Re-Happy Birthday Monica!!

Hello! And welcome to part 2 of Monica's birthday!  We had a pretty great day.  Monica got new cooling racks, and just in time to make her cake.  Some cake got stuck, but Winry helped to take care of that.  The cake ended up terrific, and we'll see the final product when we sing happy birthday!

In the afternoon, while Monica was making the cake, the girls and I headed to the basement to make a special surprise for Monica.  We made her a Mario birthday level in Mario Maker 2!  Monica aced her way through it like a pro, and loved the level!  After dinner we all played some Mario Kart together while we waited to be more hungry so we could have cake.  Winry started to experiment with some alternate positions for optimal Mario Karting.  Did it help?  I'm not sure.  Did it hinder her?  Finishing position wise... no.

Racing gave us all huge appetites, so we headed back to the table for cake and ice cream.  We lit the candles, then re-lit the one that went out, and then sang happy birthday!  Monica had a wonderful day, and enjoyed sleeping on our new king size mattress!

Speaking of new beds, I had a box in my office that Jelly was climbing into and taking naps, so I decided to get her a pet bed to replace it.  The bed came, and so far Jelly has gotten in it exactly once, for about 15 seconds...  I was sure she'd love it, and I still think there's hope for the future.

One evening the girls were playing and bonked heads!  Brooke was climbing on me and Winry ran into her.  Winry ran to the kitchen to Monica who got her an ice pack!  She did a really great job keeping it on all by herself.

Brooke got an ice pack too!  It was funny to watch them both hold big ice packs to their foreheads while they were walking around getting ready for bed.

On Saturday I got back to work on the mantel.  I put up some wood on the sides earlier in the week, and then I taped everything off Saturday morning and sprayed everything with black paint.  The previous paint was completely worn off in places and needed a refresh.  We opened all the windows and everyone went upstairs after I painted it.  The smell was gone in about an hour or so, so that was a pretty pleasant surprise.  Also, the high yesterday was only around 75 or so, so it was definitely the day to paint so the windows could stay open!

Later in the afternoon, Jelly took a nap on the bed that's currently in the living room.  We still haven't gotten rid of our queen size mattress...  Anyway, it is apparently the perfect size pet bed for Jelly, and she slept in the middle of it for a good 6 hours.  To be fair, when she laid down she was in the sun, so I'm sure that helped her decision.  Also, she rolled into several positions, but the best was probably this one where she had her front paws sticking straight out in front of her!

For family movie night on Friday we watched an episode of Dora the Explorer.  This led to a nightmare on Brooke's part last night where Swiper came and stole Cheesers (her stuffed caterpillar she was sleeping with), and all 3 of her blankets!  I asked why she didn't say "Swiper no swiping" and she said it was because he came when she was asleep!

Coincidentally, the stuff of dreams tends to make it into reality (or maybe vice versa) and all morning today the girls have been playing Swiper no swiping.  That's actually a pretty common game, and the girls typically play it for at least a day every time after they watch Dora.  Pretty exciting morning!

Happy Anniversary and Birthday Monica!

What a celebratory week!  To kick things off, we had Monica and my anniversary on Monday!  We were lucky enough to be able to get tickets to the zoo, so I took the day off work and we headed there!  Currently you can only go one way around the zoo, and they only let in a certain number of people every 15 minutes, so things were very calm and there were not many people around us.  It was pretty nice to not have a crowd, and we had a lot of fun finally getting to go back.

There was also a big Lego exhibit going on with lots of animals made out of Legos throughout the zoo.  Here was a life size rinho!  And in the previous picture the polar bear and cubs were all Legos too.

We of course saw the flamingos.  The girls were very excited to see them again.

Here we all are looking at a rather larger than life humming bird!

The tiger was up close when we came by too!  I think he had recently been fed, because he was licking the ground in the same spot a whole lot!  All in all it was a very good trip.  We were able to see lots of animals, and they were out and easy to see.  We all had a great time.

That afternoon, Brooke had her first day of her new dance class!  She is even in this one with some of her friends from the ward!  She was very excited, and after dance said she likes ballet and tap and tumbling (it's a combo class) more than hip hop!  So I expect she'll have a great time this year.

Monica took Brooke to dance, and while they were out Winry and I played in the back yard.  We were out in the pool swimming and going down the slide.  Winry kept getting "stuck" on the slide if it wasn't wet enough, so I had to make sure I kept it wet for her.

