My Big Girl

Boy do I have some "big girl" news to share with you today! When we were at the zoo in SD, Kylie saw a "Buck" doll (character from Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs). He is her favorite and she, who had just spent all her money on a Rapunzel doll, decided she had to have it. When I reminded her she was out of money she got very sad and said nothing. A few hours later, she told me she could earn money going on bikerides except there aren't coins anymore when we ride bikes (we used to bribe her to ride bike by making it a treasure hunt - now she realizes she loves to ride bike and we don't need it anymore). So I told her she could earn money by doing chores around our house and Nana's house. She thought this was a splendid idea but when I showed her how many coins (each sticker) she would have to earn, I thought she would lose heart and not do it, instead, she completely surprised me and took to it like a most mature little four year old. There are 32 coins on that chart (for $8), but never once did she waver in her determination. Two days after we got home, she completed her chart and we ordered Buck.

This is Buck. She was so excited and this Momma, well, she is super proud!!

She had also really gotten into her coloring and is getting quite good.  I know it is hard to see but this is a house and our family...Sammy at the bottom, Me, M is in blue and you can't really see him, then the two girls on the right.

Nana gave her this kickin' egg decorating kit and she spent forever making them perfect.  She definitely loves crafts!  Look at that, there is a knight, a coach, princesses, princes, even horses.  I even had fun helping her! :)

At some point, she also decided that she really wanted to call the writers of Superbook and she wouldn't let it go so we sat down and wrote.  It reads: Dear Superbook Writers, Please make a Superbook about Jonah and the big fish and Jesus who dies on the cross.  Thank you, Kylie.  She wrote it all except the first line.  :-) We did "N" this week so sadly, all those backwards letter N's will now corrent themselves.

She is getting to be such a big girl!

All right, I also found some more pictures on my camera...this was K when she was sick...

At our friend's house.

This was so funny...he could not get the truck to do what he wanted and Em just sat there looking at him, trying to decide what she thought of that giant toy.

Once they were on more similar sized vehicles, they had fun crashing into each other.

Now that we are home, we planted a small garden, just to see how it will go.

It won't have too much in it, but we had so much extra soil, we planted corn and peas along the fence as well.  Who knows how it will work but we sure will have fun trying it out.

We decided to have a little egg hunt with the girls...

Waiting not so patiently...

The Fab Five...

Looking under the trampoline.

A was not so sure about all this.

She missed the idea...the candy is inside the egg sweetheart!!

Yes, he has the same scowl as his sister.

This was so funny...they could hear an owl and they were scared so they kept hugging each other to comfort each other.  Girls!

They have a cute little puppy and K could not keep herself away.

Well, we are home and M starts work again on Monday but until then, we have been having fun.  God Bless!!!

Last in Redding

Honestly, this was the strangest vacation in a while...we passed around the most mild stomach flu possible but still every couple of days, someone new felt nauseated and was quite low on energy. So usually, with my family, we do a lot, but we actually took it fairly easy this time around. That, however, didn't prevent us from playing, just at a different level...

One place we went was a huge warehouse full of a dozen giant bounce houses, a black light mini-golf, remote control tracks and whatever else, I am not sure. We spent our time in the bounce houses.

Dad got stuck at the giant legos.

This was the largest bounce track/obstacle course and definitely K's favorite.  They burned a ton of energy on this!!

Have you seen these large gloves before?

I'm pretty sure this is frowned upon in most circles.  :-)

Some friends brough over an eggless cake for our tasting pleasure.  Her daughter certainly loved it, she was licking the plate!

On to one more hike...one more hike oh so tantalizingly close to our house.  The faint white mountain in the background is my baby, Mt. Shasta.

Walking in the manzanita.

The mountain on the right is Mt. Lassen and we are overlooking the entire valley that encompases the city of Redding.  If you could see down, you would seen a nice mix of green and buildings, with the Sacracmento River snaking across the landscape.  You could pick out landmarks and see over a great stretch of land.  Plus, we only needed to hike half a mile to reap the reward of the view.

Em took her glasses off to put my sunglasses on and then she tried to hike without her glasses at all...that didn't go well and soon she turned around and said, "Mom, my can't see!"  I told her I knew because I had her glasses and she touched her eyes like she didn't realize it and gave me the goofiest grin.  She is such a clown!!

Oh, and then there is K...she is taking to art and drama.  Wow!

See?  This was K's pose and Em decided she was having none of that and her response was a pose like this.

Aww!  We did set the timer and get a cute family photo.

Well, we are back home now and taking care of a million chores that just needed to be done.  Feels good to accomplish them but it's kind of a bummer to use vacation to do it.  Oh well, after three weeks, the girls were done traveling and their behavior let us know.  So, it's good to be back and getting them into a routine again. God Bless!!