This Isn't Your Normal Bath Time

Bath time is always Olivia’s favorite time.  She could stay in the bath long after the bubbles are gone! Tonight we chose to do something a little different and really make bath time special. With the help of some shaving cream and food coloring we ended up with some bath time paint (thank you pinterest.com for the best ideas).

Olivia thinks it’s the coolest thing she has ever seen!

I love this picture because as I was trying to get her picture but she was so excited she could hardly stand it!

Party Time! Happy Kids...Tired Moms!!

What a fun/busy/exhausting weekend we had!! We had our little kids party on Sunday we had around 70 people come. There were so many kids and we had lots of games and food so everyone seemed to have a good time. I know Olivia had a blast. I do have to say that I am glad the party finally arrived because everyday Olivia had 100 questions she needed to ask about it! Seeing the smile on her face yesterday though made it all worth it!

I have some pictures to share and I hope to have more later since I had my hands full I didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked but there were plenty of parents with cameras so I am sure I will have more to share later. I will give a description of the party since I know the pictures won't be able to show everything.

The party was held in our backyard (The Leonard's) and the backyard of our neighbors (The Werts) who are also our long time friends. The party was a joint effort and there was a lot of work done in preparation for the party.  The husbands think that us wives planned this in order to get their long overdue "Honey-Do List" done. As to whether this is true or not, I have no comment ;).

So once the raking, burning, mowing, power washing, planting, cleaning, fixing, building was complete we had some pretty good looking backyards (thank you to the dads for all your hard work).
Next the cooking and food preparation had to be done. All the families who came brought hot dogs with them for us to grill so we prepared lots of fun treats for the kids (we had a rainbow theme).
Here is the list:
Cake Batter Dip
Rainbow Pudding
All colored sugar cookies
Rainbow Cupcakes
Colorful candy all sorted by color
Colored Ice for the kids drinks
Colorful Fruit sorted by colors in little cups

We had several families bring fun outdoor things for the kids to play on so with what we already had in our backyards and with what the families brought our backyards looked like every kids dream!!!
We had:
Swing-set
Big Trampoline 
Small Trampoline
Tire Swing
Slide
Climbing Tower
Sandbox
Ourdoor Bowling Pens
Basketball (for little kids and one for the dads which was a big hit)
Plastic Water Bag (it was a huge bag of water that the kids could play on it was fun for them to stand on and since it wasn't hot enough for water games this worked out well because they wouldn't get wet)

Then we also had games planned:
Musical Hula-Hoops (easier for the little kids to play instead of chairs when the music stops they all jump into the hoops and after each turn one hoop is removed)
Relay Race (this was hysterical, the little kids were not old enough yet to really understand how to follow the rules so it was so funny to watch. When it first started we told them only the first two kids in line would go and then when they were finished the next kids in line would then have their turn. Well they didn't understand that because as soon as we said go all the kids took off like cattle!!)
Scavenger Hunt (at the end the final clue led them all to some really cool goodie bags that had been made for them)

It went great and I know the kids had fun and I can say one thing for sure...I'm EXHAUSTED!
These things take a lot of preparation and they are a lot of work but when I decided to be a parent I told myself I was going to do the very best job that I could. I want my girls to make lots of happy memories. It seems like kids are only small for just a few seconds in life and I want everyone of those seconds to count.

Thank you Josh for working so hard on this to make it safe for the kids!

It's not a party without candy filled balloons!

The yummy colorful treats!

Baby Kiley with her uncles and her G-Pa

Olivia eating with her cousin and friends

The kids were enjoying the little tables set up just for them

The water bag!

Beware! Much Laughter Ahead.

I just wanted to share some stories of my sweet Olivia that has happened in the past two weeks. We have been very busy with lots of things going on but with my 3 year old nothing is boring and NOTHING goes as planned.

First, I had taken Olivia to the park with her cousin. It was a beautiful Saturday afternoon and of course everyone else in town was at the park as well. The girls had been playing for awhile and Josh was sitting on a picnic table holding Kiley in the shade. Olivia walked up to Josh and she said "Daddy I have to go". He assumed she meant she needed to leave and go somewhere, so Josh encouraged her to go play some more. Moments later while I had walked back from pushing my niece on the swing I look down under a climbing tower part of the playground and I see a little white behind that looks an awful lot like my Olivia's bottom!!! I said "JOSH" and he came over there and sure enough it was Olivia taking care of some bathroom business right there! Josh asked me to get him some wipes to clean up the mess and while I was going to the car a bunch of kids had swarmed around Josh and Olivia and we saying things like "Eww look poop"  and "Mommy look she pooped". In all fairness Olivia had warned us that she needed to go, and she knew better then to go in her pants so she was just taking care of the situation the best she knew how.....but........it made for a very AWKWARD parenting moment, one that we will not soon forget! So now when Olivia says she needs to go we take that for exactly what it means! After we laughed until our stomach hurt we marked that adventure down as a lesson learned!

Now for a new Olivia story one that is less messy! Last night at the dinner table Olivia kept standing up in her chair, she knows it's a rule at the dinner table to stay seated. So I reminded her once that she needs to sit down. Well moments later she was back standing in the chair so I told her something I say often to get her attention, I said " Olivia listen to what I say, and then obey". At this point she quietly returned to her seat and the looked up at me and said "Mommy listen to what I say, I want to play". 
These are moments as a parent that you wonder if you will ever win another battle with you child!

We have some very busy weekends ahead but they should make for some great Blog updates. Next week we will be having a kids party in our backyard along with our friends and neighbors back yard. We have lots of fun things planned and I hope to take lots of pictures to share. We might be adventurous and try camping out very soon as well, we bought some camping gear recently and Josh is very ready to get out into the great outdoors!


"You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around - and why his parents will always wave back.  ~William D. Tammeus"

Every Smile is a Gift!

Tornados Tornados Go Away!

I am thankfully to be able to write tonight. So many in our area and those who live in Dallas were struck by such horrible weather today, including at least a dozen tornado's that blew across the Dallas/East Texas Area this evening. We ourselves were under a Tornado watch for awhile, but thankfully we just had some heavy rainfall and gusty winds. We said a special prayer tonight for all those suffering through such disasters. The rain is steadily falling now but the worst has past.

During the worst of the storms this evening Olivia became frightened at all the thunder and lighting and heavy winds. I would have assumed her instant reaction would have been to jump in either Josh or I's lap, but that was not the case. She said "Mommy I need to hold Kiley". I was touched by this beautiful expression of love and comfort, I feel it is something dear and special that is felt and shared between sisters. I sat Kiley in her lap and they both just sat there calm as can be. It really made my heart smile. As an older sister myself I remember that feeling so vividly, I found my little sister to be a very large source of comfort for me during times of distress, my instinct was always to protect her. I am grateful to see this same love shared between my girls. As I watched them tonight I could only hope the beauty of that moment would be something they would continue to share for the rest of their lives together. 

The storm as it was approaching

Olivia holding Kiley during the storm 

 "The best thing about having a sister was that I always had a friend.  ~Cali Rae Turner"