One Busy Weekend!

We had a busy weekend this past weekend! I had to share just a few pictures and stories from our weekend!

First up was my date with Annabel, which I've shared about in another post. After that, Annabel had preschool and they celebrated Mickey Mouse's birthday by making the cutest little Mickey Mouse crowns- Annabel loved this of course!! Right up her alley! LOVE this picture! (And yes, she totally looks like Ben in this picture!)

After preschool and lunch, Daniel went back to his "project" on Daddy's workbench. This kid is definitely my builder/engineer. Mid-last week he took to getting up on the stool there and finding things to tinker with, making "plans" to build things with all these found objects. He was inspired by this robot Ben had gotten out from his college days. It's been fun to just watch him think and imagine and plan and find parts for this "project." He also spent yesterday creating this "monster trap" (inspired by Scooby-Doo) with tipped up sideways tables and crates, which later became a plane with the table stilled tipped up but facing outwards with a caution cone taped onto the outside pointing out, just like the nose of a plane. I'm telling you this kid is so clever and creative. I also love his other cool, clever, creative invention- a superhero cape fashioned out of a beaded necklace (which they give us as weights for balloons from our haircut place) and a scarf tied around the middle of it, which he then turns so that it goes down his back like a cape. Like I said, this kid, give him random supplies, some tape and he's making the most imaginative plans and things! Love it!

My mom and I did two craft shows in two days. I treated myself to these adorable, amazing dragon art pictures- Merry Christmas to me!- and bought a few things for Annabel that had been on my list and some other Christmas presents, too.

After the second craft show Saturday morning, we joined all the guys in my family (and other guys among Jason's family and friends) and Aunt Christina and helped her move into her new house, her very first house of her own! It's such a great house for Jason and Christina and we wish them all the best as they make it their own! I had tears in my eyes several times that day- I'm just so happy and so excited for my baby sister! My favorite moment of the day: Christina's sweet, melting heart moment as she watched their cute new dog Pixie run around the yard- "Awww...she was meant for a yard!" she said! Congrats on the new house, Christina and Jason! We love it!

An Amazing Rainbow "Outside!!!"

I just had to share these pictures of the beauty we saw after the crazy weird storms last weekend! Annabel was beyond excited to see the rainbow- she told Grandma Mary Kay that night at dinner that she saw a "rainbow OUTSIDE!!!!" It was too cute- I loved her enthusiasm for the fact that the rainbow was OUTSIDE! There were actually two rainbows which you can see best in the first picture (it faded fast!). We could also see the whole arc of the rainbow, which you can tell best in the second picture. And if you look really closely, or maybe not too closely because then it just gets blurry and like you're "seeing" things- but that bottom rainbow was actually a few rainbows stuck together (like- red orange yellow green blue purple & red orange yellow green blue purple again)- you may have to click to the picture to make it bigger and really see this, or else just take my word for it! It was an amazing rainbow! So glad I thought to look! Just wow! The kids were so excited!

Outdoor Forest Fun with Friends

A little over a week ago, the kids and I met up with a few of our hiking friends, Miss Connie and her son Connor, and Allie and her kids Kaylee and baby Jay, at the nature center here in town. (The same one that Daniel and I took nature classes at once upon a time, the same one Annabel has been "going" to since she was a bun in the oven!) We were going to hike but ended up playing in the yard the whole time- there is so much to explore in the yard alone and the kids had the most fun playing, climbing, building, snacking, hiding, and so on. That alone took almost two hours! I haven't been to this nature yard in a loooong time and they have really added a lot of fun stuff to it; it's a neat place and we'll have to go back more often. In the end, we wandered a bit through the forest and out on one of the trails as we headed back to our cars and called that our hike! We all had a great time. It was chilly, but we didn't even really notice, we were having that much fun! The fresh air was great! Hoping to do that again after the holidays! (And Aunt Rose and Uncle Brad, you'll notice that Christmas came early for us- thank you for the kids' awesome snowsuits- Annabel is sporting her new pink winter coat which she loves!)

The seesaw log was a hit!

Daniel had fun scooting along these two ropes between the trees!

Cutie pie Annabel all bundled up!

Daniel started gathering large sticks so he could make a roof for this car made from logs.

Annabel wanted to help, too.

 

You can see the "roof" behind Annabel as she drives the car!

Backpacks were well stocked as usual- magnifying glasses come in handy!

The kids had fun burying each other under leaves!

