Masterpiece Monday: Holiday Classic

Join me for Masterpiece Monday by sharing the works of art from your life.  See last week's post for directions.

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Holiday Classic

Featured Artist: Ben, Age 23 months and his teachers at school
Medium: Paint, construction paper and cuteness on paper plate

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Every mother has a piece of art like this, treasured and cherished as the years go by. You pull it out for holidays, keeping it safely hidden away where small hands can't get to it the rest of the year. It's the kind of art that sums a period in your child's life and you can't bare to part with it. Tiny hand cut outs, a silly face, fingerprints in the paint all coming together to create a simple holiday wreath. It's a classic folks.  Get used to looking at it on display at my house during the holidays.

B Is For . . .

Ben, Birthday and Boy. Yesterday was Ben's second birthday and he approached the day his own special way. You've all heard of grumpy old men who don't want to celebrate their birthdays, well Ben was like a grumpy young man yesterday when it came to his birthday. When I said "Happy Birthday" to him in the morning his first and only response was "No."  It continued like that all day. When people at school asked, "Are you two?" he said, "No."

Beware. This is the face of a boy who doesn't want it to be his birthday.


Despite denying it was his birthday, he didn't refuse to participate in all the other birthday fun. He brought cupcakes to his friends at school and made quite the mess based on the pictures his teacher shared. We also went out to Red Robin for his birthday dinner and they sang Happy Birthday to him and gave him a sundae.

Bite! Here he is enjoying his giant sundae!


Big bite... this time a cookie from an amazing cookie bouquet our friend Rachel sent us!


Box. Almost as much fun as what was actually inside.  Yes, both my kids are crammed into that one little box.

Bike. This was Ben's birthday gift, his very own balance bike. This is to help him learn to balance before he learns to petal so he can keep up with his sister.


Bitty. It's official Ben is bitty for his age, he had his two year appointment today and he's only gained 4 lbs in the last year. He's 24 lbs (10th percentile) and 33 inches (16th percentile). The real tell-tale sign was when he couldn't use his balance bike right because his feet don't quite touch the ground enough to get going. What he lacks in size he makes up for in spirit.

The Dumper

Benny aka "The Dumper"

It's not as bad as it sounds, this is not going to be a potty training story. It's just an unfortunate nickname that Ben has acquired from one of his bad habits. I don't really know who started the name but it has stuck. Hopefully for everyone's sake it's a nickname he'll grow out of.

When Ben enters any room, where things are neatly stored in bins, boxes, or baskets, within minutes seconds he's overturned each one, not to play with whatever might have been inside but just for the sake of dumping. The worst is when he dumps out a bin when you're mid clean up. You can't turn your back for a second on this guy, he's fast.

Here's some of his recent handy work.



Surveying the mess I look around for the guilty party and where is The Dumper? Oh, he's pulled a chair over to the bookshelf and is operating the DVD player. Perhaps it was all a very clever diversion. Let's hope he grows out of it soon.

Ah Mom, Don't Tell That Story Again...

Yes, I'm that Mom. Always willing to share my kids funny moments with all who will listen. They are too young now to object but I know the day will come when they will cringe wishing I wasn't telling their prom date about them in the bathtub when they were three. Who knows by the time they are old enough for prom my bathtub stories will probably be tame compared to the things that they will share about themselves through social media. Okay, now I'm cringing and thinking of moving to a commune somewhere. Anyway, here goes with McKenzie's recent funny story which again has to do with her habit of omitting key components of a topics.

A few weeks ago McKenzie was at Aunt Kacey's house for the day and nothing was out of the ordinary until McKenzie told Aunt Kacey, "I was a bad girl in the bathroom."  This shocked Aunt Kacey and prompted her to ask "What bathroom?"  McKenzie did admit it was her bathroom at home so then Aunt Kacey asked what she had done in the bathroom. She told Aunt Kacey that she put soap all over the front of the vanity and then drew with chapstick on one of the drawers. Aunt Kacey emailed to make sure I knew about this which I did but McKenzie didn't tell her that she had already been in trouble for it. All she wanted to talk about was "being a bad girl in the bathroom" which is a very scary statement in general.

Who would ever believe this sweet girl could be bad?

Masterpiece Monday: Family Portrait

In an effort to multitask in my ever busy life I'm adding a new feature to my otherwise routine blog entries. I'm making a theme day that I can use to showcase the kids creations, my own scrapbook pages and Matt's occasional entries into the world of art. This will allow me to document some of the wonderful art that the kids are creating without having to keep it all.

I'm also inviting others who read my blog to join me in showcasing their own Masterpieces on Mondays, thus begins...

Here are the rules for showcasing your own creations:

• Take photos or scan your masterpieces in so they can be shared
• Make a 'Masterpiece Monday' blog entry
• Share with everyone the artist information and the medium they used
• Grab my 'Masterpiece Monday' button above and link back to my blog so we can all enjoy each other Masterpieces.

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We Family

Featured Artist: McKenzie, Age 3 1/2
Medium: Dry Erase Pen on White Board

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What I love about this and all family pictures that McKenzie draws is the scale of people. Matt is always at least ten times larger than me and I'm usually only slightly larger then Ben and McKenzie. We are pictured as follows from left to right - me, Ben, McKenzie and Daddy. The dogs are also in this picture but I had to add them in since for some reason she cannot draw dogs.

Fire & Ice

We usually make one trek over to Chelan to enjoy the snow each winter, this year we decided to head over for Chelan's Fire & Ice festival. I can't believe it's been going on for 25 years and I've never experienced it. It will definitely be a repeat event in years to come. Our kids are just scratching the surface in terms of enjoying an event like this but we still had a great time. The whole town comes together to host different events like ice carvings, horse rides through town, a wine and chocolate walk through the shops and the grand event which is a parade followed by a polar bear swim in the lake and Christmas tree bonfire.

