Doo Doo Party!

Aria turned 2! To celebrate this momentous milestone, we went on a Dora the Explorer treasure hunt. 

 First, I got the call that Swiper stole the farm animal's food and buried it at Sandy Beach. So, each kid strapped on their very own, homemade, Dora backpack full of supplies needed for the hunt. I found the backpack pattern online and sewed it all together with adjustable Velcro straps.

 I drew the map with Doodle Buddy, on my I Pad, and then printed on iron on transfer sheets. There was a template for Map's face on the nick jr. Website, which I printed on iron on paper as well.


After everyone was ready we headed down Spider Web Mountain. I strung yarn across our backyard stairs and the kids had to follow the correct number pattern to get through the "web".

 Next, we crossed over to the Enchanted Forest, our pine tree, where the kids found our wagon. I pulled them in the wagon for the rest of the adventure.

 
To exit the Enchanted Forest, we had to pass through the Musical Rainbow Gate. To open the gate the kids had to sing "Happy Birthday to You" to Aria.

 Once through, we traveled through Star Valley (the path across the street from our house). There were stars taped to the fence that the kids had to collect.  
Continuing our journey, we came upon the Grumpy Old Troll who lives under the bridge. He was guarding the bridge and the kids were supposed to solve his riddle to pass. They had bubbles in their backpacks, which was the answer to the riddle, that they had to blow to put the troll to sleep.
Our last stop on the treasure hunt was Sandy Beach, where the kids had to use their shovels and gloves to find the animal food that swiper buried.


Finally, our adventure was complete and we headed back home to load into the car and go to the farm to feed the animals.

 
The whole adventure seemed to go really fast, but the kids seemed to enjoy it, each in different ways. Finn appreciated the whole adventure for what it was and really got into the imagination of it all. Cadence started over analyzing the whole thing, like asking why I didn't make a Swiper to hide along our path and why I didn't make more stops to go to, but once we got her away from over thinking the whole experience, she enjoyed it. She told me that. She wants a princess treasure hunt for her birthday, where we have to rescue the princess (too much Super Mario, maybe?). Aria sat back and observed a lot of the hunt and followed Cadence and Finn to do what they were doing.

 
At the farm, all the kids really enjoyed feeding the animals. I thought Aria would be afraid of the goats, but she liked them. Side note, goats have creepy eyes. Neither Cadence or Finn liked th pigs for some reason. Finn was being selective on which goats got to eat his food. He wanted to feed the kids (baby goats). I kept hearing him say to the big goats, "No, you've had enough.". There were a lot of baby animals that had just been born in March, very cute!
   
When we got home, we ate Boots'favorite lunch...peanut butter, honey and banana sandwiches. I made rainbow cupcakes with a "cloud" (whipped cream) topping and Aria opened her presents. We ended our celebration day with a taco dinner, in honor of Dora's Mexican heritage.

 Here's our little Aria the Explorere in her fiesta outfit.

Tea break

My Grandma Edna used to say something to the effect, "When you get overwhelmed, stop, grab a cup of tea, chat with a friend and get back to work."  I love that thought because it reminds me that it is okay to pause every once in awhile, in fact, it is good to do so, but then you need to get back to work (hopefully a bit more refreshed).

When I pause for tea these are my favorite mugs to drink out of.  The flower one is from a friend I met in the Czech Republic.  The striped one is one that my MomPom sent me when we were in Korea.  I kept it at my work desk when we were there.  The middle one is from my lovely Brad.  I have a tendency to knock mugs over when I'm putting them away and break them, so I've broken a couple of my past favorites.  It gives Brad good gift ideas, though, because I always like a new favorite mug.

Now, when I say that I "pause" for tea, I say that loosely (ha! loosely...like loose leaf tea. Maybe that was only funny to me).  I do drink 2-3 cups of tea a day, but they are usually lukewarm or almost iced tea by the time I get to them.  I make my delicious, comforting cup of hot tea and then get busy changing diapers, cleaning things up or making food.  I usually try to take a cup of tea in with me when I'm feeding Atticus since that is the most still I am during the day and have a better chance at getting to drink it. Oh, I look forward to the day when I will get to drink my tea while it's still hot.:)  My favorite tea, right now, is decaf Constant Comment.  I go through a lot of that because I'm trying to limit my caffeine intake during this nursing season.

When I do take my Grandma's advice and chat with a friend, I usually call Kelli.  She is always fun to talk to and is in the same stage of life as me, so we can relate to one another easily.

I love talking to my mom, too, but we are better face to face talkers than phone talkers.  I look forward to being able to finish a conversation with her without being interrupted by excited children who want her attention too.:) (look at that chubby baby Finn!)

We took family photos, yesterday.  Even though the studio was 30 minutes behind, it went quite well.  The kids stayed in good moods and we were able to zip through some poses and get good pictures.  I had to wake Atticus up, so he was a little confused as to why all these bright lights were flashing and shining on him.

I love our little hobbits.  Babies always look chubbier in pictures than they do in person (or maybe that is just a mom's perspective).

Look at these little feet. Soooo cute!  Feet are much cuter in miniature form.  That isn't a speck of dirt on the bottom of Finn's foot, he has a freckle right there.  Brad always tries to scrub it off in the bath and then remembers that it's a freckle.