Jeff and Elana for inviting us, and Happy Birthday Josh!!

Cake was gooooood!

Harry on the horse

Ems taking a ride!

Emma and Daddy feeding sheep

probably my new favorite picture of Emma... doesn't she just look perfect! :)

Harry holding "his bunny"

Harry caught a chicken!

Ems waving "hi" to the baby goat!

Lake Fun!

Today hit 90+ degrees, so when Rhenda suggested the lake, we were more than happy to oblige and head out there. The kids had a blast, despite Harry having a MAJOR meltdown when we left. I seriously debated just leaving him there. I'd write my phone number in ink on his leg or something where it would take someone an hour or two to find, but where they would eventually find it and be able to return him. Just not right away.

He has had the worst week of his short little life this past week. He's outright defiant, he bit me, he pushed Emma down on our patio this morning and kicked her in the face. For those of you who know him well, this is out of character. Yes, obviously, we have our standard 3-year old meltdowns, and he's a challenging child in his own way, but rarely is he defiant and never is he purposefully violent. I'm completely at my wit's end right now. I wish I could say that this is a reaction to my dad leaving after spending 6 weeks with him, but he started this even before he left, its just culminating. I've asked if his ears hurt, if his tummy hurts, anything to put the blame elsewhere than him just being awful. Jay and I have tried every discipline and parenting technique we know of, including spanking, which I hate doing, but works well on our 3 year old boy. Usually, I should say. He spent a total of 20 minutes outside of his room yesterday, thinking that if I just left him alone to "make good decisions" (a parenting technique that works VERY well with him right now), he would be able to come out and we could talk about it. He really does well with talking it out after a time out; however, we did this about 5 times yesterday and he'd walk away from me (sometimes while I was still talking!) and do something else horribly naughty. It got to the point that I just let him play by himself in his room until Jay came home with fresh attitude and patience.

I'm praying that this is just a phase. We never really went through the "terrible two's" with him, we started discipline very early with both kids and while they definitely went through a "testing" phase btw 18 months and 2 years, by the time they started making their own choices, they knew which was the good decision. Not to say that we don't have our outrageous battles, but they tend to be pretty far between. Emma is just coming out of the testing stage (I HOPE!), and her behaviour has improved dramatically in the last 3 weeks. I'm loving it, she's my sweet little dumpling again. :)

Ugh.. anyways, we headed to the lake today. We had a great time whilst there, which helped me get through the rest of the day...

playing in the pool in the backyard...

little pretty girl!

Emma being stylish.. and two girls picking wedgies?? :(

Check out those french braids!! She kept saying " I pwetty, I pwetty!"

He got some air!

Bike rides!

We bought Harry a Lightning McQueen bike LAST summer as an outright bribe for potty training. We figured we were going to buy him a bike anyways, so we might as well make it worth it, right? Anyways, the bike was too big and he liked his diapers, so it got stored for the winter. This summer he's been too stubborn to pedal it, so we've only brought it out a few times. However, last night he decided that he was ready, so we pulled out the helmets and let him have a go! He did awesome and went all the way around the block. I think his little legs are finally coordinated enough that he can pedal without forcing it. My poor tall child goes through ridiculously large growth spurts and becomes SUPER clumsy for months afterwards. This last one seems to have been a reasonably mild one and left him more coordinated than he's been in a while. Hence, the pedaling skill. :)

Trying it out!

Doing really well racing down the road!

Emma and Daddy cruising!

Lumpy Bear- ticked off because I made her stop to take a picture!!

Highlights!

Okay, so I know I"ve been pretty lax on the blogging lately, but its summer! C'mon! I've been out enjoying myself. I'll try and do more detailed posts later, but no promises... and I do still have more MN pictures when I get my hard drive back up... As for now, here's some highlights from the last few weeks...

went to Riverside State Park

made a monster truck birthday cake!

Went to jump and bounce!

watched mule deer and the lake at Medical Lake Park

camped in the backyard

Rode rides at Riverfront Park

Picked peaches, cherries, and apricots at Greenbluff with the Domrese Family!

Swam at the beach in Coeur D'Alene

Harry took skating lessons!