Sensory Play For All!

Willow is starting to get into

 everything she isn't supposed to, 

and it's hard always saying "No" to this face...

 This face however...

...gets told "No" plenty. 

So when I cleaned out my cupboards and found

3/4 of a package of brown rice gluten-free spaghetti,

 that, let's face it, nobody

 in this family is ever gonna eat, 

I thought I could use it to let the girls

 have some fun without being told NO. 

I went to Pinterest to see if "spaghetti sensory play" 

was a thing. It is. 

There were lots of rainbow spaghetti pins. 

We chose two colors (food coloring)

 and tossed them with cooked pasta in Ziplocks.

 

Mila complained the noodles were stinky,

so I  added a teaspoon of rose water left over

 from the time Daddy was AWESOME and made these 

Champagne waffles with chocolate butter. 

Any fun scented extract would work.

We also used just a touch of canola oil to 

prevent the noodles from getting too sticky.

I love that little babies can play along too.

 If they put it in their mouth, no biggie!

They were occupied for quite a while, 

and Mommy didn't have to say "No!"

for nearly a half hour. Record breaker.

It got a little messy, so we put an old blanket down, 

I'd recommend playing with it outside.  

Cheap fun for kiddos of all ages.

Ta Da!

Mother's Day 2014

I don't mean to brag, but...I'm gonna go ahead and brag.

I had the most wonderful Mother's Day.

After quickly snapping these pics,  

I was brought coffee and instructed to stay in bed until

breakfast was served to me by Daddy and MQ.

Perfectly cooked bacon, homemade pancakes

 and over-easy eggs.

Daddy admitted to me later that he had NEVER

fried and egg before and actually 

had to research it on Google!

This astounded me.

Anyhow, they came out great. 

I also got these amazing hand-painted plates from Mila,

and some pretty yellow tulips.

Following breakfast we put a ton of work into our patio,

which was exactly what I wanted to do.

We replaced the stones with rubber pavers so the baby can 

crawl around. I planted herbs and lettuces. 

I spray painted the sandbox gold--it came out so cute! 

I also used some chalkboard paint on a board 

we had sitting around & hung it on the fence.  

We cleaned every cranny, so it's safe for the girls to play.

We hope to be out here A LOT this summer. 

Daddy had made a reservation at Frontier 

for their Mother's Day Buffet in the afternoon.

We cleaned up and headed out.

The food was excellent, and the company even better.

This little tabletop toy is probably the best money

 we've spent on a baby toy--

usually Wills is more interested 

in keys, pens, old receipts etc.,

but this one is great for taking to restaurants. 

After a bit more work in the yard, 

we settled in for the evening.

Mila likes to brush Mommy's hair...

But nobody's hair looks more awesome

 brushed out than Mila's!

I feel super blessed to be a Mommy to 

these girls (and wife to Joel). They're the best.