Snowy day activity

We are still here, and this little baby girl in my belly is kicking happily away. It has been snowy and slushy and snowy and slushy lately so I have had to be a little more creative than usual finding fun activities to do. Don't get me wrong Chloe absolutely loves to go outside and play but it is Mommy who wants to branch out!

I don't know about other parents, but for me cleaning up the house is a constant and never ending chore. Lately I have noticed that crayons are a major contributing culprit. They hide everywhere. I wanted to put a stop to the madness of broken crayon bits strewn about. I remember when I was a kid my parents melted down the bits into giant crayons. They didn't remember how they did it, so I headed off with an idea, in search of a way to make it a reality. This is what I came up with!

Step 1: soak crayons in warm water, and the wrappers magically come off. The colorful wrappers were so vibrant and beautiful that I decided to dry and save them for later use in a painting. (The first attempt at this left me scraping and peeling off the wrappers for hours- warm water worked miracles!)

Step 2: rinse off the crayons and make sure any glue residue is removed. Chloe liked this step the best. Normally I would estimate about a minute or two on this, but Chloe made it into a 30 minute affair. Parenting tip: put towels under the "work station".
Step 3: break up the crayons into little pieces and mix however you want. I used a silicone brownie square mold to make my crayons but anything would probably work! Just make sure it is silicone so you can pop those puppies out when they are done.
Step 4: bake in the oven at low heat until all of the bits are melted
Step 5: Pop out the squares after they are cooled and solidified and play with your new crayons!
I did notice a little bit of the unpigmented wax accumulate on the tops of each of the squares so I just trimmed that off with a paring knife so that when Chloe colored she would see pigmented wax, not clear wax.

As for de-cluttering this worked wonders. NO broken crayons anywhere. Plus they are fun to color with :) This project was so much fun I went out and bought several boxes of new crayons to make even more colorful squares.

So much fun!

It's official!

It is official, we are having a baby and we know the gender!!!! It was a fun morning at the doctors office as we got to see continuous ultrasounds for about 45 minutes. Andrew's parents were there, and so was Chloe. For almost the entire time this little bundle of joy was facing away from the camera. We got a LOT of back of the head shots! Here is one of the few profile pics. When we asked Chloe what it was she said "fish" then tired again with "mommy" then "daddy". I think she will figure it out when she can feel the baby move in my belly. Right now she just pets my stomach saying "gentle".

They also did a little 3D imaging for us, and again only got one shot that showed any part of the face. Pretty adorable right????? The baby slept through the entire appointment.

So what do you think does this baby look like a boy or a girl? Hmmmm........

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Well we are going to have to start picking out baby names for a ......................

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GIRL!!!!

What I want!!!!

If anyone is thinking......What could I get Carmen and Andrew for their second bundle of joy- here it is!!!! My friend Amber is an amazing professional photographer, and just look at the amazing photos she took at a recent newborn shoot!!!! Seriously AMAZING!

check it out here!!!!

Also here is a pic from dinner at the Double Musky in Girdwood :)

Iditarod begins!

Chloe enjoyed watching the dog teams come thru Anchorage last year during the ceremonial start of the Iditarod, but this year she LOVED it!

It was awesome! We had a sunny clear day, with temps in the habitable range around 32. Tons and tons of people come out to see all of the dog teams and their favorite mushers. Chloe loves dogs, and other kids so this was a perfect combo!

You can see her excitement as she sees a dog team coming up the trail.
I wish there was audio with this :)




After the dogs went by she would try to run after them saying "Doggies back! doggies back!" Luckily the teams came thru every few minutes so she got to see plenty of action.

We played in the snow during the down time. Chloe especially liked poking the snow with sticks because she saw some of the older kids (3 year old) doing it. Here she is making a tree. I know this because right after I took this picture she said "look mommy! Tree!" and signed tree. So adorable.
She also gathered plenty of snow (away from the dogs) to eat. Yum snow.
It was a pretty great day, and I think I had almost as much fun as she did!
We can't wait for next year!

Birthday Boy

Andrew turned the big 30 last weekend and we had a BIG PARTY for him! We hosted the event at an awesome local restaurant called Spenard Roadhouse. This place was super awesome! We had a whole section of the restaurant reserved for our very large group. I am still not sure how I swung that, seeing as how this restaurant does not even take any reservations, but somehow they were convinced! The whole night was really a lot of fun.

As you can see we made some fun swag for the birthday boy, and although at the beginning he didn't want to wear it, by the end he was owning the look.
Elena and Donna helped me make the cupcakes and cake. We decided on a golf theme. I found an AMAZING recipe for coconut cupcakes and made the most delicious little bites of heaven. Elena is a whiz at fondant and made the fondant putting greens to top them off. They looked professional, and tasted so good!
Here is a close up of the cake that Elena made. The giant golf ball is actually a cake! I told you she is a whiz with fondant!
No birthday party is complete without a few embarrassing moments for the guest of honor. Elena supplied a full dose of laughter with this little gem of a gift.
Not only is it practical (did you know you can use a tv remote or answer the phone without having the annoyance of removing your blanket?) but it is also personally customized. "I'm 30"

I think this snuggie says it all- "its all down hill from here". Just kidding Andrew! Thankfully this has not made an appearance around the house yet :)

We all had a great time, and I can not believe how many people came! At the peak there must have been more than 30 people there for him. How awesome is that?! I wish I had taken a picture of the whole group. Afterwards we went to this weird tiki themed blues bar called blues central. Again I wish I had taken pictures. Imagine a vivacious 70 year old cougar giving Andrew a strip tease on the dance floor..... can't imagine it? Thats why I wish I had taken a picture! It was hilarious- the whole bar agreed!

Did I say I didn't have pictures? My mistake, here are a few. :)

Careful lady, he is a married man!

Do you think Andrew minds the attention?

I'd say he had a pretty good birthday! Happy 30 babe!

the imaginarium

In our ever going attempt to do more fun things for Chloe we have been going to the imaginarium at the museum on an almost weekly basis. They have tons of really cool things to see and play with, for parents and for kids! The have a whole aquarium section, an energy section, a bubble section, and more. Chloe's favorite is the under 5 area where she can run wild and explore everything.Here the was a huge encased giant "roller coaster" for balls to go through. There are a few spots the balls come out and then the kids can put them back in and see where they go. I think I remember something like this at OMSI when I was little.
Of course there is no shortage of pretend play areas like this "tree house" with slide.
We spent a long time here :)
There was also a rock climbing area with a tunnel and yes another slide. It was pretty neat. All of the rocks are made of recycled rubber particles so it was not dangerous for little hands.
There are countless puzzles and activities to build dexterity and to challenge little minds. This one was a marble maze.
Here Chloe is exploring color.
Look everything is yellow!
This place is awesome, and like most other activities we discover, I wish I had know about this so much earlier! Chloe loves it here, and it is awesome to see her learn and interact with other little kids. It is a bonus to get me meet other parents too. We have gone several times, and I still don't think Chloe has seen everything yet!

A little photo shoot

I was looking back and realized that I have totally slacked off on my mini photo shoots with Chloe! When she was a baby I was doing them all of the time. That was probably because it was easy to keep her clean, and she stayed where I put her..... but I am still up for the challenge. Plus this stage is way too cute to miss!

Chloe helped make a valentine for her Dad, then tried to pull all of the stickers off :)
I did not pose her. She just does this stuff on her own!

Ahhhh it is this happy little girl that makes it all worth it.