When daddy takes the kids to Costco...

They come back with an Elsa costume and a Spiderman costume, and they are the happiest kids alive.

Then Caitlyn gets out the fan and stands in front of it so her dress blows in the wind for real just like Elsa.

Then Nathan adds his super hero cape to his costume so he can stand in front of the fan too.

Then Caitlyn shows off her most dramatic Elsa face.

Costco is good.

Daddy's are great.

Kids are awesome.

No wonder he was so grumpy!

Caitlyn's Preschool Volcano

A couple weeks ago it was Cait's turn for show and tell at preschool. I didn't feel like we had any incredibly remarkable toys to share but I didn't want her to feel bad about not having a toy as cool as some as the other kids had brought to share. So I had an idea and helped her demonstrate how to make a homemade volcano. She had a blast doing it. It was fun!

Nate and His Cars

Every night when I put Nathan to bed he requests something to sleep with. Not just anything. It has to be one of his cars. Not just any car. I usually have to try several times before I come up with the right one -- the one he feels like having 'keep him company' that night. Or usually a few cars/trucks actually.
The other morning when he woke up I went to get him and found him with all his cars lined up.

If he could he'd have all his cars in there with him. Or for a while he requested his gigantic dump truck every night and I had to tell him it wouldn't fit in the crib with him and he'd be uncomfortable. Such a funny boy.

BST Revisited

When Caitlyn was a baby I did a blog post with a video of her signing, here. I didn't think about it at the time, but since then I've realized that I should have given some credit where credit was due. I've just never gotten around to doing it. But now that Benjamin is starting to sign I've been thinking about it more and decided to sit myself down and do it this morning.
My friend Amy Thayer of Oh So Savvy Mom introduced us to Baby Signing Time when were in our first BYU married ward together before we even had kids. I made a mental note that as soon as we had kids I wanted to use these awesome videos to teach our babies to communicate early through signing.
My video of Cait was inspired by her video of her baby boy signing on her blog. Since then we've introduced the video to lots of our family members and friends and we've loved watching each of our kids experience the excitement of communicating with us at a very early age. Thanks Amy!
P.S. What's a blog post without a picture? Or two. Or maybe three.

P.P.S. We pulled up at the grocery store the other day the same time as "our" fire engine (the one the kids got to climb in last year and have lovingly claimed ever since.) One of the firemen saw the kids' excitement and was nice enough to wait for us to get out of the car and over to the engine and then let them climb around in it again. Pure happiness for the kids.

Ode to Seaworld

We love Seaworld.

We never, ever get bored of Seaworld. 

I love that we live 5 minutes away from Seaworld so we can go for a couple of hours or how ever long we feel like and then hop back in the car and head home.

Last week was an especially fun trip to Seaworld for a couple of reasons. First, they just barely finished redoing their entire entrance, so now it has a bunch of pools with different sea creatures you can touch. My kids love it.

Second, since Benny is walking now he was able to go on all the rides in Sesame Street Bay of Play with Cait and Nate and me. He was SOOOO happy! 

When I lifted him up to get off the Abby's spinning sea star ride he started screaming bloody murder and arching his back and trying to wiggle out of my arms because he wanted to stay on and go again. Poor kid. Good thing we live close and can come back again pronto.

Heck even the flowers are awesome at Seaworld! I had to get a picture. Whoa is that my finger in the corner?

Oh, and Benjamin flipped my sunglasses off my face and into the pool of seals, so that was exciting. I was worried one of the seals might try to eat them and choke, but the lady said they wouldn't so no worries.

p.s. They had a bunch of flamingos walking right down the sidewalk! Never seen that before!

SEAWORLD FOREVER!!!

St. Patty's Day

I've never done a ton for St. Patrick's Day. Just the normal wear-something-green-so-you-don't-get-pinched. But this year we got a little more into it.

First, I ran a St. Patrick's Day 10K on Saturday -- my first 10K ever! I've done lots of 5Ks, but a friend named Carol Tuttle encouraged me to register and train for a 10K to give myself a fun outlet for the energy that gets pent up sometimes being a stay-at-home mom. So I did and it was GREAT! Especially because it forced me to load everyone and the jogging stroller down the elevator, into the car, and out to the park where I'd jog on the sidewalk in a circle around the play area so I could keep an eye on the kids while running. Hassle? Yes. Sometimes. But worth it.

Quinn and the kids were waiting at the finish line to cheer me in.

Then, for preschool the kids were supposed to bring leprechaun traps, which I'd never heard of. So I looked online and there were some seriously complicated designs. I decided to opt for something simpler so it would be fun and not a pain to make. Both kids really had a great time making them and I think they turned out pretty cute!

PLUS, I discovered that doing a craft together on Sunday morning was a calm, happy, constructive way to spend time together before church and I've decided from now on I'm going to plan a Sunday morning craft every week!

Here's Teacher Marina at preschool showing all the kids everybody's traps.

We put the traps outside and then at the end of preschool we went back out to see if we'd caught a leprechaun. You can see Nathan there in the green and white striped shirt and Caitlyn next to him in the pink, purple, and green striped shirt crouched down to look inside their traps. Nada. But the leprechaun did leave a big pot full of gold coins that Teacher Marina passed around. 

The kids were kind of disappointed that there wasn't a leprechaun in their traps. So when we got home I helped them set their traps outside again and I snuck out and put a tootsie pop in each trap. When they found the suckers I had them write a thank you note and put it in. I'm pretty sure they ran outside at least 12 more times before the end of the day to check the traps even though I assured them the leprechaun would only come once. :-) 

I'm glad it was fun for them! 

By that time I was kind of in the holiday spirit so I made Irish Soda Bread and Boxty for dinner even though I hadn't been planning to make a holiday themed dinner. While we ate I pulled out the laptop and showed the kids pictures of Ireland and read about why we have St. Patrick's Day, which was news to me, too.

I've decided to try to do something similar for every major holiday.

Happy St. Patty's Day!