Melynn the Oompa Loompa

You can tell this post is going to have a good picture, don't you. Well, it does. At least two good pictures. Here they are:

For some reason blogger is deciding it needs to warp that second picture of Melynn a little. It looks like she got stretched vertically a little bit. This is what she looked like after lunch one day. Totally orange. It reminds me of a picture of myself when I was about that age and I fell asleep eating spaghettio's and I'm all orange and slumped over with my hand still in the bowl. It's classic.

Here are some more fun pictures:

This is Melynn with her cereal box hat. I was being silly one day and decided she should try it on. It was hilarious!

Here she is wearing her momma's shoes. She likes to put these on because they will stay on her little feet. Cute!

And here she is trying on her new hat before I pack it for the trip. She liked it. Can you tell? We are getting ready to fly tomorrow. Woohoo for vacation!

Melynn's Talking

Josh and I can't quite remember how early Emmett starting using actual words, but we are pretty sure it was earlier than Melynn is. She has a few words but not many. She doesn't need to talk much because she uses her eyebrows so well. I've always been amazed by her facial expressions. And Emmett talks enough for the both of them put together. She can say ball, momma and cracker. I can't wait until she can fully express herself with words.

Father's Day

Emmett and I spent the last week creating some fun gifts for Josh. It was a lot of fun. We made him custom luggage tags out of felt! We also made a measuring tape out of a macaroni and cheese box! Wow! We are loving our subscription to the Family Fun magazine and all the fun ideas it has. I am using another idea on Wednesday for the activity day girls. It is a patriotic decoration made from cereal boxes, colored cardstock, tape and string. Oh, and tinfoil. Can't get better than that, right? I'll have to take pictures when they are finished. We took a lot of fun pictures of the Father's Day gifts though and here they are. The kids were being pretty silly, posing and such. Enjoy!
The pirate hat came from a magic show at the public library. It was all about water and he did a trick about pirates and Emmett was his helper. They made the Jolly Roger (I guess that is what you call a pirate flag) out of scarves. It was pretty funny and Emmett liked being in front of the audience. This is a video of Melynn's new favorite trick in the tub.

Just Some Pictures

So I have a couple new pictures to share. The first set is of Melynn finishing Emmett's dinner after she climbed onto his chair. She was even trying to use his fork.
This next set is just Melynn playing with her little blue bowl. This is the bowl where we put her pacifier during the day. We don't let her have the pacifier anymore for naps or daytime. Just nighttime in the crib. Sometimes I cheat and take it to church in the hopes that she will take a morning nap. Anyway, she's a cutie and we love her. She's trying to say some words. She can say "mama" and her own version of "cracker" and "yogurt". She can also say "ball" and "baby". She is getting very attached to her baby doll and Emmett is getting a bit jealous that she has a doll and he does not.

The Ultimate Cold Shower

I am soaked. I'm supposed to be enjoying a wonderful sunny day watching my kids draw on the sidewalks at the library but I'm not. I'm here at home typing about my crazy experience in the rain. We are currently having heavy rain that I was thinking would be just a few sprinkles this afternoon. Wrongo bongo. When I finished at the gym I looked out the windows and realized it was pouring pouring and that if I was going to get my kids out to the car and buckle them in their carseats that I was going to get soaked. And I did. Then I drove through a couple of swimming pools to get home and we are inside, dried off a bit and trying to get warm. I'm making brownies if you want to come over...have I mentioned how the rain makes me want to bake brownies more than anything? I may even drag out some sweatpants for the occasion.

Cupcakes, Kids in PJs

Did I ever mention that I got a new calling? I got released from the Primary presidency a while ago and put in as the Activity Day leader. Last night we had an activity about reading. We took a tour at one of the public library branches and I made a special treat to go along with the activity.

I wanted them to have a surprise when they bit into the cupcakes so I made multi-colored batter and this is how they looked before the frosting. I wanted it to be like a book; when you sink your teeth into a new book sometimes you get surprised!
This is what they looked like after I frosted them. The jelly beans represent the many different flavors of books. It's always good to try new flavors even if you know that your favorite flavor is juicy pear.
It was a fun activity. Here is a Melynn sporting some crazy hair. She took her piggies out shortly after nap time. I think is the only way Josh ever sees her hair done. He doesn't usually get to see the piggies intact.
Here are some good shots of the kids playing on my bed in their pjs.
And here is Melynn stuck in the basket that holds her shoes. She often gets into tight spots.
Here is a video of the kids playing around. They are so fun.

