Bedding and being Cool.

So my friend, Cathy has become quite the quilter, and every time she whips out a new one the craving to become a quilter rages inside of me. I've been wanting to make a matching quilt set for the girls, but never can get up the motivation (or budget in the required fabric... it is pricey). 

So you can only imagine how excited I was to find a cute quilt & sham set on clearance at Target for $16!!! Holy cow! What a deal?!! (It was 75% off).

To make it even better, they also were clearing out the coordinating bedding set (comforter & sheet set) for $14!!!

AND I had a $10 gift card to Target... so I got matching bedding for both beds for about $50!!

Say wha?!!!

I was so excited.

I normally wouldn't blog about something like this, but my mom requested pictures... so I had to share the awesomeness along with the pictures. 

So here is the cute bedding.

(Don't the owls match great?)

The comforter is on the bed, with the quilt at the bottom, I liked the sham that came with the quilt set better so I used that. I didn't really consider the comforter set because the picture displayed the other side (which is the brown squares on the quilt), but when I realized the other side was so bright and cheery I was sold!

Really livens up the whole room. 

I just love it!

Now I'm really tempted to paint all of the furniture in their room white... 

Sarah love her cool, new bed.

 Perfect for, er, Pirating? 

She wouldn't take off her new pirate gear we snagged at the Dollar Store. 

But doesn't she look so cool?

Speaking of cool. 

That is all Sarah can be right now.

She does NOT like being called pretty, or cute, or beautiful, or amazing or anything else. 

It has to be cool... or nothing. 

Which is really awkward when we are out and about and some sweet little grandma comes up to the girls. 

Sweet Old Lady: "Oh look how cute you two are?!! You are just soooo pretty."

Sarah: *Sarah scowls...* "I'm NOT pretty... I'm COOL!"

Sweet Old Lady: "Oh no, you are so pretty. Don't ever think you aren't pretty."

Sarah: "Hmffph"

Me: "Why thank you, Sarah, she is so nice to say that... say thank you."

Sarah: *growls* "I'm cool mom... not pretty"

Me: *awkward laugh* Thanks, lets keep shopping... haha ha ha...

So I have a cool daughter. Just so you all know. 

Sarah is COOL... nothing else.

Bombs Away

Yes, I know.

What on Earth?

Why is Liz posting a picture of random toys?

Toys that have nothing in common other than one thing.

 They were all chucked out our bathroom window this morning. 

Why?

Ask Sarah and Abby, because I still haven't figured it out. 

 Ryan and I were laying in bed, hopelessly willing ourselves to get up...

when I heard the girls playing in the bathroom. 

My first thought was that they were getting into the water... a recent obsession of theirs.

When I finally got up to see what mischief was up, I found two girls standing on a chair (that I had pushed into the bathroom to move furniture around... don't ask, I'm pregnant/nesting) both sticking their heads and half of their upper bodies out the window. 

I flipped!

I was so scared at what could of happened. It was a two story fall and wouldn't have ended well.

Abby didn't care that I pulled her off the chair and out of the bathroom, but Sarah knew she was in trouble. This isn't the first time she threw things out of the window...so I was mad, and she knew it. 

So, after putting Sarah in her room, and having her scream and yell for a good 15 minutes she calmed down enough for us to have a talk about why mommy was so scared.

About what could have happened, and what she was teaching Abby.

I'm nervous now, and those child locks will be put to good use (and I won't leave chairs in the bathroom either). 

So back to the toys. 

Why these toys?

There is only one that really wasn't surprising.

Strawberry... Strawberry Shortcake.

Remember THIS post?

 I don't know why Sarah has it out for this little doll.

She looks sweet enough to me.

Oh well.

Off they go into an indefinite time-out in the bag they were tossed out the window with. 

Hay Day Fall Festival

Today we headed up to Hartwood Acres for their annual Hay Day Fall Festival.

It is the kick off event for RADical days that we have loved so much in the past.

