Rowan's first haircut!

I don't like to think about it, but our baby girl isn't really a baby anymore.  She's almost 2 1/2 and was past due for her very first haircut.  The back was uneven and I knew that it was time to trim a little bit off.  Scott's girlfriend, Gina, was so kind to to help us out, and Rowan was ready for her turn in the chair at Grandma's house that Trey gets to sit in when John's mom cuts his hair!  Here she is, all set to go!  Afterward, I wished that I would have taken a picture of the back before it got cut, but it had kinks in it anyway from being in pigtails all day.  Just trust me when I say that it was time!

 

Rowan sat pretty still -- not perfect, but Gina was very patient!  It helped that she was able to watch The Backyardigans the whole time.

Ha!  This picture makes me laugh!  Gina looks so cute, and Rowan is in a complete TV-watching daze!

Happy girl!

Finished!  There wasn't much hair on the floor since it was all fine baby hair, but she looked different right away.  Thank you so much Gina!

Looking so sweet (and a bit more grown up) in a picture with Uncle Scott.  

(Scott!  I hope you see this -- you made the blog!!)

Trey too!

For memory's sake, here is the blog post from Trey's first haircut more than two years ago!

Our first trip to Chuck E. Cheese's

A few weeks ago, we drove past Chuck E. Cheese's and Trey made the comment that he would like to go there sometime.  We'd never been, but I had heard from several friends that their kids loved it there, and I knew that both Trey and Rowan would probably love it too.  I casually asked him when he would like to go, and he said "in 18 days".  When we got home I checked the calendar to make sure that we would be free, and then I told him that 18 days from then sounded like the perfect day to go to Chuck E. Cheese's, and we started a countdown on our chalkboard. (Which, incidentally, was a great way for him to practice counting backwards and writing his numbers!)

Yesterday was the day!  All day long he was so excited.  I have to admit, I was pretty excited too to see what it would be like!

We ordered our pizza and got our tokens, then played some games while we waited for our food (which is a great concept in and of itself!).

Trey's first game was a shark version of Whack-a-Mole.

 

We ended up eating right near this little car that you could sit in with Chuck E. himself, so both kids took a turn "driving" him around.

Basketball?  There was no question that Trey had to give this one a try.

Finally, it was time for pizza! (And, yes, John has gotten a lot of sun this week at football camp!  Ha!)

Rowan was in her glory riding this horse for the "Ken Chuck E. Derby" ride.

Trey hit the jackpot on this game -- 25 tickets!  His face as they all started coming out was priceless!  He was pretty proud to show off his loot to daddy!

Rowan loved anything that she could ride.  This was Bob the Builder's bulldozer.

This football game was full almost the whole time we were there.  Trey and John quickly snatched it up once when they saw that it was free.  Trey might be better at this game after he grows a few inches... :)

Rowan wanted to do everything that Trey did!  She is like that about a lot of things right now!

John had to push Trey's gas pedal down for him when they played the race car game together.

It was fun to get our tickets counted once all of our tokens were gone!  We had collected 133 total.

Then it was off to choose prizes!  This part was tricky -- so many amazing (wink, wink) options to choose from.  But in a child's eyes, they were priceless treasures and they wanted to choose just the right ones!  Both kids came home with a twisty straw (Trey's is red and Rowan's is purple).  Rowan also got some candy and Trey got a tattoo (which he is now wearing proudly!).

It was a fun night, and I'll even say that I do kind-of understand the fascination.  We will happily go back again at some point!  On the way home, I asked Trey if he had a fun time and he said that he had a "super, super, extra fun time!", so I guess that says it all!

*Summer Jar* - make a bird feeder

Soooo....this activity was a major flop, despite the fact that we've done it before and it worked perfectly.  Oh well.  You win some you lose some.  This one, we lost.  But, we still had fun...except for the tears. :)

Trey was lucky to again get to do this activity with cousins!  Sarah, Elyse, and Brady happened to be over so they joined us for the fun.  We got our birdseed, flour, and water ready to go, and mixed it all together.

Each of the kids chose cookie cutters to fill with the birdseed mixture.  Sarah and Eyse both made stars, and Trey and Brady made hearts.

We put a straw through to make a hole for threading the ribbon to hang them once they were hardened. (At least that was the plan.  Keep reading.....)

Here they are, ready to go in the oven!

Brady and Trey are such good buddies!  The kids waited so patiently for close to an hour while the birdseed baked and hardened.

Once they were finished, we let them cool, then took out the straws to thread the ribbon through.  First Sarah's broke...then Elyse's, then Trey's. (Insert tears here from Trey -- not sure why he was so emotional about the loss of his bird feeder, but it was very traumatic!)  Brady's was perfect until I had him hold it by the ribbon for a picture and it crumbled into a million pieces.

So, this was the final result.  Four broken bird feeders.  I still bagged up the ones that Sarah, Elyse, and Brady made so that they could take them home.  And Trey found the perfect rock to set his on outside.  The birds loved it and ate it up quickly even though it was broken.

