Tangled Party

My girls hadn't seen Tangled yet and so when they FINALLY got to we did it up big! :)  I came across some really fun craft and party ideas for Tangled on Disneys family fun site.  I decided we would do some of them when we got the movie and thought it would be more fun for the girls if we had their two girl cousins over to join the fun.

We started the afternoon by turning each girl into Rapunzel!  I made them each a Rapunzel braid and they decorated some beautiful crowns. 

We had a Rapunzel tower cake. 

 Of course we watched the movie.

Then we had a simple dinner.  I made a ham and cheese bread braid!  And served up some fruit and chips in frying pans. 
I thing it must have been a hit because on the way home the girls were busy planning the next princess party that Dee gets to host!  Get ready Dee! :)  And Madi has been wearing her braid almost non stop since the party!

The past few months

Here's a few highlights from our past couple months:

In May the girls scrubbed the streets before the Tulip Time parade in Pella with Papa, Gogo and some cousins.  Can you spot them?  They loved dressing up!

 A few weeks ago we headed over to Omaha for the weekend.  We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo.  It was such a nice zoo and we had a great day!

 It has been so warm here the past couple weeks. It has been wonderful!  We have been enjoying many days in the water. 

 Madison continues to catch and torture play with every frog she can get her hands on.  She discovered that if she put this little tree frog in the water it would kick it's little legs and swim to the nearest edge, including her!  What fun!  She must have made that poor frog swim at least 100 times!! :)

 In July we will be going to Disneyland with my family.  In preparation, I have been getting a lot of different Disney movies so the girls will actually recognize the characters and rides, other than the princesses, like Peter Pan and the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse.  Today we got Aristocats from the library.  After swimming we turned the girls into little kitties while they watched the kitty movie!  Of course they had to add a little bow like the one on the movie. 

Chicago Trip

Eric surprised us with a trip to Chicago last week.  It was such a fun little vacation!  It was really fun to be in a big city again and the girls were just awestruck by the tall buildings and loved staying on the 14th floor of our hotel.

We went to the Shedd Aquarium one day.

Scattered around the aquarium were fun "kid" things to do like this penguin habitat, a submarine to play in, a canoe to "fish" in.  The girls favorite thing was a Dora 4D movie experience.  A huge hit!

The next day we went to the Childrens Museum on Navy Pier.  Another hit!  We spent many, many hours there! :)  I was a little surprised at the stations that were their favorite.  They loved the fire truck, hose and pole.

Their other favorite was this 'construction site'.  Madi spent a good hour building this little chair with the help of daddy.  Look it even works!

And Taylor was more than content to sit and twist the screws in.  Although she didnt have a bolt on the other end so they never actually did anything, just around and around and around.  Every once in a while she would say, "Its almost done, Mommy!"  Ha Ha!  She was happy and didnt want ANY help!

Waitress Aprons

Madi loves to play waitress.  Whether it is upstairs at a tea party in her play kitchen or during dinner when she serves us all our plates, drinks, etc.  Eric loves this and uses her love of waitressing to turn her into his personal little slave to get him drinks and snacks! :) 

About a year and a half ago I had made the girls full aprons to wear while helping me in the kitchen.   But a waitress needs a cute little half apron, don't you think?  We hit up Wally Worlds clearance fabric and the girls each picked out some cute material.

Madi went with the super adorable, and pink!, strawberry material.  Such an apron classic right?  The darlingness of it just screamed for a dainty lace edge topped of with a cute little strawberry button on the pocket that I had left over from an apron I had made for myself back in home ec in highschool, which I still use today. 

 Taylor chose a more modern and bold print.  Love the colors!  (She picked it b/c she thought it had basketballs on it! Ha!)  So of course I had to go with more contemporary accents.  The pink ribbon at the bottom and a tiny fabric flower by the pocket.  (oops, didnt realize I cut the pocket sideways until I saw this picture on the computer)

 Here's a close up of the fabric flower:

I had so much fun making these little aprons.  I loved that they were both so different.  And the price couldnt have been better!  $.75 for Madi's and $1 for Taylors!  WooHoo!

Snow Day

Uh, yeah, everyday is a snow day around here.  BUT, its not everday that I actually go outside and play with the girls- that's Eric's job! :)  But today just begged for a good tromping around in the snow.  It was sunny and warm- 30's- and not windy at all.  Perfect!  We had so much fun!  The girls went sledding, while I went 'lugging two girls on a sled'! Ha!

 They made sweet little snow angels.

 We have the perfect little hill for two little girls in our backyard.

Merry Christmas

 We hope you all have a wonderful day celebrating our Savior's birth.

Sinterklaas Day

Did anybody else celebrate Sinterklaas Day over the weekend?  We had a great celebration this year.  Look at all those sweet faces, eating all the Christmas goodies  and excited for the scavenger hunt yet to come!

 Of course there were speculaas, a spice cookie, traditional for celbrating sinterklaas day.  They taste great with a cup of cider!  You can find the recipe for them HERE, on my food blog.   

Aunt Bev brought a cute little wooden shoe for each of the kids filled with a chocolate coin and an orange slice (a candy one- so clever, right?!), two traditional goodies that Dutch boys and girls find in their shoes, except they got a real orange :)

Then we had the scavenger hunt.  We divided the kids into teams and let them loose to find the clues and their treasures at the end.  Its so fun to watch them run around the house and hunt for the clues.  So often the clue was right in front of them, but they would all miss it completely.  Ha!  So fun.