Date Night With Mom & Dad

Tater tots + sparkly gowns + gummy worms = the perfect date.

Just ask Pazely.

She recently had a daddy/mommy/Pazely date. The first stop was to the mall. Pazely's been talking on & on for the last 2 weeks about some mylar helium balloon animals she saw near the food court. We splurged $6 & bought her a dog. (Finally! A pet that daddy approves of!) She walked that fake pooch around as if it were real. Seriously, this was the highlight of her date. If the date had ended right there, that girl would not have been the least bit disappointed.

The REAL reason we went to the mall was to try on fancy dresses. Just for fun. And while Pazely & I hopped around the department stores, daddy mysteriously disappeared. Which was rather inconvenient when we got locked in the dressing room stall. I admit, I panicked. But Pazely looked around & calmly replied, "Well, at least we have water & clothes..." (She had brought along a water bottle.) "...and a chair," she added, as she turned to sit down on the dressing room bench. We eventually got the door unstuck & embraced our freedom by heading over to Bath & Body Works to try on lip glosses & hand sanitizers. (Hand sanitizers? I know, so weird. She wanted to. Whatevs.) 

We finally found daddy & he treated us all to dinner at Sonic. Van doors wide open, we sat in the shade, eating our tater tots & grilled chicken sammies.

Next stop? The recycling dumpsters! Woohoo! (Ok, we snuck a chore in there.)

The night ended with a visit to a yogurt shop, where Pazely piled more candy than yogurt into that little cup of hers.

Sure, taking your kids out for special one-on-one time is nothing new. The Mr. & I always have good intentions to make it a habit, but it ends up being a scattered outing here & there with, sadly, not a lot of priority involved. Life gets busy. Things get in the way.

BUT, to establish a monthly date night with our kids as a regular part of our routine, I found this awesome idea in Family Fun magazine. (I think that's where I read it.) 

Take your kids out, once a month, on the date of their birthday!!

Zoey's birthday is September 14th. So, on the 14th of every month, she can anticipate her very own date. 

Last month was our first go. The girls had so much fun!

The thing I love about dates with my kids is that I can customize the date according to the likes of my kids. Zoey wouldn't have particularly liked dressing up. So HER date was spent wandering the garden department of a local store. She picked out pots & flowers & then we had some late-night fun potting them in the backyard. That girl loves growing things & taking care of plants. The pots look splendid on the steps of the new rental we just moved into! 

We tried on silly hats, made silly faces, laughed at our silly selves.

We, too, had yogurt.

She felt on top of the world having mom & dad all to herself. 

And I find myself anticipating the time I get to spend with them too.

♥

FAMILY NIGHT: The Stairs Edition

Last night's Family Night was so much fun! The Mr. came up with the idea on his own. (The Mr. doesn't often agree to do "silly". So, when he does, it sets me in a state of awe & I love him even more.) We sent the girls downstairs so we could set up. I piled a bunch of pillows at the bottom of the stairs & the Mr. cut up moving boxes. And then the Mr. had the first run down the stairs. The girls ran upstairs when they heard the noise. They were pretty much excited & squealing when they saw their daddy & then realized what we were doing. 

The Mr. only had one layer of cardboard so it immediately bended & folded & gave no support. His ride went pretty much like this:

bumpity-bumpity-bumpity-bumpity-bump

And, from what I recall as a kid, when you are attempting to fly down the stairs, you pretty much want it to go like this:

WHOOSH!!!!

We gathered more cardboard to sit on & that made the ride a bit more smooth & slick. I wish we had more stairs! Flashback: I recall my house as a kid, on Blue Heron Boulevard, in West Richland, Washington: Orange carpet. Stairs for days. My brother & I zipped & zoomed down those stairs on our bellies, face first, arms outstretched like Superman. Oh, man. Those were the days...

