Barbie Heaven

Little Miss A had her favorite friend over this afternoon for a fun Barbie play date! The girls were in heaven. A & T are more like twins than A & D!!!! Not only in the way they look, but in personality and passions as well. Her Mom and I love it!!! :) I think we need to add this to a more weekly activity since the girls were playing peacefully upstairs and I had my own Mommy/Son play date downstairs...drawing and puzzles galore! :)

Hello Summer!!!

We "OFFICIALLY" started summer today and met our bffs at one of our favorite parks. The kids LOVED playing with Ken and Mck...gosh we don't get to see them often enough anymore, but hopefully summer will change that all around. :)

Playing in the shade...

It gets hot really EARLY these days!!!

Borrowing wheels...I think Little Miss A has a new item on her b-day list!

Playing circus and treasure hunting!!!

Such amazing imaginative play when they are all together!!!

I LOVE IT!!!!

Little Miss Animated

I've thought this at least a THOUSAND times, but don't think I've ever REALLY posted about Little Miss A's animation. I LOVE that she can bring anything to life. She'll sit in her room for hours consumed with all kinds of imaginative play ideas that she brings to life with her stuffed animals, babies, barbies, cars, books, etc. You name it, it will come to life in the hands of my sweet little girl. Just the other day, J was making carrot-orange juice for breakfast and Little Miss A grabbed a couple of the carrots he had laying on the counter and began an entire dialogue exchange between the two carrots.

Carrot A: "What are you doing today?"
Carrot B: "I don't know. What are you doing today?"
Carrot A: "Why are we here?"
Carrot B: "Who knows."
Carrot A: "Do you want to play?"
Carrot B: "Sure!"
Carrot A: "Okay, la, la, la, la."

She never gets to the part where they are about to be pureed or anything, thank goodness. But her willingness to play with anything and everything is just precious. I love to listen to the conversations she has back and forth between whatever she is playing with at the time. :)

Quidditch...Take 2

After creating the broomsticks, I realized we were going to HAVE to play with them at least once before hauling one of them to school. With a quick game of Quidditch before dinner time, we have 4 thumbs up on proper broomstick operation. :) They were certainly fast...this was the ONLY picture that actually turned out on the digital, the rest were all blurry. Guess I should have used the slr...oopsie.

Transportation

The kids are studying all about transportation at school...different ways to get around. Our show and tell this week is a chance for kids to bring a transportation item from home to share with our friends. Okay, cool, we have TONS of cars, trains, trucks, motorcycles, planes, construction vehicles and even a remote control garbage truck...tons of vehicles to choose from.

What does Mr. D choose? A broomstick!!! Of course that's what Harry Potter Jr. would select. It definitely gets him around, that's for sure. Since we didn't have one at home, shocker, right? we came home this afternoon and began construction. With the sticks already waiting at the front door (we collect all of our nature treasures in a pot at the front door, since nature stays outside). We rounded up the raffia in the wrapping closet, broke out the hot glue gun and got to work. It was definitely a team effort. There's no way Harry could have a broomstick and not Hermione, so the 3 of us worked together to make 2 broomsticks.

We'll find out tomorrow if Mr. D's broomstick survives the trip to school...

As for Little Miss A, she's bringing "Deary" a stuffed dear from our road trip last summer that she completely adores. She's right though, you could potentially ride a dear as well.

I've got to hand it to the Caswell Kids...they are definitely outside the box thinkers!!!! :)

Harry Potter

I know I've posted on this before, but seriously my son is OBSESSED with Harry Potter. After Halloween I raided the costume store for anything HP thinking how fun it would be to have a Harry Potter birthday party next year. Well, I was so excited about it all, I couldn't resist and showed him everything I found. After the purchase, we placed everything in the attic. Although recently he has been asking almost EVERYDAY if we can get it down. (It was going to be a REALLY long year if I didn't give in...I'm a softie I know. It was so much fun to see how excited he got about everything. In hindsight I probably should have just done this for part of Christmas instead. Oh well, he is heaven. :)

Everyday at school he wants to make badges, paint a scar on his head, you name it. I'm telling you he LOVES Harry Potter and anything witch/wizard related. :)

Halloween Playdate

I picked the kids up early from class this afternoon and raced home to get in costumes. We were finally able to make it one of our MOMs play dates. The Halloween costume party was a blast!!! It had been a really long since the kids had seen any of their multiple friends. They had a blast!!! Thank you much Miss E for having everyone (and the mayhem) in your beautiful home!!! I hope the walls are still standing. There were ton of snacks, crafts and activities, not to mention new toys and old friends that the kids seriously did not want to leave!! What a great way to end a school day! :)

Catching Up...

