9.2.12: Nourishing trees

We have been playing 'picnic' a lot in our living room lately.  It seems that our tea parties have morphed into picnics.  We have been told by many locals that Mt. Lemmon is the place to go for hiking, camping, picnics, and to escape the heat.  Thanks to the holiday, we decided to adventure up to see what Mt. Lemmon was all about.  We drove straight up to the top bypassing all of the lookouts.   With three toddlers in a car, going somewhere you aren't too sure about, we wanted to stay focused on our goal...the top of Mt. Lemmon.

 

Growing up in Seattle where the trees are giant, grass is green, and climate is moist, it has been a big adustment living here.  Well I have finally found my Seattle fix.  A good hour from our house at about 9000+ feet exists this amazing place.  A place where there are no cactus and instead giant trees.  A place where there is definitely water (and even snow) in the winter.  A place where the temperatures are 20 degrees cooler and I actually said to myself - wow we should have brought hoodies for them (side note: we haven't worn long sleeves since April).   It is so very different from our new norm. 

The girls (daphne/yellow, stella/purple, fiona/blue) did well on the car ride and helped us navigate using a map we drew out for each of them.  When we arrived, they saw it....a picnic table.  Screaming ensued.  They rushed to sit at the picnic table, who knew this would be a highlight for them.  Coupled with blueberry muffins they helped make the day before we had some happy girls.  We filled our morning picking flowers, playing with sticks (aka magic wands), throwing rocks down the cliffs, playing the beanbag game, snacking and of course playing hide and seek behind the giant trees.  The picnic area we ended up at wasn't ideal for hiking which just means next time we will try somewhere else. 

 

Before we left the girls each took turns 'nourishing trees'.  In lieu of a real potty, we brought out our old travel potty which didn't seem to bother the girls one bit.  We talked about how they were providing 'water' for the trees to keep growing big and strong.  Stella also decided to provide some 'extra nourishment' which I later buried....ahh wilderness.

 

On our trip back down the mountain we stopped at several lookouts. The views were amazing. I had no idea what to expect but I was impressed.  We were even able to climb on some rocks to see amazing views of the mountains but made sure not to get too close to the edge....Brant and I are outnumbered after all.

9.1.12: Cat in the Hat

Cat in the Hat + trip to daddy's work + lunch out = Super excited girls!

 

We learned that Cat in the Hat was coming to Brant's work about a week ago.  The girls (fiona, daphne, stella) were so excited they kept asking how many days until they got to meet him.  When the day finally came, they were ready to leave about 7am, but sadly we had to explain that the cat was still sleeping.  Three hours later we made it to Brant's work and finally met Cat in the Hat.  They weren't too scared of him and willingly smiled for a picture.  We even had time to decorate these faces, color daddy's white board and eat lunch with all the big kids. 

8.24.12: Nana reads and reads and reads

Nana came to visit and the girls (fiona, daphne, stella) put her right to work....reading.  After hugs, kisses and showing nana all the new things in our house, they convinced her to read every book we currently had checked out from the library.  Since these books were a bit stale (aka memorized) we decided to take nana to the library to pick out some new books followed by a trip to Old McDonalds.

The girls were so excited to have nana here, especially because she would entertain them early in the morning when they woke up at 5:30.  Yes, these days we are lucky if there is quiet until 6.  Thankfully there is minimal fighting in the morning as they read books and seemingly play together, but there is clearly an instigator to this early wake up time.  We hear Daphne calling to her sisters to wake up, can't blame a girl for wanting playmates.  I really enjoy waking up to giggles, chattiness and my personal favorite a giant bin of legos getting dumped out onto the floor. 

8.21.12: Preschool

Today was Daphne, Fiona and Stella's first day of preschool.  Real preschool.  Drop them off, leave, pick them up three hours later, preschool.  No tears from them, I faired pretty well too.  In fact, Fiona forgot to say goodbye and just went running in, they were excited. 

