Toes in the sand

I love the title of that post in the middle of February! Another example of the amazing weather we have been having. We spent some time at Dash Point State park on the beach, and all the kids began our adventure with their boots on, nice and neat.

But the creeks and water EVERYWHERE were too tempting and soon my girls were soaked. I could actually hear the water sploshing in Addison's boots as she walked, and it only took one fall to make her a big dirty mess. It didn't slow her down one bit. She just looked down, said, "dirty!" and kept on going. Hailey also went in the water past her boots and ended up soaked.

 

 

I love how Levi is looking at Hailey like she is crazy. 

The amazing thing was that it wasn't cold! I even went barefoot because I was the only one without boots and it was plenty warm. So, it only made sense that Addison end up like this. In the middle of February.

 

Ah, if only this weather would last.

Friends + Sunshine = Fun

We have been going to numerous parks and beaches with friends to enjoy the amazing weather we have been having. It's the perfect opportunity to practice more with my camera, and I have been taking TONS of pictures.

It is near impossible to get a good shot of five girls ages 2-7, but still fun to try. The Edwards girls love the Bell girls!

And we love the Jones boys too!

Although, the love is a little "one-sided" when it comes to Addison. She loves Levi and Landon and wants to hug them, talk to them and generally mess up whatever they are doing. 

And I love these girls, Sara and Andrea, who share my obsession of discovering the perfect picture spot, exposure, lighting, photoshop action, template, etc. and take millions of pictures right along with me.

Photo fun

Just wanted to share some of my fun with photoshop. I found these great templates to use for blogging, scrapbooking, or possibly even to print bigger and frame or something. My friend Andrea found a great site with free photoshop actions, templates, storyboards etc. and I am spending way too much time checking things out on it. Check it out here, coffeeteaphotography, if you have plenty of time on your hands.

Another fun thing Andrea showed me is Poladroid, which puts a little Polaroid camera on your desktop that you can drag pictures to and create this kind of thing...

Just for fun sometimes. 

Those are all the secrets I discovered today. Tomorrow I really need to clean the house and do some laundry. Oh, and take care of my children.

It's time...

for Addison to learn about this:

I have put this off for a couple of months now, knowing she was showing all the signs of being ready to potty train, but not ready to go through the torture. Both of the other girls had been just about totally trained by the time they were two, but it's harder with child number three! We finally had a day to stay home yesterday, so I decided to dive in. She had two accidents in the morning and that was it - the whole rest of the day she did PERFECTLY. I couldn't believe it, it had to break some sort of world record of best first day of potty training. I didn't even remind her most of the time - she just would run over to her little potty by herself and then say, "I did it!" Of course it helped to have some of these as motivation...

 

And she was completely naked for most of the day. Every time I tried to put something on her, she wanted it off. I didn't argue, figuring less wet clothes to wash, however I ended up with no wet clothes to wash. She just went about all her normal activities, minus any clothing. This is only cute when you are two:)

So, I keep being afraid that it is a fluke and won't last. But we actually left the house today (she wore a pull-up), and she kept it dry most of the day, telling me if she had to go to the bathroom. I am crossing my fingers that it is really this easy for once.

So sweet

I came home late last night after working out and found this in front of my toothbrush. Awwwwww.....

Science experiments

Symantha did a bunch of extra chores to earn this Rainbow Crystal kit from Scholastic. It turned out to have some pretty cool experiments for the kids to do, which did not require a lot of work or other materials - my favorite! We read a bunch of information on what crystals are, how they form, etc. Then began the experiments.
This was the first one, which was the best so far. They went to bed with this cardboard star thing in some clear liquid, looking like this...

And woke up to discover this! That got some oohs and ahhs. Even from me:)

Then they mixed these gooey crystals with food coloring to make rainbow crystals. This took a few days and didn't look that different than what we started out with... not sure exactly what they were supposed to do, but the process was still fun!

We still have more experiments to do, and they are looking forward to them.

Happy Valentine's day!!

Bliss

I don't know that I have ever been more appreciative of a little getaway with my husband. We just really needed a break and some time to CHILL, and heading to Seattle for a couple days gave us exactly that. We stayed at the Sheraton (thanks for the great deal, Hotwire), which is right in the middle of everything we wanted to do. We had a great dinner, saw a movie, SLEPT IN ( I was so happy when I woke up to look at the clock and it was 9:45 - seriously, it's been a long time since I could sleep in that long), hung out at Pike Place and had crepes in the morning, shopped, took lots of pictures, and found a cozy place in our hotel to read in the afternoon. A perfect prelude to Valentine's day, and I feel so refreshed. I love Derek just a little bit more today, if that is possible:)

 

Valentines

The girls made their valentines for the first time this year.We actually went to Dairy Queen one night and had ice cream and finished putting these flowers together - it was a fun big girls time!

Friday was a crazy day of Valentines parties - my preschool class, Hailey's preschool class and Symantha's second grade class. The girls were SO excited to wear valentine shirts and pass out their valentines.

After the last party, Derek and I escaped for the night.... I was so ready for this.

Ten on Ten: February

Definitely a Valentine's theme today, as I look back. Lots of getting ready for parties and decorating. Then I got to have a special night with the big girls, while Addison visited Nana. A busy day, but a fun one!

A little taste of Spring

On our break between basketball and cheerleading today, we got to enjoy the sunshine on the playground. It felt like Spring and we all loved it. We played lots of tag and the kids did all their tricks on monkey bars, slides and teeter totters. I wish every Saturday was like this!