(See HERE or HERE) 

We were really excited to take the girls.

Unfortunately, we had a late dinner resulting in late bedtimes the night before, so we (Ryan and I) weren't as excited when we arrived with two cranky/whiny lil' girls. 

But we persisted to force the fun of the festivities on them.

Starting with...

 A hay bale maze. Abby didn't really see the point, she walked right through in one shot.
(it was small)

She had a lot more fun going through again with Sarah, who took the long route.

And was pretty tickled with herself when she was done.

Okay, now we're starting to have some fun!

We got there right as they were getting the festival started, so we were one of the first to the petting zoo.  

 While they were tying all of the fences together we checked out the animals behind the fence.

and the cute pair of puppies they had there (it was really hard not to slip one under my shirt and run off).

Inside the fence was crazy!

They had cups of food or bottles of milk you could buy to feed the animals.

I'm so glad we were cheap and decided not to. The animals attacked you when they saw you had it. The sheep and goats especially, they would jump up on you to get it. That would have been disastrous if one had jumped up on Sarah or lil' Abby. 

So we were content to walk around and let them sniff us out for food.

Or chase around... this poor duck. Anytime we turned our back to Abby she would run off after this duck. It was pretty funny because he would start quacking as he ran away. Made for lots of giggles. 

Sarah was so excited to see the miniature ponies that were there to pet. 

She sure does love horses!

 Oh, and don't mind the bum staring you right in the face... on either side of Sarah...*cough cough* infact after this picture, I think you'll notice a lot of bums in the background of our pictures... sorry about that. There is only so much I'm willing to edit.

Back to the event.

Ryan being a sport for the mamarazzi. 

I do have to give them props on the petting zoo. They had so many animals there. They had goats, sheep, miniature ponies, chickens, ducks, pigs and donkeys.
Most variety I've ever seen in a little petting zoo.

We then headed over to the bouncy castle... 

 which unfortunately had a height limit... so I had to tear Abby away kicking and screaming.

(don't mind the kid pulling out his wedgie... see bum apology a few lines up)

Sarah had fun though. 

So instead I took Abby to wait in line for the train ride...which after we waited in line for a few minutes, it returned from its first and only trip to shut down. 

Yes, due to the soft/muddy grass couldn't drive it around.

Gee thanks... but the girls were content to sit inside for a picture (phew!).

A tantrum or two later we headed over to wait in line for the face painting.

Which the line went right by the booth with a live owl!

Let me revise that face painting line. 

 A tantrum or two later we headed over to wait kick and scream in line while we waited forever for the face painting. Yes we waited in this little line for almost TWO HOURS!! Call us crazy. It really wasn't a long line. But the lady did the amazing face painting... you know the kind that really makes you look like an animal... and was being far too detailed to move the line along. 

Luckily it was also by a research booth, so both Ryan and I went over and took turns taking the research questionnaire to get a free bag of chips.

 Well worth it, considering Abby was only content to be held and my back was starting to kill me. 

At long last... it was our turn!

Sarah chose to have a lion face painted on her... which the lady decided as she was talking with us, that she needed to take some short cuts on her work, and didn't put any yellow on Sarah's face to make her look more like a lion... which was okay... most people could tell she was a cat or something.

Abby picked the princess picture and got a crown on her forehead.

She sat so patiently, can you see how focused her little face is.

So worth that wait to see their little faces when they saw themselves.

Sarah definitely thought it was cool.

Lots of giggles.

Well, they were ready to move on... didn't want to let me get a good picture of the two of them...*sigh*

(yes, yes... I know, more bums in the background) 

We decided to walk around and check out the booths. I guess this was primarily tied to "green" awareness as lots of the booths were about saving energy and reducing waste. Which we didn't mind, our light company was there and gave away 4 energy lightbulbs! (sweet, those babies are expensive). 

Abby was cute walking around watching her shadow... although it did make her vere off and almost knock over a display sign or two. 

