Poc and Nana

Poc and Nana came to visit us for their spring break a couple weeks ago.  We had such a great time.  We didn't plan a whole lot. Nana's birthday was that week so we celebrated by taking lunch to the park and BBQ'ing that night, followed by a tasty (if I can say so myself) spring-ish Strawberry- lime-coconut dessert.

 Happy Birthday Nana!

 Kelsey loved the strawberry cake so much she kept stealing all the utensils thinking she'd get more.

 When Grandparents visit that equates to nearly unlimited pushes in the swing, tricycle rides and readings of Pete the Cat (her new favorite books from the library).

 Rylee's new best friend: her tinkerbell doll

 Since we didn't have a lot of other plans keeping us out of the house Michael put his Dad to use getting to the "honey-do" list.  The most exciting on said list for me was installing the fan on our back porch and putting together the girls little table and chairs. (Thank you!!).  Rylee got in on the screw driver action whenever she could.  And she's practically a pro at ladder climbing.

 We did run up to the temple one day to run errands.  Unfortunately the day we chose, the temple happened to be closed in the middle of the day so we just walked around instead of going inside.

 Rylee had a fun time feeding her goldfish crackers to the snap dragons :)

 Michael and I got a date night in.  Their last night the boys went hunting and so the girls went to see Rapunzel at the children's theatre.  Rylee had more fun than the photo leads on.  Good think I brought a booster for her and she was strapped in as I refused to take her to the bathroom during the show.  Rylee liked it and talks about it often.  Her favorite part was when Rapunzel got her hair cut "just like I got a hair cut!"

 She was excited to see the princess after the show, the line was really long so I tried to change her mind but that wasn't happening.  She kept saying "I want to give the Princess a hug!".  I really didn't feel like carrying her and Kelsey to the car screaming so we went back inside.  The actors/actresses were roped off to form a line and they were signing autographs and posing for pictures so there was some down time between each of the characters.  Nana held up the rope and asked Rapunzel if Rylee could sneak in to give her a hug, of course she obliged.  Rylee was satisfied for a few minutes but as soon as we got on the freeway she said "Oh NO!! I forgot to give the Princess a kiss!" she was panic stircken.  I told her to go ahead and blow the princess a kiss and all was right in the world again.

We had a great time visiting all week.  Rylee asked if Poc and Nana were going to come back to her house tomorrow. Sorry! Hopefully this summer will be sufficient and maybe Kelsey will recognize them and not run away as fast as she can at first sight (she nearly took down Miyoshi trying to get away from Poc while at church).  That girl loves her Momma. If only Wisconsin weren't so far away. . . . :(

Hunts

Our pre-Easter festivities included a egg-hunt marathon.  Ok, so there were two.  The neighborhood HOA and the other at the Church.  Daddy was home attending to the yard for the first hunt so I took both the girls.  I underestimated the help Rylee would need and focused on helping Kelsey  (Apparently "see all those eggs? They have candy in them, go put as many as you can in your basket" wasn't enough instructions . . . . I think she got stuck on the word "candy" and spent most of the time working on opening eggs.  they were taped. . . . . both of them. She literally had 2 eggs when the hunt was over. Not really sure if it was worth rushing out of the house. . . . .

 The Bunny came though (which to be honest, I don't really care much about).  Rylee ran right up and gave the Easter Bunny a hug.

 The afternoon hunt was at the church - we had lunch and then another hunt.  Everyone gets 12 eggs so timing isn't an issue (although both hunts were broken up by age as well). Here's Kelsey with a friend:

Happy hunting!

Let's go fly a kite

We went to a kite festival over the weekend.  We went later in the day so we missed some of the demonstrations, but it was fun to visit a new park and take inventory of our sunscreen :)  There were some pretty cool kites - Rylee's is the ladybug.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 One of the booths was a kite hospital.  I thought that was pretty funny.  We walked around a bit, rode the train and headed home. 

 It was a nice lazy day and kinda fun to see the sky full of kites.

I then finished off the weekend at an Eric Clapton concert. I'm always willing to be a concert buddy.  50 years of touring - wow.

Front Door

Project: Re-finish the front door has been on our to-do list since we moved into our house. The seal and stain were starting to peel, mostly on the bottom half of the door and we finally got around to doing (half) of it this weekend.  I really wanted to get it going before it started getting too hot to have the door open/off all day.  We sanded, sanded, and sanded some more then a couple coats of stain and sealer and back on the hinges it went (I say this like it didn't take over 12 hrs)

 

Maybe I'll attempt another coat of sealer while hung as I really don't care to to that whole process again anytime soon, and we didn't even get to the inside of the door.

