Springtime Visit

We got a last minute surprise visit from my parents last week!  Well it wasn't a surprise for me.  I convinced them they needed to come and when they came 5 days later they surprised the girls!! 

The weather was beautiful and we had some quality time together.  We went to the Natural History Museum, the Mesa Temple Easter Pageant, Cyrena's baseball game, and spent a lot of time playing outside as well (flying little airplanes grandpa brought).  It was great to have them here and it went too fast as always. 

Grandpa was a gold panning expert at the museum.  

He's the reason Cyrena came away with so much.

 But don't tell her that.

We went to Sweetcakes for lunch and brought home some of their humongous cookies.  Here the girls are showing off their chewing skills.

We packed a picnic dinner and ate near the temple.  We took some pictures, walked around and enjoyed a beautiful Arizona sunset before the pageant began. 

All the pageant characters walked around before the performance.  The girls enjoyed petting the sweet lambs.  

 We really enjoyed the pageant.  For Cyrena it was the ultimate church movie.  She recognized all the stories and at one point leaned over to me and whispered loudly, "Mom....everything they're saying is TRUE!"  She had some great one-liners that night.

All the girls enjoyed cuddling with grandma and grandpa

They headed out Sunday morning but before they left we had the girls try on their Easter dresses early so grandma could see (but we took them off before church!)

Thanks for coming grandma and grandpa!

Oh the weather outside...

We're feeling that horrible heat coming our way.  It was really hot this past weekend so we know it's not going to be long before those mid-70's days are GONE.  We've been outside as much as possible.  Here's what we've been up to:

A couple of Saturday's ago we went to the Feathered Friends Festival at the Gilbert Riparian Institute.  This was a BLAST.  My only complaint is that we didn't get a chance to see and do everything because there was so much!  We packed a picnic lunch, ate it when we arrived, then explored.  I was very impressed with all the amazing high-schoolers that had set up science booths and did such a great job explaining things to all the kids. The kids came home with all kind of fun things they'd made.

The girls used chopsticks to pick up bugs to mimic how birds eat

Cyrena listened intently to the presenters.  Here she was learning about why you shouldn't feel bread to ducks--it's really bad for them!

Looking at algae through a microscope

Folding a paper frog that really jumps

Sailboat races. Ingenius.  Styrofoam boats with index card sails, rain gutters filled with water and a straw for the wind!  This was the highlight of the day. 

I took this picture for all you owl enthusiasts.  He was a bit creepy just perched on a lady's arm.

Cyrena looked through a GIANT telescope to see the spots on the sun

Just a typical picture of our goofy girl

The sisters had a lot of fun together....Anna slept in the stroller

There was so much more.  It is definitely something we want to do every spring!

Last week Cyrena had a preschool field trip to a local Farm.  It had been eagerly anticipated and it didn't disappoint. 

I loved this picture because Cyrena is the only one looking at the farmer-and he's talking to the parents.  She's so serious sometimes

They got to milk a 'pretend' cow

They rode the cow train several times, played carnival games, went through the hay maze and rode on these pedal cars.  Cyrena was so slow that a kid behind her basically pushed her around the entire track. :)  

Again, Anna slept in the stroller

Anna is 3 months

Anna has hit that 3 month milestone where she's no longer considered a 'newborn'.  We're still enjoying her immensely.  She still loves to sleep.  We were having a problem of 45 minute naps for a couple of weeks.  I worked and worked to figure out why and I finally realized she wanted to be awake longer between naps!  Duh, my baby is growing up.  So she quickly jumped from 60 minutes of awake time to 80 minutes of awake time--problem solved, naps are back on track.  Phew!  So right now she takes 2- 2.5 hour naps and 1- 45 minute evening nap then sleeps 11.5 hours at night.

She still has some evening fussiness between that last evening nap and bedtime.  Right now we're just dealing with it, waiting for it to pass.  As soon as her evening routine begins, the tears are gone.  David read her a book for the first time the other night and she was very happy.  We're sure lucky to have her!

She's a happy girl

Here she's watching her sisters adoringly

We've been trying to give Anna more tummy time so her neck can get stronger--she holds it crooked right now and is still a bit floppy.  Twice today she has fallen asleep during tummy time...I never thought she would since she doesn't love being on her tummy.  Too cute. 

She's got the moves!