We stopped and colored a picture at one booth.

(just had to have another reason to get a bum right by their heads again... I guess) 

I don't know what the point of this sign was... I think it was a band... random.

I'm glad we went through the Hay maze when we did, because some older kids started kicking the hay bales around, so it wasn't a maze anymore and the kids just started jumping from bale to bale instead.

Sarah still found a way to crawl through and use her sly lion prowling skills to navigate through the chaos. 

Abby thought the idea of jumping on the bales was great and would stand up and yell, "SURPRISE" each time. 

The whole time on the way to the fall festival we talked up getting a pony ride. Sarah was so excited. But when we first arrived it was no where to be seen. So with sad hearts we decided to call it a day and head to the car to go home. Luckily, the direction we were heading out was right by where they set up the pony rides. We walked up to the short line (miracle) to be one of the last few pony rides of the day. 

What LUCK!

I don't know who was excited more. Sarah or Abby.

Abby got to ride Stella, a big brown horse.

And Sarah got to ride Stormy a white horse 

(who was smallish, but she didn't care, it was white).

See... look how happy she is!

Loving every minute... unlike the boy leading the horse... although I think I did get him to smile when I asked him how he loved the exciting job he had today.

With promises of ice cream when we got home and drinks of water we headed happily back to the car to head home. It was a great day... and toward the end I had forgotten all about the earlier tantrums (pony rides will do that to a girl). 

Oh, and I think that exhibit A and B will provide proof enough that it was a successful family day.

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Can't wait for all of the free fun Radical Days has in store... and this year we are sure to go to more than just Phipps. ;)

Bring on FALL!

Preschool for Sarah

 Sarah started preschool on Monday (she missed the first week because we were in Utah still)

She was so excited to go to a real preschool and have a real teacher, and not mommy.

She did such a great job.

Was a little timid, but did great jumping right in and not crying for me. 

One lucky thing that Sarah gets to do is some mornings she takes a public bus to school with Ryan (his work is just a few blocks away). She felt so special to be able to go and ride the bus with daddy.

Here we are walking from our car to her school. 

It is the brownish building off to the right.

Sarah by her name on the door.

They start each day by washing their hands.

Here she is washing her hands with her BFF Emery.

Sarah and Emery sitting by their cubbies all ready for preschool to begin.

I'm so glad that we got into this preschool program, three hours, four days a week is perfect. I don't know how Sarah would have handled going to an all day preschool, five days a week (that was our other option). I feel even luckier that Sarah gets to go to preschool with her best friend, Emery. I don't know what we will do next year when they move away. *sniff sniff*

Can't think about that now. Just have to enjoy every minute of it now.

Well she is growing up.

Can't believe she is four and in preschool.

Great job Sarah! You are going to be amazing this year!

Yellowstone!

When I was talking to my mom about our visit to Utah, we were originally coming home on September 1st. My mom told me how they had a quick little trip planned to Yellowstone over Labor day weekend the following day (the 2nd - 5th). I sighed and told my mom that if I was only flying home a few days later we could tag along. Without missing a beat my mom asked why I didn't just change my flight and go with them. 

With that invitation I got my flight changed and went to Yellowstone with them.

It was so much fun. I feel a little guilty, because I'm sure it was a much different trip that it would have been with out two stir crazy little ones. But I hope they had fun with us there. I know that Sarah and Abby are so glad that we got to go.

Okay... now onto the photo-documentation!

All packed up and ready to go!

Pitstop for lunch on the way up.

It was very windy, and chilly!

Right after this we stopped at the Rainey Creek Country Store in Swan Valley, Idaho for some famous Square Ice Cream cones. Yum, yum! 

Almost there. Here is G'ma and Abby in front of the Tetons. 

Here are the girls and G'pa getting the fire ready for dinner.

I love how my Dad can so easily be one of the kids.

