Kiwi Crate

So once again I succumbed to the marketing prowess of Ms. Gwyneth Paltrow.....on one of her last blog updates on goop, she featured small business owners including the creator of website I had never heard of  www.kiwicrate.com.  It seemed like a cute idea, for $20 a month, they send your child their very own package filled with two activities to be done with a parent.
A.  Could I run up to Hobby Lobby and find two activities cheaper than spending $20 a month.  Of course.
B.  Am I going to come up with something creative each month?  Highly unlikely.
C.  It's the lazy way out of thinking outside the box.
D.  Ryan loves getting mail so why not give this a try for a few months (no obligations) and see what we think.
Anyway, our first crate arrived last week:
She was really psyched to see her new pair of scissors
The girls dug right in...
We quickly realized this was a job best suited for Reese's nap time, so the next day we got it back out and gave the activities a try...first up was fishing
We cut out and colored our own sea creatures, put them in the 'ocean' and then made a fishing pole with Velcro and started our deep sea adventure.
Next up was the ocean experiment - we tested different objects in salt water to see if they would sink or float.  We also made a mess of my kitchen table, but that's neither here nor there.
She took this part pretty seriously. We channeled our inner Sid the Science Kid and marked down our observations.
I can totally see Apple and Moses doing the same thing next to their built in wood-burning pizza oven, in between versus' of 'Clocks' and 'Speed of Sound'.

Two constant reminders

of just how lucky Grant and I are....
The girls started their first gymnastics classes this past Saturday, hence the leotards. Two thumbs up from our tiny tumblers. What better venue for Reese to be herself than a well padded room in which you are encouraged to jump, tumble and roll.

Sunday Spencers Series...

The daddy/daughter love fest continued for a second straight week with a trip to dad's office...
And upon learning of the sudden death of a former colleague from Maritz, it makes you value the time you spend with your loved ones even more than normal. It's a shame that death tends to be the reminder....let us all strive to enjoy life to the fullest every day and think twice about petty little arguments or setbacks which mean nothing in the grand scheme of things.

Reesers

My crazy, funny, insane, sweet yet stubborn, no fear whatsoever, baby girl....
You called me what?
Bedhead

Sunday Spencers Series...

posted 3 days late.
Then the mutual-adoration train continued as my two buds disappeared most of the morning to go to dad's office for some tidying up, the book store and Home Depot.
Now we  need to get Reese in on the action so mom can enjoy Sunday morning coffee with grandpa at a leisurely pace and not running around trying to wrestle an alligator.  Just a thought......

Glass block window

I no likey.  But it's in our house and it's far down on a laundry list of home improvements so it's here to stay for quite some time.  The girls, however, love it and its little ledge.  I'm often requested to photograph them in various stages of play.

Scenes from a play date....

Imaginary play date that is.
Calendars aligned as all were able to come out and play today.
Our hostess appears a bit bored with her guests

Um, Tiana, let's watch the PDA, alright?

Somebody got in trouble. Probably that sh*t disturber Ariel.

I see Blue...

He looks glorious.
Or do I mean, she looks glorious.  Ryan in her tutu of choice these days, her new blue one from a shopping excursion on our recent trip to the lake (one of the bonuses when Grant leaves us for work trips).
This is for Ryan as she says to me "mom, take a picture of me while I pretend to sleep"
And, let's be honest, my floors kind of look clean in this picture and regardless of reality, I'm gonna post it and lead you all to believe they never have crumbs, sparkly red dots from Ryan's shoes, caked on stickers, or plastic toys all about.   This is also probably a good time to give a shout out to my new Black and Decker Steam Mop Grant got me for Christmas (per my request, not because he's a 1950's sexist husband) and a bigger shout out to Julie for the recommendation.   It is deeeeeelightful.