Click HERE for Zoey's video. I asked her to give me a "countdown" before she launched. She accidentally started sliding before counting down. So all that mumbling as she is flying down the stairs is her quickly counting down. haha!

Click HERE for my video.Warning: You may want to turn the volume down. As the Mr. puts it in the video: "You need to stop screamin' Nik! It's scary." And Pazely is lip-singing the whole time to this really annoying & creepy nursery rhyme song about 'The Three Little Kittens', which is playing in the background. It totally sounds like the munchkins from the Lollipop Guild in the Wizard of Oz are singing it. And it's on REPEAT! (As the role of a cute little freckle-faced human, she is perfect! As the DJ, she is fired.)

For some reason, my bum is the screen shot for the video. Ugh. As one of my Facebook friends stated: "...but that's whats making me watch it, your bum." 

Though it was available for a very limited time in its early release, the Mr. has not officially authorized the use of his video.

And Pazely had a rough night. She was being a bit of a grump. How you can be a grump when your mom & dad are flying down the stairs on cardboard boxes, I'll never understand. So, there's no video of her. She was really whiny & tired & uncooperataive & was crying {unnecessarily} like a baby. She got mad at me because I told her, "Stop being such a cry baby." She firmly stated: "I'm NOT a baby! Don't call me a cry baby!!!! You should have called me a cry kid!" I apologized for calling her a cry baby instead of a cry kid. 

I DID get an awesome picture of her bumping down the stairs though. Somehow I snapped the picture perfectly on a down-bump & her face looks like an old lady. The skin looks saggy & everything. It is so funny! But she told me not to show it to anyone. Bummer. 

After school today the girls & I are going to attempt another run down the stairs. With the winter sled. We will not stop until we have reached hypersonic stair sliding speeds. 

I think we're gonna need more pillows...

♥

It's about time.

Monogrammed socks.

Ok, so they're not REALLY monogrammed.

I don't know why it took me forever to do this either.

 Every week, as I fold the laundry, I get so frustrated with who gets which pair of socks.

We took the girls shopping for undies, socks & shoes just recently. Exciting, I know.

(Which is what started all this monogramming business in the first place.)

My girls, twenty-one-&-a-half months apart to be exact, are beginning to be the same size in the undies department, & well, socks are pretty universal in size. So, I'm changing my game plan.

The Sharpie is my new best friend.

I'm pretty sure I've shaved several minutes off my laundry folding time each month.

And the girls may have marks on the bottom of their socks until they're 18.

(And possibly their undies.)

♥



Tuesday

Yesterday it was almost 80 degrees. It's supposed to SNOW tonight!!

What?

The midwest has the craziest weather EVA.

The girls & I just got home from the Scholastic book fair at their school. I gave them each a little wad of money to spend. I LOVED book fairs when I was in elementary school. I remember that our classes would get to go to the library & all the books were lined up like a little store. My favorite things were all the little tiny cutesy stuffs: bookmarks, pencils, pens, erasers, posters. In keeping with the tradition, my children picked out a couple books this evening, but mostly chose things like bookmarks, pencils, pens, erasers & posters.

Do you want to know what else I did today? I took a solo trip "to town" (I think it's funny to say that) & bought Halloween costume-makin' supplies! Believe it or not, this crafty mama has NEVER made a Halloween costume. I'm not totally into Halloween. But something just got into me this year & all of a sudden I felt like I had the confidence to make dress up clothes for the girls. I have found EASY directions for the girls' specific dress-up attire of choice. I won't reveal yet, but I can't wait to get started & share them with you! I'm crossing my fingers that the girls love the costumes & that they actually look like what they're supposed to look like.

I'm excited to get in my crafty zone tonight, when all the fam goes to sleep, & start cutting & sewing.

But for now, the children & the Mr. & I are going to partake in some caramel apple cider & kettle corn while we get our Family Night on.

Bring on some Wii competition.

Yeah!

