Dora Party

Camryn loves Dora the Explorer so we had a Dora party theme. She loved waking up to this spread:

Here's the Dora Saves the Crystal Kingdom cake I made. It's a little sloppy but I liked how it turned out overall, as it was definitely one of my more ambitious cake attempts. I used chocolate ganache for the brown and used food coloring for the other colors.
The day was very busy as I wanted it to be full of fun things for Camryn. Merrick did work all day but that doesn't mean us girls couldn't party right? We started off the morning at Chuck E. Cheese. You get 20 free tokens on your birthday so I figured this was the right amount for me to go with the girls and play some games for an hour. Then we went over to Barnes and Noble to spend a gift card from Aunt Britney and play with the train table there. I was pretty tired of chasing Avery and Camryn around by that point so next we went to a nearby park so they could run around freely. It was a nice day out (it's snowing again today so we had to get our fun in while we could!).

Then we went to lunch with daddy at Ninos and opened a few of the presents from Camy's grandparents. Then the big event for the evening was swimming! Avery has swimming lessons every Friday night in Menomonee Falls and Camryn has been so sad that she hasn't been able to go too. So last night after Avery's lesson they had open swim at 7:00 so we all got in and had some fun playing around. Camryn was really hesitant at first but eventually was jumping in with no fear and saying "I simmin'!" (I'm swimming!)

When we got home we were tired but we still had a cake to eat. Don't you love her lips in this picture? She does this face all the time. She had a little trouble blowing out one candle. She tried to do it very gently and took about 10 tries but eventually got it out.

Yum! We finished up opening the last few presents and went to bed way too late. What an exciting day. I can't believe she's two now! Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes and thanks to the grandparents for the great gifts! She's been playing with her new toys all morning!

Happy Happy Birthday Camy Dear

My baby is two years old today. Isn't she beautiful?

Field Trip

Avery's preschool group has been learning about animals this month so for our field trip we naurally thought it would be fitting to go on the Jelly Belly Factory Tour. Right?

Well actually our field trip was to the free dinosaur museum in Kenosha, WI and since it's an hour away and the Jelly Belly Factory is in nearby Pleasant Prairie, we hit up both places (and they were both free!).

The museum was pretty small, but in the basement they had this classroom environment with coloring pages, books, puzzles, and games so we had some fun enjoying that with the kids.


It was definitely the longest drive I've done in a while with the kids but we had fun and it was a nice day to go.

Lazy Mom Day

This is what my kids look like most of the time - ketchup on the face two hours later, yogurt on the shirt five hours later, and a hairdo from last night.

Some days it's just nice to stay at home and not go anywhere. :)

I still think she's a cutie.

A Productive Morning

This morning Avery woke up at 6:30 and Camryn woke up at 9:10. Nice, huh? Well once I finished my morning straightening, etc. I decided to take advantage of her sleeping in and started a project: A tote bag.

I am in love with online sewing tutorials lately. They are so easy to follow with the pictures and there are an endless amount of ideas. I found this tutorial here. It uses sturdy home decor fabric so that you don't have to line it. This was a good project for me because it was really easy but I got to switch sewing needles on my machine (which I never do), it taught me how to do a french seam (which is really cool), and it involved a lot of triple stitching to make the bag sturdier (which I've never done before).

When I was in fifth grade I did homeschool for a year with my older sister and my Granny had us come over once a week to do sewing projects. One thing we did was a tote bag, so I reminsced of those days when I was sewing this. This bag is the perfect size for library books, grocery shopping, and more! I'm excited to use it.

It was a Zoo!

Now I know where they get that expression, "That place was such a zoo!" Because yesterday we went to our first Free Zoo Day at the Milwaukee County Zoo and it got pretty crazy busy by the time we headed out of there. But we had a fun time. The weather was great - which means 38-40 degrees and we still had to wear hats and gloves most of the time, but it was definitely the warmest day of the year so far.

I think my favorite moment of the day was when Camryn started calling the seals "mermaids". So cute and not too far off right?

"Don't throw me in with the kangaroos, Dad!"

Camryn's second close encounter with this Cheetah.

Avery overlooking a mountain goat.

It was nice to finally get out of the house and do something fun enough to take pictures of. Most of our excursions lately have been exciting trips to Walmart or the fabric store. :) We're ready for spring! But... since we live in Wisconsin, I guess we'll just have to take advantage of the few 40 degree days thrown in here and there.

American Idol: Top 12 Predictions

I love American Idol. I'm not ashamed of it. Doesn't everyone watch it? :) After tonight, we'll be a week away from finding out who the top 12 are on American Idol this season. Based on last night's performances, past work, and their voice talent, this is who I would pick for the top 12:

Guys (in order of preference)

1. Lee Dewyze

2. Alex Lambert

3. Big Mike

4. Casey James

5. Andrew Garcia

6. Aaron Kelly

Girls (in order of preference)

1. Siobhan Magnus (c'mon, didn't you hear that note last night? And she's so quirky!)

2. Crystal Bowersox

3. Lilly Scott

4. Katie Stevens

5. Katelyn Epperly

6. Paige Miles

Hopefully none of these 12 get eliminated tonight! I think any of my top 4 guys or girls could win, because song choice and how well they sing each week definitely plays a big part. So I'm not going to predict the winner. But sometimes I wish we could eliminate some of these people more quickly! Let's get the real talent in a REAL contest already!!

My Girls

I haven't done a post about the girls in a while so I thought I'd give a brief update.

Avery is 3 1/2 now. She recently learned how to do an excellent somersault and she does them all the time. Avery started her first swimming lessons a few weeks ago. We're doing a parent/child class with her to start with and she's been making great improvements every week.
In addition to her co-op preschool once a week, she's also been going to a 3-5 year old storytime at the library every week. I get to drop her off and go read for a half hour, and she gets some good practice for school next year. Speaking of school, she's all registered for 4K next year and I'm very excited for her. She's such a smart girl. We've been practicing her writing a lot. She likes it when I write out a worksheet of 8-10 words and she'll copy down the words herself. She's finally gotten into the "WHY?" stage. I usually only have patience for 3-4 "why" questions in a row. Example:
"Why are you making a sandwich, Mom?" - "Because I'm hungry."
"Why are you hungry?" - "Because I haven't eaten in a while."
"Why haven't you eaten in a while?"... you get the picture. :)

Camryn is almost 2 years old! Her birthday is this month and we've already started getting things ready for her Dora party. Yay! Camryn has learned to talk SO WELL lately. She's just full of cute little phrases. "Good morning Daddy", "What you doing, Mommy?", "Avery hit me", "Watch Buzzy again?" "Where's Camy's coat?", "Bye Avery. See you later!", "Go away, Mommy!", "Wait, guys!"The things that come out of her tiny little girl mouth just crack us up sometimes. She also loves to sing and is better at following the tune than knowing all the words, but it's so cute to hear her humming familiar songs all day. Her favorite show right now is "Toy Story 2". We got it from the library and she requested to watch it every day for two or three weeks! (That's where the "Watch Buzzy again" comes from.) She can sit and watch pretty much the whole thing. She loves do give kisses now, which I love. And she loves playing with her sister, most of the time.