An absurdly long blog post of cool stuff...

Happy memorial day weekend to you. My hubs and I had planned to scrape, sand, power wash and paint the weekend away. The exterior of our house is in need of a weekend long dose of TLC but the weather has decided otherwise. Saturday we managed to scrape, sand and clean-up our lead paint disaster while mother nature attempts to complete the power washing for us. So while we wait for the lightening to clear I thought why not put together a blog post full of pictures I have been collecting. 

One cool morning CJ dressed herself in a swimsuit, I dragged out the trampoline and a mirror and she spent a good long while watching herself perform tricks. It looked kind of fun to me too and I eventually begged for a turn but ultimately let her jump more than me. (Note: CJ was the only one in a bathing suit.)

Looking at this collection of photos it is obvious I need to take more Kate pictures. I'm sure the ratio of CJ/Natalie to Kate photos will even out as school lets out and summer begins.

I personally love the next series of pictures. CJ wanted to make a tent. I may sound horribly mean but I don't allow them to make tents anymore because I do all of the work to drag out chairs and blankets. I build the tent and they quite literally plan in it for five minutes and leave the clean-up to me. (I'd make them to clean-up but frankly they aren't physically strong enough to carry the dining room chairs around the house.) So back to the story, CJ (wearing another dress) wanted to make a tent, I said no because I'm a big fat, meany and we instead draped a blanket over Natalie's bouncer and one tiny princess chair. CJ took up residence (for five minutes, of course) until Natalie took over. Theses pictures explain it all...






"Huh, where did CJ go?"

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Last week when the weather was happy, sunny and bright the two youngest and I set up camp outside. We quite honestly spent hours at a time playing in the yard. While I wouldn't enjoy the hard work of a pioneer I sometimes think I would have liked all the hours logged outside by the pioneers. I think I'm getting off topic. The point is I love being outside and I love that my girls love being outside. Natalie cried one afternoon when I brought her indoors and then immediately perked up when we went back outside. Anyway, since these photos the plants have bloomed and the bushes have leaves. Ah, I love spring...

Why do all little kids love to have the sprinkler spray their booty? 

I kind of wanted to run through the sprinkler with her but we live in town so that would just look silly. 



I asked CJ to smile and this is almost always her reaction.

Swimsuit bike riding... 
CJ calls her hair "boingy curls." I don't know how to maintain them but they are adorable.

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A week and a half ago we went to the annual Cyclone tailgate in Waterloo. It is an event we often look forward to and although this year there weren't any athletes to meet (at least none I recognized) there sure were a lot of well known coaches. They of course had face painting, bouncy tents and CY.

CJ with her fairy tattoo... 

Kate with her Iowa State colored butterfly face... 

CJ opted for a butterfly with "pretty colors"... 



 Kate was thrilled to get her picture with CY while CJ was shy...
Kate was enamored with the cheerleaders where as CJ just wanted to steal their hair accessories...honest. Note: the cheerleader in the middle was so cute but ridiculously tiny and thin. I almost bought her a sandwich.

That is a our CJ in a nutshell...pretty dress, playing with her hair, a diva in sunglasses and dirt all over her toes. (Dirt not pictured here.) 

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While I could have (or should have?) broken up these photos into several blog posts I decided to instead lump them all together. Our days have been filled with pretty normal stuff like... 

 Hanging with Dad in a polo shirt...

rolling around on the floor with toys... 

blowing (and spilling) bubbles... 

relaxing with Mom... 

pulling off flowers from the bushes...
(Seriously, I cannot stop laughing at that face. I asked her to smile near the bushes because they are so pretty and the flowers only last a week or two and this is the face she makes. At least she is standing still this time.)

Much better! Note: Can you see why we need to scrape and paint.


Natalie has taken a liking to the feel of grass... 


and the "Craft store" opened this past Friday for the first time which led to a lot of creative play and completed chores. Whoppie!!!

So there you have it. Several weeks of regular old daily stuff in one shiny blog post. Well the thunder is still rolling out there and I am not about to stand outside with a big metal power washer so I guess I will go find something else to do. Here is a to a super soaking wet Memorial Day Weekend!

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