Daddy/Daughter Playtime

By the time Ryan makes his hour long commute home after work, he only has just a few precious hours to hang with his girl. Pony rides and 'Daddy Scare Me' are probably her favorites, but reading books and playing dress-up rank right up there.

I snapped a few shots of Gracie playing with Daddy last night. Notice the creative use of the dress-up clothes on her head. All Daddy's idea! "Hat!" she'd say!

I could watch the two of them for hours. Makes me happy!

Boating Indoors

All the kids have been asking to get in the boat, so this morning as the temperature dropped 20 degrees outside, we stayed in and set sail (in the garage). All the kids took turns being captain while the others scouted for the best seat in the boat. Kyle even asked if he could take his nap in there sometime!

I snapped a few pics to share and without trying I got my current favorite Kia picture. This pretty much sums up Kia's explanation to most of the questions I asked her today. Including, but not limited to, "Why is your shirt backwards and inside out?" "Whose pants are those?" "Where did you get them?" "Are there clothes all over Gracie's floor?" "What have you been up to?" I never got a straight answer to any of the above questions. But when I asked her to go find her pants, she ran to Gracie's dirty clothes basket to retrieve them. Kia has this thing for comfy cwoves, that's Kia talk for comfy clothes, so I'm guessing Gracie's pink fleece pants, a size too small, and put on backward were more comfy than her jeans?! Never a dull moment!

It pays to have good kids!

This morning while the girls and I were at Aldi's, a really nice gentleman came up to our cart. He told the girls that they are very good and well-behaved children. He told them how cute they are and then handed each girl a dollar! Kia took it right away and said, "MUNNEY!" So hilarious! Gracie wasn't sure, you know her and strangers. But I helped her take the dollar and told the man he didn't have to give the girls money. He just smiled and told the girls to have their momma buy them a special treat.

They both held their dollars proudly and quickly began chattering about munney! Gracie was sure that a picture of a baby was on her dollar, but both girls now know that it is George Washington.

After storing the munney in their pockets for the rest of our shopping adventure, each girl decided that she wanted to spend her munney on kanny. That's Gracie-Talk for candy. Gracie chose gummy worms and Kia selected a Hello Kitty Pez dispenser. At the register each girl gave her item to be scanned and without hesitation handed over their munney.

All the way to the car, all I heard was "Kanny! Kanny! Kanny!" Fun experience!

Two things to note, George Washington makes a funny looking baby. And I need to work with Gracie... when someone hands you money, you take it!

It's a beautiful day...

It's impossible to pass up a picnic at the park when it's 70 + degrees in January. We picked up Kyle from PreK and headed to Oak Grove for some fun in the sun! I hid breakfast burritos and apple slices in a picnic basket in the back of the car. When we pulled up to the park, Kyle questioned, "What are we doing?!" Everyone, including me, was delighted to indulge in a little spring fever playtime. Now that everyone is napping and the windows are wide open, I'm daydreaming of lake trips and grilling in the backyard. Ahhh... trying not to wish my life away, but I am ready for spring! And Ryan will be grilling cheeseburgers for dinner!

The pictures aren't great, but who wants to fiddle with the camera when there are slides to go down?!

Princess Kianna

Princess Kianna didn't want to take off her dress up clothes when it was time to go pick up Kyle from Pre-K!

Healthy Happy Meals

One of the things I like about being home with the kids is having the opportunity to cook wholesome, healthy meals and snacks for them. I quite enjoy the challenge their little tastebuds and our little budget create. Maybe it's my modern day farm wife fix, I don't know. For those of you who haven't read our blog for very long, my secret fantasy is to be a farm wife... that is, if Ryan were a farmer!

So sometimes I get creative in the kitchen with and without the kids' help. But yesterday I kept it simple. Lean cheese/hamburgers, oven baked French fries, and bananas with blueberries. As I was preparing lunch, the thought crossed my mind to tell the kids we were having Healthy Happy Meals for lunch. My McDonalds Deprived Daughter had no clue what that meant, but my nephew was intrigued... always a good sign! I found some little sponge farm animals that expand when in water that we hadn't pulled out yet to serve as their McD's toy. We put them inside small jars of water to shake throughout lunch.

Our creative lunch was a big hit. Gracie's favorite was the fruit, duh. Kia's favorite was French fries, barely beating out ketchup. Kyle thoroughly enjoy his hamburger and requested seconds, which unfortunately I did not have. Poor guy! So it looks like Healthy Happy Meals will be added to our lunch rotation.

And if you're wondering, yes, Kyle is wearing a bib. Only at my house and only at lunch. I have no idea why. But it cracks me up!