Lightening Bugs

It didn't take long into the new year for our first round of storms and tornado sirens.  And I swear the weather gods ONLY wreak havoc when Grant is out of town. The other night the tornado sirens went off around 2:30am (and considering last New Years homes were torn to shreds not 2 miles from our house, we take that shiz seriously around here now). So I grabbed Ryan and Reese and we made our way to the basement.  Ryan dressed for the occasion in the blue tutu she opted to wear to bed.  She was full of questions, Reese was only concerned with laying her head on my shoulder with her blankie.  I thought I might get some opposition for turning on the TV to watch the weather reports but Ryan got all serious on me and said "mom, we'd better watch the weather".  As Grant later put it when I relayed the story, she is a girl after my own heart with her love of Doppler and all things radar related.  The sirens came and went, all was 'safe' so we went back to bed.  Ryan, of course, camped out in my room. About an hour later I could hear Reese calling my name (she NEVER wakes up in the middle of the night) so I went to get her and Ryan, out of a dead sleep, was on my tail about 2 seconds later asking "do we need to go back in the basement?" - as if I was going to leave the girl high and dry to fend for herself.  My heart.  I brought Reese in with us (a first.....and a last) although the comic relief at 4:15am was worth the lack of sleep.  Somewhat. Ryan laid there in the dark explaining to Reese what had happened "Reesey, the weather is bad, very bad, so bad it could make you want to cry".  Then the sky opened up again for round 2 and we had a light show and loud thunder.  Naturally Reese 'oooohhhhed and awwwwwwed' at all the thunder and clapped at the lightening.  She doesn't scare easily.  And Ryan questioned me about hail, "what is it?" - I told her how it was frozen rain, like little pieces of ice hitting the window (side note, I am already getting stumped by her questions sometimes, where did my college education go?) and she turns to me very matter of factly and says "that's just like my book, Leo the Lightening Bug, they're making lots of lightening so that we can all go ice skating tomorrow".  This continued until 5:15am when I quickly realized that the three of us in bed together was never going to equate to sleep.   Up we were and downstairs we went.  Ryan straight to the door to see if she could go ice skating.   Darn those lightening bugs for not erecting a rink in the backyard.

5:15am. Notice the good parent in me had by this time advised my ballerina to throw on some pants and a shirt.
Needless to say, naps were on the agenda that day and mom was in bed by 9pm that evening.

Reese....the 70's guido version

Anytime the girl goes to bed in those adorable, zip up pajamas with feet, I awaken to find her proudly showing off her chest with the zipper resting just above her belly button.  Classy.  As usual.  To step it up a notch, when I quietly suggested a morning bath (mainly because Ryan's mangled mess of a rat's nest hair seemed too daunting to attack with a brush alone), Reese disrobed in a world record pace of .0345 seconds.  Throwing all caution (and clothes and diaper) to the wind and sprinting for the stairs.  

With that....Happy Friday!  May yours end with a bare fanny as well.    That's what she said.  

Daily news

Ryan and her dad have become besties.  Mom has been squeezed out.  Already!  When asked who her best friends are: grandma, Reesey, daddy.  No mom.  So it should come as no surprise that when Grant goes to get a haircut his buddy is in tow.  And what does she do while she waits?  What any toddler would do.....catch up on her daily news.

Movie Time

Granted this is about two weeks old, but a milestone occurred over the Christmas Holiday......we went to our first family movie together at the theater.  Yes, Reese even came too.  She is part of the family after all, despite her never-sit-still-whether-you-bribe-me-or-not personality.  We saw Arthur Christmas.   My review doesn't matter now as I'm sure it's long gone from the theaters, but it was darn cute.  We did go to the early matinee show (2:00ish) so as to coincide with Reese's nap.  Thankfully she obliged and fell asleep in my lap about 10 minutes in.  All in all, it was a success!   Dare I say we'll try it again sometime soon.  Over nap time of course.  Let's not get crazy.

Popcorn! They were in heaven.
Lobbying hard core for a bag of popcorn all her own.
An even bigger hit was the pseudo arcade in the front lobby....Gotta love a sea of filmy air. Good for the lungs.

Animal House

Thanks to Santa we are now cohabitating with a pig and a monkey.
That's it. Nothing witty. No descriptions really. A coffee run and the grocery store are far more pressing matters right now. Happy Thursday to you all!  Sorry for my lameness today.

Craft time....apron for my little chef

Ryan and I were itching to sew something the other day so off we went to Hobby Lobby after finding this tutorial on pinterest for a DIY children's apron....
One meltdown (Reese), one attempted refusal to sit in the front of the shopping cart (Reese), one 40% off coupon (mom) and one continual dinging of the bell at the cutting counter in the fabric section (Ryan), we bolted out of that store as fast as we could with the following supplies in hand:
I ended up not using the green bias tape because it wasn't double-folded like the pink (courtesy of the above mentioned meltdown and my attention span being severely shortened).  Also, I made the pocket, following the tutorial on the link above, and then remembered to take a 'before' picture.  All it really took was one solid Reese nap (translation....2 hours) and Ryan and I were able to fairly successfully whip up a little something stylish for her to wear in the kitchen.
workin' it...
Of course I managed to screw up the puckering in the pocket, but tough shiz.
Such the little hoot she is, apparently she considers the apron part of her ever evolving wardrobe. As evidenced by the photos in the previous '2012' post, you'll she she is sporting it as a skirt-substitute. And after enduring the judgement of the Hobby Lobby fabric cutting crew and spending two hours on that sucker, you can bet your pretty little heart that if the girl wants to wear that apron to prom, I'll proudly tie it behind her back.