YouTube Picks

Bennett and Ainsley are YouTube fans. Aren't we all, really? Here are their current picks for best YouTube vidoes. Enjoy!



First, a little Will Ferrell as Harry Caray humor. Next time you see Bennett ask her to do an impression.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haAhdtDmsOw


And now, some Double Dream Hands!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm7yAWpX1Mc


And finally, a little 80's rewind. We might like to show our kids things we remember from the good old days. Here is a commercial they love and can be heard singing fairly regularly.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdNf9pvPfjI

HONK If You Love Your Moped!!!!

Grandpa C. bought a pair of super sweet '81 Honda Passport mopeds at an auction last weekend. A little history...he used to sell mopeds back in the late 1970's and early 1980's, so mopeds were part of our lives. We had some awesome Vespa scooters back in the day, one with a sidecar, some that were pedal mopeds. It was heaven. Having these "new" beauties is really fun and exciting for us moped lovers! Here is Bennett going for a ride with Grandpa!

Dad and Ainsley also did some cruising around the yard. Don't you love the ridiculously tall windshields on these things?

Aunt L. is back visiting, and the two of us have a special moped bond. We used to ride the Vespas together all the time, and once while riding double we wrecked (she was driving) and I burned my leg on the hot muffler pretty badly. Good times they were! We were excited to do some riding together last night, but before we went out we had to take a kissy face picture (my mom has several of this type of photo of us growing up...no idea why.) Who is that fool in the background on the tv??? Oh Grandpa C and his ever-present Fox News.

Aunt L. and I enjoyed a sunset ride. It was just like old times.

There was lots of horn honking too. This video clip is super short, but it will give you an idea of how annoying my sister and I on a moped can be. HONK, HONK, HONK! We were riding by the living room window, trying to get our Fox-News-watching father to take notice of us. Silly girls! We love mopeds!

Maps, Naked People and the Sistine Chapel...Oh My!

So, I have this old, framed map. It used to belong to my grandparents and I've always thought it was cool, but I've never had it hanging anywhere in my house. Last weekend we unearthed it and I decided it was just too cool to be in storage. I'm hoping to reframe it and display it...well, I hoped so until Bennett and Ainsley saw it. They immediately noticed something I had not...FOUR NAKED PEOPLE are on the upper and lower edges of the map. Some call it art. My girls call it completely inappropriate! What to do, what to do. A friend was over and she suggested we simply draw some clothes on the nudies. Hmmm. Not a bad idea at all! Today I just drew some drapy clothes over their private parts and voila...no more inappropriateness on this map! As I finished the drawing, Bennett said, "THAT is MUCH better! Mom, you should go to the Sistine Chapel and paint clothes on all those naked people on the ceiling." Um, no thanks, my darling. I might get in serious trouble for destroying art, and penciling little loin cloths on these four folks was a challenge enough. I'm officially finished defacing art.

Hiking Makes Us Happy!

Finally. And not a moment too soon. Hiking season is here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We love the woods.

Bennett was ready in her bandana and Ainsley in her camp shirt.

Ainsley found some treasures today. Shells...the kind from snails and the kind from guns!

Bennett found some bones! Dad and I were hoping to find treasures too. Mushrooms! But alas, we came up empty handed. It's okay though. It was a picture perfect day to be out for a family hike.

It looks like we need to work on building someone's stamina. We're hoping for many, many, many more hikes to come!

A Little More Easter

Here are some more photos from our crazy busy Easter weekend! Here are the girls in their Easter dresses. I decided to go with a more practical dress this year so it could be reworn frequently. And it didn't hurt that they were on sale at Target for $7.48 a piece! I love a bargain Easter dress! Too bad it was such a chilly day...we had to cover up in cardigans, but oh well. It was still a lovely, sunny Easter Sunday.

The girls participated in a couple of egg hunts on Easter. This cousin egg hunt is INSANE. There are so, so, so many eggs. I believe Bennett found 77 eggs this year and Ainsley found 55. And of course, each egg had multiple pieces of candy in it. A few pictures down you will see the winnings. CRAZY!

They had a smaller egg hunt at Grandma D. and Grandpa C.'s house, but it was just as intense because Grandpa and Grandma's eggs have money in them! I tried to take pictures, but these little egg hunters wouldn't stop long enough for a photo. They are running in every picture I took. I think each of them pocketed about sixteen bucks! Grandpa and Grandma, will you please have an egg hunt for the grown ups next year? Pretty please???

And the Easter candy. This is just some of the candy we came home with. If you come to our house any time during the next 12 months, we will most likely offer you some Easter candy.

And unrelated to Easter, but exciting nonetheless, Bennett received her new specs the day after Easter! She is so thrilled to be able to see objects beyond five feet of herself clearly. These puppies came in the nick of time, as her class watched Mary Poppins in music class on Tuesday. She said, "Man, was I so glad to be able to watch Mary Poppins without the actors being all blurry!"

And a major part of our Easter weekend was having Uncle B and Aunt J home for a visit. We don't get to see them often, so when we do it's a special treat. Uncle B. and Dad did some jamming in the basement, and the girls joined them on harmonica, kazoo, and a variety of percussion instruments. Here's a short snippet from their jam session.