The kids love to visit Grandma and Grandpa C's house any time of year but this was extra fun with the snow outside to play in. Here's McKenzie and Ben laughing as they sled down the snow pile in the front yard. I can't wait until they are a bit bigger and we can take them up to the big sledding hill with the rope tow. That might finally be wild enough for these two dare devils.


Ben, Matt and McKenzie with a variety of expressions while riding on the horse drawn carriage through town.


McKenzie and Grandpa C saying "thank you" to the horses after the ride. These were some huge horses.


McKenzie dancing with a whole crowd of little girls to a singer named Janelly Bean, who's CD we now own and have listened to more times than I care to count. This was her first time seeing someone sing in person and then making the connection to hearing them on CD. McKenzie wanted to know if Janelly could come sing and dance at her house.


Ben while he did enjoy the music and will do some dancing in the car or at home did not want to dance with the girls. Instead he liked to watch what everyone was doing and just take it all in, then of course he did get up to try to rewire the entire sound system.


Here's a very cold, dark, rainy picture of the parade. McKenzie didn't let the weather get her spirits down until the candy that was being thrown in the parade got washed away in the small river of water running down the street. When we did snag some of the treats before they got wet she was so happy.

After the parade we headed down to the beach for the Christmas tree bonfire and polar bear swim. Matt, Uncle Eric and Grandpa C all did the swim.  I feel bad now that it was too cold and wet for me to even pull out the camera for a picture after they got out. This is a lake that I consider to be cold in the summer.  I was glad I wasn't doing the swim! The bonfire was huge and was accompanied by a firework show which the kids loved. Ben has never really seen fireworks and he just kept saying "whoa" and "wow" over and over while riding in the baby backpack.


Here's cousin Nathan in the snow fort that Aunt Kacey, the kids and I remodeled. There was a big snow bank that had three tunnels carved into it but it was melting so we built up the side and created an even bigger fort for everyone to enjoy. This thing will be sticking around for a while.

Stand & Stretch?

I think it's time to teach Ben how to read. This toy is clearly labeled "Sit & Spin" not "Stand & Stretch." I had put my laptop up on my dresser with the thought that it would be out of the kids' reach but nothing stops our Benny from finding a way to get access to a computer once he knows it's there. This is his favorite toy to stand on since it doesn't have wheels. You can see his first attempt parked over by my night stand. That one wouldn't hold still long enough for him to get to the computer. Never a dull moment around here!

Technically New Years

I've gotten off to a slow start with my blog this year. It may have something to do with the delayed start we had when entering 2011. After we packed up all our Christmas decorations for another year and finished up our last holiday events, Matt and I settled down for a relaxing week of enjoying time with the kids. We ended the year out at Uncle Bob and Aunt Nancy's house in Pacific Beach. Time seems to slow down out there and you can really just kick back and relax. We were so relaxed on New Years that we realized with minutes to spare that we weren't going to have our New Years celebration of champagne and caviar ready in time for the countdown so we paused the TV and finished our preparation then did the countdown when we were ready. Hopefully it won't cause all of us to run five minutes late throughout the new year.

I have no idea why we weren't ready at midnight, the kids had been in bed for hours after celebrating New Years when the party hats and whistles came out at 6:45. Love that kids can't tell time and aren't born knowing all the rules for these kinds of things.


McKenzie, cousin Claire and Ben ringing in the new year! The party supplies continued to be a source of entertainment for the next few day.


Not only did we miss midnight on New Years Eve but the first night we arrived we let McKenzie read in her room for a bit with the light on. Matt went up to tell her lights off and found her like this. So cute, except for her dolly, who is clearly not tired. Maybe those dolls with the sleepy eyes aren't so bad after all.


Most of our time at the beach was spent eating or out enjoying the beautiful setting. If Ben couldn't be outside he was at least keeping track of what was going on out there. First thing when we arrived he hauled a little chair he found all the way over to the backdoor where he could sit and look out.


To cut down on the wild energy from the kids we brought the jump house with us the the beach and it proved its worth again in keeping the kids entertained and out of too much trouble.



Ben checking everything out on the beach. He just loved splashing in the water and marching along looking at everything. Wide open spaces where he doesn't have to hear "Not for Benners" constantly are heaven to this little guy.


Ben and I with the ocean in the background. Absolutely one of my favorite places especially now that I can enjoy it with my kids.


McKenzie, Grandma Z, Claire, me, Ben and Aunt Jennifer out enjoying a brisk afternoon walk on the beach. Don't let our sunglasses fool you it was very cold and windy but still a great day at the beach.


The biggest adventure of the trip came when we decided to bring some leftover toast down to the seagulls. Here's Matt with Claire and McKenzie. I am all too happy to have Ben in the backpack safely away from the action.


Once all the bread was gone the birds continued to swarm around so McKenzie took off on a mission of chasing them off the beach. She was running wildly up and down the beach after this swarm of birds.


We were on the banks of Joe Creek, which runs down to the ocean.  Sometimes as the tide comes back in large surges of water come up the creek like a wave. We had seen several of these come in as we walked down to where the birds were but none of us saw the next one coming in behind McKenzie, though it is very visible in the picture below. It washed up over the tops of her boots and lucky for her Aunt Jennifer ran into the water in her shoes to save her from the wave. She was a pretty good sport about the whole thing but decided she does not like big waves.


Overall, it's been a great new year so far.  Maybe I can make those five minutes up sometime soon.