Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Vacay 2011!

We headed to Myrtle Beach again this spring- amazing how much things can change in a year! This time we opted to make a stop along the way instead of driving 16+ hours straight through. We thought this would work better for our little passenger as well.... we were wrong!
She started out happy enough, but within 45 minutes she was asking if we were there yet. After an hour, she was screaming, "No vacation, I wanna go home!" While we try to keep daily tv viewing to 30 minutes or less, we caved and endured hours of Winnie the Pooh. I think she watched the movie a total of 8 times on the way down and back!

We stayed in Louisville, KY on our way south. Usually, I'm a very organized person and would have already found plenty of things to do during our visit. However, since I had to pack for 3 people for a week and clean the house before we left I asked my hubby to look for something to do while we were in town. Needless to say, we had no plan when we rolled into town so we spent most of our time in KY driving around aimlessly.
 We got some ice cream at McD's,
 Fed the ducks at the Lexington Cemetery (recommended by the visitors center),
and played at a random park we found. Nothing extraordinary, but wonderful family time!

Emma experienced lots of 'firsts' on this trip.
 She got wet in the ocean for the first time
 Went for her first helicopter ride- you can tell she loved it...
 Received some driving lessons from daddy (just from our room to the pool at our resort)
Got to check out tons of gators up close
 Tried her hand at tennis
 and putt putt
 Went to her first movie, a 3D IMAX on life under the sea
And scored her first slam dunk!

It was a wonderful time had by all. I love seeing Emma and daddy have lots of uninterrupted time together. Jason kept commenting on how 'cool' our daughter is and I have to agree. Even through the possessed temper tantrums and little toddler quirks, we are truly blessed to have our girly in our life. Not only did we get some time away to rest and relax, we got the opportunity to make memories.

We arrived home on Sunday evening and have been running like crazy every since. There are some new things in the works at the Klein household, but I'll save that for another post. It's so hard to get back into the swing of things after a vacation, especially when the weather is 20+ degrees cooler. Can't wait for summer to be here!

Monday, March 28, 2011

Purple Kind of Day

We thought of you today- can't believe you are celebrating another birthday in heaven. We hope you had one heck of a birthday bash. Emma wore purple today, just for you. Wish you could be here to play with her.
Kinda goofy picture, but this kid is always on the move these days so I take what I can get. She is sporting her "big girl" cow undies which are a bit large on her little biscuits :) This pic was taken right after a potty break and since someone is super independent, she dressed herself- hence the undies hanging out. New fashion statement I guess.

We talk about her granny often. Hope you know you are loved and missed. Happy 49th Cindy!

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Piggy Fun

We recently had a new load of piglets brought to the farm, so we decided to take Emma to see them. This only happens twice a year- we have to take her to see them while they are small because once they are full grown they would be very intimidating, not to mention loud! It's fun to look back at Emma's first encounter with the pigs last year and see how much things have changed.

When we started off in the barn, she had a death grip. There was no way she was going to let me set her down. Eventually she started to feel brave and wanted to explore... then daddy picked up a pig for her to pet. All bets were off, she wanted up immediately. Pigs may make an oink-ish noise in calm situations, but when they are under duress they squeal. Loudly.  This petrified Emmabuns. Once we assured her she was safe, daddy tried to find a more willing specimen.


She was fearless compared to her timid self last year. Once she felt comfortable, she was running up and down the pens giggling in delight. She was so proud of her light shoes that she wanted to show them off to the pigs, who in turn were petrified of the flashing lights she produced as she stomped up and down.
The only time the pigs weren't afraid of her shoes was when she was sitting still. In that scenario, they were more interested in trying to get a taste of them, which is the cause for this stiff "cheese' picture :) 
 She even tried her hand at feeding them. I'll be honest, I'm a bit fearful of doing that! I know they won't hurt me, but I don't want to be nibbled on.
I'd say we had a very successful trip this year. You can see she skipped happily out of the barn (after a short burst of protesting). Once we got to the truck, she refused to get in because she had pig poop on her pants. I explained to her that we couldn't take them off until we got home. I finally got her buckled into her car seat and we headed home. I looked back to check on her at one point and she had her hands covering the poo. I asked her what she was doing and she said she made the poop all gone- silly kid!

Thursday, March 10, 2011

Good {Clean} Fun

I am SO ready for spring- days outside, basking in the sunshine. Without ten layers of clothes, coats and gloves. Personally I am tired of the snow and cold and impatient for the wet, muddy stage to be over. Until then, the peanut and I continue to seek fun indoor activities. The web is a great place to locate fantastic ideas- I can't take credit for many of the things we do.

Thanks to this blog I found via others, we decided to try out the recipe they provided for bathtub puffy paint. Let me just say, it was a little more work than anticipated (possibly because I was tripping over said peanut ever other minute :) When making for little ones, I would suggest doing some of the prep while they are asleep or otherwise occupied.


You need a cup of grated soap, 3/4 cup of hot water, and 1/2 teaspoon of dye according to the recipe posted. I used a few soap samples and bars we have brought home from hotel rooms in the past. We had to improvise a bit on the dye part- all I had was food coloring and I was afraid that would never wash off of my old porcelain tub! We have some Crayola washable finger paint that we substituted and it worked fine. The colors weren't nearly as vibrant and there wasn't a plethora of color options, but Emma didn't mind.

After wrestling with the cheese grater and soap, I realized I had a hand grater stored in the depths of my cupboard just waiting for a test drive. It worked so much better and wasn't nearly as messy. I'll admit this project was hard for me- I like everything neat and orderly (which can be my downfall sometimes). While grating the soap I couldn't control the flakes flying every where in my kitchen!

Once you have your soap grated, put it in a food processor or blender and slowly add the hot water. In the end, I thought the consistency was too thick and added more then the recommended water. I ended up adding a tad bit too much, but it still worked just fine. I then added paint to the mixture to give it some color.

Emma loved helping out with this part :) The original creator put her puffy paint in frosting tubes... I didn't have any and thought about using Ziploc baggies with the ends cut off, but decided that might be too much for little hands to control. We tried using medicine syringes, but that was a lot of work to keep reloading. In the end we used our hands.

She had a blast mixing colors and squishing it around! We went through half of our supply in a matter of minutes. I decided to package some of it up to use again in the future (someone has an aversion to baths lately and I figured this would be good motive for next time :)

When we were all done, I gave her the shower head and she washed down the walls. All the paint turned the water bubbly and blue which meant we didn't have to rush out of the tub once the painting was done. I ended up with a happy, clean toddler and a sparkling tub to boot!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Working Those Fine Motor Skills

We are always looking for fun (and cheap!) activities to do around our house. Last night we made necklaces with Fruit Loops. Not only did Emma concentrate and work really hard, but she loved the idea that when we were done she could take her jewelry apart and eat it. I try to stick with boring cheerios for breakfast, so to indulge in these fruity sugar loops was delightful.
I'm still not sure which part she enjoyed more- putting it together or taking it apart!

Monday, March 7, 2011

The Countdown Begins...

We have officially started to count down the days until our upcoming family vacay- I'm not sure who is more excited around our house :) To help Miss Emmabuns grasp the idea that we are in fact leaving for vacation, but not right now or later tonight or even tomorrow, we made a chain for her. She got to color on scrap pieces of paper and then I cut them into strips that we glued together to make a chain. Each night before bed she takes off the current day and then we are one more closer to hitting the road!