Zoo Week

I owe the kids a trip to the zoo.  We wanted to go, but it just didn't happen.  Luckily I think they enjoyed themselves this week anyway.  We made a lot of crafts.

Monkeys.  Jayden and Sidney played with these almost nonstop for the entire day.

 Acting like monkeys.

 Giraffes and alligators.

 Bird nests.

 We spent hours coloring pictures to make a zoo wall.  The kids think this is the coolest thing ever, so we'll probably be adding to it.

We also made lots of zoo food.  Pig pancakes for breakfast.  They're giving me their best oinks.  Sidney copies everything Jayden does, which is apparent in the following pictures.

 Dipped animal crackers in chocolate and candy for a tasty treat.

 Turned apples and grapes into frogs.

This is hard to see, but we made blue jell-o and then put Swedish fish in them so it looks like a fish in the ocean.  These are their fish faces.

Keith Urban

Last night Josh and I went to see Keith Urban.  And this is almost embarrassing to admit, but it was the first real concert either of us has been to.  That goes to show what cheapskates we are.  And the only reason we went was because it was courtesy of Josh's work.  It did not disappoint.  Jake Owen opened.  He was really good, but Keith Urban was amazing!  Wow, he didn't take a breath for over two hours.  My ears are still ringing this afternoon.  Totally worth it!

Keith Urban.  The man can put on a show.

 Jake Owen.  Amazing.

 Us.  We're awesome too.

Outtakes

More pictures from our Father's Day photo shoot.

All About Dad

I forgot to add this in, but I had the kids answer some questions about Josh for Father's Day.

Jayden:

My Dad's name is Josh.
He is 30 years old.
He is 22 feet, 33 inches tall.
He weighs as heavy as our tv.
His favorite tv show is football and baseball.
His favorite food is spaghetti pie.
His favorite thing to drink is Dr. Pepper.
His favorite thing to do is play baseball.
He likes to wear shorts.
My dad is really good at drawing.
I like it best when my dad plays with me.
My favorite thing to do with my dad is go to Walmart and look at the fish.
When my dad goes to work he makes money.

Sidney:

My dad's name is Dad.
He is 1 year old.
He is 6 feet, 8 inches tall.
He weighs 3 pounds.
His favorite tv show is baseball.
His favorite food is pie.
His favorite thing to drink is water.
His favorite thing to do is play baseball.
He likes to wear clothes.
My dad is really good at shopping.
I like it best when my dad sleeps with us.
My favorite thing to do with my dad is sleep in my tent with me.
When my dad goes to work he goes bye bye.

Father's Day

Father's Day was such a great day.  I don't know what it was, but it was so nice to be able to spend a relaxing day with Josh and spoil him a little bit, especially after his long hours at work and school.  We sort of started on Saturday.  He spent the entire day at his office doing homework, so for lunch we met him uptown so he could have a break.  Afterwards he took us up to show us his new office.  He works on the 21st floor, and the kids thought that was the coolest thing ever.  He's got a great view and you can even see a few distant "mountains."  Earlier in the week we took pictures for his gift.  Here's what we came up with.  I also got a few other pretty good pictures of the kids, which I'll share later.

We had a fancy little breakfast before church and for dinner we barbecued some steaks and ate outside.  We were all in great moods all day, which is sometimes hard to achieve.  The kids sang, "Happy Father's Day to You!", and gave him hugs and kisses all day long with repeated, "Happy Father's Day!"

We love Josh and all he means to us!

Jayden got dressed then changed his clothes to match Dad.  He kept running back and forth from his room to make sure he got his outfit just right.  He was really proud to look like him.

We ended the night with this pie I made.  It was delish!

Medieval Week

We went and saw The Tale of Despereaux at the summer movie festival thing Regal Cinemas does so we based this week's theme around it.  A kind of royalty theme with mice mixed in for Jayden's sake.  We made crowns and Jayden wanted me to make one for myself because I'm a queen.  How unusual is it for the kids to both be smiling great smiles at the same time?  If only we weren't wearing the crowns I might be able to put this one on my wall.  They thought the timer was the coolest thing ever, which is why they were smiling so well. 

For a snack we cut out tortillas with our princess cookie cutters.  Sidney was delighted.  She bit the head off the princess, chewed on it for a while, then spit it back out and tried to put it back in place.  Nice.  Notice my red fingernails?  Jayden asked me if princesses paint their fingernails.  When I said yes, he told me I should paint my nails.  So I did.  It has been a while.

I let Jayden take some pictures on the tripod again and he took a bunch of self portraits, all of which are entertaining to look through.

For a royal snack we cut up finger foods and used these little picks to eat them with.  The kids loved these and used them all week long for everything.

One morning we met up with some friends at a castle park.  The picture doesn't show it all.  It is really big and has lots to explore.  The kids loved it.  It's a little further away, but the kids definitely want to go back sometime.  Afterwards we stopped at a huge fabric store to pick up some fabric for a project.  Sidney saw some pink fabric with silver stars on it and was hugging it like she'd never seen anything so beautiful.  I'm a sucker, so I bought some to make a skirt.  So then Jayden saw this fabric with flames on it and thought it was so awesome, I gave in to that too.  I told him I'd make him some pajama pants, so then Sidney said that's what she wants too.  Luckily you don't need much fabric for those, so for a couple bucks they're getting new pj pants.  Once I'm done, I'll post some pictures.

We made these little catapults and launched marshmallows and beads with them.  I'm still finding them all over the place.

We thought we needed a real castle to launch things over so we pulled out Sidney's castle legos.  It was perfect.

I found these cute little strawberry mice online, but I didn't want to buy all the supplies for them.  So we improvised a little and ours turned out a lot scarier than they were supposed to be.  They were fun to make and eat anyway. I found a game from the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie website and we played that too.  It was kind of lame, but the kids don't know that.

I found somewhere all these bookmarks to color.  They had about 20 pages of different themes, so we colored the medieval ones.

We made some "princess" jewelry.  Jayden made me a necklace, which was really sweet.  He wants me to wear it everywhere now.  Luckily he doesn't notice when I discreetly take it off and leave it in the car.  We set up the tripod so Sidney and I could model our jewelry.  I was having a hard time getting Sidney to get into it so I told Jayden to keep pushing the button while I made her laugh.  He took a million pictures and came out with this one, which I love.  I have a photographer in the making.  It was a busy and fun week!

Space Week

Jayden wants to be an astronaut when he grows up.  He can't wait to float around in zero gravity and walk on the moon.  For months every time we have gone to the library he has picked out non-fiction books on planets and galaxies.  The stack he picked out this week was huge.  We still haven't finished them all.  The kids and I also drew pictures of planets we invented and then wrote stories about them.

We made aliens out of oats containers.

 

 Made meteors out of tin foil and tissue paper.  They had a ball with these things, throwing them all over the place.

 Went to a planetarium at a museum that also has a nature trail that we walked around on.

 

Ate Dippin' Dots for a space treat while we watched Planet 51.

Josh got into Space Week too.  He built a rocket with Jayden.  This was so exciting for Jayden, so you can imagine how disappointed he was when it got lost in some trees.  Oops! It was really cool though.  That thing went about 600 feet into the air.

Blast off!

Then something pretty cool happened last night.  We were eating dinner when it started to rain.  Then right in our backyard was a rainbow, just for us.  It was pretty exciting.