Fashion Disaster!

Yikes!! This is what happens to poor Ada if daddy picks out her outfit! I came home from work to see my poor baby girl dressed in these pink pants with hearts on them paired with a striped shirt. The stripes on the shirt don't even match the pants! I couldn't help but take a picture. Dave says its my fault for not picking out an outfit for Ada. I asked him why he can pick out an outfit for Benjamin and not Ada and he says he can't figure out girl clothes. For Ada's sake, I am hoping that Dave's clothing selection abilities impove.

Masyn's Park

We take the kids to Masyn's Park quite a bit. Okay, I must admit we are regulars there. We log in quite a few hours playing there. We have it pretty luck as Masyn's Park is right at the end of our street. It is so nice to be able to walk to the park and play. Ada has always been more interested in the stroller ride to the park versus swinging or sliding but yesterday she was in love with going down the slide. She is such a little cutie! Please disregard the silly looking mommy in this video. I was in the field for most of the day at work and really didn't feel like changing clothes to go to the park.

The Blue Park

Benjamin loves going to the "blue park". The blue park is actually the elementary school playground. It has great slides for sliding but it is not very good for swinging. Since it is an elementary school it lacks toddler swings. It also has a lot of cool things to climb on, swing from, crawl on, etc. Benjamin loves going across what we call the "drawbridge" and climbing up the "arch". See for yourself. Anybody know how to flip the second video?

Taking matters into my own hands or (in this case) my mouth

Ada refuses to wear a bid. If we put one on her she takes it right off. She will let out a yell of frustration and then off it goes. She also likes grabbing her spoon and taking it away from us. She also likes to clamp down on her spoon and not let go. She thinks she is pretty big stuff when she does that. She is definitely our little angel and we can't imagine what our life would be like without her.

Gift Wrapped Present Cake

I was excited to learn how to decorate cakes with fondant. Don't ever buy the pre-made Wilton fondant. It might be easy to work with but it tastes AWFUL! I make marshmallow fondant (MMF). This recipe actually tastes pretty good. You will find that you really get up close and personal with your fondant decorations. The secret to working with MMF is crisco and you must roll your MMF pretty thin. I had fun making this "present" cake. My bow's not perfect but the overall cake is pretty cute.

Movie Star

This picture is just too precious! I caught Benjamin wearing his sister's sunglasses the other day. Ada has not had a chance to wear them yet as they are too big for her but Benjamin has been breaking them in. Doesn't he look like a little stud?

Hide-and-Seek

Ada hiding underneath a kitchen chair.

I found you sister!

Mommy, Benjamin won't leave me alone!

Ada has gotten to be a fast crawler. You can't turn your back on her because she gets into everything! She enjoys playing with her big brother and he likes playing with her. There favorite game to play together is hide-and-seek. Ada hid or actually crawled into the kitchen under a chair and got distracted. While she was playing Benjamin noticed that she was gone and decided to going looking for her. He found her underneath one of the kitchen chairs and decided that he would join her. Ada apparently wanted no part of Benjamin invading her space and she let him have it!

Two Peas in a Tub!

Ada absolutely idolizes her big brother Benjamin and he absolutely adores her. They play so well together but they do have their moments. She has to do whatever her big brother does. His favorite thing to do lately is hide whether it is underneath blankets, towels, or cushions, or hide in something like the laundry basket or his tub. He likes playing in his tub of blocks so when Ada saw him in there she just had to join him. She likes sitting and giggling at her big brother which only encourages him. If she is upset Benjamin will work with her until he gets her smiling and happy again. With these two, there is never a dull moment in our house!

I can see clearly now....

This story begins with an incident that happened a few months ago. Benjamin use to call glasses or sunglasses "eyes". It was a Sunday morning and Benjamin came into our room early, very early and decided to wake up his daddy. What we didn't know/realize was that Benjamin was playing in our room for a while with Dave's glasses. After Benjamin convinced daddy to get up and put his eyes on. Dave went to put on his glasses only to discover that they had been broken. So, for the last few months Dave has been wearing his contacts and not his glasses (he can get new glasses within the next couple of months as his Insurance allows new frames every two years and this would be the two year mark). Dave assured me that he was up for renewal a month after the incident but I am convinced that he is up for renewal this fall--either way it is too bad it isn't sooner!). Benjamin idolizes his daddy and likes to do whatever he does. Well one morning I discovered Benjamin putting in "his" contacts. It was priceless! Dave had already put in his contacts for the day. Benjamin said it was his turn and he got out the contact solution and put some into the contact case. He then proceeded to dip his finger into the saline solution and put his finger in (near) his eye putting in his contacts. Every so often he would check that they were in his eyes by taking a closer look in the mirror.

