Friday Fun Day

A while back I posted about being afraid that the summer would pass us by and I thought I'd give you all an update. We decided (ok I decided) that we should do Friday Fun Days this summer. In order to accomplish this goal I made up some Friday Fun Sticks. I dug into the wonderful craft supplies from my mom's teaching days and found some tongue depressers. I wrote all of the fun things that we wanted to do this summer and then put them in a jar. Each week we pick one out for our Friday Fun Day.





 I am happy to report that we have already accomplished all but two of our fun sticks. We have had fun modifying and adding some as well. But, more along the lines of my last post, last Friday - we skipped Friday Fun Day. Do you know why? Because sometimes it's just as fun to stay home and enjoy your family :-)

My how they've grown!

Jeremy and I were looking at the old camera to get it ready for his trip to Guatemala and we found this fun video Kathryn took on 11-16-2010! I can't believe how much they've changed in a year and a half!! Rachel's hair is longer and thicker, and she's potty trained! Kathryn's voice is more mature and well she's as bossy as ever! In case you can't tell they are saying:
Kathryn: Now do a video
Rachel: I'm Rachel
Kathryn: What does Buzz Lightyear say?
Rachel: And Beyond!
Kathryn: What does Woody say?
Rachel: Reach for the sky
Kathryn: What does Bullseye say?
Rachel:
Kathryn: Nothing?
Kathryn: What does Jessie say?
Rachel: Yeehaw!
Kathryn: Yeehaw?
Rachel: Yeah
Kathryn: 'Kay, What does the penguin sing?
Rachel: Noone
Kathryn: Noone? That's silly!

As you may have guessed at about this time one of Rachel's "tricks" was quoting things from Toy Story... Kathryn was a very good interviewer!

Enjoy!

It's Summer... and I'm afraid

Yes, you read that right. It's summer and I'm afraid. For some reason I am afraid of not doing enough fun things this summer. I'm afraid of missing opportunities to play at the park, go run in the fountains, or see an outdoor movie. I am afraid of missing chances to hang out with really great girlfriends and let our kids play together. I am afraid of not being a good "summer" mommy. But what I am beginning to realize is that my girls are happy! They don't need huge adventures to have a fun summer. They can be quite content just blowing bubbles on a sunny afternoon :-)

 Daddy is perfectly happy with that too :-)

Crafts, Crafts, and more crafts

We've been doing some crafting here at our house to get Mommy in the right mindset for MOPS. This weekend is our Steering Team retreat and I have to be all ready to present my ideas for the year. I'm about 1/2 way there at this point but an unexpected flu bug kept me from getting too much done this weekend. Thankfully Grandma Pat is always very happy to babysit if I need some extra time to get things ready for the weekend. (I may just be calling you Grandma!) So, in the spirit of crafting here are a few projects the girls and I worked on last week.
These are the girls' new chore charts that I got finished about a week 1/2 half ago. Then I made up some quiet time boxes for them. They worked really well this last week.

Then the girls and I picked up some 3/4" blocks at Hobby Lobby this week. We tried two new projects with them. Story Dice and Puzzle Cubes. I wasn't 100% satisfied with how the puzzle blocks came out but I may try again after I am caught up on MOPS stuff. Here's another cute way to do them.So, while we had the Mod Podge out I had to try this great idea for making window clings. I didn't have a really smooth surface to do this on but I think they turned out all right anyway :-)

And that just about sums up my busy crafty week. (Other than the mending that I don't have a picture of :-) ) I did work on one MOPS project for this September but I don't want to spoil the surprise! I hope I've inspired some of you to have a crafty time this summer!

Jeremy's old toys

Jeremy and Kathryn looked in his old cubby hole the other day and found some toys that have just been waiting for a daddy and a little girl to play with them. These are wooden blocks with little knobs that stick up (similar to legos). The girls have really enjoyed playing with them and I think Daddy has too!

Sitting with Santa

Here are the girls sitting on Santa's lap at the eye doctor's office. Rachel went first because Kathryn was a bit unsure about it. Rachel thought it was a piece of cake!

Craft Time

This year for our November and December craft at MOPS we painted blocks and put stickers on them to make a kid friendly nativity.Grandpa Jerry cut all of the blocks for us and there were just enough sets of blocks for Kathryn and Rachel to each make their own. The girls just love to do crafts with Mommy and they had a blast painting, stickering, and gluing these blocks.Kathryn always has her own idea of how to do crafts and no matter how I plead her crafts are always very different than what I envision.Rachel is usually very excited to join in the fun but crafts don't keep her attention as well as toys at this point.

My Girls

I have been struggling all summer to get a good picture of both of the girls actually looking at the camera. So, the other day when Daddy got this picture at Reptile Gardens I was thrilled. We've had a really fun summer and we are enjoying the beautiful fall weather (at least for now!).

My girls and their wild hair!

My girls have definitely got some of the Johnson curl in their hair! The second photo is of both girls smiling for the camera. Kathryn's not really into getting her picture taken right now. ;-)

The Sertoma Butterfly House

On our first full day in Sioux Falls we visited the Sertoma Butterfly House, the Sertoma park, and the GF&P Outdoor Campus. Here are a few of my favorite butterfly pictures.

Rachel just wanted to pick flowers and throw them in the water.

This butterfly was huge and had transparent spots in it's wings!

Kathryn was flying like a butterfly all over the place.

The girls were not cooperating for a picture together at all!

This was our lunch at the Sertoma park. I thought it was fitting!

Trip to Sioux Falls

Last week we took an impromptu trip to Sioux Falls, SD. Jeremy was headed there for some training for work and the girls and I decided to tag along. Kathryn was so excited to stay in a motel!! We had lots of fun. The girls weren't too cooperative for pictures though so this may be the only "good" picture I have of both girls from the trip.

SleepOver Pictures!

A few weeks ago I took the girls to Penney's for some sleepover pictures. We had a lot of fun getting pictures taken and then the girls got to play in the play place at the mall. What a great day!!

Blogging

You know, I'm really not much of a writer and I guess that means I'm not much for blogging either. But, I'm ok with that. Here are some pictures of life with the Johnson's :-)

Piggytail Day!

Ice Cream Bucket Hat Day! (Rachel was wearing a wastebasket on her head and Mommy decided that an ice cream bucket would be cleaner and more see-through!)

Hiking

For Labor Day weekend we went hiking! We were thinking a nice easy hike around Sylvan Lake sounded like fun so we headed up to Custer State Park. When we got there a few people in our group thought that the Sunday Gulch trail sounded interesting and it was only 2.8 miles, so do-able, right? Well, we all went along so no one was left out and I think maybe the girls and I should have just played on the beach! When the map said Strenous, they were not joking! But, we all made it home, safe and sound. A few in our party waited by the switchbacks on the Needles Highway and we came back and picked them up. We all had a good time even though it was a bit more than we bargained for. The scenery was awesome! Here are a few pictures from our hike!

Who has the most hair?

Rachel is in the 1st picture and Kathryn at about the same age is in the 2nd picture.

Well, here's the proof, Rachel definitely has more hair at 17 months than Kathryn did. I was pretty sure but it's hard to remember these kinds of things. I can tell you one thing for sure, Rachel doesn't get to make cookies with Momma nearly as often as Kathryn did :-)

Bobbie Jo's Wedding