Every time my parents go up to Yellowstone they rent a lil' trailer. It is the perfect size and has a toilet and shower... not really camping I guess, but it is great to have running water (especially with kiddos).

It was even better to have electricity, so at night, we could let the kiddos unwind and watch a movie
(101 Dalmations, they'd never seen it so it was great for distracting them from trouble)

Saturday we spent in Yellowstone.

See proof:

Uncle Alex teaching Sarah how to skip rocks.

My brother is amazing at skipping rocks. He can skip up rock 20+ times. Its pretty incredible!

Testing it out.

Oh it was so beautiful up there.

We decided that a must see in Yellowstone would have to be Old Faithful.

We pulled in to find out we had just missed it and so headed over to the new visitors center to wait for the next eruption.

Here are the girls learning about animal tracks.

Taking a close look at animal bones.

What Sarah does... Abby does too!

Okay, here is the sad part of the story.

At the visitor center they had a movie all about geysers and how they work. We thought it would be fun to take the girls in and let the understand a little better about how they work, and get to see some cool footage of hot spots. 

Boy were we wrong!

The show started showing how there is lava under the earth, and it heats up the water and that is what make Old Faithful erupt. Sarah, wide-eyed and terrified began to panic that we had brought her to a place where lava was going to make hot water explode all over us!

We had to leave the movie early and spend the next twenty minutes explaining how it was safe and that we would never take her somewhere she'd get hurt.

After much convincing we headed over to watch Old Faithful.

Abby had a great time. She got to sit on G'pa's lap and play games with him.

Sarah on the other hand was still pretty terrified and kept reminding us that she didn't want to do this, and wanted to go inside where it was safe. We got her to sit through it, but I don't think she really enjoyed it.

G'ma had the perfect solution. She took Sarah to the Old Faithful Gift shop and got her a pin (badge of honor) for Sarah to be able to show all of her friends how brave she was to watch Old Faithful. 

We then headed to a beautiful picnic spot off of the Firehole River and had some lunch...and of course, threw some more rocks!

So happy to be out and running in the sun!

Goofy Sarah!

On our way to some mud pots we got to see a coyote hunting. It was pretty cool.  

What? You can't tell what that is?

Let me zoom in...

 Yeah, not much better, but that blurry thing is a coyote. Ha!

I forgot my zoom lense, I never used it, so I didn't even pack it to Utah.

Wish I would have remembered it. It would have been perfect for taking pictures of animals in Yellowstone!

Here we are at the Dragon's Mouth Hot Pot (not sure if thats the name). It was cool because it sounded like a dragon breathing fire or something when you sat there.

We also got to see some Bison (of course) and Elk.

Here is Sarah in front of the Elk.

Of course the Elk bends down to eat grass as I get a cute picture of Sarah. 

He was massive though. Had about 6 points on each side of his rack. 

We finished up our day in Yellowstone with dinner at Fishing Bridge. 

It was a great day!

The next day we spent in the Tetons.

I was wiped out... didn't sleep good, and well, this baby boy I'm growing took most of my energy.

So after checking out a Native American Museum and Signal Mountain I fell asleep in the car on the way to a new visitors center. Abby did too, so they left us in the car while they went and saw a movie about the Tetons and the wild life found there (Sarah did great, loved learning about the gray wolf).

After that we headed to the Finger lakes to skip more rocks.

Shoulder rides are our friend. :)

 It was beautiful! Perfect weather too. It was around 80 and so the girls took of their pants and played in the water until the sun went down behind the Tetons.

 The water was crystal clear!

 They were being such cute sisters.

 Isn't that just GORGEOUS!

Love this cute lil' picture of Abby.

My cute parents in front of the Tetons.

*sigh* Can I move up here?

The next day was Labor day, and we packed up early to head home. 

It was such a fun, short trip. I loved every minute of it and felt so lucky to be able to go with my parents and brother. Thanks for letting us tag along. 

We love you guys!