An Update

So it's been a whole month - where to start?  I'll just let the pictures do the talking (with a running commentary by me, of course):

We entered into our first foray with finger painting last month.  We haven't done it since.  Do you like Brooke's blue mustache?  Nice, I know.  There was a lot more where that came from:

But it was worth it because we made these very cute pictures for the Grandma's for Mother's Day.  This one was for my mom - with Brooke's, Karis's and Evie's hand prints:

We were planning on heading to OH to see Scott's sister, but due to various illnesses, we cancelled our trip.  Boo!  But Scott still took one of his days off that he was planning and we went to the zoo.  Brooke kept calling it "Animal Kingdom".  But it was not.  Trust me, it was not.  Literally, one of the displays at this zoo was "the house cat".  I'm not kidding.  An actual house cat.  Here is Scott and Brooke getting a close up look at the Prairie Dogs (I think that's what they were...)

But the biggest news of all around these parts is our new swing set!!  Scott and his dad built this thing from scratch in one day.  ONE DAY!  Pretty much all of our outside time is spent on the swing set these days.  I love it.

And of course, my birthday came and went.  Staying 29 is really exhausting.  Anyway, Scott let me go to Ikea, kid-free, for approximately 6 hours.  When I got home, my birthday present was waiting me - a flag!  Our house had a flag pole holder, and I've wanted a flag for a long time, so it was so fun to drive in our driveway and see it on Memorial Day weekend.  It's the perfect touch to our pretty pretty pretty house!

Memorial Day weekend also marked Brooke's 2 and 1/2 birthday (kind of).  Maybe it was a week early, but since Brooke's cousins were here from NH, we had a little party.  I made a half cake - actually I made two half cakes.  That girl loves her birthday parties.  A lot of mornings I am woken up by her singing Happy Birthday to one of her toys from her bedroom.

And then, of course, there is the Memorial Day parade - just about my favorite 5 minutes of the entire year!  Our little town's parade is the perfect size for kids.  It's over before you even realized it began (that's an exaggeration, but it is pretty short) which is perfect for a kid (or adult) who doesn't want to sit through a hundred random floats, bands, and boy scout troops (no offense to the boy scouts).  Anyway, candy is thrown, there are fire trucks, one band, and it's time to go.  So fun.

Another fun item we have happened upon recently is a second hand easel from one of my friends at work.  There has been a lot of artwork happening up in here the last few days.  Brooke loves it.  She's big into mixing colors - and it actually turns out pretty nice.  Part of me thinks she could be on of those child prodigies I've seen on the Today Show whose pictures sell for thousands (and pretty much they're just scribbling).  Matt Lauer, if you're reading this, give me a call.

I bought little containers from Ikea to hang on the wall by Brooke's table.  I thought they'd be good for all of Brooke's crayons, stickers, etc...  So Scott took on that project during non-nap hours on Saturday.  This is what project time looked like:

But the containers were a hit!  They are perfect for her little table.

 Karis likes them too...

Here is what the whole she-bang looks like.  It's a good time at the kids table these days.  Trust.

Karis had a cheerio on her face during church on Sunday.  It was soooo funny.  Like the pez dispenser on the seat on that Seinfeld episode.  I had to take a picture.  We couldn't stop laughing.

For some reason I can't get a good pic of Karis - her smile is not that photogenic, but this one is pretty good, so I'm adding it too.  She is the sweetest kid! 

Phew!  That was a lot of pictures!  What an update!  However, last but not least, Brooke went pee pee on the potty this weekend!  It was pretty exciting.  I have no picture of this (and even if I did, I probably wouldn't post it) but we're working on getting it to happen a second time.  I'm planning a pretty elaborate all day potty training day - so we'll just take baby steps up until the day I implement my plan and hopefully I'll have my first bout with potty training under my belt in the next few weeks!  I'll let you know.