Okay so things have been a little crazy this month, but now that things are calming down a bit I thought I'd catch up. (I'm going to apologize for the quality of some of these pics, I was using my phone for the majority of the month since we just recently found our battery chargers for the camera.) Anyway, here goes...


September 22, 2009
Resuming Normalcy...Dance Class Continues

Little Miss A is LOVING her new dance class. She already new several girls in class and is having a blast...almost too much fun at times. :)


September 19, 2009
Six Flags!!

It was with heavy hearts that we accepted the Six Flags tickets from our bffs. With bounce back tickets and season passes for next year,we'll hopefully get to go back and share the fun with them next time. A & D had an amazing time. They were both able to ride the 42" rides this year, unlike last year and the tears and heartache associated with that. Seeing them ride rides that we remember riding when we were kids was beyond priceless. With the settling in and unpacking that has taken over our lives this month, it was a nice distraction. :)

a "real" roller coaster!!!

September 18, 2009
Backyard Fun

Little Miss A and Mr. D discovered a new past time in our own backyard...

September 16, 2009
Water Colors

We had our first homework assignment in school. The kids were given paper dolls to decorate and create. The teacher in me had this vision of what they could create, I took them to my classroom after school. Went through all the supply bins that I have and started exploring. Buttons, beads, brads, googlie eyes, fabric, ribbon, yarn, sequins, charms, rocks and of course the traditional school supplies of crayons, markers, colored pencils and paint. Lots of choices right? Endless possibilities...what did the Caswell kids HAVE to do...water color. Not that we haven't done this a thousand times before, but that was what the monkeys insisted on. It took every ounce of self control to not "do" their project for them. (I think I was the only Mommy that didn't give in...A & D's projects are definitely kid created.) Boy were they proud of their dolls and shared them with that same pride on Friday with the class. :)

September 14, 2009
Field Trip

Our play group had an awesome field trip planned to Petco (where the pets go) to learn about some of the animals in the store and how to care for them. (Grandpa was in town and came with...not sure if he's recovered yet.) A & D LOVED the animals...especially the turtle poop at the end. (Yep, that was my kid that you could hear laughing all the way around the world with that lovey event.) It sure was nice to do something fun with friends!!!!

September 10, 2009
A Visit From Grandpa

Not long after "moving in" we had a visit from Grandpa. With boxes still everywhere, he was a huge help in getting settled in. His visit just happened to be during our Grandparent breakfast (the morning was a disaster, let's just say Dad was a hero!!!) he came to school ate breakfast with the kids and even bought them our s.a.'s of our school mascot. (Little Miss A is holding hers in the picture.) What a great visit.

September 3, 2009

First Commute from the New House...

In the car for just a few minutes, not even long enough for the car to "warm up" we pull into the school parking lot and Little Miss A replies "That was the fastest car ride ever!!!" Yep, isn't it awesome?!?!?

August 31, 2009

Our NEW Home!!!

Moments after closing, I raced to school to pick up the kids and headed to our new house. The kids and I waited for Daddy so we could walk in together as a family. Thankfully our realtor came as well and could snap our first family photo in front of our new home on the very first day!!!

Children's Museum

We hadn't been to the Children's Museum in ages!!! Since we've had several friends raving about the new exhibit, we decided to take the grandparents downtown and check it out. The exhibit featured all sort of create-it-yourself crafts. Something I totally thought the kids would be completely into. Little Miss A was for a little bit, creating a book and a purse ad even experimenting for a little bit with a "rotocopter" creation as well.

However, they both headed to the regular exhibits we've seen and done so many times before...with a twist.

Little Miss A spent over an HOUR in the milk department. Loading up bottles to send down the conveyor belt. Stocking the shelves of the store, then sending the bottles up the chute and back to the manufacturing plant. We've NEVER experienced this stationary exhibit. (Not sure if it's always been too crowded to play in the past or if the kids just never saw it as "interesting" before or what.)

With the train out of commission today, D helped A in the milk department even milked the cow!!! Then was his typical pinball self spinning uncontrollably from spot to spot...store, kitchen, nurse's station, bat cave, library (though he didn't make it through story time), metro bus, construction zone, etc. I swear the kid is the next "Houdini" and can disappear in an instant!!!! Thank heavens I had reinforcement help to keep tabs on the little man! Even then, 3 sets of eyes wasn't enough at times!!!

Pizza and Play!!!

Okay, so Chuck E. Cheese may not be the most favored place to "chill", but in this heat it was perfect! We met our bffs for a fun lunch play date. Little Miss A and Mr. D had an awesome time with their friends...I did too!!!! :)

As is customary for these two...they immediately went in opposite directions! I was able to catch a couple of pics of them ACTUALLY playing together...totally rare in a place like this.

It was so funny to watch them...

A running to the most girlie games and of course anything involving animals.

D played with EVERY little boy in the joint on EVERY boy game imaginable. If it flew, drove or had any type of machinery...he was there.

