April Updates!

Been MIA for a bit, but hopefully this will catch me back up! LOL!

At the beginning of April, we finally found Calli a bed. She used to have a canopy, then we got rid of that when we were given a bunk bed. We got tired of that one and gave it away and got a TENT. That was fun for a little while but we used the tent when we went camping and never put it back in her room. So all this time, she's been sleeping on a matress on the floor. Not a big deal, though, since it made it so easy to rearrange things (Which she did. Daily.) and lean it up against things to make a slide. I found a day bed (with the trundle and both matresses) on Craigslist and we snapped it up! Now that we have the bed I can order her bedding set (blue/brown dots) and get the room painted and put together! She's very happy to have such a lovely bed and regularly pulls the trundle out for Lillia to sleep on.

Easter happened a few days later, along with all the egg dying and hunting that comes with it...

For Easter, Calli got glow-in-the-dark planet and star ceiling stick-ups which are SO COOL! Unfortunately, it was impossible to get a pic of them glowing at night, but it really is a neat thing to see. What really shocked me, though, was Calli telling me the names of the planets as I put them up! Somehow she knows all of them! I told her the little saying of "My Very Efficient Mother Just Served Us Nine Pizzas" which is how I remember the order they go in. We discussed the strange orbit of Neptune and how Pluto is no longer considered a planet. It was fun!

She also got a cool I Spy puzzle, so we spent an enjoyable evening putting it together and playing the game...

On April 15th, we had the concrete ripped out of our backyard so we can pour a whole new patio. Unfortunately, this meant being awoken WAY too early by a tractor outside our bedroom window, but it was very exciting to watch!

And because they were woken up so much earlier than they're used to, they both crashed at 7pm!

I've started a small WAHM business making reusable bowl covers, called Rebel:T/L/C's. So my kitchen table is a mess off fabric scraps most of the time. Calli took advantage of a few and put together a dress (which was actually the legs of some fleece pants which were too short for Rickson so I hacked them off to make them into shorts), and a headband. Then she grabbed my camera and played photographer. LOL!

Last weekend we had a Slip-N-Slide playdate with some friends. The kids had a total blast!!

Calli and I participated in TWLOHA: To Write Love on Her Arms Day on April 21st. I told her what the group is all about and what they're trying to do to bring awareness to the problems of drepression, addiction, and self-injury. We had an intriguing conversation while I wrote LOVE on both our arms, then we posted our pic on Facebook. She was quite proud to walk around with that written on her wrist all day while we went shopping and such.

The place where we get Daddy's truck washed put in this cool little waiting area:

 We played in a cute little splash pool and with a nifty little sprinkler mat...

 We enjoyed our newish grass with cloud gazing, picnicing (in our pj's, lol), and tree hugging...

Oh! And gave each other pedicures. ^_^

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Earth Hour and miscellaneous pics

Earth Hour was March 27th at 8:30pm. We pulled out our candles (which hadn't been used since Earth Hour LAST year), lit a fire, found the flashlights, and tripped the circuit breaker!



Calli:


Rickson:


We spent the first several minutes eating our left-over sub sandwiches from lunch while we sat in front of the fireplace. Then we discussed what there was to do with zero electricity...





Roast marshmallows, of course!! So that took up a good portion of our hour. Can't top gooey roasted marshmallows and good conversation! I can't decide if it's sad or funny that Calli couldn't really come up with much when asked, "What do you think families used to do back when there was no power?" She thought for a long time before she said, "I dunno. Play outside, I suppose."

"Yeah, okay, but what about at 9 o'clock at night when it's dark and cold? What did they do then?"

"Sleep?"

>_>

So I threw out ideas like singing, storytelling, reading, crafing, and *gasp* talking! LOL! "Oh, yeah."

Doing simple things like using the bathroom or getting something from the kitchen was funny because several times we would walk away from the light of the fire and click a lightswitch! Oops! Then there was that momentary confusion before the person would yell, "Can someone bring me a flashlight?"

A few moments before Earth Hour was over, Calli went through the house the turned on EVERY switch in EVERY room with the idea that going from zero power to blinding brightness would be incredibly amusing. Not sure if it was or not, because I was the one who went behind the house to turn the circuit breaker back on. (And subsequently trecked through the house turning OFF all the lights. LOL!) It was a fun little thing to participate in.

