Hand Print Flag

With the fourth of July looming on the horizon, I thought it would be a good idea to start talking about our flag with Kate.  We've talked about the colors in our flag - red, white, and blue - and we've looked at what colors the stripes are and what color the stars are.  We've also talked about how many stars on on the flag and what the represent - the 50 states!

To really hit this little learning lesson home, I thought it would be a good idea to create our own flag, so over the last couple nights we embarked on a little hand print flag project!  This little momento will be something that we will keep forever and display proudly each and every fourth of July.  Plus, it was super easy and fun for all of us.

I took a blank canvas and used masking tape to tape off the
areas where we did NOT want the red paint.

Then I let Kate do her thang!

I put the paint on the canvas and she went to town.

Girlfriend gets in a ZONE when she is painting!

Painting the roses canvas red!

Love that little tush!  Even though we are
wearing a smock, this is how we roll!

We explored with the paint a tad bit after we painted with the red
because painting is just too fun to only use one color!

I let the paint dry overnight and then peeled the tape off.

Then I covered the areas already painted with old
construction paper and left the area that we would
be painting blue open.

And, once again, I let Kate do her thing!

I mean, she's a pro by now with the amount of painting we do!

Once the blue was dry, I painted her hand and we stamped it
right where the stars would go!

And when it was 100% dry, we put it up for decoration!

I love this!  We will certainly be making another one of these for Little Sister at some point!  And, like I said, we will keep it forever and display it proudly each and every fourth of July!

Plus, it was a great learning experience and Kate has since pointed out the flags to me that she sees around the neighborhood or on signs, etc.  It is incredible to see our little lady so engaged and learning and then using her new skills outside of the activity we were doing!  She continues to amaze me!

A Canopy for Kate

We moved Kate into a big girl bed a few weeks before we found out we were expecting baby #2.  It has been my intention since then to put up a canopy over her bed with twinkle lights.  I looked up some ideas on how to assemble and attach said canopy and attempted to do so in the beginning of this year.

For my first attempt, I used combat hooks to attach the twinkle lights and I was going to attach safety pins to the canopy and just attach them to the combat hooks as well to create an easy-peesy canopy.

A princess needs a canopy for sure!

Paper flowers have been removed.

And Kate walks the organza runway like she
owns it.  #shedoes

(Side note: how young does Kate look!?)

I put the twinkle lights up and the canopy with this method and in less than 24 hours, it was already falling apart.  The combat hooks were not staying on the ceiling despite me following all the directions properly.  #ialwaysfollowthedirections

I don't have a before photo of the twinkle lights, but I basically took the organza canopy down and jerry-rigged the twinkle lights to the only hooks that actually stayed until I could come up with a more permanent solution.

For months, Kate had twinkle lights dangling from her ceiling over her bed.  We love twinkle lights in this house, so while they didn't necessarily look pretty, they gave off the perfect glow for our night time reading.  And Kate has always loved using the little remote to turn the twinkle lights off when we are done with books!

You can kind of see them dangling in the background here.
They came to a point above her bed, like a triangle, but there
was no finished canopy.

Since we are still in the process of getting Little Sister's room ready, I thought it would be good to do something in Kate's room too.  I don't want her resenting little sis before she's out of the womb and we've been doing A LOT in that room recently!

I decided it was time to address the canopy.  We took a family trip to Home Depot and came up with a great solution.  We used a wall plant hanger, attached a scrap piece of wood to the top of it, spray painted it white, and screwed it in the wall.  (A huge thanks to Daddy for all his handy work!)

Before.

Daddy helps us attach our contraption.

Said contraption...

I hung the organza canopy while Kate and Daddy read books.

And then I draped the twinkle lights on.

And now we have a perfected canopy above our princess's bed!

I am so happy with how this turned out!  We still have some work to do.  I've been trying to come up with something to decorate our canopy contraption with.  Think along the lines of glitter, or hanging stars, or hanging glitter stars!  But I haven't come up with that yes, that's it idea yet.  #creativemindproblems

I know it'll come to me but I'm so happy to have a nice canopy above Kate's bed.  It really looks a million times better than the inconsistent draping of twinkle lights that we had before.  That was kind of ghetto...and I certainly don't want Kate feeling like we looted her room and took all of her stuff and put it in Little Sister's room.

Yeah, that would not be a great start to the sister bonding thing.

Date Night

At the start of 2015, we knew it was going to be an extremely eventful year!  Three of Brian's cousin's are all getting married this year.  We are having another baby.  My brother and his wife are having a baby.  My sister is graduating from her cardiac sonography program, and my youngest brother is becoming an Eagle Scout, just to name a few of those big things.  (Trust me when I say these are just a few of those things going on this year.  There are many, many other things too!)

Last night, we had the first of the three weddings.  Emma (Brian's cousin) and Bryce tied the knot!  They did not invite kiddos to their wedding so we had Miss Heidi, one of Kate's teachers, come and babysit while we had a little date night.  Brian and I don't get out much.  The main reason for this, for me, is because my time is very limited with Kate while I'm working and the free time that I do have I want to be spending it with her.  SO, it's been a while since we got all snazzy and headed out sans child in tow.  (Though, in reality, we actually did have Little Sis in tow so I guess we weren't really sans child!)

Emma and her Dad, Joe.

We clean up nicely!

Brian and his Mom, Mary.

I thought the flowers on the cake were gorg!

Jill, Tom, and me.

The girls - Mary, Aunt Judy, Jill, and me.

