Into EVERYTHING...

For a while I thought that Brielle was just an easier child- not breaking or getting into things too much. She used to be pretty low maintenance. But lately that has all changed. As my post title says, she is into EVERYTHING these days. Her particular favorites include make up- including anything that resembles or could be imagined to be make up- particularly anything like lipstick and chapstick. She equally adores glue sticks, sun screen sticks, lotions, creams, soaps, syrups, and condiments and anything that can be poured... and also paints, markers and the like.
Some of her recent run ins have included:
-coating her entire face with one whole tub of my face cream- in some places it was a good inch thick on her face
- "cleaning" the bathroom wallls with hand sanitizer squirted on baby wipes- warning- that will discolor your walls. I had to repaint a whole wall after that one.
- coating the stair railings with a container of Vaseline. Luckily our railings are iron so that clean up wasn't too bad.
-filling the toilet with a whole roll of toilet paper... but I know what kid hasn't done that one!
AND THE WORST BY A LONG SHOT:
-spreading our extra thick heavy duty diaper rash cream all over my couch- and I mean ALL OVER. That stuff is the worst to get out. My couch will never be the same...

All of the above, I haven't had the sense of humor to get out the camera for but yesterday when she markered herself while I was vacuuming- that moment I could laugh at and capture for your enjoyment.
Really, I do watch her. She is supervised. It always happens so fast and usually while I am dealing with some other kid, crisis or mess. I hope its just a passing phase...

I must however mention that Brielle's significant achievements of late include now sleeping in a bed instead of a crib and her really big news is that she is POTTY TRAINED and doing really well at that. Hooray for no diapers... at least for a little while :)

ConAgra Company Picnic 2010

We attended our third annual ConAgra Picnic at the zoo. It was a great time as always. This year we had some unusual weather and it was actually pretty cold. For pregnant me, this worked out quite well and I don't think the kids were too bothered by it. We saw the IMAX feature called Bugs. It was buggerific. Then we spent some time in the Lied Jungle- a fun exhibit we hadn't yet ventured into. We met up with our friends the Owens for our ConAgra lunch and then we did the train, the merry go round, the petting zoo and the gorillas. That was enough for our older two kids- they were zooed-out... but Brielle was loving it and could have stayed forever. Here's a few of our pictures....

There were plenty of horses but Brayden and Max wanted to ride together- cuties!

Another Fun Family Day!

Way To Go Brayden

Last Friday when I dropped the kids off at school, the P.E. teacher stopped me to tell me what an awesome kid Brayden is and that she was going to give him a special award at the assembly that day. He was pretty pumped when he came home and I was pretty proud of him for being so great!

Makenna Turns 6!!!

Last week we excitedly celebrated Makenna's birthday. Early in the week, we went as a family to the Amazing Pizza Machine- a tradition our kids never seem to tire of.
The night before I happily relinquished my cake decorating responsibilities to Brayden and Makenna who did a great job of icing and decorating this princess cake.On the morning of her birthday, we got the celebrating started with a few family presents.Then later that day, I brought cookies to Makenna's class and her class sang her Happy Birthday. Doesn't she look so grown up and pretty these days!She chose a Princess theme for her party and she invited all girls to come in their princess attire. I tried to pattern our activities along the princess theme. Overall, I think it was a pretty successful party. Our festivities included a pizza dinner, purse making, finding Cinderella's Lost Slipper, making princess play doh, and a princess candy necklace. The girls had a great time and looked so cute!

And here's the cake... a mix with canned frosting... can you tell my energy level is not what it should be these days? It did turn out great though and it was exactly what my princess ordered! So mission accomplished!

Watch out for that fire skirt!

We had a great time celebrating our Makenna's special day. She is a bright light in our life and we are so lucky to have her in our family.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAKENNA!!! WE LOVE YOU!!!

Apple Picking

An apple right from the tree.... sooooo yummmy!

Fish Post Addendum

Heres a pic of Jarvis Jr. that Kevin got over the weekend. Sadly Rainbow went to fishy heaven on Friday night so we don't have a picture of her. She has been replaced by two more glow fish- Glowy and Sunny to keep Pinky company. Apparently Rainbow was a school fish and probably died because she was the only one of her kind.... at least that's what the Pet Smart guy said. So that's why we bought Pinky some more of her kind- so that she doesn't succumb to the same fate. Makenna was very sad about Rainbow. I feel bad for her having to mourn her loss -but I suppose its a good way to learn about life and death in a not so heavy way... lessons from a fish tank...

Fish Photography is a Tricky Thing

Well we have a big announcement: Never thought it would happen but we are now PET owners!

So here is a bad picture of our new little pet abode. I am not particularly skilled in photography in general and so fish photography is way beyond me. I tried to take pictures of our new pets but it didnt work out so well.

Brayden and Makenna have been saving up for awhile now for some fish. After some trips to the pet store and Walmart we decided that once they had saved $30 we could go and get started. So on Saturday we took our "in-house aquarium expert" (aka Dad/ Kevin- little known fact he used to work as some sort of head of the fish department at South City Pet and Feed- oh yeah- bet you didnt know that) and we got our selves a little starter aquarium. Things got a little out of hand with our eager Dad and we spent about $18 over budget but Brayden plans to pay it all back in back massages :) -joking of course!

Each child picked a pet and then jointly they got a snail to share.
*Brayden got a frog- a cute little swimmer he named Jumpy Jr. and then later changed his name to Jarvis Jr.- not quite sure why.

*Makenna got a little neon fish she initially named Goldy but after some persuasion on Brayden's part Goldy now goes by the name of "Rainbow." She seems to be a shy little fish who keeps to the back of the tank and isn't overly active.

*Brielle got a little pink fish named Pinky who was first named "Brielle" then "Brielle-fish" and then after Brayden worked his magic of manipulation to get it a proper name, it goes by the name of "Pinky." Pinky is very active- perhaps she has ADD- she is always zooming somewhere.

*The snail is named "Rocket Man"- always has been, always will be, and always good for a laugh.

So far I have been amazed at the entertainment value of the fish. The kids are eager to look in on them first thing in the morning, and as soon as they get home. We have also had every kid in the neighborhood over for a viewing.

The kids watch the fish and laugh at the fish and are always giving me updates on the new fun things the fish are doing. Its been a lot of fun for them and I hope it lasts.

So the orangish pink blur in the picture is Pinky and in the background floating near the surface is Rocket Man. Like I said, fish photography is tricky business. Hopefully we can get a picture of Rainbow and Jarvis Fr. soon.