Make Doughnuts with Mallory: CHECK!

When I wrote it, I figured it was the boys saying "make doughnuts with Mallory" but apparently it was from my bucket list as Easton and Dalton played the Wii while I baked with Mallory and her sister:


It was fun and the girls were so excited and complimentary and appreciative...and messy. Oh my!


Autumn hung with us girls...she had powdered sugar on top of her head.


The boys joined us for the eating of some at the end:


But they'd spent plenty of time playing with the girls before we made doughnuts. Mallory doesn't ever want to separate from Easton. If they're at church (or VBS) she wants to come over after or have Easton over there. If Easton's over there or she's over here she wants to keep staying and asked if Easton could just stay there forever. :)

They're pretty darn cute together. One day of VBS I had to be with Dalton at swimming lessons. Easton chose to go to VBS instead that day so I'd asked if Mallory's family could take E home with them (a first for us all!). They were all too happy to help. In fact, they asked if they could have him for lunch.

But they didn't just give him lunch...they had an experience. Apparently the night before, Mallory and McKenna set up a table for two. They'd covered it with a blanket for a tablecloth. McKenna made a menu and set up a "velvet rope" (a streamer) and the 6 year olds had to make reservations but she called them RSVPs. :) They picked up a pizza on their way home from the church and then E and Mal sat at their little table and McKenna took their order and wrote it down. So cute! Easton had pizza and fruit and chocolate milk. He was still sitting there eating when I arrived to pick him up.

Anyway...

Last Thursday we did another fun activity that wasn't actually on our bucket list but sure could've been. Right before I went on bedrest with Autumn's pregnancy we made ice cream in a bag with the boys. We hadn't made it since then. Then I got this bright idea to make it again and "shake" the bags by jumping on the trampoline.



We put one of the bags in an old oatmeal container if you're wondering what that's about (Jason asked).






It didn't go as super as I'd imagined in my head and by the end I was inside shaking the bags myself and the kids were playing "hockey" on the tramp with all the ice cubes that fell out when a bag broke but still, we had delicious homemade ice cream for dessert that night:




By the way, I'm fairly certain we're not going to finish our bucket list by the time E starts school a week from today. Maybe I'll try my best and file an extension through the end of "summer" as in, Labor Day Weekend. We shall see....

Autumn's First Song

Autumn has written her first song. I noticed she was singing the same thing over and over so I grabbed my camera...she doesn't know I'm recording until I talk to her.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

She's saying, "Mama's telling me...." Actually it's like, "Really likes Co-cut (which is Coconut, Easton's Beanie Boo)..." and then "Mama's telling me that uh-unh no...Mama...Mama's telling me that...Mama...." and a bunch more "Mama's telling me"s.

We all really love her diddy. We all sing it lots. The little miss is very musical, it seems. She loves to sing. And dance. She's a hoot.

A Drop in the Bucket

Actually two drops in our bucket from our summer bucket list.

Yesterday afternoon found us here:




I used a different recipe than I ate in my Little Kristin days (and than I made a couple years ago). Powdered milk was featured in that recipe...this time I opted for powdered sugar. Yum! It was so good that I ate too much and felt sick the rest of the evening. The kids didn't feel icky but they sure didn't eat much dinner. Oops. I think it might've been worth it though:




















Then, this morning we met my mom down at our brand new IKEA.


It's only been open for a week and so it's still a mad house down there...bazillions of cops and IKEA employees directing traffic to the parking garage, showing you where to go in the parking garage, shepherding you through the doors and up the escalators. I had no idea it was as big as it is. The kids did fairly well through my mom's and my exploring. Even if the boys thought the main draw was the large fans blowing throughout the space. Each one seemed bigger to Easton and he was pretty sure it might blow him away Piglet-style and the kid sure wanted to find out. Each time.


They also had to check out every refrigerator in each kitchen mock-up...pressing each ice dispenser and opening the door 15 times each fridge. Looking inside each cabinet and drawer in case it was different than the last drawer in the last kitchen or even the last drawer on the other side of the sink.

Gotta keep them interested in organizing, though. Start 'em young.



I really want this craft paper roll holder/dispenser. $4.99. I didn't know where to buy it from, though. :) I'm new there.

Looking back at the pictures just now, the placement of this hand in the background sign made me chuckle:


Eventually we wound through the store enough to get to the kids area. The kids had fun crawling through the little mouse holes to get from one kid bedroom display to another:


And finally we got to some of their little toys and let the kids explore for quite awhile as they'd been pretty patient while Gramoo and I explored other more boring things.


At that point we'd been there a couple of hours and were ready for some lunch. Unfortunately so was everyone else in Colorado and the line was insane. Insane, I tell you. And not moving at all from the time we arrived to the time we finally located where the exact end of the line was. The kids were past hungry so we decided to scrap that idea and hit Red Robin down the road instead...the problem was, we still had to get through the whole downstairs path. And sometimes there were things Gramoo and I wanted to see. Mostly we cruised by it all with me hoping I could come back kid-less very very soon. Or leave my kids in the play area. But Autumn's not tall enough nor toilet trained enough. Or at all.

Eventually we found the cash registers, paid for our purchases and drove over to the Red Robin. We did it for Lauren. Red Robin is her favorite restaurant and we celebrate her birthday with her there every year. And today is her 21st birthday. But she's in Vegas instead. However, it just wouldn't feel right if I didn't eat Red Robin today. So we did. :) Then we came home.

The end.

Picnic Breakfast in the Park? CHECK!

So we've crossed one thing off our summer bucket list. One.

This morning we headed to a new-to-us park for some breakfast:







My Chesty McChesterson look is a total optical illusion. Not sure how that's happening. However, if you can see that slight purple streak in my hair that is, in fact, real. I have a few purple streaks these days courtesy of Lauren and Jason. :)

We had to take a slight break to hit up swimming lessons at the rec center near the park:


And then it was back to the park for some fun:







That thing Dalton is on is a nifty climbing structure. We've checked out 3 parks in the last week that we've never been to before and all 3 of them had some more unusual equipment that we don't see everywhere else.

We went out to a free dinner at Noodles on Saturday night and on the way home we decided to surprise the kids with a trip to a park:






This thing Easton is on here is something we've never seen at a park before:




I just love how Daddy's Girl is looking up at him here:

How they're looking at each other, really. Awwww. It's so sweet to see Jason with his little princess. He just adores his girly girl.

I'm not sure if I've seen a climbing wall like this just out at a park before. Obviously we've done a bit of climbing walling in our time, but I'm not sure if it's been in any parks:


Dalton came back to where Autumn and I were...he's becoming a lot more adventurous but still not quite the climber his monkey brother is:


See...he's getting there:






Another one of those ones where I love how she's looking at her ol' man:


An umbrella sort of tree we found. All 3 kids couldn't wait to get inside.




I remember going in a great hiding spot in a tree like that once and a giant hairy tarantula jumped on my chest. Needless to say, I stayed outside the cool tree fort and secretly wished my children had too. Oh well. :)

Pretty soon it was time to call it a night...bedtime was fast approacing.


And this is from the other morning when we attempted our picnic breakfast in the park last week:

Tomorrow we'll be crossing another item off our bucket list as well. We're making progress! Yay!