I know its a nice wood door but I kept thinking "wouldn't paint be easier?" That sucker is HEAVY!
I does look much better though, don't you think?

Stock Show

In our 5 years in Texas (has it really been that long??) we've only missed the stock show/Rodeo once - the year Rylee was born.  Cuz, you know, who wants to take a week old baby to that? We used to do the rodeo, but now we just hit up the stock-show portion ona dollar day and call it good.

 

We've even found a tiny strip of road not too far away where you don't have to pay to park.

 

Rylee was really funny, she'd walk right in front of her Dad, stop, and then sortof fall down because she'd want him to give her a shoulder ride. We're working on asking. What's funny is she usually prefers to walk - not that day I guess.

 We hit up the petting zoo (this was before Rylee's birthday event).  When Rylee was Kelsey's age she was TERRIFIED.  Kelsey was the complete opposite.  Go figure.

I set Kelsey down and she was off exploring on her own and headed straight for the caged ducks.  She kept shaking the fence trying to get in. Then a big sheep got right up in her face and she just laughed.  She cried and cried when I picked her up.

 We got a kick out of this funny looking llama.

 We also love HEB's little barn.  They pass out baskets and all throughout the building there's all sorts of things to learn about gardening and different foods and then you can gather a bunch of play food to turn in for a prize. 

We thought the recycled garden boxes were fun.  Rylee was sure to point out the "matches".

 This big girl wanted to carry her own basket and roam around.

 Our little cowgirl.  Apparently we don't use that term often enough as half way through the day she forgot the word "cow" and said "I'm a catepillar girl" lol.

 Rylee even got to ride a few rides at the carnival - those carnival workers have such soft hearts and let her ride a couple even though she wasn't quite tall enough. We had a great time.

Three!

Rylee turned 3 on Friday. She'd been anticipating her birthday for quite some time.  The first time I asked her what she wanted to do for her birthday she thought long and hard and said "dress up and go trick or treating".  That idea didn't really stick, though I was prepared to drop off candy to our friends houses so we could stop by later and 'Trick-or-treat".  Maybe the Valentine's party at the library was enough for her. After that she just kept saying she wanted to share ice cream with Lily and open presents (or prizes). I think I can handle that.

 

Our neighbor gave her this dress-up dress and she's worn it every day. She would get the biggest grin when anyone would sing her Happy Bithday.

 We made owl cupcakes and ordered pizza for dinner.

 then it was present time! I decided to make her a tinkerbell costume 1.because sewing is fun 2. She loves Tinkerbell and Peter Pan 3. store bought Tinkerbell's are pretty skimpy

She (sadly) doesn't love it quite like the pink dress. . . . maybe because she can't put it on by herself or its not as soft or she's just trying to make me feel bad after spending all that time and money on it . . . . she's coming around though. That's about as modest a Tinkerbell you'll ever see.  and um, I keep forgetting to make wings.

 She got a few puzzels, a couple games and a boll bed and blanket.  The cradle was actually one I played with growing up (it just got a fresh coat of paint) that my Grandfather made. Kelsey immediately climbed in. She thought it was quite funny.

 

I also made a little quilt for the cradle/dolly.  Its a little bigger than I thought I'd make (24" square) and was really fun to make.  Rylee can't part with dolly on her bed so her new Barbie gets the blankie and bed.  Just a new part of the night time routine. We have had to impliment a rule that only ONE toy/doll/barbie can come with us in the car but (depending on my mood) can even come inside the store. I think its actually really sweet she wants to 'mother' all her toys. The blankie could use a few washes, as its pretty stiff.

 I let her pick the ice cream she wanted, and believe me it was a tough choice: bright pink strawberry, or light pink strawberry and homemade vanilla. Ultimately the bright pink strawberry won. She was so excited to finally be able to eat/share the ice cream I just passed out the cupcakes without thinking and we forgot the candles and song.  woops. re-do! good thing she hardly ate the cupcake ;)

Its pretty much been non-stop princess"E"s yahtzee since Friday and I'm just fine with that! 

Oh Rylee we're so happy you joined our family! We hope you had a great birthday and we love you so much!

Thank you to our friends and family for helping her feel special.  Love you too!