Things to Do Around Omaha

My friend, Teri, posted a comment on a previous post asking how I find out about all the free or inexpensive Omaha happenings. I had to really think about it to give her a good answer. So here goes:

1) Erin showed me the ropes when I moved here. I think more than anything her knowledge of Omaha and all that happens around here helped me jump in with both feet. She showed me the Children's Museum and how to get a $5 membership. She took me to the Great Escape Theater for the free movies for kids during the summer. She showed me the outlet mall, all the different mall play areas (my favorite of which is the Westroads Mall). Erin gave me the jump start.

2) I love to watch the news. For those that don't know, I am a faithful local news and Nightly News watcher. I feel really lost when I don't watch at least a half hour of news. I love the local news because I get to see what the weather will be like (crucial if you are going to go out and do lots of crazy things like I do). And they tell me about lots of different events, like Taste of Omaha that is happening this weekend. It's free from what I've heard and it sounds like a lot of fun. I've never been and this year I'm going to try it out.

3) I read everything and anything I can get my hands on. This includes the little newspaper (Neighborhood News) that comes in the mail once a month that has itty bitty print. We got ours this last week (on Thursday I think) and it also listed Taste of Omaha and another free event called Shakespeare on the Green. It only gave a blurb though so I went to both websites and got the rest of the information that I needed. This year for Shakespeare on the Green they are doing Romeo and Juliet and A Merchant in Venice. Other good sources of information are the zoo newsletter and the Children's Museum newsletter.

4) I listen to the radio as I drive around. The morning radio people are always good for information on random things. Plus they sometimes have really funny segments. This isn't usually the first place I hear about things, but every once in a while they surprise me with something good.

5) The Omaha public library website has lots of fun things on their calendar. We like to go to the Swanson branch because it is so close to the 24 Hour Fitness. Our normal routine once a week is gym-library. My kids just know that we will go to the library after the gym to get new books. I go often enough that the children's librarian knows Emmett by name and always says hi to him. We are planning on attending at least one of the library events each week this summer to go with the summer reading program.

I guess that is how I find out about all the things in Omaha. Sometimes I feel a little bit crazy when I look at all the things we have planned for the summer but each day is an adventure and we are having a lot of fun as a family.

Happy planning!

Fun Days

Our Train Playdate yesterday was a fun time. I built a train track around a "snow-covered mountain" and it had some cool things to it but I didn't get in there before the "earthquake" demolished it. Here is a view of the destruction caused by the "earthquake".
We did some train craft projects, one being a train conductor hat, another being a little math game where they color the numbered section of the train (coloring page) that matches the number they roll on a dice. We also painted with the trains, where we dipped the train wheels in the paint and let them roll across the picture. Emmett's final product is still in progress but when it is done I'll probably scan it and put it on here. He LOVED it.
Noah posed for a photo.
Smiley
Smiley
SmileyWe had a great time at the new upstairs exhibit at the Omaha Children's Museum. We liked all the dogs. The one section that made me chuckle was the little tv viewing spot with red soft chairs and at one point there were NO KIDS in it. The whole point of going to a place like the Children's Museum is to get your kids to play so I was glad to see the tv station was not very popular.

Here are Emmett and Melynn saying hi to T-Bone.
Emmett in Clifford's food bowl holding some giant squishy bones.
Melynn and Emmett saying hi to Emily Elizabeth.
Here are Emmett and Melynn dancing with Machiavelli (the dog). Emmett dressed up in the Clifford costume to really play the part. There is a video of them dancing below.

Here is Melynn playing in the back of the pickup truck.
Here are the two rugrats. Emmett said that he was the husband and Melynn was the wife. The funniest part was when she wanted to drive and Emmett kept saying, "No, wife!"
Emmett sitting on Clifford's giant dog bones.
And the best part of the day: getting to meet Clifford in person for approximately 30 seconds. I had long enough to get Emmett to half smile in the picture. There was such a long line I really didn't even try to get Melynn close enough to snap a picture of the two of them. She didn't seem to think a person in a gigantic dog costume was that thrilling. More like terrifying.Here is a video of Emmett and Melynn dancing at the Clifford exhibit of the Children's Museum. It was a lot of fun.


Here is the second video, this time of Melynn playing with the shape sorter that was built into Cleo's doghouse. It was cute to watch.