Ode to the 8 Year Old Birthday Girl

It's really that day. The day Cali turns 8 years old. I can hardly stand it and if I dwell on it, I'll cry.
This however brought a smile to my heart!
We all love Cali Bay...She is the blessing we didn't expect and couldn't live without!

A poem from her big sister...

Well lets just start with saying happy birthday Cal! 
I wanted to say how much I love you, and how much I love you being my pal :)

You're such a sweet girl, with a very kind heart. 
Your smile is like a key to a car, it makes everyone start!

Your laugh is irreplaceable, so high and cute! 
Just make sure you keep that up, cause what's not too cute is when you toot!

My oh my, where has time gone?!
You've become a amazing person, just keep growing along :)

I know you'll do great things, I know you'll have fun. 
You'll create something brighter than that big sun!

You'll make people happy, you'll share what you know. 
You'll do what you love. And never stop, just go, go, go!

I can't believe your already 8!
Man, oh man. I hope your birthdays great! 

Don't grow up too fast, I'll miss you too much!
You'll start wearing bras, dating boys, and such!

I hope you have a fabulous day!
Mwah! I love you more than words can say!

It's On! Cali's Clothes Challenge

Recently, Cali and I decided to go through her clothes. We pulled out everything that didn't fit and gave them to Annie. Cali was so fortunate to have darling little clothes passed down from her sisters and given to her by her Great Aunts and her Grandparents. There are so many things in her closet, there are even things with tags just hanging there.

We didn't buy a lot of clothes for the start of school this year but after sorting her closet I am so glad we didn't. I decided to try and make things fun for her so I offered her a challenge.  First, we hypothesized, how long do you think you can go without wearing the same outfit twice? I thought a  month sounded about right but she thought two months. We did decide jeans could be used twice and shoes are not included. Otherwise, nothing more than one time.

We decided we would try to photograph each outfit in order to help us remember. A couple of days we forgot to do that. (I had to write it down separately.)

We will update as we go but here is what we have so far.
We are on day 10. What is your guess, how many days will we make it?

Peek-A-Boo

Isn't it fun when the babies finally figure out peek-a-boo.

It's such a fun stage.

You spend your time as a Momma feeding them, making sure they aren't thirsty.

You keep an eye out for danger...  

...only to find they are getting into trouble right under your nose.

You encourage their independence and find yourself with a brief moment alone, ahhh!

 Then all of a sudden, they are meandering around, testing their independence, checking things out.

And you're left wishing they were still playing peek-a-boo!

Pinterest-ing Saturday #2

So we aren't  like going crazy or anything, but we are managing to do some projects. Who Hoo


This week we made some rainbow bubble snakes.

It's a bit funny that it took me seeing this on pinterest to figure this out. We've made these bubble bottles many times. I've even done this at our school for a picnic. That tells you haw much crap I save.  I had plenty of bottles and mix-matched socks.

This time we added food coloring on the ends of the socks before we put them in the bubble water.

Then BLOW!

There are a couple things I should mention. It can be messy, really messy. Messy because when I used the food coloring I made a bit of a mess on my fingers with food coloring drips. Really messy because I let Cali do her own food coloring and she dripped everywhere. I would suggest if you can not handle big mess, do the food coloring for them while they tell you what colors they want. Me, I just let her do it and figured the food coloring wouldn't last forever.

                             


We added food coloring after every two to three times we made a long snake. It kept the colors more vibrant. One time the bubbles landed on our bowl that we contain all of our food coloring bottles in. It reminded me of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow or something like that. Isn't it cute?

Also, use a lot of soap and only a little water. The bubbles will be thicker and make longer snakes. 

Just after we started this project, the big girls told me they were supposed to be meeting friends at the beach. Cali and I just packed up our supplies and took them with us.

We didn't have near as much luck there as it was windy. Which brings me to the last bit of advice, do this in a place that isn't too windy otherwise you end up with really short bubble snakes because they blow off too quickly. (Also, if the snakes hit your clothing and they are covered in food coloring they can stain your clothing. We managed to avoid this but it is how Cali's feet were stained.

I am loving Pinterest...How about you?

A Pintersting Saturday #1

Cali and I made a decision recently, that we were going to make a point to make at least one thing we found on Pinterest, at least once per week. We hope to do more than that but we'll keep our goals simple. (:
I plan on trying to post them on Saturday. Again, keeping it simple. Wish me luck!

This week we made Jello Oranges. This was one Cali really wanted to do. (And I wanted to see how they worked since Amber is trying to get me to make some of these with liquor.)

The one thing we didn't get done was to photograph them in a rainbow pattern.

Cali did all the mixing of the Jello while I got the job of scooping out the oranges.

She chose all the colors. I think the blue was considered the favorite by most everyone.

The afternoon we made them some good friends of Cori's and Cassi's got back to town from Japan. They surprised us. Once word spread through town that they had returned a lot of friends were clamoring to see them so we ended up with a impromptu beach party.

It was also Summer Solstice which made it even more wonderful.

