Bath tub painting

I have been on pinterest a bit lately and found some different bath tub paints, so we tried this one out tonight:

• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 liquid soap (I used baby stuff)
• food colouring

Mix the cornstarch and soap together, divide into the number of colours you want, mix in food colouring and paint away. 

I put about a tbsp of each colour on a plate for each kid because I knew the plate or container would hit the water and get washed off, then I just added a bit more paint to the plate throughout the tubby. 

Both Will and Madelyn loved painting in the tub, after I showered them off because the water got a bit soapy. Definately something we will have to do again. Plus clean up is way easier then painting at the table, I gave them each a face cloth and they washed their art away.

Car conversations

I truly think I should have recording device in our car because honestly we have some of the funniest conversations while travelling.  Today driving home from daycare Madelyn was talking away which turned into growls/grunting.  Will looks over at her and says "Are you pooping Madelyn? Aww, are you pooping my little baby?" The more Will asked if she was pooping the more growls/grunting noises she made. Ok, maybe you had to be there, but I assure it was funny.  I am sure the people beside me at the stop light thought I was crazy, both Will and I were laughing way and Madelyn had a huge smile on her face.  I have always enjoyed our drive to and from daycare, singing songs and discussing the days events, even it if is only 5 - 10 minutes.

To finish off a picture that I have edited for modesty, so perhaps it loses some of its effect but her is my singing beauty!

Circus

The circus was in town so we took the kids with G and G Bettschen and Auntie Jen. 

Highlights:

• Elephants.
• Cotton Candy.
• Motorcycles and quads.  According to Will those guys sure drive crazy, even crazier then Uncle Bob!
• Elephants. 
• Horses.
• Popcorn.
• Elephants.
• Lemonade.
• Corn Dog.
• Elephants.
• Acrobats. According to Will they are amazing.
• Elephants.
• Giant balloons from Grandpa.  Madelyn's popped 3 minutes later and she spent the next 10 minutes holding onto the stick saying more balloon.
• And I am not sure I mentioned the elephants!

Note the elephants behind us

Could not get both looking at the camera at the same time

Eating Cotton Candy. Yum!

Will's first corn dog.

Before the balloon popped

Was not ready to part with the balloon yet

Elephants

A bit of this and that

A few highlights from the week:

• Mornings are sooooo much easier with two parents.  Chris was gone all week except Friday and I can assure you Friday morning was amazing!  Even though the kids and I have a great morning routine an extra set of hands makes a huge difference.  Our mornings are basically scheduled to the minute I know at what time have to wake up Madelyn to get her dressed, fed and out the door on time (not a problem with Will he is always up). We have to start putting shoes and coats on at 7:20 so I can have both kids in carseat and be backing out of the garage at 7:30 (according to the car clock which is about 3 minutes fast) or we will be late.  Most people would probably say our morning are crazy, I prefer the term "organized chaos".  The good news is we all get where we need to be, and usually close to on time.
• Popcorn. Why do make popcorn on the night I just washed the floors? I guess they will get washed again tomorrow.
• Nap time fun.  Will is at the age where yes he still needs a nap most days but he is definitely starting to realize that things happen while he is napping and does not want to miss out.  Today he came out and said "but Mommy I have closed both my eyes and my mouth and I just can't sleep."  Good try buddy, go back and try a bit longer.  Basically he was looking for an excuse not to nap because he knew I was washing the floor. My kids love to help wash the floor, however sometimes it really needs to be done without help.
• Talking. Madelyn is turning into a talking machine.  She copies everything you say and has recently starting saying "Madelyn", although she still calls herself "baby" most of the time. Some of my favourite words to make her say are "watermelon", "stinky", "squirrel", "seeder", "tractor" and although it is not a word snorting like a pig.
• Wiggles.  We have not watched The Wiggles in a long time and typically Madelyn is not interested in TV.  Last night both kids had a great time dancing with the Wiggles.  Note to self: a show both kids will be entertained with, save this card for a time when I really just need 15 minutes to get something done. 
• Butchering.  Once again we are happy to report Will's experience of butchering has reached a new audience.  While at daycare he proceeded to ask our daycare provider if they fed Lucky (the dog) guts. She was a tad confused why they would feed Lucky guts until she heard the whole butchering story, then apparently it was clear. 
• Cows.  Will is always concerned about Grandpa's cows.  This week he needed to call Grandma (he knew Grandpa was not at home) and the first thing he asked her was "Grandma are making sure none of the baby calves die".  I think he caught Grandma a bit of guard, but she assured him yes she would make sure all the baby calves were ok.
• Rain. Rain please go away so we can get to the park this week coming up.  More importantly, rain let the farmers finish up seeding!  Every night the kids want to go outside and play, and I have to say this week it has been so cold, wet and damp we did not make it to the park once.
• Secrets.  Will has not mastered the art of secrets, if you have a secret do not tell Will, it is guaranteed to the be the first thing out of his mouth the next time he sees or talks the that person.
• Gophers.  The kids and I were driving this morning, waiting at a red light and Will looks out his window and sees a gopher.  He says to me "Hey Mommy, a gopher, I wonder who is going to shoot it? I bet one of my grandpas could." Comments like this may get us phone calls from the principle office in the future.