Before it started, Calli had been outside playing with a neighbor friend. She suddenly remembered Earth Hour and told her friend she had to get home ASAP for it. Her friend had no idea what Calli was talking about. No surprise there!

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And now for some miscellaneous pictures that probably should have been posted with the laying down of the sod but I missed them...

The kids found a Rolly Polly and showered him with love and affection for about 20 minutes. (Which I'm SURE he appreciated... ha!) They made him a fabulous home (that I didn't get a picture of) in a bowl, filling it with dirt, rocks, sticks, leaves, etc. and watching him walk around and around the perimeter. They "set him free" in the yard and he ran for his little life. Poor thing. Hehe!



Then they drew with chalk a bit and Rickson was being really dramatic about jumping OVER the drawings so as not to mess them up. I caught a mid-air pic.



After the yard was finished and the roses planted, I walked up to the door and saw my family literally watching grass grow!



And this was from the other day, totally unrelated, but Rickson was going on and on about the magnets, telling me some half-understandable story. He got upset with me for taking this picture because I was interrupting him and he "wasn't ready yet!"

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Spring has sprung!

We spent the first day of Spring in the most awesome way... laying down grass!!! We're all SO excited! We've lived here for nearly 3 years and we're FINALLY getting around to doing this. I can't begin to describe how amazingly cool it is to glance out the window and see GREEN instead of dirt. It smells amazing and just makes the house look so nice. I love it!!

Here's a pic of it about half-done. We were waiting on our second load of sod.


Some 'before' and 'afters'...









And the day after that we took the kids to pick out rose bushes. Calli chose 'Blue Girl', a silver lilac-blue, and Rickson chose 'Broadway', a bicolor blend of yellow and reddish pink.





We also threw out several packets of flower seeds but not with any intent or purpose so it'll be interesting to see if those grow. We're getting some iris and lily plants from Nater to put around the mailbox.

I'm so happy Spring is here!!

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Ready for Spring!!

I haven't really posted much lately because... well, because we haven't really been DOING much to post about lately. The warm weather is really teasing us, giving us one or two good days between long strings of yucky ones. Come on, Spring!!

We took advantage of a little sun the other day to draw with chalk and walk around the block a bit. Calli bought herself a stroller at the thrift store. Mainly for her doll, but apparently it works for her brother, too!



According to Rickson, he was drawing an octopus.






Oh! And, bad mommy that I am, I totally forgot to post here when Calli achieved Level 20 in World of Warcraft! But she did, she got her mount (actually, several birds and a horse), and now she's approaching Level 23! She's so thrilled everytime she goes up a level!

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A Day Full of Adventure!

Wow, did we ever have a busy day on Thursday! We spent the day in the city with Daddy's family (his mom and 3 younger siblings) and had a VERY full, fun, exhausting day! The best kind!

Unfortunately, I only got pics of the first part of the day. After we left Scheels we went to Whole Foods, the mall (where Calli got to bungee/trampoline bounce), Petsmart, Barnes & Noble, and Best Buy. Needless to say, the kids were WIPED OUT when we finally headed home!

Here we are arriving at Scheels. Not the best pic, but I think the lighting is cool.



We had to check out the fishies, of course!





And we had to play on the climbing stuff!











We had to play on the escalators...



And check out the animals...





And get gelato! Calli had Cookie Dough, Rickson had Rocky Road, Mommy had Blood Orange. Yuuuuuuum!!







Trecking through that place is an adventure, and you CAN'T tell a two-year-old to pace himself! LOL!



We headed outside to brave the chill and check out the Legends outdoor mall! These rock structures will be a fountain that the kids can play in when the weather turns, but for now they served as hide-and-seek-jump-out-and-yell-BOO structures.



Here's a giant fish made out of... fish!! Not sure if this is meant as a metaphor or not. >_>



This was priceless; we call Rickson "a tough lil' bean". I still can't believe he posed so perfectly for me! This place made a killer Chai, too.



Love love love LOVE this. Totally precious.



They visited with Mark Twain for a bit... "Hello, sir! Whatcha readin'?" says Rickson.



More running, chasing, hiding, and yelling BOO!



Then they said Hello to the Mountain Bluebirds (NV's state bird).



After we were all sufficiently frozen enough, we headed back inside to drive the race cars. That's Calli getting into the driver's seat of the yellow car and Daddy riding shotgun with his brother. There was much bumping, crashing, and flipping!



We ended with a ride on the ferris wheel! What a great time!

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