Princess Week

This week was 'fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants' style. We still managed to have a lot of fun with our princess theme.

Tuesday morning my parents were visiting and Maddie requested Grandma's signature crown. Perfect!

That afternoon we had a princess tea party and talked about being polite and having good manners. When Mike came home that night Maddie was sure to tell him we "learned about being polite!" Hopefully she caught on to what that entails.

Wednesday we picked peas from our garden and played Princess and the Pea. I had tried to get a copy of a book at the library to no avail, so I just told the story from memory.

Ella loved jumping on the pillows but she was really confused about why we weren't eating the peas.

I guess it technically should have been just one pea and not the pod, but they got the idea.

The kids love opening the pods to find the little balls inside. They are so cute and sweet, who wouldn't be enthralled by them?


You remember the 'throne' Mike got for Father's Day? It came in an awesome box that I saved because I knew we needed to do something cool with it.

I didn't really have a plan but it worked out great! I cut the bottoms off and folded them up to turn them into turrets (spires says Maddie). We talked about how princesses really used to live in castles and looked up pictures of real old castles in Europe online. Then we talked about something we have today that sort of look like castles... temples.We looked at pictures of lots of temples and talked whose house they are, where Mommy and Daddy got married, and how she can go there too someday.

When Mike got home he cut windows into the turrets so the girls could put their heads in and look out (and Pooh Bear). Ella likes to climb in and out of the windows (on the other side). It has been a hit.

Friday I shared with Maddie a sweet poem I remember from Young Women called "A Child of Royal Birth." It was a good opportunity to talk about where we came from, why we're here, and where we are going. My sense of who I am as a daughter of God has been one of my greatest sources of strength in life, and I hope to pass that on to my daughters.

Saturday ended Princess week with the Lehi Grand parade and lots of local royalty wearing their crowns. In truth, Maddie didn't care much for the real-life princesses... she was more interested in spotting Cosmo and stuffing her mouth with candy!

There were a few things I would have included in my dreams. I heard about this Princess Festival in Lindon and excitedly looked it up... but the girls had to be 4 to participate. The King's Grand Daddy-Daughter Ball would have been so sweet! I also wanted to attend a Medieval themed story-time at a nearby library, but the time was listed wrong so we missed it. I tried to find some real old princess story books but only ended up with Disney's versions, which are a little overdone if you ask me. If you ask Maddie on the other hand, she'll have you talking about Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather all day!

Wild Wednesday!

A good old friend of mine from the early married days invited us to join their Wild Wednesday activity at the Highland Fountains.

Ella is fearless of water. Maddie acted a bit like a princess, dipping her toes in and then running to the towels to snack and sunbathe.


I just have to say that I love living here in Utah! In one week, I have managed to see Mike's parents, two of my sisters, my parents, one of Mike's sisters, and two college friends! To top it off, Mike's sister Alison and her family are staying at our house a few nights this week and we have multiple full family shin-digs planned. Gotta love it!

P.S. Anyone local want a cherry tomato plant? I have zillions. Photo here. Let me know.

King of the Day

Hope all the fathers got treated like royalty today!

Our king got gourmet breakfast in bed (Cinnamon Toast Crunch in a straw bowl) as the royal princesses looked on.

We really enjoyed having Mike's dad and his wife over for dinner.

More family joined us, in person and via Skype, to honor Grandpa Andrews.

The King and his royal princesses love their new throne! Sure beats the ghetto camp chairs.

We love our Daddy, and I sure am thankful for my own pops. I have been blessed with great men in my life!

A happy, happy birthday.

Dana and I were able to spend our birthday together this year. Maybe when I was little it was not so fun to share, but now that we're older I feel bad for everyone else who doesn't have a twiner to make it double the fun.

We were treated out a bunch of times! Grandma Jean (Mom's mom) took us to Johnny Carino's last weekend, and Thursday we met my parents at the Gateway for lunch at CPK before they flew out to Texas to visit my other sister. MMmmmmm, it was yummy.

I also got a girl's night out with two of my favorite people and old friends, Erin and Joanna, whose birthdays are also in June. We went to an adorable little sweet shop called Dippidee and spent three hours gabbing away with no children to interrupt us! It was fabulous.

The morning of my birthday I woke up to these pretty flowers from Mike. I didn't mind making my own cake this year because this was exactly what I had been craving--double decker chocolate.

We met Dana and Landon at Texas Roadhouse for dinner (yes, we both rode the birthday saddle and no, I am not posting the picture), then went back to our place for cake and presents.