We have 1:00 church on Sundays so we get a bit antsy in the morning waiting to go.  We usually turn on some music and try to get some quiet time in...it doesn't always happen.  In fact a lot of times I'm really grumpy by the time we get to church.  Thankfully, within a few minutes of being at church the grumpiness begins to melt away.

However some Sunday mornings are happy and delightful.  Here's some footage from one of those kind of mornings.  

 

St. Patty's

We had a fun St. Patty's day here, complete with a leprechaun hunt.  First on Wednesday we did some learning activities and sang some leprechaun songs; then on Thursday we did one learning activity then just had fun.

We played this 'heads and tails' game.  We put 10 pennies in a mentos container.  We shook it up then dumped out the coins.  We sorted them how they landed...heads or tails.  Then Cyrena wrote a number sentence for it.  5 heads + 5 tails=10!  It was a great way to introduce her to the different ways we can make 10.  

It was fun for Natalie to help sort the pennies then she would pick them up and put them in the container...a great fine motor activity for her.

On Thursday we had some buddies over and we graphed Lucky Charms

Then we decorated shamrock cookies. 

I turned my back on Natalie for a second and this is what she came up with...1/2 a jar of sprinkles are now GONE.  They went outside to play after this.

While they were outside a tricky Mr. Leprechaun came and stole some gold nuggets I had sitting on the counter.  Luckily he left some clues and led us on a rainbow scavenger hunt. 

We found where he hid the gold and it couldn't have been more exciting!

Catching up

I feel like I've been slacking in the post department lately so here's a quick catch-up!

We had a great Valentine's dinner made by David.  Our tradition includes:  BBQ steak, loaded baked potatoes and salad.  We had homemade ice cream and chocolate covered strawberries for dessert.  David escorted each of us to the table, it was very cute.

For Valentine's Day the girls and I made David a U R LOVED jar for his desk at work.  It is filled with chocolate and notes of why we love him.  Each time he eats a chocolate he gets to read a reason why he is loved.

 We had a great visit with Grandma Barb and Ralph for a week in February.  It was wonderful to see them!  The girls loved playing with them. Grandma always cooks for us and she also made us a delicious lemon meringue pie.  What a treat!

Natalie is definitely a cuddler and is in a stage of saying "I don't like the dark"  So she waits until Cyrena is asleep then stealthily crawls into her bed to sleep with her.  We've caught her like this a few times.

Grandma Taylor bought the girls matching nightgowns for Christmas.  They love wearing them and they look like little pioneer girls.

Anna is still in love with the bathtub.  She can be screaming and then the minute she hears the bathwater she stops.  Too funny.  

Sometimes she has a bath buddy

Cyrena played her first season of soccer with Dad as her coach.  The first couple of games were a little rocky and emotional.  However, her competitive spirit won out and she fought for the ball!  She made 2 goals this season. 

 

At the end of the year party David got to hand out trophies to the kids and he said a few words about each one--it was cute.  We didn't order a trophy for Cyrena so he handed her the team picture plaque that he got for free since he was the coach.  She was his assistant after all.  :)

ebeanstalk.com-an innovative toystore!

Ok...I admit it..... I LOVE kid's toys.  Almost as much as school supplies.  I can look online for hours and drool at the many many many incredible kid's toys out there.  But I won't just accept any old kid's toy.  I'm one of those picky moms that have to make sure toys fit certain criteria if they're coming into my home. That's why I was so excited to find ebeanstalk.com. 

They have such a great philosophy at ebeanstalk.  They have the kid's best interest at heart but also make the shopping experience easy for the parents and grandparents.

There are different categories to make it easy to find what you want.  All their toys make great learning toys for your child/grandchild.  There is also a great variety of baby toys and of course wonderful toddler toys for your 'grown up' baby!  You can search by age group, category, or brand.  I love searching by age group because it makes it to easy for me to see what would be appropriate for each of my children. 

I feel like ebeanstalk.com is not just another toy website.  It has little unique aspects that really make it stand out.  They send their toys in a plain white box in order to promote creativity after the toy is removed.  The box can then be colored and cut and turned into a car, a doll-house, a hat, etc!  They also include an instructional card with each and every toy purchased. 

Check out ebeanstalk.com for some great ideas for kids in your life--you won't be disappointed.  And I'll be doing a review of one of their products soon!