Annabel was so proud to climb up and inside this tree trunk!

My new favorite picture of Daniel! And it's hard to tell, but he did actually climb up a few feet onto this tree trunk.

Still climbing!

Hide & Seek- Can YOU find Annabel?! 

Daniel and Miss Connie had to work very hard to find her!

(Annabel is behind the right tree trunk of the pair of trees in the middle of the picture- you just really can't see her at all!)

The leaves in some areas of the yard were almost knee deep for Annabel!

More hide & seek- you might have to click the picture to make it bigger, but you can just make out Annabel's pink and Daniel's red in the center of the picture way out yonder. Annabel sure got brave and started to venture out into the forest after a while- she just needed time to warm up and then off she went- she can be pretty bold and she's great at hiding!

 Such pretty milkweed!

Connie showed the kids how to shake the milkweed stalks and let the seeds fly- it looked so pretty! The kids loved doing this!

A Mommy/Annabel Date

This past Friday morning after I dropped Daniel off at school, I took Annabel out for a special treat: Hot Chocolate at Starbucks! Annabel was beyond excited to be getting hot chocolate just like Mommy! I had gotten an email featuring an Amazon Local deal through Starbucks where I could get a free kid's hot chocolate with an adult beverage purchase and I could not pass that up! You know me, I'll grab any chance for hot chocolate! I knew right then that I would be taking my daughter out for a special morning date, just the two of us, relaxing and sipping away. Annabel was the cutest ever, of course- blowing her hot chocolate to cool it off a bit, sitting there looking so adorable waiting for her drink to cool off, orchestrating the taking of turns- she'd sip hers, then tell me to sip mine, and so on. Glad I remembered the camera for our little hot chocolate date! (Annabel had the cutest little chocolate mustache and beard!) What a fun little outing for us! I'll have to remember to do that again, but this first time- so special!

A Fall Hike at the Arboretum

Last week we took advantage of a day with no plans to literally wander and take our time hiking at the Arboretum! It was a chilly day, but I really wanted to get some fresh air and get to the Arboretum before all the leaves were off the trees, so we bundled up, packed our backpacks (all three of them!) full of magnifying glasses, notebooks, snacks, and such. I also really wanted to walk around, not just play at the Children's Garden like we usually do. Last time we were there we drove around all the roads with the kids, making a note of fun places to get out. So this time, we did a Parking Lot Hop & Hike, checking out three different trails! It was so much fun! The kids loved being in control of the the car- telling me when to stop and when to keep going every time we came up to a new parking lot. Daniel chose the first two stops, Annabel chose the last stop. They had fun holding the map in the backseat, too. We had a great morning! We even saw a deer- he ran right past us, so close in fact, that Annabel wanted to be picked up because he made her nervous! The kids loved checking out logs (except for all the sticky burrs that stuck to our clothes- they didn't love that part, though it didn't stop us!), finding snack logs to sit on, looking around with their magnifying glasses. We didn't walk that far at each stop, but we did stop to look at a lot. Daniel really wanted to make notes in his notebook and he sounded out and wrote the words: moss (ms), deer (dr), yellow leaf (ylo lef), and big tree (bg te)- it was SO awesome! Annabel drew leaves in her notebook and had a ball doing that on several pages. We found the "treehouse tales" part of the Arboretum where there are all these houses to play in. The kids had a lot of fun playing hide and seek here among all the houses and big fat tree trunks; they are really good at hiding these days! Enjoy our fall Arboretum pictures!

This picture does not do this forest justice- it was literally glowing there with the sunlight filtered among the yellow leaves at the tree tops. So pretty.

Cool tree roots!

Checking out moss on log!

Look closely at the next two pictures and you'll see the deer!

The perfect little snack log!

My brave little hiker! Once she warms up to the place, she's off!

My new favorite picture of Daniel!

Daniel and Annabel wanted to take pictures of their yellow leaves for Daddy since he told them to find a yellow leaf.

Glowing yellow leaves!

Time to make some notes and eat some more snacks! Love Daniel's cowboy boots!

Such tall trees!



Silly kids! Daniel was saying "boo!" and he wanted Annabel to say "eek!"

Tree house fun!

Daniel hiding- and peeking out!

Cute picture of Annabel!

Annabel hiding- you can't see her though, she's so tiny!

Daniel found Annabel!

There was a very large pile of leaves there...we made sure not to mess it up too much since somebody worked so hard to do all that, but we really couldn't help ourselves at least getting into it once!