Outdoor Fun!

Those baby blues melt my heart!

Kellen has the best run! He has just seen my camera and is gearing up to come grab my lens!!

Here I come!!!

Almost there in attempt to destroy an expensive camera!!Camera saved by the hose!!
Pax was quiet in the yard today. Played with rocks, kinda seemed he wanted to be by himself. Hey, I get it!!!

Fall Colors!

Fall seems to have arrived! The air is cooler, leaves are turning colors, and long-sleeve shirts are coming out of the closets...and I LOVE it! My favorite thing to do with a new season is add seasonal accents to our home. I never spend much and the change makes me so happy! :-) I am already dreaming about Christmas decorating!!! I know, I know, Halloween and Thanksgiving havent even gone by...but a girl can dream...

Our Dining Room Table

Entertainment Center
Fireplace Mantle

Kitchen Table...Mostly for the kids!!

Are you adding Fall touches to your home?

Balloon Kites

I was super excited to try Balloon Kites, and had the opportunity this morning when the boys were given two helium balloons at Kroger. Toddlers cant grasp the concept of real kites, but as evidenced this morning they LOVE balloon kites. All you have to do is tie a helium balloon to your toddlers wrist and let them outside!! The boys ran all over the yard shreiking with excitement. So simple and free for me this morning...gotta love it!

p.140 The Toddlers Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Thank YOU, NANA!

Thank you for our new toys, and especially our new table and chairs!!! Lots of arts and crafts coming our way!!

Sponge Play

My kids love to play, in any way, with water. So I was drawn to Sponge Play. In this activity, you need only two bowls and a sponge for each kiddo. Fill one bowl with water and put a few drops of food coloring in the water. I used two Williams Sonoma sponges, the kind that come condensed and grow in water during the first use. The boys loved watching each sponge 'grow' when it was put in water. I talked about the texture and color of the sponge, and then showed them how to squish the sponge. Now, the concept of this activity is to transfer the water back and forth between the two bowls. P&K kinda got it, but they had a blast dropping the sponge in the water and then squeezing water all over our screened-in porch.

All in all, I liked this activity. P&K were not ready to transfer water from one bowl to another, but I liked that they played with a new texture and I had virtually no clean-up!

*Tip- Only put one or two drops of food coloring...it will stain for several days. No green hands!!




They loved stomping in the water when we were finished. Also, I gave them some chalk when we were done. Drawing in the water was a hit because the color was brighter and different than what they are used to seeing on dry ground.

p.121 The Toddlers Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Dear Kellen,

You are far too sweet and pretty

to throw such temper tantrums.
Even your brother is starting to worry about you.
So could we please, please figure out an alternative to these tantrums?
No??? Okay. I didnt think you would agree.
Could we cut the length of your tantrums by a few minutes??
I miss your sweet smile when it is burried in the carpet.
I LOVE YOU~Mommy

Clothespin Drop

Ok, moms this is a good one and so easy! Clean out a milk carton and drop 6-8 clothespins into the carton. I keep the cartons in our pantry and pull them out (usually around dinner time) to keep them occupied for a while. I made them over a week ago, and the boys still have not grown tired of them. P&K will run all over the house shaking them, sounds like a drum. But they love to pull the clothespins out and put them back in. They have not quite mastered getting them out, so I will pull one out a time and practice our counting. They are both so focussed putting them back in, super cute!

*Tip for twin moms...you will definitely need two cartons!!! Trust me!!!

Look, twins sharing! I think I have a tear in my eye!!!:-)

p.44 The Toddlers Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Water Balloon Catch

Yesterday after nap time we tried out some water balloons. Only one problem...I didnt fill enough balloons! They LOVED it! We didnt so much have a water balloon catch, however, the boys squished them, rolled them in their hands, and then started to bust them. P&K would die out laughing everytime one exploded, clapping for each other when their balloons busted. We will definitely be doing this again soon.

