Kimono Dress Up

Today I pulled out a Kimono that I received as a gift when I was a teenager from an exchange student from Japan that my family was hosting. My daughter was so excited to see something that I had when I was younger and to try on an outfit from Japan! As you can imagine, an outfit that is meant for a teenager or an adult was very big for a 5 year old, but after a few folds and tucks, we got it to fit her fairly well. She loved wearing it so much that she ended up keeping it on and watched a movie while wearing it. She also loved that I had socks and shoes for her to wear. 

Kimono Dress Up

Summer Movies

This summer will be the third year we have taken our kids to the theatre for a summer movie.

It is such a great memory for us all. The kids still talk about their first time at the movie theatre when we saw the movie Toy Story 3, and then last year when we saw Brave.

Today we saw Despicable Me 2. The kids love the first "Despicable Me" and have watched it multiple time over the years.

One of Jaclyn's favorite parts in the first movie is when the youngest girl Agnes gets a new unicorn and while hugging it says "its so fluffy I'm gonna die". 

Last Christmas my brother and sister-in-law gave Jaclyn a extra large pink unicorn. After she saw it she immediately said "its so fluffy I'm gonna die". She has been sleeping with her unicorn every night since Christmas.

 

Here she is holding her big unicorn and her little one that David got her holding them at a sleepover at Gramma and Grandads. 

We along with David and Jaclyn are looking forward to watching a summer theatre movie together for many summers to come.

Summer Movies

Sweaters passed down

I remember when I was a little girl my great-grandmother would make me and my brothers sweaters. I also remember loving to wear them. There was simply something about the sweaters being made specially for me that made me so excited to wear them. My mother, the wise woman that she is, decided to save all of those sweaters that were made for my brothers and I.
When I had my little girl, she gave me the ones made for me to pass on.  I have had them in her closet for awhile now, and she has worn some over the years, but over the last few months she has really started to gravitate to them and to chose them herself. She loves that she gets to wear something that was mine when I was her age. She also loves that she is wearing a sweater made by her great-great-grandmother, which she actually thinks about.

Here she is modeling one of her favorites, "the puppy sweater" as she calls it.

I think its wonderful to be able to pass down a treasured item from my childhood to my daughter. Thanks Mom for saving them all these years!

Sweaters passed down

Bubbles and Games

It was such a beautiful day today that the kids and I decided to take advantage of it and spent some time playing outside. We played with bubbles a beach ball and some games. 

The kids loved playing different games together. They played What Time is it Mr Wolf, Go-Go Stop, and by Davids request Freeze Tag.

It was such a beautiful and fun afternoon. The kids and I are looking forward to spending more and more time outside this spring.

Bubbles and Games

Jaclyn's 5th Birthday

My little girl has turned 5 years old, or as she puts it, "I'm a whole handful!" (this is more accurate than she knows) 

Every year for our kids birthdays, we end up having two celebrations, one small family celebration on their actual birthday with just the four of us, and then their party with their friends.

 

We also let them choose the meals for the day on the their actual birthday, and this year Jaclyn chose to go to Montana's Cookhouse for dinner, she was very excited as to this is also her favorite restaurant (the kids call it the cowboy restaurant). They love the decor there and everything about it seems like an adventure with lots of fun. The staff at Montana's sang her a birthday song while she wore their birthday hat. It scared her a bit at the time, as it was louder than she expected, but as soon as the staff scattered after the song she started to talk about how much fun it was to wear a silly hat and have them sing to her. She loved that everyone said happy birthday to her and she got a "special" ice cream treat.

For her friends/cousins party, she wanted a "Secret of the Wings" theme, which is the latest Disney Tinkerbell movie. We ended up doing cupcakes this year instead of a full cake, partially because half our cake decorating items are still packed up and also because that was her request. Jaclyn loves crafts right now and daily can be found rummaging through her craft bin looking to make a new creation. When planing her party we decided to do crafts with all the kids instead of games. Some crafts we did included making snow globes (Secret of the wings" was in the "winter woods") and making "fairy houses" out of old cereal boxes. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and all the kids were able to have their pictures taken with Tinkerbell and Periwinkle cutouts that Chris drew and painted. Jaclyn loved it and talked about it for more than a week afterwards, which always makes us smile.

Craft Time

Pictures with the Tinkerbell and Periwinkle

Lots of memories made and another year on the way. She is, of course, already planning her next birthday party.

Jaclyn's 5th Birthday

Fall

Here are a few pictures of the kids as they played outside this afternoon. The leaves were out and they had a great time jumping in them, covering each other and hiding.

Fall

My Rock Stars

For months we have had our Rock Band Wii game in our living room corner and both of the kids have been wanting to play with it. So on the day that we set up the game for them to play they were so excited. They each picked an instrument, David the guitar and Jaclyn on drums. Once they started playing they became comfortable with the game, really getting into the music and the "proper" Rock and Roll stance. 

We set it up so that no matter how good or bad you played the game would play through the song.

The music that they both loved to play the most was 70's rock, which made me smile after all that's one of my favorite genres of music.

Pictures taken April 9, 2012

Both claim to be rock stars, and now they can get an early start on their music careers, even if it is the Wii version of it.

My Rock Stars

Yoga Time

The other day Jaclyn showed me some yoga exercises that David had showed her. I guess David had done some yoga as part of gym class this last year in school and has taught his sister what he knows.
Here she is demonstrating them for me. (Sorry the pictures are blurry I didn't have my camera so these were taken on my iPad.)

Yoga Time