Snow White Dinner Date

Taryn was treated to another date recently, this time with her Nana. I told her the night before that Nana would be picking her up the next day for a special surprise. She was so excited and tried unsuccessfully to get it out of me where she would be going. She did have several great guesses....Jumpy Jump Land, a movie, and my personal favorite -- a hair cut. : )

The duo ended up at Crown Uptown Dinner theater to see their production of Snow White. She had a wonderful time and was apparently quite impressed with their chicken nuggets. : ) 

Great memories were made from all the stories I've heard! Thanks Nana!!

Safe Rooms

Things are moving right along on the new rental project. The property has moved from this to this to
this:

Because these properties don't have basements we put "safe rooms" in as laundry rooms so there is somewhere to go if there's a storm. Can't be too prepared in Kansas! Sorry, adorable girl in pink does not come with the unit.

World's cutest construction crew....always hard at work!

After the driveways and sidewalks were poured.

Kitchen/Hallway to the bedrooms.

Dining and Living Rooms

Checking on the drying process of the new driveways.   : )

We've already got 2 of the 3 rented which is a pleasant surprise for us considering they won't be completed for another couple months and we didn't even do any advertising yet. God is good! If you're close by and interested in a new place you better hit us up quick!!

Telephone 2.0

When I was still working for Early Head Start much of my job consisted of writing and presenting trainings to local schools and daycares. One of the trainings I did was on "outdoor activities" and so the other day when I was thinking our outdoor play needed something new I thought back to that training and remembered this simple activity that we used to present to our teachers.

This will be one of the easiest/quickest/cheapest toys you'll ever whip up for your kiddos. "Back in the day" our telephone's used to look like this:

Here's what you need for the new and improved version:

Funnel, Plastic Tubing, Tape

At our local hardware store the plastic tube was found in the isle marked "plastic tubing".  : ) I would say it was the plumbing section. I got about 12 feet. The funnels were from the automotive section.

Tape the funnels to the ends of the tube. Tricky stuff here people. 

Ta-Da! A telephone that gets suprisingly good reception. Now, if you're 5 years old you have 20 minutes of conversation that consists of "Londy?! Can you hear me?!?"  "Yes, I can hear you!! Can you hear me?!?"  Repeat, repeat, repeat.

Cheaper than an iphone! Get your kiddos one today!

Date Night

There once was an amazing daddy. He had a little girl that he loved very much. He wanted to spend some extra time with her so he scheduled a special date night.

They got some dinner together,

played a round of mini-golf,

rode on a carousel,

and drove some cars together.

The little girl had a wonderful time and talked about her fun for days following. What a special daddy he is!

First Snips

For about 17 months now B has been working hard at growing hair. First she tried growing it a tad on the top. Then she focused on a little behind each ear. She pretty well ignored the back middle area though until the last couple months. While I liked to pretend that it looked like an intentional hair cut...you know, like a cute stacked bob look, it was time to face the truth...it was a strange mullet shag. Don't get me wrong, she rocked it like Billy Ray in the Achy Breaky years but it was still time to try to give it a more current shape. If you've ever cut a toddler's hair you know that you have to get in, get out and pretend that wavey lines are the new straight.

So, right now you're saying, I see no difference and she only has 3 total hairs anyway.  : )  Maybe so, but I do think it helps it look a tad thicker on the ends and hopefully now it will just be more encouraged to continue growing.

I think B is embracing her new style...

Fourth Fun

"Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord." Psalm 33:12

Happy Birthday America! We had a great day full of family, fireworks and fun. It started off with a little crawling practice...

Followed by some swimming and slip-and-sliding...

Of course there was some snacking...

And some bubble blowing too...

Throw in lots of friends and family and plenty of fireworks and it was one really, really great day!