The last time we made these, we were able to hang them up outside and they were the cutest things!  I got the idea here, and I think we might try them again at some point because they really are cute and fun when they don't break!

Calling Dora!

WARNING:  This post contains several uses of the word "poop".  At the risk of sharing too much information here on the world wide web, this is an occasion that I want to remember!  We are living in the world of a potty-training two-year-old, so naturally, we are quite used to talking about poop and pee and the like over here!  Read on at your own risk!

We've been playing the potty-training game with Rowan for the past week or so, and she's getting there.  She's not fully trained yet, by any means, but slowly she is getting more and more comfortable sitting on the potty and doing her business.  She was particularly hesitant about going poop on the potty, so we told her that the first time she did, she would get to call Dora!  Dora is her absolute favorite, so of course this was a very enticing form of motivation for her!  It took a few days, but finally today, right after lunch, John and I noticed that she might be pooping in her diaper.  No way were we going to let that happen if we could stop it!  We got her on the potty in time, and....SUCCESS!  Fortunately, a dear friend was free (I'll let you guess the voice on your own...some of you might get it!), and was very willing to play "Dora" for our girl!  We're hoping that this has helped her get over her fear and are crossing our fingers for lots more poops in the potty in the near future!  Yay Rowie!

She was bummed afterward because she wanted to talk to Boots! Ha!

(Oh, and please excuse the fact that Trey doesn't have any pants on!  Boys!)

Feeling like SUMMER!

This week just felt like summer from start to finish!  In addition to Trey's swimming lessons and the very hot, hot, HOT weather we've been having, this week was filled with activities that just scream summer fun!

On Wednesday, Trey and I spent the afternoon at a friend's pool.  His swimming lessons this week have made him so much more comfortable in the water and willing to try new things.  He had a great time sliding, jumping, splashing, and swimming around all afternoon!  The water felt amazing on such a hot day -- it was the PERFECT way to spend those few hours!

On Thursday morning, John and I took the kids blueberry picking.  This is one of our very favorite summer activities, but BOY was it H-O-T!!!  And it was before 9:00 AM!  It was so worth it, though, because the berries are absolutely delicious!

Rowan loved being able to help this year!  She carried her princess bucket so proudly!  Trey loved that there was a Lightening McQueen bucket for him too!  They knew to pick only the berries that were big and blue -- no greens or purples!  We picked over 8 pounds in a little over half an hour.

Can't wait to go back for more!

Then, on Thursday afternoon, we got invited out to John's uncle and aunt's cottage on Hutchin's Lake.  Of course we couldn't pass that up either!  Another hot day equals another perfect day to be near the water.  We played in the water, sat in the sun (and the shade!), and took sea-doo rides.  Rowan fell asleep on her sea-doo ride with me!  Days at the lake are just so wonderfully relaxing!

  

We are just enjoying our time together SO much!

A Rowie post

We have had so much fun with Rowan this summer.  I feel like she has grown by leaps and bounds since just last month!  She is talking more and more all the time -- putting full sentences and questions together -- she talks more than Trey ever did at this age!  

She is opinionated and strong-willed.  She likes to pick out her own clothes, shoes, and bows.  She asks every single morning if we can please go to the park.  

She stalls at bedtime, asking question after question or needing to be tucked in one more time.  She always wants us to come back and check on her, and we know that she's finally falling asleep when we hear her start to whimper and moan softly.

She sings ALL day long, and loves to dance!  She asks for snacks a million times a day, and would eat cheese and crackers for every meal and snack if I let her!  And she loves to pray her "God Bless the Mountains" prayer before every meal!

AND she has started going potty like a big girl!  She's not fully trained by any means, but I took her shopping and let her choose her big girl undies, and when we're at home that's what she wears.  She gets a Skittle every time she tries to go on the potty, and the purple ones are her favorite!

I caught these pictures of her the other morning.  She loves posing for pictures and then looking at them in the camera.  And she loves her babies!  She is a very sweet mommy to them.

This one was just silly!

Lastly, here is a glimpse into her far-from-complete-but-at-least-it's-finally-started big girl room!  She's been in her big girl bed for a few months now, but her room finally got painted last week, and now I am itchy to get it finished!  Projects are in the works!  The dresser is getting painted, and I have a few other things brewing in my mind.  The blue rocking chair in the corner of this picture won't be staying in the room, but for now I still need a place to rock with my girl as we say prayers at night, so it will be there for a while yet.  And I'm still deciding on a headboard.  For now, I think the bed looks cute up against the window (She has the WORST view of underneath the deck out her window, so the blinds stay closed all the time.  Poor thing.  We'll have to do something about that someday, but for now she doesn't know any different!)  Anyway, I'm so glad that the girly room for our girl is finally taking shape!  I couldn't believe how much getting a new color on the walls brightened the whole room up!