Family

One Every Seven 31:52 FAMILY
I didn't feel like messing with my tripod and remote so I asked my Brian's Mom to snap this one for me...

The Tea Party

Emma has been wanting to invite a couple of friends over for a fancy tea party, so that is exactly what we did!  Her best friend from Pre-K (Madison), and a newer friend (Julia) both came yesterday to drink tea, eat treats, and enjoy being girlie girls!

Emma and I made banners for decorations and we even made edible tea cups!

As they sat down, Madison said, "This is going to be exquisite!"

They all loved it, and spent most of their time enjoying their feast of blueberry tea, pink lemonade, strawberries, grapes, scones, goldfish crackers, mini cupcakes and edible teacups (filled with bubble gum and candy).

Emma had a hard time deciding which princess dress to wear, so she periodically went inside and put on a different one.

I so clearly recall my tea party days... sitting under the shade of a tree in my back yard with my friend Laura... we used my china tea set and usually had fresh strawberries from our garden.  I don't recall actually drinking tea... I think we drank sugary strawberry juice.  ;)

I love watching them exchange little grins as they chatted and ate.  I thought to myself, "this is what little girls are made of..."

I know the days of tea parties, dress up, and pretend play are numbered and I want to be sure to give our girl ample opportunity to indulge in these desires.   
This is such a wonderful stage and I hope to celebrate it with memorable events that will allow us to savor these days a bit longer...

Boy

"Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood, we find a delightful creature of a boy."

author unknown

Permanent Marker

So, Lucas often seems to be one step ahead of us, and though we watch him as closely as possible, he is one sneaky little guy.  Yesterday he disappeared, which is usually a sign that he's up to something.  Instead of finding him, I found our bedroom door shut and LOCKED.  What was even more concerning was that I couldn't get him to respond when I called his name.  Normally if he shuts a door and cannot open it, he calls for me until I come help him.  This particular door is not one I've ever had to open from the outside when locked and it took me a while {like about 6-7 VERY LONG minutes} to find something that would open it.   All the while Emma was at the door listening for him.  

FINALLY I opened the door and found Lucas just standing by my bed.  He had unplugged a nightlight and fan from their outlets, and was holding a blue marker.  Otherwise, the room (and Lucas) seemed fine.  It took a few minutes for me to realize what he had been doing all that time alone, and why he was so quiet.

Permanent marker does not easily come off of pudgy little boy skin...

Sparkle

Sand and piggies

It is still super hot here so our outside playtime often occurs in the morning.  Over the weekend Lucas was introduced to the sandbox {he wasn't quite sure about it but did better with his shoes ON than with them OFF}.

 Samuel could've played there ALL DAY!

He and Emma enjoyed digging for and finding "treasures"  (money buried there several years ago)...

 Lucas would rather swing!

  Emma played in the sandbox some, but mostly played "Fern" from Charlotte's Web, with her pet pig Wilbur.

Too big

Getting too big for his own britches!

Biggest Brother

 Enjoying some attention from Nathan

The smallest

Superkids {Part 2}

 Super Sam

Mr. Destructo

 Super Princess

 Vigilante

Tunnel Vision

Pinterest

Last weekend was a quite Pinteresting around here...  We designed t-shirts, ate Octopus hotdogs, and made melted crayon art... It was all fun!

The sandpaper transfer shirts were a learning experience for sure but we enjoyed designing them, coloring on sandpaper, and ironing the pictures onto the shirts.  The kids wanted colored t-shirts, but it would've worked better on plain white.  They were happy with them anyway!

Lucas in his Captain America shirt:

Emma's doing tricks in her Hello Kitty shirt:

 Nathan made a Vigilante (Super hero) shirt, and Samuel's had Diesel 10 (train from Thomas & Friends).

The Octopus hotdogs were my Mom's idea (not from pinterest, though they can be found there as well).  Emma and Samuel were a bit skeptical at first but ended up loving them!

We definitely loved the crayon art-- it was so neat to watch the crayons begin to melt and run down our foam board!  I highly recommend this project!

10 years

I ran across this in Nathan's art folder from school...

We'll have to remember to show this to him when he's 21.

Peace

 One Every Seven

28:52 Peace
My 18-month-old sleeping= peace for me

Merida

The other day Emma wanted to be Merida (from the movie "Brave"), but once she had her costume perfected she complained that she did not have a bow and arrow... so I made her one from sticks...

Crown, or no crown, she'll always be a princess to us...

SuperKids {Part 1}

We have a lot of Super Hero play going on around here these days.  Samuel got an awesome Superman cape for his birthday.  Emma already had a Wonder Woman costume but decided she wanted a new cape & mask for her birthday as well.  They've had lots of fun playing Super Heroes!  Lucas even joins in on occasion. 

Color Lovin

I took these photos a few months ago for my One Every Seven assignment, "Color".  

I just realized I never posted them here...