Saturday, March 31, 2012

Fun Friday: Medieval Fair

I was too tired to post pictures last night, but here are the pictures from our loooong day out of town!

To Jack's delight, there was a Dippin Dots booth!

We spent a bit of time on the playground.

Jack loves tire swings!


Spinning a plate while touching his nose and standing on one foot!

Tossing the clubs

They still love the bouncy castle.

Jack rode the camel again.

Alice was sad that she wasn't big enough to ride the elephant, but she enjoyed the horses.

Jack looked pretty comfy on the swing ride.

Alice can pump herself now! We met friends at our old park and she liked swinging like the big kids.

Alice loved the playground. I wish it was still behind our fence!

Most of the time was spent down by the creek!

We got our (muddy) selves in the car and got home around 9:00. We were all exhausted!

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Art with Littles

Today's post at Metro Family is about including littles when you do art projects. This is the Monet waterlily piece Alice did last week.

We're off to have some Medieval fun today--pictures to follow tonight if I'm not too tired!

Happy Friday!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Route 66 Wrap Up

Here are the rest of our Route 66 adventures! (This picture was taken in Chelsea, I think. We stopped when we saw the mural, but the store it was painted on wasn't open that day.)

The Eastern Trails Museum in Vinita (Two things to know: 1) Yes, it's in the same building as the library, and 2) Call ahead because they aren't necessarily open when they say they are. Thankfully the library staff, though not affiliated with the museum, tracked down a very nice lady who opened the museum just for us.)

We also made another stop at the giant McDonald's because the kids wanted to actually eat there.

The next day we went to the Arkansas River Historical Society Museum. Really, most of the stuff there was over my head, but the model was pretty interesting.

One of the old towboats is on display outside. It was so crazy windy that day we had to cancel our picnic!

We started at the J.M. Davis Arms & Historical Museum the next morning. I am fine with guns, but distinguishing between a rifle and a pistol is about as far as my expertise goes. They have tons of other stuff, though, such as beer steins, musical instruments, and murder exhibits. Yes, you read that right.

Alice was so excited to see this there, too, because we have one. For realz. Jay's grandpa caught it and we inherited it and they movers had to build a special crate for it when we moved.

After that, we moved on to the Belvidere Mansion, which you can tour.

We all thought the house was really neat, though Alice couldn't decide if she liked this doll or if she thought it was creepy.

Since the wind died down, we tried again for a picnic. We found this park and it was a huge hit!

Jack loved the merry-go-round and said it was the best day of his life.

Cowboy cuties!

Our last stop of the day was the Will Rogers Memorial Museum.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that they had a nice sized area for the kids to play. Jack tried to convince Alice to lie down and pretend she was on the railroad tracks with a train coming at her so he could rescue you, but she would only play if she got to be the rescuer.

The next day was our long road trip west, so this was a full week of Route 66!

A big thanks to my friend, Mari, for thinking of me to work on this article! There were some really neat places I might not have tried on my own that I am so glad we visited. I'll let you know when the article comes out in a few weeks!

Monday, March 26, 2012

Alice Gets Dippin Dots

At two, Alice has already learned how to put a knife in my heart and give it a twist. A couple of weeks ago, we were at the mall while Jack was in class. Although we used to go to the mall quite a lot when Jack was little, it is wildly inconvenient now that we've moved and we rarely go. When we went at Christmas, we got Dippin Dots, which is Jack's favorite ice cream--that we used to get all the time at our old mall. But back to the story...As we walked past the Dippin Dots stand, Alice asked for some. I was in a hurry to run a couple more errands before we went to pick up Jack and told her no. "Oh," she said, "do we just get that ice cream with Bub?" And I realized she had never gotten to get it on her own. And so when Jack was in class today we went to get some Dippin Dots, just for Alice.

And we rode the carousel, too, for good measure. As much as we joke about her being high-maintenance, Alice really does go with the flow. During a regular week, Jack is in some kind of class for at least 6 hours; some weeks it's 8. For 5 of those hours, she has to stay there, waiting in the hallway or gym, and she literally never complains.

When we picked Jack up, he was not happy that we got Dippin Dots without him and said he would rather have gone with us than to class. And of course, Sister had cried all the way to the mall because she would rather go with him than to the mall. Gah.

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Happy Spring!

Spring is here! Let's all do a jig!
(On a side note, when Alice came in after this evening in the picture, she took off her clothes downstairs and went up to take her bath. I don't know what she did with the shorts, but the shirt has come through the laundry and I have never seen the shorts again. Boo.)

I didn't forget Very Hungry Caterpillar Day. Alice loves caterpillars.

Really, she loves all the crawly things she finds outside.

This week we used some of the Tot-Book printables from 1+1+1=1. Alice proved that she can, indeed, count to 5 just fine.

I'm not sure why she was crying, but she really did have fun with the puzzle. She's kind of like that some days.

We also made these cute balloon print caterpillars from Meet the Dubiens.

Just a note: When you are getting rid of a paint-covered balloon, it's best to carefully snip a hole large enough for the air to come out evenly, rather than popping the balloon and letting it fling its painty carcass around the room. Not that I did that or anything.

Pinterest has TONS of cute ideas for The Very Hungry Caterpillar, so we will probably try out some more next year!

Friday, March 23, 2012

Fun Friday: Fun All Week

Really, this whole week was pretty fun. Monday we got to stay home and the kids played in the rain.

Tuesday we didn't have to go to speech! I finally had my camera when Alice demonstrated her scrunching skills at PE.

Wednesday we had lunch with friends at Andolini's. This was the last stop for our Route 66 trips!

After lunch we went to the museum, where they were having Spring Break drop-in classes. Alice loved getting to go in just like the big kids.

One of the kids I used to babysit was working at the museum. Yes, I'm old enough that kids I babysat have real jobs now. Gah.

After the museum, we checked into a hotel. My mom and dad got rooms so the kids could swim and play at the hotel waterpark.

Alice liked it a lot better than last time.

All the kids piling on Grandpa!

Thursday was a pretty regular day. The dryer man showed up again and it seems that *maybe* the dryer is fixed. There was a double rainbow, so maybe I got a miracle and the part won't have to be replaced.

Which brings us to today....We stayed home all day and Jack was able to finish the new Ninjago kit he got this week.

After four days, the rain finally stopped and Alice could ride her bike again. (Stripes go with stripes, right?)

We even had time for some fun school!

I even made a little progress on my desk area!

Happy Friday!

{See some of next Friday's fun here!}