Sadly, these games are all still a little out of his "reach", but he didn't care. As you can see, he got creative every time and made each one work for him. (Crack me up!)

Budding Scientists

In between doctor/dentist visits today we managed a little playground time. While on the playground, the Caswell kids took the opportunity to create their own concoctions. These "recipes" were quite elaborate and took a while to put together and perfect. The main ingredients: salt, pepper, lemonade and sugar packets. This wonderful concoction is apparently just what mulch needs to "eat and make more mulch!!" Who knew? :) Both Little Miss A and Mr. D had so much fun...they were sad to leave and reminded me on the way back to the hotel that we needed to write our recipe down so we can make more mulch food when we go back.

Cows

A shopping trip in the Arboretum is never complete without a visit to the cows. Little Miss A and Mr. D LOVE them...they could always stay and play for hours. It had been a while since we last visited the famous cows, so it was so fun to see A & D's imaginative play with the cows this trip. They rounded them up, rode them across country and raced each other while on the non-moving creatures. (Thankfully, they took turns "winning" the race.) It sure was nice to stay and just play for a bit. Next time we'll have to take bread and feed the ducks too. :)

Swords, Swords, Swords

Mr. D has been OBSESSED with his weaponry lately!!! Extraordinarily concerned that his swords wouldn't be going to the hotel OR the new house. So, he secretly "left" some of his treasures in Daddy's car for us to find when we got it back from Mr. B. He was VERY anxious to get his swords. Once they arrived, the first thing he did was find a belt and suit up.

Memorial Day = Splash Day

I totally forgot to post the events from our holiday, but better late than never I guess. Let me just say it was SO nice to "pretend" to have summer for a day, but gosh it was hard to adjust back to the reality of work this week...summertime tease!!! We can't wait. :)

The kids kept saying, "really, we don't have school today?" Nope! We slept in, had a late breakfast, then threw on our swim suits and headed outside. We had EVERY water device out that we own and had to keep switching the sprinklers for added variety. The kids had so much fun, squealing at the top of their lungs. (Okay so that was mostly Mr. D...man he's got a set of lungs!) They got creative this year and put the water hose down the slide on the play scape and created their own at home water slide. :) A full day of fun in the sun followed by dinner with friends...I can't think of a better way to spend a holiday!!!!

Diving...

Monkeys at the Park!!!

We went on a typical scooter ride around the block this afternoon. (I didn't take the camera OR my phone, I'm still kicking myself for that.) The kids decided they wanted to stop at the play scape at the school and play for a bit. Again, nothing out of the norm. BUT today Little Miss A and Mr. D decided to REALLY try out he monkey bars on their own. A went ALL the way across...first try TOTALLY by herself. I was shocked!!! I think my mouth literally fell to the ground. WOW!!! After that we had a little competition going...D had to show his sister that he could do it too. Before we left, he did it too!!! Poor A, in all her work on the monkey bars she ended up with her first hand injury...horrible water blister that burst on her last slip. That incident had us racing home for reinforcements (a.k.a. band-aids). As we were leaving A started saying it hurt so bad she wouldn't try it again. So I started recounting how many times I used to get blisters on my hands from playing on the monkey bars, but reassuring her that it was so much fun I couldn't let those blisters stop me. Hopefully she'll get back up there the next time we go. :)

Picnic in the Park

I think we may have yet another new tradition for our Monday evenings at the Caswell house. Our Monday nights are CRAZY!!! We rush to leave school by 3:15 to take Mr D to gymnastics at 3:45 then it's straight to dance at 5:00 and on to dinner from there which is of course out, cuz who has time to cook in there? Well, we decided to head to the park tonight for dinner tonight. It was awesome. The kids had a blast playing. They were all over the place...from the play scape to the rock wall, to the sand pit then the swings and back again, they were in a proverbial loop...seriously all over the place. It was awesome. :) I think we all needed that. We can't wait for Daddy to come back to Austin so he can enjoy in this fun new tradition with us.

Rollin, rollin, rollin...

We took out the wheels and went rolling after school today.

Little Miss A and I went out with our roller skates while D took his bike and we all cruised the cul-de-sac. We didn't make it much farther than that! I was determined that if I held A's hand, I could keep her on her feet. Sounds logical enough, right? WRONG!!!! She took us both out!!! So glad the neighbors were all indoors for that lovely display. :)

Science in the Park

We met some of our playgroup friends for science in the park after school today. We learned about the moon...it's surface and will be charting the phases of the moon over the next 28 days. :) Ms. J had some seriously fun action plans for the kids that of course, Mr D. just gobbled up. Notice the "air tank" as he is orbiting Earth in his space shuttle and Little Miss A throwing meteoroids with the other A. They both had a blast, what a fun way to end a day. :)