Floor angels

The Birdhouse

A couple weeks ago we were doing something... watching something about birds maybe? Mina asked if we could make a birdhouse... and for once, I was like "sure, let's do it!" Mayzie was napping, so we went out into the garage and made one! We had some extra wood from the fence we just put up, so we (Mina did help cut a little), cut the wood and nailed it together. I was so proud of myself! We finally got around to painting it the other day. Now we just have to hang it. For our next project, I'm thinking treehouse!



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Word!

Mina started writing words last week! She has been writing her name, and "mom" and "dad" for a while but nothing else on her own. She was watching "Word World", one of our favorites, and just grabbed her notebook and started writing some of the words she could remember. She wrote "bear" and "truck" all on her own! Yay!

Prince...

Calvin and Mina "play" 3 things... princess, house, or Buzz (as in Lightyear). The other day I overheard their conversation and this is what it was...

Calvin: "Mina, do you want to play princess or house?"
Mina: "Princess."
Calvin: "Okay, you can be princess Ariel, and I'll be prince Sponge Bob."

Nice! I think that is as far as they got, because Mina was not convinced that Sponge Bob was a suitable prince!

Happy Birthday America!

Happy 4th of July! We went to the parade in Racine - it has the longest parade in the
state of Wisconsin! We can attest to that! We got there 2 hours after it started, sat at the end of the route, and still saw over half of it. Some of the highlights were boats, horses, chinese dragons (scared Mayzie to death!), lots of football teams and cheerleaders, big trucks, kilts and bagpipes, and dogs.

Here's the boys! Calvin said he liked the parade. Mina did not like that there were
animals in the parade. Mayzie liked that I brought a big bag of goldfish crackers.

In the evening we went to see some fireworks with our friends. It was a fun, and tiring, day!

Strawberry Fields Forever

We went and picked our own strawberries last week! Check out this site for pick-your-own farms near you. The kids really liked it... for a little while. They give you HUGE baskets, so it took us about an hour to fill ONE of them. It was a good team effort. Mina was definitely most into it. After Mayzie realized we were picking yummy delicious EDIBLE items, it was all over for her. She was only interested in eating the profits.

The spoils!

After we picked, we got some other berries from the store to make JAM! Mina was a good masher. We made strawberry-blueberry freezer jam, and strawberry-raspberry-blackberry regular jam. It was really cool picking the strawberries ourselves and making them into something the same day, that we can enjoy for months. I felt so connected to the earth!

Puttin' out the pool, oh yea.

I really cannot think of a better way to spend a summer day. This is what being a kid in the summer is all about. I love it, they love it, it's great.

Yes, I do have it on the driveway. It really cuts down on the amount of grass and muck that gets in the water. And grown-ups like it too! These next shots are taken right before the big SPLASH!

We had a good week and a half of having the pool out, now it's chilly again, but we will have it out again SOON!

Window shopping in Madison

This weekend Mina, my Mom, and I, went up to Madison for my friend, Caroline's, bridal shower. It was so nice to see some friends and be in Madison. I love the little shops they have there. I think Mina liked Madison too. We ate dinner at Tutto Pasta (YUM!) and sat in the
front up against the window. Mina had her face pressed up against the glass for most of our meal! She was waving at people going by, knocking on the glass, and just people watching, I guess! She was funny and got embarrassed when people actually waved back at her. It was
so nice to be with Mina! She has such an inquisitive and thoughtful mind lately, it's hard
to keep up with her sometimes! But I do enjoy hearing what she is thinking about.

Congratulations Caroline! Can't wait for the big day!

The party's over...

Mayzie figured out how to climb out of her crib - DANG it! I have caught her several times in the act, as pictured. I have also heard THE thump. She is also starting to not nap because of this new skill, which is soooo not good. Today she climbed out when I put her down for a nap, and I knew she was up and out because I heard her flipping the lights on and off and on and off... The one thing I do like about this, is when she gets out of bed herself in the morning and comes to find me and we have some snuggle time - which she has missed out on, until now!