We got pretty spoiled. Everyone was so thoughtful. I also had two friends from the ward bring me treats, and tons of phone calls, emails, and messages wishing me a happy day. Seriously, I don't think I've ever felt so loved on my birthday.

Lastly we went to Seven Peaks on Saturday. Ella is fearless of the water and both kids are little fishies. It was a great way to end our week of celebrations!

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

This week was all about transportation.

To all of you who think I'm crazy for spending so much time on this-------the thing I love about a weekly theme is it's not hard to find things in everyday life that you can learn from. Each of these "lessons" didn't take more than a few minutes, and many were spur of the moment.

Daddy came home at lunch time and the girls had a blast playing with all the buttons and gadgets in the car.

Maddie is all about cutting and gluing so we did another collage. Pottery Barn Kids catalog was a great place to find cars, tractors, trains, and planes.

We spotted the ice cream truck from an upstairs window.

And we talked about the mailman, and then pretended to deliver each other mail in Maddie's ladybug mailbox (from Valentine's day). It was a good lesson in addressing envelopes, and Maddie wrote an "M" for the first time by herself.

We attempted to see model airplanes flying at this park not far from us, but there was no show on a Tuesday afternoon.

Instead Maddie enjoyed riding her new bike on her very own "open road" (aka the Jordan River trail with lines painted down the middle).

Again we attempted making paper airplanes. I say that because even with printed instructions and photos I am origami illiterate. At least it kind of flew--kind of. Maddie's folded, pasted, folded, and pasted version actually flew better than mine.


Mike put on quite the show for us. When he was younger (between 10 and 14?) he and his brothers were really into making models. It's amazing that after all these years and all his moves, he still has them almost perfectly preserved!


He was kind of like a kid again. He got out each one and told us what he remembered about it. After realizing that they couldn't play with them, the girls sort of lost interest and spent the rest of the time smashing those packing puffs into the carpet.

The whole collection.

We found some fun books at the library to go along with our theme. Maddie LOVED this book about a year ago from the library in Vegas, so I tried to find it again. It wasn't shelved in the right spot, but Maddie was helping me and she spotted it!

Sputter Sputter Sput

I love Toot and Puddle. It was perfect because they take a train, plane, bus, and bikes on their adventure.

Toot and Puddle Top of the World

Grandma and Grandpa Jensen are flying in on an airplane tomorrow night! A perfect end to our transportation week, I should say.

Vroom Vroom!

Maddie has grown an inch since her birthday (3 months ago). Her legs were just getting too long for her tricycle. She has been borrowing big bikes from neighborhood kids and eyeing one at Walmart for about a month now. We figured a new bike should be earned, and a big girl should not still be sucking her thumb.

It has been a see-saw of emotions for her--what is more treasured, the big girl bike or the comforting thumb? The first night we put band-aids on her thumbs for bed she practically cried herself to sleep, but we were so proud of her. It still takes constant reminding, and will for a long time I am sure, but this girl has proven she wants to be big.

The Unveiling

(She was very confused because I had just told her we were going to buy her bike, but Daddy already had it.)

Dana told her, "You're all decked out!" She agreed, "Yep, I'm all decorated!"

First spill... even that couldn't wipe the smile off her face.

She has been riding non-stop since (and showing it proudly to all the neighborhood kids). I think she probably rode about 3 miles yesterday.

Ella stole the sparkly shades. Who's cool now?

Bird Week

We have had an eventful week! Even though we didn't get to see the Tracy Aviary because of bad weather, we had a lot of fun learning about birds.

To get excited about the topic the first thing we did was make collages of birds.


Then during our picnic with Daddy we pretended to be birds flying. We also talked about types of birds and different kinds of feet, i.e. for swimming, scratching, catching prey, perching, etc.

Cute little birdie! Ella has been just as entranced by birds as we have. She spots them and points them out every time we go outside.

Tuesday we made bird cages out of paper (idea found thanks to the Crafy Crow).

Wednesday we met our friends at Salem Pond to swim and feed the ducks.

The girls thought it was so fun to throw the bread at them (and sneak bites for themselves in between).


Ducks can get pretty aggressive (although not as much so as geese) when they want food. Maddie was excited to get up close to this little one before it realized she didn't have any more food and made a run for the water.


Thursday we found a great bird message in this month's Ensign by President Monson, called Canaries With Gray on their Wings. They had this neat summary and activity for kids:
And on Friday instead of the Aviary we settled for a rainy day craft: painting bird houses.

Maddie wanted her whole thing fire engine red! She said when it's dry she wants to go back and paint some rainbows on it. I'm sure the birds will love that.