♥

Washington

After a mini vacay in Lincoln/Omaha with my family a few weeks ago, I had a special short solo trip planned to see my family in Washington. Oh wow---it was SUPER relaxing. Well, it was relaxing AFTER I got off the plane. I HATE FLYING. I knitted to keep my mind occupied. And that worked pretty well. Until I told the lady next to me that I hated flying & so she proceeded to tell me her worst flying story of dropping 300 feet in the air & everyone screaming while she prayed to Jesus. Nice.

Tia picked me up from the airport. Me & my chipmunk cheeks were happy to see that lady!! We had am amazing 2 1/2 hour gigglefest all the way home.

I came to see my family. Even my biological sister Kelby (who I met for the first time in December) came over with her hubby Ryan to see me for a day.

My sister Stacie, brother Andrew & me.

And these are Andrew & Stacie's little monsters. I love those little people. I didn't have MY girls with me, so it gave me a chance to hang out with these tiny humans, who would normally be playing with MY 2 kidlets. I laughed & laughed & laughed. They are funny. And so clever & silly. And loving.

My oldest niece & I walked along my grandmother & mother's roses & smelled each one.

I also gave them all Bug Catcher/Treasure Keeper necklaces.

And that meant I had to help collect bugs.

I taught my niece how to roll her socks.

That's what auntie's are for.

I enjoyed my parent's yard--with all it's pretty plants & flowers.

I watched my dad weed the strawberry patches.

And snuck a few pics in-between.

I got to hang out with this beautiful lady.

My grandmother is so cute.

We even went through her small box of yarn & knitting/crochet/plastic canvas supplies.

She sent me home with a couple skeins of yarn. And my first crochet hooks---so the girls & I can learn this summer!

Mom took me shopping at my favorite little antique mall in town. Really, it's heartache every time I enter now. There is nothing like that around here. Mom bought me lots of fabric scraps & buttons for some projects the girls & I will be making in the next couple months. I didn't want to leave that shop. It's my favorite. Vintage fabrics, trims, & loveliness abound! *sigh*

I got to swap my black & white themed handmade items that I'd been working on for the last few weeks, with my 13 year old friend Becca as part of our spontaneous & random Operation:Crafty Swap. It was fun to do this in person, rather than mailing it!!

There were raosty toasty marshmallows & sticky tasty s'mores!

And an outing to a cupcake shop/bistro called Frost Me Sweet. My sis works there & I really died & went to panini heaven. Holy mozzarella, basil & tomato with pesto aioli sauce, Batman!! (It's "The Bistro" panini, just in case you ever go there. Which you should. It's in Richland. In the Parkway.) And then there were cupcakes To-Go, of course! (We sampled & shared later that evening while playing cards.)

We sat outside so the little peeps could run around & disturb the peace. The nearby water fountain started spewing water & my mother was SURE it was because the children were feeding it rocks & sticks. We ate & ran.

One night Tia & I went on a rampage. First, we went to my favorite park in Richland, Howard Amon, & I did my first yarn bombing. (a.k.a. "knitting grafitti") More about THAT in a future post. (We even took a video, but it might be too long & boring.) AND, she taught me the way of the fork. Did you know about "forking" someone's yard? Well, we performed the most awesome hoax of all time. And laughed so hard until sour cream cheesecake almost came out of Tia's nose.

And then there was the shopping for the wee ones back home. Mommy can't come home empty handed you know. So, I headed over to my favorite unique shop: The Octopus' Garden. I picked up some "Little Miss" & "Little Mr." books by Roger Hargreaves. And some mustache bandaids for myself. Along with a little solar powered Asian piggy that wiggles & shimmy's. And some other toys & doo-dads.

There were also visits to the park in the daytime---sans covert operations.

Swinging & jumpy photos & polaroids galore. (And my niece arriving in an outfit complete with rolled socks.)

That's me & my cutie mom in the pic below!