We had a great time dancing, chatting, and enjoying the beautiful setting.  Brian and Tom have been working diligently on getting the ceiling light/fan installed in Sister Bear's room and they have just recently got it working.  I joked with them that after all of their time and effort we would take it down and replace it with one of the gorgeous crystal chandeliers that hung in the ballroom we were in.  #iwasjoking  #butiwasnt

The chandelier would've been a tad too big, but it would have been stunning!  Maybe next time, right?!

Emma and Bryce had a beautiful wedding and are headed to St. Lucia.  Going to weddings brings back a flood of emotions and memories of my own and everything that went on around that time in my life.  It was fun to relive those memories for a bit and share in these new ones with Emma, Bryce and Brian's family.

Meanwhile, back at the ole homestead, Kate and Miss Heidi held the fort down.  Apparently they played with nearly every toy we have and then painted each other's nails.  Yes, Miss Heidi let Kate paint her nails.  While I have painted Kate's nails, I hadn't opened that can of worms yet.  Miss Heidi, you win!  I imagine this will be a favorite thing to do from here on out...

Congrats, Emma and Bryce, and thanks for an awesome date night!

Sidewalk Chalk

We have been loving the beautiful outdoor weather this year and we take every opportunity we can to get outside.  This typically involves meals outdoors, bubbles, tending to the garden, playing with Jack, riding our tricycle or bike, taking walks, going to the park, and, of course, playing with sidewalk chalk!

Our newest fad with said chalk is to trace everyone on the ground!  This started as I was tracing Kate and then she wanted to trace me, and Daddy, and Jack, so we all got in on the action!  Take a peek at our latest driveway masterpieces!

Kate is at such a fun age!

I love this photo of her running in the background.
#carefree  #childhood  #summertime
#doesntgetmuchbetterthanthat

Surveying her masterpieces and standing on
Mommy.

Right after this photo Kate said she wanted to give Mommy a hug.  She knelt down and laid her body right on top of my chalk body outline.  It seriously melted my heart and may or may not have made me teary eyed.  I love her.  Seriously, somebody hold me.

Getting ready for another round!

Fireworks, ice cream cones, stars, and a butterfly!  If that doesn't
scream SUMMERTIME, I don't know what does!

Our little family.

Dog Walker

The relationship between Kate and Jack has really blossomed over the last couple of months.  Kate absolutely adores Jack.  She likes to play with him, give him treats, call him nicknames (her fav is calling him "Jackie" which she came up with on her own!) and, most recently, take him for walks around the house on his leash.

I would love if our dog was a good walker outdoors but he is very far from it.  I think it would be awesome for Kate to have a chore in the future of walking the dog.  Unfortunately, I can barely control him outside so I don't imagine that outdoor chore being a fun one...We let Kate handle him inside but tell her if he starts to pull to simply drop his leash.  I find peace knowing that he really can't get too rowdy inside, right?!

Jack has also warmed up extremely well to Kate.  It could be the tons of extra treats she gives him or the nibbles from her plate that she provides, but even she is able to seek obeying commands from him.  She's good at asking him to sit, lay down, come, etc.!  I think she likes the power of that too!

Ok, before I get started I just have to revel in this
cuteness for a moment.  #silenceplease
Ok, as you were.

Kate and her doggie.  Jack looks thrilled to be
on a leash.

Walking her pup like a pro!

And getting wrapped up is one of the funnest things!
#whenyourenotoutsidewithhim

My darling girl!
Side note: She also LOVES this dress and asks
to wear it nearly everyday!
#igotitonsale  #momwin

I couldn't help but include both of these!

Believe it or not, Jack behaves extremely well while on leash with Kate, indoors.  It has become a ritual that Kate loves and Jack tolerates!

Painting of the Eyebrows

I'm not entirely sure where this concept originated but while we were doing some final touches in Little Sister's room, Kate decided she was going to "paint her eyebrows" with her watercolor paints...while standing on the ladder.  It was the cutest thing ever!  And we were even able to catch a little viddie to commemorate this adorable moment too!  I'm going to keep this short and sweet and let you see for yourself.

Watercolor paints!  Perfect for eyebrows!

She's going to be doing her makeup better than I do soon!

This is seriously cuteness overload.

And even on a ladder!

How do they look, Mom?!

Apparently the right needs a tad more!

♥   She even has her sunglasses!

Stop it.  That pony tail is the.most.adorable.thing.ever!

Helping Daddy paint the vent cover.

Organizing our paper towels.

I see a teensy bit of perfectionist in her...
#sheishermamasgirl

These are the moments I never want to forget!

Throwback Thursday

I've been going through old papers from our spare room during my lunch break recently in an effort to consolidate and get rid of things we don't really need anymore and make room for Little Sister.  Today I ran across this gem from our wedding day and immediately took a photo and sent it on over to Brian:

8/6/10!

It's hard to believe that was nearly five years ago!  In that time we've bought a house, had a baby, and have another baby on the way!  Incredible.  I wonder what the next five years have in store for us!

Love you, Bri.

Babushka

We found Jack on the couch today tangled up in our his blanket.  I mean, it was literally wrapped around his body and his head with his face only peeking out.  I'm not entirely sure how he got this way but I imagine a blanket versus dog wrestling match ensued at some point not long before!

I immediately blurted out, "Babushka," as his new nickname because this is exactly what his "look" reminded me of!  Kate thought this was absolutely hilarious and we placed the blanket on his head and called him Babushka for the rest of the night!

Our Babushka!

Laughing once again at his new nickname!

These two!

Best of buds!

You're a good puppy dog, Jack!