Memorial Day Weekend - Operation Disappearing Tree

Despite the rough day previously with the color run, we still had a great Memorial Day weekend with the Kenyons.

Playing dress up

Such a benevolent princess

Richard is a man of many talents so we were randomly talking about how I wanted to get the dead tree removed.  (Especially since I learned that the nice big green plant/weed that was growing up around the base and giving the space some green was actually poisonous.)  And he offered to go remove it.  I took him up on the offer.  :)

Comfortably watching the pre-action outside.

Video - The great tree take down.  It's pretty entertaining.  :)

Richard and his conquest

Hm...now there's a big dead tree in my yard.  What should we do to get rid of it??

The house behind us wasn't completed and still under construction so there was a ton of trash in the yard.  I often picked weeds and threw them over the fence.

These two were play buddies this weekend.

And these two were play buddies this weekend.

Eventually Emmalyn would let Natalie pick her up.  :)

That poor lump under there (Richard) was a good sport

All gone!  It's so fantastic!

Richard and Peter also capped off the old sprinkler that went to the old tree and ran a new sprinkler to the new tree and this great sprinkler in my garden.  I am incredibly excited about this.  My garden is the real deal!

We cut some cilantro from the garden to use in our fresh salsa

Makenna and I went next door to help Mary Ann decorate for our swim party

Happily playing with the cars

All the kids having fun together

Let's swim!

The boys hanging out

Double rainbow for good luck

The swimming was cut short by thunderstorms

I LOVE summer food!  I am looking forward to more grilling, more veggies, more salad!

The rain REALLY came down.

Since swimming was off the table thanks to the lightning, Maxwell and Makenna played Battleship.

Hanging out before bedtime.  They all get along so well.

On Memorial Day, we headed to lunch at Zoe's and then went to a new place by us that is an obstacle place for kids to play - similar to the obstacles on the show "American Ninja Warrior", which Maxwell loves.

Trampoline fun

Climbing over things

Cargo net

The kids worked HARD.  We bought 1 hour passes and half an hour in the kids were exhausted.  Maxwell was dripping sweat.

So tired she's just hung out on the ground.

Unfortunately, the Kenyons had to drive home after we were done.  We sure loved having them here!  It was a memorable weekend!

We finished up Memorial Day with more grilling and time outside.

Water guns and umbrellas

It's not exactly a pool but it works in a pinch.

4th week of January 2016

So January is almost over but in some ways the Christmas Holidays are still going on in my house.  Emmalyn LOVES to sing Jingle Bells and watch Frosty the Snowman.  (Max loves the movie too.)  It's all about the Christmas songs in January!  We listen to Jingle Bells over and over and over in the car.

I was out doing yard work and found this not-so-awesome break in the drip line for my sprinklers.  Some stinking bunny just HAD to see how it tasted.  But huge kudos to Peter who saw it, was immediately confident on how to fix it, and got it handled like it was nothing!

I finally took down the Christmas decorations... sad to put the holidays away but such a relief to have my house all nice and clean again.

When I was putting away the ornaments, I realized that this beautiful ornament my mom made for me and my siblings in 2010 was cracked.  This was the last ornament I got from her before she passed and I was super bummed to see it had cracked (maybe from the heat in the attic where I keep all the decorations?).  :(  I've separated it and will need to figure out how to save it before I use it again.  I'm super sad.

Good bye stocking and animated animals

Goodbye Christmas card door that was a fun reminder of how many great people we have in our lives.

Take 1

I tried to get a cute picture of both of the kids at Home Depot but it's never easy to get them both looking at the same time and smiling and looking cute.  :)

Take 2

Take 3

Take 4 - I give up!

Rockin' her shades

I took Maxwell shopping with me at Gymboree.  For the most part he did great and it wasn't as painful as I was expecting.  He was excited to pick out a shirt for Valentine's Day.

That hair in the morning!

We went shoe shopping as a family and I handed Little Miss my phone and she took a few pictures and a video that I found later.  

Maxwell graduated to the next level at his swimming lessons!  I wanted to get a picture of his card all filled out with his accomplishments but they had already cleaned it off when we got there.  (They were clearly planning on him moving up today.)  Here we come Level 7!

Getting to ring the bell and getting his certificate

Playing on the indoor playground...

(There are two days a week when Max and Landen are both in preschool, Hayden is in elementary school, and it's just Brittany and Emmalyn.)

... and playing outside too.  

It's awesome when days are sunny and warm in winter and you don't need a jacket!

Video - Emmalyn throwing a fit over her food.  Sometimes she isn't cute and fun.

We started Kindermusik again this week.  We are going to a different location with a new teacher, Ms Carolyn.  She's awesome.  In some ways she looks like my mom and she's so fantastic with the kids.  I really, really like her and her style of teaching.  Both Maxwell and Emmalyn are taking classes now.  Max still has his KiddieKeys piano lessons during the week with one of our old Kindermusik teachers, Ms. Leah.

This week, Max had a rare accident at school.  It's been a really long time since he had an accident.  Poor kid.
Max sometime struggles to look through his glasses, he lets them fall down his nose and looks over them since they are blurry to him.
We have added something to my nighttime routine with Maxwell.  I now ask him 3 questions at night.  #1 - What was your favorite part of the day #2 - What was your least favorite part of the day #3 - What is one nice thing you did for someone today.  He rarely comes up with an answer, but I keep asking because I'm trying to build a behavior with him and emphasize the importance of helping others.

I think Emmalyn may be teething again because the drooling is picking back up again.
She will say, "why momma" or "why daddy" when asking why.
She hasn't had much dinner lately.
Emmalyn is tired super early lately.  In face, I put her down at 5 this past weekend thinking that she would take short nap and she never woke up and stayed asleep all night.
Emmalyn is strong at being wiggly when she wants to escape, so strong willed!!!