I must admit the plane ride home freaked me out a bit. I took some motion sickness meds

for the first time & that helped take the edge off. But, when I saw the windy, WINDY day, & the 18 passenger plane with its twirly propellers spinning, I almost started crying. (This was for the last leg of the trip from Denver to Scottsbluff.) There was no knitting on the flight back. I just pretty much closed my eyes & breathed & prayed. And kept a close watch as to the location of the barf bag---just in case.

Oh, & speaking of knitting---I certainly DID get my needles & scissors through security. And I found out that knitting attracts old ladies curiosities. It's so cute to have them come up to me & start chatting about knitting. LOVED it.

I know, I know. Picture overload. Lengthy post.

But for those of you who want MORE pics (like my mom & grandmother), just click HERE for all the pics taken on my Washington mini getaway vacay.

Visiting home made me miss home even more.

I loved waking up & seeing my mom & dad on the couch---sipping their hot drinks. (Mom does tea. Dad does coffee.) And then I'd snuggle between them. My left leg on dad's recliner. My right leg on mom's. And when one of them would get up out of their chair, I was a bit lopsided. But that's ok. And then grandmother would hear me laughing & peek her head over & come sit with us in her nightcoat, with her cup of coffee & cane.

I would love to be able to give them squeezies & loves every day. I would love to just plop on my grandmother's couch & chat & knit like I did on my visit. Only do that every week.

I decided I need more visits. More often.

♥

{best week ever}

My family has traveled for a visit...

...& I am in heaven.

♥

High. Low.

Every night at dinner our family does this thing I call "High-Low". Everyone has a chance to share their "High" of the day (the thing that was the most awesome & best ever!) & their "Low" (something that was rather disappointing & awful). Years ago I got the idea from a movie--I think it had Michelle Pfeiffer in it?? I had forgotten about doing it for a while until we moved to Nebraska. It has really helped our family become closer. I just find it so interesting to hear the happy & not-so-happy things in my girls' day. The things that weigh heavy in their heart as far as importance & value always amaze me. (And it's a fun way to peek into their day!) It TOTALLY opens the door for communication.

Yesterday, my "High" was getting to {finally} photograph some neato stuff I saw while driving. I was the pilot on our weekly trip to Scottsbluff rather than the passenger, so I had a wee bit of navigational control. My "Low"? Well, my Skype presentation to the MOPS group in St. Louis was canceled due to weather. But, it's being rescheduled! YAY!

(Oh! And I'm going to predetermine my "High" for today: I've reached 700 Etsy sales!!!)

♥

Late Night Tea

A few nights ago I had tea with my girls. I had promised them all day that we'd have tea--REAL tea--& fancy cookies. But, the day got away from me. And I am not one to break my promises, so we had a late night tea. We were all in our pajamas & it was loads of fun! We filled their tiny tea set pots & jars with real sugar & real milk & set out fancy linens for our fancy cookies. The girls set the table up with everything in its proper place. Some plates chipped, some pieces missing, but STILL all very functional. The girls were having a major Ooohh! & Ahhhh! moment.




And in other news: I've got loads to do, but not loads of time to do it....
I'm working on a couple custom orders, which are going way too slow for my liking....I'm photographing Ugly Biz Cards for the voting coming up soon. Be patient with me if the photos are not available for the peeking first thing Sept. 2nd. I'm workin' on it, I'm workin' on it.....I've got my BFF's swap package to send off. (It's Beck at Little Daisy Chains!) This was a swap that she & I decided to do on our own. It's kinda fun because there are no rules. We are just making & purchasing items that we feel would be fun for the other person. I'll make sure I take pics after I send it...I also need to photo some items for my shop...send some packages off on an adventure in the mail.....& prep for a day of boating fun tomorrow!!! And I'm sure there are tons of other little things I'm forgetting about that need to be done. All the while I'll be stopping to smell the flowers, or course.


BORING, BORING, I know.....