Thankfully Kelly was in town for the day so I met her for breakfast - excellent distraction.  I was pretty anxious to pick the girls up and arrived ~30 minutes before class was over.  I HAD to be there when the class let out.  Kelly picked the girls up with me and even tolerated waiting outside as I repeatedly checked my watch.  We came home after nonstop chatting about preschool and had some lunch.  Overall a very successful first day of preschool.

8.16.12: Hand puppet dogs

Whenever Nene comes to visit, Stella, Fiona, and Daphne know there will be crafts and I know they will be kept very busy.  This time their favorite project was paper bag hand puppet dogs - in the girls favorite colors of course.  We ended up with pretty adorable pink, blue and green dogs.

8.14.12: Rare siting

The lady Robertsons all smiling at the same time, very rare (Fiona, Daphne, Stella, mama)

8.13.12: When it's hot outside...

Daphne, Stella and Fiona had fun painting their own flower pots.  We picked them up while making yet another weekend visit to the hardware store. 

Fiona, Stella and Daphne modelling their hats once they are finally dry and ready to fill with soil and seeds.  (yes, I realize nothing will grow in this heat, but perhaps I'll transplant one of the weeds from our yard - they sure enjoy the heat)

This weekend we also adventured to the annual zoo ice cream party with Nicole and Peter.  It was ridiculously hot and I think this picture of the Stella, Fiona and Daphne summarizes it all.....anything you can do to cool you off, you do.  In this case, eating ice cream sandwiches and mr. freeze at the same time.  Yes, in hind sight it was way too hot to go outside.  Lesson learned.

8.10.12: Old McDonalds

It's hot here.  I'm running out of things to do. The mall play areas are getting very old and the crazy temperatures make our car unbearably hot when parked outside.  We have a lot of energy and nowhere to exert it.  About a month ago, Nicole suggested the McDonald's play area.  I just assumed we were too young for such a play structures, but I was wrong.  The first time we went, the girls immediately started climbing with no fear and those structure are a good 20+ feet high.  No fear, none at all.  Since then we have been several times upon their request to go to 'Old McDonalds'.  Can you find the girls in the picture above???

Today we were the only ones playing for a solid 30 minutes, the girls had a blast.  I bought my token french fries (for stella) and oreo mcflurry (for daphne and fiona) and sat back laughing.  I know, healthy right?  There aren't too many vegetarian friendly options, trust me I've looked.  After every slide down they had to come and take a bite of something only to immediately run back into the structure and do it all over again.  I don't think they stood still for more than ten seconds (and that's only because I make them chew/swallow their food before returning to climb). 

(left to right: fiona, daphne, stella)

8.8.12: Repurposing crayons

Broken crayons + hot day = art project.  That's right, the girls (left to right: stella, daphne, fiona) had several broken crayons that I deemed useless until I realized that we could repurpose them.  I cut them up into small pieces and let the girls put them into their own bear cookie cuter.  We then set the tray outside to see what would happen?    Sure enough, within an hour those crayons were shiny and starting to melt.  I had to take them inside before the day was up due to the monsoon coming, but we will put them back outside another day.  Then of course, we'll have to see if I can actually get them out of the cookie cuter.  

8.1.12: Mama smoothie

When I was pregnant, I loved smoothies.  Brant and I even joked about how the kids were going to love strawberry smoothies too.  Turns out, we were right.  However, these are special 'mama smoothies', made with strawberries, watermelon, orange juice, water and spinach.  Since we are big into favorite colors here and mine is brown, the girls (left to right: daphne, stella, fiona) were more than willing to try a special smoothie in mama's favorite color.  I couldn't even bring myself to try it due to the terrible color, but the girls loved it!  In fact, Stella (the pickiest eater) finished all of hers before I even got Daphne and Fiona their cups and she started eyeing their drinks.  Not a bad way to sneak in a vegetable.