My Mother's Day Cake

This is the cake that I made for myself for Mother's Day. I love working with brush embroidery. It looks so pretty and elegant. Unfortunately, the pink color I used has a hard time showing up in the photo.

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day Dave!! (I know a day late but we just got our Internet back up and running). Both Benjamin and Ada enjoy spending time with their daddy outside. If they are ever in a bad or grumpy mood all Dave has to suggest is going outside, going to the park, or going for a stroller ride and they both perk up and become happy and content. It has been so fun watching Dave interact with his son and daughter. He has come along way. Before we had Benjamin he had never really held a baby (just his nephew Ethan a couple of times) before and now he stays home two days a week with the kids where he changes diapers, dresses them (some days it is questionable), feeds them, plays with them, etc. Benjamin can even convince daddy to do "projects". Benjamin likes to use my rubber stamps, an ink pad (child safe), and stamp the animals on his paper. Most of the time I come home to find Benjamin and daddy hiding. They will hide underneath blankets, behind the couch, underneath pillows, etc. Their favorite game to play is hide and seek. It is so fun to see the excited look on Benjamin's face when he finds us. When it is his turn to hide he will generally hide in the same spot he found us (he must think our spots are just that awesome). He will laugh and laugh until we find him. Ada loves having daddy build her towers so she can knock them down. When she sees a tower she will crawl over as fast as she can to knock it down. She gets this really excited look on her face when she knocks over the blocks. Ada loves going for stroller rides. She could care less if she goes swinging or sliding but she has to have her stroller ride! Thanks Daddy for staying home with the kids--we appreciate it! We love you very much!

My First Clown Cake

I have spent the last few Monday evenings taking a cake decorating class. I have loved every minute of it! It was a lot of work baking the cake(s) to take to class, making the icings, icing the cake, etc. but I feel the class was well worth it. I made a birthday cake for my brother Craig's birthday using chocolate icing. I am not a huge chocolate fan so I was not overly impressed with the taste but it wasn't bad. If I were to make chocolate icing again I would definitely purchase some better quality chocolate. I think this clown cake turned out pretty cute! If you like frosting than you will love making and eating these clowns.

The Love of a Child's Sandbox

Both Benjamin and Ada love playing in the sandbox! From the first time Ada looked at the sandbox she wanted to get down and play. She is not afraid to get dirty and boy does she get dirty. Benjamin enjoys playing with his backhoe and dump truck which he got for his birthday and Christmas. All winter he talked about playing with them outside in his sandbox. I wish I could have captured the huge smile he had on his face when he got to take them out to his sandbox for the first time this spring! He was so excited.!

Benjamin and Ada play pretty well together. They each take turns knocking down mommy and daddy's sandcastles and roads, etc. You should see Ada move to knock down a tower first. It seems like she and big brother look at each other and decide that they each need to race to see who will be the first one. Ada is a tough little girl and she certainly holds her own against her big brother which doesn't always make him happy. We have logged many hours in the sandbox and I expect that we will put in many more before the summer is done.

Update

Well that was a longer break that I had planned!! Between my kidney stones, being away for work, our Internet not working, and it being Summer I have not had any opportunity (or motivation) to get back to the blog and post anything. I am happy to report that I passed my kidney stone. I passed one large part while the other part shattered. I am still awaiting the lab results to determine what caused the kidney stone in the first place.

I can't believe how cool and wet this spring has been! It seems like it has rained everyday/night for the last two weeks. You can feel the stress that some of the farmers are going through right now do to all the rain. We have not had many beans planted in the area. Some farmers had to scrap their plans for planting small grains and go with something else. In fact, it seems that if fields got planted they have been corn. Some of the bean fields are standing in a lot of water or have been flooded out. My co-workers keep telling me that this reminds them of the spring/summer of 1993. I can honestly say I don't remember that spring/summer. I was just going into high school and farming/agriculture/weather was the last thing that I would have ever thought of. Isn't it funny how God's plan takes over? I vowed I would never do anything that involved agriculture and here I am, an Extension Educator with an emphasis on Agronomy!