Have a great Labor Day Weekend!! You might not see me around this weekend. As I'll be busy & all. But.....I still love ya!
Oh yeah, & I'm looking for sushi stuff for a best friend of mine, he loves sushi. I've doinked around Etsy & will probably buy some stuff there. I'm thinkin' magnets? Notecards?...I even saw a cute sushi catnip toy! (For his cat.) Shall I try to draw sushi? I've never eaten the stuff! I'll need to do some research. It grosses me out. I'll gag while sketching. Bleck! Anyway, if any of you know of some great sushi crafts, let me know!!! Thanks peeps!
Oh & my new slogan is: Rock on with your crafty self!!!
I'm outtie.

An Afternoon at the Fair!

First of all, I'm shocked we actually went! The ole hubby complains every year that the fair is "Hot, stinky & dirty." (So we never go.) But, it was HIS idea that we should go this year! That's why I'm shocked. And, to give him credit, it was hot,stinky & dirty. Oh, & let me add expensive. But, I had a blast anyway!!!!

We started out trying to find the animals. We found them RIGHT away. Zoey picked up on the scent. Zoey was so wanting to pet the horse, but as you can see, she was a little afraid.

The bunnies were the cutest! Here, the girls pet the most OBESE bunny I have ever met. I should've asked his name. But, for our purposes here we'll call him "Chunkers" or "Little Bunny Lard Butt".

And we HAD to play those "impossible to win" carnival style games. It's funny 'cause I helped Zoey with one game: you had to shoot a water gun into a clown's mouth & the more you squirt in its mouth, the bigger the balloon blows up on his head. (Oh my gosh. Typing that out makes it sound so weird.) Well, we were competing with a little girl & her DAD! Whoever had their balloon pop first won. Well, thank the Almighty Lord of Heaven & Earth & Carnival Games because it was a TIE! yay! It was a good thing because I would've hated to see that little girl lose. HAHA!

The funniest part (looking back, of course) of our fair experience had to be when we visited the baby chicks. I held one right away. (Auh, they're so cute. ) I remember one pooping on my hand in Kindergarten. (That wasn't so cute.) I was hoping that wouldn't happen again. Zoey held the baby chick so gently. And then Pazely wanted to hold one. I immediately got nervous. She put it in her hands for, like, a half of a second. She pulled her hands away SO quickly! The chick dropped to the floor. Don't worry, it was OK. How do I know it was OK? Because it started running around like a chicken with its head cut off. HAHAHA! Ok, for reals-back to the story...I was so worried that someone was going to step on it. There were people everywhere! So, I crouched down & started chasing the little guy while yelling, "There's a chick on the loose! There's a chick on the loose!" No one seemed to even care. I finally caught the crazy chick & we got out of there FAST!!

And man, look at how glossy my forehead & face was! It was hot people. The poor girls had hot red cheeks all day!

My favorite part of our fair experience was sliding down a HUGE slide. AND--it was PINK!!!! Zoey & I went down side-by-side. I have to admit that when we got to the top of the many, many flights of stairs, I started to have a mini panic attack. Man, that was high up! I had to be all brave & cool for Zoey though, so I pushed her out of the way so I could be the first to sit down on the slide & ready for take-off. Not really! It was a blast! It was the only ride I went on because I wanted to be the photo-chik.

I also got to eat a giant elephant ear! I haven't had one of those since I was a kid. In fact, I don't think I've been to the fair since I was a kid!

I'm working on a custom order right now for a set of Paper Fortune Cookies for a bridal shower. All the sayings have to do with "love". I've had so much fun looking up quotes & finding the perfect sayings to print on the "fortunes". It made me think that I need to find a quote that fits ME just perfectly. I'm on the hunt...

Oh, & my DORK scrabble tile ring set SOLD yesterday! I'm kinda sad to say goodbye to the little guy! But, I'll have to come up with another cheesy ring set! Rock on with your crafty self!