And We Have a Winner!!!

We had a crazy busy Easter weekend. There are so many things I could post about, and I will begin with the coloring contest. Both girls entered a local coloring contest, and on Good Friday evening, we received a call that Ainsley had won her age bracket! Exciting times, as this is the first competition she's ever really won. Here is the prize winning coloring page. Nice job, Ainsley!

And the prize...oh my, the prize!

First of all, our little winner got this gift basket FULL of goodies. You cannot even see the half of it in this photo. Ridiculously awesome basket of things we have here.

And next THE BUNNY. The bunny, who has been named Fluffy Delano Rabbit (F.D.R.) is larger than life, literally. F.D.R. is overwhelming. Here he is, overwhelming the back seat of our car. If every we needed an SUV, it was when we picked this fella up.

Where does one keep a mammoth bunny? We have yet to figure that out. Ainsley has made him a bed though, on the lid of her toy box. He overwhelms this space quite nicely. Move over Cardboard Brian. Make room for Ainsley's new love, F.D.R. Hooray for coloring contests!!!

Extreme Couponing

Okay, maybe we aren't extreme couponing over here, but the girls have TONS of fun doing something with my unwanted coupons. They love to cut, cut, cut them just for fun! Each week after I go through the coupons from the Sunday paper, I pass them on to eager little hands and the cutting begins! Usually the girls cut out the coupons and pretend play with them. They also enjoy cutting out pictures that appeal to them. This week's most appealing pictures are...

A spiral-cut honey ham? Of course! It's almost Easter, you know!

And the two cutest coupon photos of the week: A ceramic grandma/grandchild keepsake box and a Baskin Robins bunny rabbit, ice cream cake. Darling girls. Just darling.

(Sorry about the sideways picture...that happens randomly, on occasion, with my new camera.) Not surprising, some collector coins were clipped from the coupons. Here we have some uncirculated, colorized quarters featuring different national parks. We also see some special Abe Lincoln pennies. Coupon clipping occupies my girls for lengthy periods and it's fun to see what they cut out. Fun times!

Game Time!

One of the great things about having "older" kids is that they are able to play games competitively. When stuck in the house, as we have been all winter and now into the spring, we find ourselves partaking in family game night quite regularly. Last night's game...Monopoly Jr! The game board is set up and we're ready to go!

We are so not about letting our kids win every game we play. They need to learn that sometimes someone else wins, and that is great! Cheer them on! Don't be sad and pouty. Well, these girls are not about letting their parents win either, let me tell you!

And who is the freak who lines their little game pieces up all neatly in a row? That would be Dad.

Game night always seems to bring out the super silly side of the girls. Here is a funny face from Bennett. Nice bunny rabbit teeth going on.

And...the pouty, sad face comes out on game night at times. Lessons about winning and losing are still a work in progress at our house.

And what is this!? A midgame shoulder massage? I don't know what made these girls think Dad needed this at the moment, as he sits with his stash of cash. Poor Mom at the other end of the table had about $4 to my name at this point in the game. I wasn't too envious though. When asked how the massage felt, Dad said it was like a couple of butterflies had landed on his shoulders. Obviously not a deep tissue massage. I don't think I missed out on much.

And with $44, we have a winner! Ainsley won her second consecutive Monopoly Jr. game. Her strategy???

A bit of luck and purchasing all ticket booths of the same color, as to collect double the fees from other players, in this case her mom, when they land there. Bennett used the same tactics and game in second place with $42. Good thing Dad and I had mastered the art of losing gracefully on this occasion.

One of These Things Is Not Like the Others

One of these soccer playing children doesn't seem quite like the others. It's like she might be too old to be in the littlest kid league or something. She's so tall and quick and attentive and coordinated. Could it be...the big sister who said she didn't want to go out for soccer this season and now she sees how much fun her little sister is having and so she regrets her decision? It just might be! Thanks to Ainsley's very kind coach, the team was missing a child on Tuesday so she let Bennett jump in for a quick game/drill. Bennett was very pleased to participate, Ainsley didn't mind, and I think we might have two soccer players signed up in the fall instead of just one.

Creative Cleaning

It is so nice to have children who are old enough to clean their rooms. It is especially nice that our girls usually have a pretty good attitude about cleaning up their rooms. They don't like to do it, but they are cooperative and do a nice job without complaining much. It is super, super nice to happen into Ainsley's cleaned up room to discover that she has be cleaning creatively. She always arranges her things in interesting and fun ways! Well, well! Looking good, Cardboard Brian! Brian is stylin' in his fluffy dress up scarf. He also has a small, furry animal and his book of Bible stories on his lap. Such a nice young man he continues to be!

On this particular day, Ainsley decided a monkey coming halfway out of a cupcake that's wearing a crown would be a nice decoration for her bed.

She also enjoys decorating the roof of her dollhouse when she cleans. Baby bibs and bracelets are common sights up of the roof.

And lastly, we have a baby balancing between two salon chairs on a bean bag. My guess is that it was too far for Ainsley to walk five steps to her toy box to put the bean bag and the baby away. She might be a cooperative cleaner, but her cleaning stamina could use some work.