After swimming I swung Winry for a while, and then we did some somersaults and cartwheels.  Winry is not quite a cartwheeler yet, but she was having a lot of fun and was being really cute!

On Tuesday, the girls started preschool again!  In the end we decided to do preschool at home and Monica got a curriculum online to follow.  The girls were very excited to get started.  Here's Brooke, who still very much wants to be a vet.  When we were at the zoo on Monday we passed the new animal hospital and she is very excited for when it is completed.  She hopes to work there one day.

Winry was all raring to go on her first day.  Also, she got really into sunglasses during our day at the zoo.  When asked, Winry said she wanted to be a mommy when she grew up.  When I asked her about it later that day she said she was already big, and ready to have a baby.....

We got a little table for preschool, and the girls have snacks at it, as well as doing other activities.

Wednesday morning was Winry's first dance class!  First one ever!  She was very excited.  We thought we'd end up just dropping her off, but they arranged things so that parents could stay in a waiting room and see the class on a TV.  When I saw the videos I asked Monica "Didn't Winry want to join in?" when I saw the two kids running in circles around her.  Monica then pointed out that Winry was the only kid in her class paying attention and following the teacher and wasn't actually supposed to be running around.  Great job Winry!

Jelly joined me at work while I was in a meeting Thursday morning.  She decided sleeping on top of her bed was too exposed, and wiggled her way in the middle of it.

The girls got to do finger painting at preschool, and loved it!  Monica taped out their names on paper and then they painted all over it.  They had a lot of fun, and Brooke was excited to get to wear a very large shirt.

On Friday afternoon Monica had a doctors appointment so the girls and I headed to the back yard.  There was swinging and swimming, much like earlier in the week.  However, we also got a stadium seat thing earlier in the week to allow the floor to have a back rest, and it's been a pretty hot item with the girls since.  Winry was tipping back and forth in it while Brooke was in the swing.

Brooke wanted to swing and be twisty, and so she was.  After swinging Brooke took the little seat into the pool because one of the reasons we got it was because Monica thought it would be nice to have a seat we could put in the pool, so Brooke tried it out!

On Friday, our new king size bed came!  Monica asked for it as an Aniv-irth-mas present.  So we made a bed swap on Friday.  The bed was heavy enough that it was ripping the box apart to try to pick it up/move it around, so I had to push the box up the stairs to our room.  Once we got there it was time to let the mattress inflate!  Also, after being careful to get the mattress in the right orientation before opening the package we put it on turned 90 degrees, and the original way we laid it down was correct... sigh.

However, you are supposed to give the mattress 24-72 hours before it is ready, which means it was back to the queen bed... in the living room...  I slept great!  Monica less so.

Brooke and Winry were playing queens on Saturday and wrapping their blankets around themselves as capes!

And I was able to make some more progress on Brooke's bed.  It's done to the point of being able to hold a mattress, however I still need to make a railing around it so she can't fall out in the middle of the night.

After months of struggling, Brooke has been doing a great job of going to bed recently, and as a reward I took her on a daddy daughter date to get ice cream!  We went to Butterfields to pick it up, and then ate in the car before heading home.

This morning Brooke was very excited to help make Monica a very special breakfast for her birthday.  She came down and put on her apron to help out.

Brooke really wanted to do an omelette bar for Monica's birthday, which has been pre-approved by Monica!  We put together a menu really quick and took it up to Monica so she could pick her breakfast.

 

We're currently half way through the birthday, so there will be more to write about next week!  Monica is currently being crazy and doing the dishes because her afternoon nap wasn't long enough for me to write this post and then go take care of them, so I gotta go! Have a wonderful week, and Happy Birthday Monica!!!!

Swimming at the Creek!

Hello again!  With the baby getting ever closer we've decided to try to get out of the house as much as possible while we can.  We headed back over to the creek on Monday, and for the first time ever there was someone playing in the spot where we went with cousins a week ago...  I wandered down the creek a little farther to see what was beyond the bridge, and there was another great spot just a little farther down.  It was a bit harder to get to, as you went down a dirt path and through some trees that were about as tight together as the stroller is wide, but we made it down and had a great time!  There was even a cool log in the creek for the girls to sit on!