*Tip: Make sure to use bright color balloons so you can clearly see all the pieces to pick up.

p.117 The Toddlers Busy Book by Trish Kuffner

Info on Chairs, A Trilogy of Books, and Toddler Activities

I have gotten several emails and a comment requesting details on the chairs we bought. Danny (the refurbisher) goes to the same spot at the Nashville flea market every month...he will be there this weekend. I wish I could tell you I could remember where, but I dont. If you would like his cell phone number to get the exact location, email me and I will send it back to you. I just dont want to put it online without his permission. He is a super-super nice guy and I know would welcome the phone calls. I will tell you this, we spent $280 on 7 chairs. He mostly sells to local furniture shops in Nasvhille, and those stores turn around and sell the chairs for $125 and up. We bought each for $40. WORTH the drive to our flea market!! Also, someone mentioned needing table and chairs, he has great tables and he also does children's beds that are great. Anyway, hope this helps!

So where I have been? My best friend, Stephanie (who got engaged on Saturday YIPPPEE), told me I had to read this trilogy of books by Penny Vincenzi. The books are No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation. Each book is 700 or so pages, and I am obsessed!!! So, if you are looking for some good fiction, you have got to pick these books up. I have spent every naptime enthralled in these books!!

So I bought this book called The Toddler's Busy Book: 365 Creative Learning Games and Activities to Keep Your 1 1/2 - 3 Year Old Busy by Trish Kuffner. The plan is to do every single one of them and document them here. Hope someone can catch some ideas.

p.256 Bathtub Fingerpainting
We loved it! This activity has two major benefits. 1) the boys got a bath right after we finished without having to move them through the house with paint everywhere 2) the tub got a good cleaning as well. I used three colors of tempera fingerpaint, it washed right off them and the tub.

Chairs and a Cotton Gin

Last weekend we had beautiful weather so Aaron and I decided to head to our local flea market. I have been looking for refurbished chairs for our new dining room table. Well, luck fell in our laps when we found a husband/wife duo that buy, rebuilds, and repaints old chairs. Only one problem, by the time we found them all of his chairs were GONE! He told us we could drive out to his shop, so off we went this Saturday. Two hours from Nashville we arrived, to not even a blip on the screen town of Hollow Rock. I was a bit nervous when we pulled up, this is what I found!!

But when I walked into this old cotton gin I hit the jackpot on old chairs, repainted in beautiful colors! We purchased two arm-chairs in one style/color and four in another style/color for our dining room. We are picking them up on Wednesday. But Aaron and I fell in love with this one chair, I keep moving it all over the house looking for the perfect spot!

While I waited for Aaron to negotiate price I took some shots of my loves!!!

On the way back we stopped at my favorite place to eat while traveling...Cracker Barrel. I even got a pic with Kel-bug!
Good food, good pictures, and good furniture...what a successful day!!!

A BIG Week

I have been in a massive blogging funk lately. Recently there is more laundry to be done, crumbs to be swept, boo-boos to kiss, and wagon rides to lead. However, this week was a big week. The boys hit the BIG 2-0! I cant believe the boys are 20 months old, but I guess everyone says that, right?! P&K also attended their first day of Mother's Day Out on Tuesday. I woke up early that morning and packed two blankets for naptime, two lunches, two sippy cups, Benadryl for Paxton, sunscreen, and two binkys for naptime. I tried super hard to get good pictures of my cutie pies before we were off to MDO, but as you can see I failed!! Oh well, maybe next time!!

Kellen screamed bloody murder when I walked away, my heart sunk. He was coughing he was crying so hard. It killed me to walk out of that door. Paxton didnt even look back, that kid is so independent. When I arrived to pick them up (20 minutes early:-)) they both looked up, smiled and just when I thought they would run and jump on me, they looked back down at their toys and kept playing!!!!!!!! OMG! Those little turkeys didnt want to leave. Needless to say, tomorrow will be much easier on me and hopefully them too.