Goofing Around -Tons of Pictures!!

We have been getting better at giving in.

Giving in to the joys of just living a less stressed out life. Often this involves random, impromptu, goofy and silly photo sessions.

I was just looking at one of my posts from April about our Photo Silliness and it was so much fun to look through the photos and remember the feelings of that time.

So, I decided to do it again. The following photos are from May (last month).

It all started out innocently enough with Emma playing on her swing.

Then she moved onto the 'wula hoop'. 

And then... I laid down to take a photo of our beautiful trees against the pretty blue sky.

While I was distracted by the hunk in the back yard...

I was attacked!

In order to defend myself I had to send Emma to the moon... 

Which she didn't seem to mind:)

Oops, distracted again!

Emma presented me with some flowers.

Back to the front for more silliness.

Had to stop to examine the minor owie.

All better!

I use to think these feet were so cute! Whom I kidding, I still do (I just don't smell them anymore).

Um, yeah. Maybe those grubby toes shouldn't be that close to her face.

EmmaZilla!

There he is again!

Playing with the hula hoop. Emma rolled it to me and I managed to snap the photo as the hoop hit the camera. I caught both the hoop and the photo and the camera was just fine :)

And finishing up with a bit more swinging.

What a great day to remember for always!

Feathers from Da

Jared has really gotten into mountain biking lately (well, as 'mountain' as you can get in flat Iowa).

Helmet Hair after a sweaty ride. 

 Every so often he comes home with a treasure for Emma. 

Feathers.

The feather on the bottom was brought home a month or so ago after Jared went riding at Seven Oaks in Boone, IA. Emma thought it was super cool (and so did I). She wanted to know what it was, so we found this site- The Feather Atlas. 

Here is what we decided the bottom feather is.

The search function has you choose a pattern then color and lists all the feathers it could be. It can be a little frustrating trying to figure out which one it might be, but it is a very useful and informative site. 

So when Jared came home yesterday from a mountain bike even in the Quad Cities with the top feather, we knew where to go- The Feather Atlas.

This is what we decided.

It is a little funny that he found the wild turkey feather in the Quad cities, because on one of his last rides at Seven Oaks he got spooked by a "Giant" wild turkey. 

We enjoy collecting feathers and look forward to whatever else Da brings home from his rides (he can leave the ticks there though).

Have a great Sunday!

Fun Food Friday

Emma really enjoys it when I play with her food. We have cookie cutters specifically for making her lunch (and I am always looking for cool new ones).

I started taking pictures of Emma's food a little while ago and I decided to start posting her lunches on Friday (though I make no promises!).

So, here is her lunch from yesterday.

Yes, the food is upside down, but I was too lazy to figure out a better lighting situation. 

Emma with her lunch. 

Emma really loves when I make her food interesting. Not all of it turns out great, but I figure the more I play with her food, the better I will get :)

Today we had math food. I used cookie cutters to cut out the 2 and 4 from her PB&J, and a 6 out of the cheese. Then I used scraps of cheese to make the plus and equals sign. 

If there is a lot of food left after cutting things out, I give her the left overs so that way she gets enough to eat (and I am not wasting it). I also gave her 6 veggies straws. When I presented her with the plate, the cheesy 6 was hiding under the leftover sandwich. I had her do the math (which she is really good at) then I presented her with the 6 of cheese. She loves cheese. 

I think it would be neat to do more math in the future using really small pieces of food for multiplication.

Any-who, here are a few of the other fun meals I have taken pictures of. (You may notice a theme with the PB&J and cheese.)

Strawberries, bologna, and cheesy Emma :)

Ok, so I only took one other photo... This was when she was going through a bologna phase. I know, not super healthy, but sometimes I am happy for her to eat something other then PB&J. 

If you know of any good ideas for playing with food, I would love to hear them!

Conversations with Emma

Before we started this blog, we had one for the family (which we still have and I am horrible at updating it).

There are a few post that I would like to share with you though. Here are the links.

Garbage

Mysteriously

Paleontologist

Fabuloso

They are all pretty funny conversations that we have had with Emma. I kinda wish I had written more down. I just might have to keep a 'Conversations With Emma' journal on me at all times (although now she is more sarcastic then funny- gotta love the 5 going on 15 stage!).

And a nice random photo.

Have a great day!

Saying Yes

Emma just returned from a week at Gramma's. I think it was a much needed break for the two of us. While she was gone I reflected (I feel a little weird using that word) on how crappy I have been treating Emma.

I feel as though I have been neglecting her and stuck in the "no" phase again. Or still. Not sure which.

While she was gone I decided that I REALLY want to be a better mom to her. She is the only kiddo I will have and I am the only mom she will have and I want to make sure I don't screw it up more then what would be considered "normal".

I hate the word "normal". There is no such thing.

Anyway.

So today was Emma's first day home. She missed her computer, so she went immediately to it as soon as she walked in the door.

No biggie. She is after all her parents child.

When she decided she was done on the computer, she wanted to play outside. It was super wet (seems to be raining all year!), so my first response was to say no. And I think I may have.

Then I said, "What is your plan for outside?" She just wanted to swing.

"Then yes, we can do that, let me finish what I was doing." A few minutes later, Jared mentioned that it was raining out. Emma pouted.

I decided, "Why not."

So we played outside for about 10 minutes, then it started to pour. So we came in :)

We were wet in the end, but it was a fun 10 minutes.