Girls and their clothes

What is it about girls and their clothes.  Madelyn at 16 months already has a definate fashion sense.  She has favorite shirts and askes to wear them on a regular basis.  She absolutely loves her puppy shirt.  If you pull out clothes she will tell you if they are acceptable or not.  She would rather choose her own shirt and absolutely hates wearing blue jeans.

The other night after bath I put pjs onto the little princess.  She sat up looked at them and proceeded to undo the snaps and scream the entire time.  I asked her if she wanted different jammies and she said "mmm hmm". So we went to get different pjs from her room.  Apparently the kitty jammies were better.

If this is any indication of how her teenage years will be, all I have to say is "oh dear".

May Long

It's Sunday of May long, I love a long weekend when on Sunday night you are not going into panic mode. What will we have for supper tomorrow night after work/daycare? Packing lunch.  Trying to remember if you need to take another bag of diapers to daycare.  You get the point. Organzing for the week.  I have another day to well organize my life. 

Tomorrow the rest of the laundry will get done, and yes, put away! (yes often we are picking clothes out of the basket for the better part of the week).  The rest of the may get cleaned, we will most definately make it to the park, and will mostlikely bbq both lunch and supper to reduce the number of dishes we have to wash.

So what has been happening this weekend.  We have been busy.  Chris worked late Friday, I took Friday off work so the kids and I drove up to Saskatoon to visit a few friends.

Before heading up the kids and I went out to get some groceries.  When we got home I was unloading groceries and they wanted to play outside the rain had stopped, so I put Maddie onto the little quad she could push around the yard.  She quickly decided the puddle was much better!  Parental supervision probably could have prevented her attempted to blow bubble in the mud puddle her brother was jumping in. 

So I did what any good Mom would do, went and got the camera! Took pictures! Then stripped the baby down outside and gave her a bath.

Add caption

Not sure it tasted good, but she continued to put her face in the water.

After lunch the kids and I made our trip up to Saskatoon.  We came back Saturday afternoon, so it was a quick trip, sorry for those who I did not call, you will be on the list next time:)

Friday night the kids and I hung out with the Hauschild-Coutts clan.  Thank you for letting up invade your house, the kids played so well together! Once the kids were in bed a group of Mom's met a Moxies for a drink, it was nice to get out!

Saturday morning we went to the zoo.  Will's favorite animals were the bears and feeding the geese.  We completed our trip with lunch at the zoo then the kids and I headed back to Regina.  Both kids must have been exhausted as they were asleep before Grasswood's Esso and slept all the way to Regina, generally they wake when we slow down to go through Chamberlain.  So to say the least it was a quiet drive back. 

Hanging out with Reid and Anna

Feeding Geese at the Zoo

Enjoying the view

Yes, this is classic Will, shorts, ball cap and rubber boots.  PS, thanks for the sweater Cam, now Wills favorite!

Lunch

Two sleeping kids! So peaceful

Sunday we were busy planting garden, Chris cut the grass, the kids helped him put mud flaps on the truck and we hit up the park.  Another busy day!

Will was excited to be seeding, like Grandpa Peter.  Only we were planting peas and cucumbers not canola. I was also informed that Grandpa seeds with his John Deere tractor, apparently that is better.

Will planting

 

Seeds got into the garden, not necessarily the rows...

Madelyn liked picking 'flowers'

Kids enjoyed strawberries and a drink up in the playstructure while Daddy cut the grass.