Rewinding to Sunday, Winry was playing with the T.O.T.S. babies an they all ended up around her plate eating lunch!  Looks like they were hungry!

Sunday afternoon Winry was having a hard time so I headed up to her room with her to help her take a nap.  She was upset enough that she wasn't going to go down on her own, and I was tired enough I didn't make it out... :)  We napped together for a time, and when I woke up I put her in her crib, but she woke up in the process and stood up and started crying "No nap daddy!  No nap!!" so we both got up.

Sunday afternoon, the girls got out some balloon crafts that we got from Niki while on family vacation.  You may remember the flamingo ones they put together.  Well, this time it was toucans!  The girls loved making them, and I believe even made them at the end of the family call with Niki!

On Monday during the day, Monica put out a sprinkler on the lawn for the girls to play in.  The girls had a lot of fun so I ordered a turtle sprinkler that they played with the next day!  It was a little surprising, as the girls typically don't like getting water in their faces, but Brooke was loving it and ran through the sprinklers over and over!

Then Winry and I played this really awesome game where we alternate dropping rocks in a bucket of water.  Once you put them all in, Winry takes them all back out and... you do it again!

Brooke also helped Monica wash the car!  I guess when you're out running in a sprinkler, you're also ready to wash a car!

Once I got off work Monday, we headed to the creek!  Everyone had a great time and we stayed pretty late.  Here I am with Winry!  Also, this spot had a lot of bugs at it, while the other didn't.  We did have bug spray, and after a quick application I think we were all pretty much left alone, so at least they weren't really persistent. 

We brought some of the girls toys and Brooke and I made this castle.  Here we are posing with it before Winry noticed.

And here's where we put our fort.  Right on the bank watching both up and down stream for invaders.  Unfortunately when Winry invaded the troops weren't ready, and one step later the strong hold was gone...  That's okay though, we were having lots of fun skipping rocks and eating chips too!

Once the castle was down, Brooke started doing... this...?  I don't know, but I liked the pictures, and the important part is that we were having fun!  Somehow, in spite of the immense fun, we only made it out once last week.  I think we'll have to go again this week too, though it was a bit of work.

This past week the girls also got to return to a playground!  We picked a really small one in our neighborhood that typically no one goes to.  The girls were allowed to play if no one else was there, and after Monica cleaned things off.  Brooke was a trooper and helped Winry out as they played.  

They had a great time, but apparently 6 months of pandemic was enough for Winry to forget what a slide was!  She was also afraid to go down.  I'm sure they'll get back into the swing of things soon!

A grass hopper jumped on the window to the office this past week.  Jelly was really excited about that.  As you can see she would jump up and paw at it and try to get it.  However, I tried to get a video and she just sat there.  She had jumped up right before, and while taking the video I decided I'd give it a minute max.  The video is 1:06 long, and I kid you not, I stopped the video and she jumped back up at it...  Anyway, I didn't put in the video because it's not that interesting.

On Thursday, Monica went and picked up the girls new dance shoes for dance classes that start next week!  Brooke got new tap shoes, and so I had to bring the "tap board" in so they could dance!  And dance they did.  They had a superb time.

Friday was family movie night, and once we picked a movie, Jelly decided she wanted to be part of the action and promptly laid down on the DVD case.

On Saturday, I continued to work on various projects around the house.  We're working on a new mantel for our fireplace, and we're going to replace the tile as well.  Here's a before.

And then Monica and I ripped down the tile.  We only needed the top tiles taken off so we could put the new mantel on, and having the mantle in the garage was preventing me from working on other projects because I didn't want to coat it in sawdust, etc.  So it was finally time to rip some tile down!

And here's the new mantel up!  Just pretend like there's some really nice looking tile below it.

On Saturday I went to Home Depot to get some more supplies for various projects, and one thing I needed was plywood.  I took the seats out of the back of the van, and it turns out the van is basically exactly 4 feet by 8 feet!  Perfect fit!

I spent the day fixing sprinklers, mowing the lawn, working on Brooke's bed, and more!  Needless to say I was ready for bed last night, and this morning I was rather sore!  I started feeling better once I got up and going and have been having a lovely Sunday.  I'm feeling ready for the week ahead.  With both our anniversary, and Monica's birthday it promises to be a busy week, but it's going to be wonderful as well!  Have a wonderful week!