Why am I telling you all of this, well because we took those Jello oranges to the beach, of course!
It was an exciting surprise for everyone and Cali was excited to share her talents.

I think we will be making these again, very soon. And then we'll get that rainbow orange picture!

It's Getting Serious...

Seriously fun! OK, well I thought it was fun.

We all gathered for Father's Day out at Grandpa's house of course!

We had to drag him off the roof, I mean everyone's go to eat, right?

GiGi took care of everything! A good thing too because with Scott having come home only the 2 days before we were doing much around our house but hanging on Daddy!

Normally at these family get together's we play Blongo, or that toss game where you throw golf balls attached to string but....it has slowly fell apart and is no longer usable. Cassi and I decided we would buy Bocci Ball and give that a go.

It didn't go so well. I thought it was great. And Dad and I were in the midst of quite a game when the rest of the crew came along and we decided to play reams. That, of course, is when things for serious...seriously competitive. :)
And then it got hot! (Really, it made it to 70+ degrees depending on your part of town- the hottest day of the year so far!) And then the whining started. 

And that's when we decided the next score wins. And that's when I won! Yay! (Well not really, But I seriously wanted too!)

OK, Scott's team (red) won...and I guess that is fair 'cause he is a Dad and all, and it was Father's day. I guess I can let it go, until next time! "Cause having fun and playing winning games is SERIOUS! :)

Happy Father's Day to the Best Two Dad's EVER!

And in case you were wondering, the girls did get on the trampoline and caught some serious air!

Signs of Summer

Clockwise from top left: Burnt marshmallows, campfire smoke, sticky s'mores, hanging with my girls, 

midnight sun, sun-kissed cheeks and freckles, bare feet.

We've had a slow start to our summer this season.

It's been a little cool, or maybe a whole lot of cool, and not real sunny yet.

But tonight, I started seeing some signs.

"And here I am 

Just waiting for this storm to pass me by

And that's the sound of sunshine coming down

And that's the sound of sunshine coming down..."

Love Letter...From a Big Sister

The following is a text I received from Cori this past weekend. A love letter to her little sisters.
We were in Anchorage for a cheer competition while she had to stay home to prepare for a big volleyball weekend.

"Hey my beautiful sisters. <3
I just want you to know that I am SO proud of both of you!
No matter what place you get.
I wish I could be there, but I know you guys will be great, you always are!
You guys are always #1 to me!
Love you guys!
GOOD LUCK YOU LITTLE ROCKSTARS!"

Every now and then, you just know you're doing it right! It was definitely a proud-parent moment!
And you know what, she was right, They rocked it!

Random Acts of Kindness~Lets Do it Together!

I have been planning something similar to this for my upcoming birthday. In the meantime, I am going to practice with this project! I found the project HERE.

Here are the details, pulled from Toddler Approved.

1. Accept the challenge to accomplish 100 acts of kindness with your families or students over the next four weeks (Jan 16-Feb 14).  Use the link for the project above.

2. Let us know in the comments that you are joining us! Again, use think link above.

3. Create a way to record your acts of kindness. (Ideas from last year are here and here. We'll share some other ones soon too. You can simply make an X on the calendar or come up with something super creative. The sky is the limit.) I think we can use facebook as well.

4. Participate in each weekly challenge. We will give you one each Monday for four weeks. They will be simple.  

5. Join us in celebrating your success with a Kindness Celebration on Valentine's Day, Feb 14th!

For all of my friends who had so much fun participating in Secret Santa, you should love this equally!

Let's do it!

Happy New Year

Can you believe it's 2012? Did you ever think about this year, where you would be? I'm not sure I ever did. Life seems to be going so much faster than I ever expected it would. That said, I'm in for the long ride.
Loving (mostly) every minute of it. I wish I could hang on to my girls a little longer but they are pulling, testing their boundaries and growing so quickly. So me, I'm hanging on, to each moment, each memory, each tradition for as long as I can in hopes they don't abandon them all and we can continue to make great memories.

Just like we do every year since Cori and Cassi were tiny, we took a first family picture of the New Year.  There aren't really any rules but I try not to use a tripod. (As far as I know, we only did that one time- when Andrew was visiting.) I always hold out the camera, at arms length and snap. Because it always happens sometime after our annual New Year's Eve party, I've usually had a few drinks, so you could end up viewing the tunnels of my nose or see a lovely double chin. The kids are loopy and very tired so with them you never know what you will get. And Scott, he's usually just trying to get it done without casualties.

As the girls grow older, we seem to often have 'extras' visiting and because they are usually close friends, we include them. This year is our biggest grouping yet. In addition to the 6 of us (I say 6 because Wren has been in almost EVERY one- love that boy!) there is Cassi's friend, Abbi, Cori's friend, Whitney and Cori's boyfriend, Brodi. There weren't really any great shots, in fact there is something ridiculous about every one. I'm not including all of them but I will show some of the better ones.

These pictures are really special to me and hopefully I will one day be able to compile all of them in one space. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Here is wishing you a wonderfully silly and fun year, that it's a great ride and that you are hanging one!

Happy 2012!