Again parental supervision may have prevented our children from crawling around under the truck. 

So now we have one more day to enjoy relaxing or atleast not having to be anywhere at a specific time.  Hope everyone who gets tomorrow off gets to enjoy some family time!

Hair cut numero 2

Since Will's hair cut turned out acceptable, I thought I would give Madelyn's mop top a try tonight.  For some reason I was a bit more apprehensive to cut her hair. For some reason I think a girls hair cut is a bit more important.  Not like I was giving her a full grown hair cut anyways, really just trim her bangs so she could see.  They got a bit shorter then I anticipated but I was also trying not to stab her in the eyes. 





A tad bit less then her brother got cut off.

Mom, Please don't cut me!

A hairdresser I may not be, but the hair is out of the eyes and that is what we were going for!

Funny how even the smallest hair cut can make a kid look more grown up!



A new haircut

Tonight for the first time we cut Will's hair at home.  Typically we go to the Ultra Cuts and end up spending $12 for a 5 minute haircut, that never ends up even or perfect because lets face it he is 3.  Even though is always sits so nice and the hair dressers always comment on how good he is and how they never have kids his age sit that nice, seems to be a huge waste of money. 

He sat fairly good for us, although towards the end he was getting a bit antzy.  Overall I would have to say turned out fairly good.

Lots of hair off a little boy! He may have been a tad overdue for this haircut

Snip snip

Will's comment after looking in the mirror: "Hey, I look like Cameron"

My thoughts: What a handsome little man!

Maybe later on in the week I will tackle Madelyn's bangs, again seems highly pointless to pay $12 for 3 snips of the scissors, after all it is just hair it will grow back right?





And along came #2

Madelyn Barbara was born January 11, 2011.  Yes with all these birthdays so close to Christmas it makes for a busy December and January, but it cold and miserable outside so we might as well be celebrating inside.

Madelyn was named Madelyn because we just liked the name and Barbara is after my Grandma Volk.  Unlike Will she was actually a week or so early. I worked on Friday and she was born on Tuesday.  The week she was born was utter chaos in our house. With Chris having a kidney stone on Sunday, Madelyn being born on Tuesday and  then Chris getting his appendix out Thurday night.  To say the least thank goodness we had Grandparents around to help us out and Chris had an unexpected few weeks at home recovering.  Although he could not do too much in terms of lifting etc. it was great to have him at home for a bit longer then anticipated.

3 months

6 months

9 months

1 year old!

Madelyn's blankey aka life line

Madelyn's current interests:
-her blankey
-getting whatever her brother has that she believes she shouldn't have
-animals
-not walking (she will take steps if prompted but still not officially walking)
-talking
-going outside

Then there were 3.

I thought it fitting that since it was Mother's Day today I would do two post of course one for our little man and one for our little princess.

William Peter was born on January 6, 2009. Since he was a few days late and I had been off work since before Christmas, I was definately ready to finally meet this little person. We did not now the sex of the baby before so it was very exciting.  William was named after his Great Grandpa Bettschen William Gerald Bettschen and my dad.

William was overall a good baby, he was not really the best sleeper until he hit 6 or 7 months but overall fairly content.  Not one of those super babies but nothing a bit of walking and snuggling generally did not solve.  He spent many of evening sleeping on Daddy's chest in the first few month and many of days napping while I held him.  I guess one of the joys of a first child.

Will walked just over 10 months and never looked back.  He loves to talk, anyone who has been around him for any length of time will attest to that one.  Like all kids I am sure he listens to everything you say and watches everything, you just never know what will come out of his mouth.

Today he was outside playing in the sandbox, getting close to supper time and comes running to the house saying "hohoho".  Of course I look at him confused, he looks at me "hohoho, I am Santa Claus, can I have a ginger cookie now?"  How can one say no to that so yes he got a "ginger cookie" aka gingersnap.  Yes it was half hour before supper, but he did still eat supper so I guess dessert before supper can happen on occassion.

3 Months

6 months

9 months

1 year



2 years old

3 years old

Will's current interests:

-farming or anything he can do at the farm with a Grandpa

-firetrucks, police cars, ambulances (anything to do with emergencies)

-being outside

-tormenting his sister by stealing her blankey or baby (or both)

-Superheros (spiderman etc.)

-fixing things