wild as bucks- and I loooove it!

I was taking clean, dry cloth diapers off the line.

Ran inside to grab a basket of clean, wet diapers to hang when I heard loud squeals from the kids.

I pop out of the basement door in time to see that they had kidnapped the entire bag of balls from their bouncy pit, dumped them, and were using my clothes line as a sort of basketball goal.

If they are not messes, I don't know what they are!

:)

Toasty outside!

Baby, it's hot outside!

Mid-90's already?

What am I in for this summer?!

Kids don't seem to notice the heat, though, do they?!

Bouncing!

Tasting some mulch!

Pretending to be store keepers!

Swinging girl!

Love them!!

The kiddos!

My friend Kate got a new camera!

We visited Tequita, my doula and dear friend, bringing the kids!

Here are a few of the photos from the afternoon:

Keelin of the jungle.

Jackson really enjoyed his strawberry shortcake.

Clearly.

Jackson making friends with Callie!

They loved the trampoline!

Love my itty critters!

My happy-

A few photos that just make me smile!

My niece and my daughter, running at the park.

Photo by Tim, of course.

Keelin swinging last fall!

Betcha can't guess who took this one?

Yep, Tim.

1yr old Jackson on Mommy & Daddy's bed.

So precious.

Photo by Daddy.

My husband learning to knit in the preschool pickup line!

Super AMAZING cell phone picture by me ;)

Have you added my button yet?

Let me know if you decide to add my button to your blog.

I'd like to thank you!

Copy-crafting!

This morning, I was catching up on my blog reading. I read one of Kory's recent entries on Live Completely and was inspired!

Jackson and I ran to the craft store and picked up some essentials and I got started making Waldorf-inspired toys for him and Keelin. I have always purchased these kinds of learning toys, but have never even considered that I might be able to successfully make them myself! You know, let's be real. I LOVE handmade toys and LOVE unique educational materials to use with my little ones, but we're on a budget! I don't have an endless supply of funds to spend on Etsy, so anything that I can do myself is a great benefit!

Bitty Man armed and ready!

He helped me put together and paint a wooden tractor model!

No pictures, though. It was "his." Nooo pictures!

$1.00 for a wooden basket!

Perfect for holding peg people!

Like these!

That fit into bean pot candle cups like these!

Kinda line this!

I made a set of 6, a rainbow!

Blue, Yellow, Red, Green, Purple, and Orange!

A Power family easter basket! :)

I also picked up a bag of recycled cardboard eggs!

The bottom left egg is unpainted for this photo.

Just thought I'd share what I spent my afternoon doing!

I did some sorting balls in the colors to match the cups,

pastels for the eggs!

All finished!

Haven't decided whether or not to give the other peg people faces...

Anyway, visit Kory and show her some love! She writes a delightful blog!

I'm planning to make these and more for favors to give guests at Keelin's 5th birthday party this summer- no plastic ickiness here!

If you're one of Keelin's friends mommies, I ruined the surprise, but I just had to share :)

Learning!

Yesterday, we prepared for the storm.

Today, it was icky outside.

We took it as a perfect opportunity for a little learning!

Keelin and Tim practiced tying her shoes!

She practiced using the awesome shoes her paternal grandmother, her Mimi, customized for her with Sharpies! Dawn is just too darn creative... great lady!

There she goes!

Very serious!

And guess what? Our Doodle did it!

Keelin tied her shoes!! :)

My best friend of 20 years, sister of my heart, threw her daughter (my now 7 year old niece) an awesome birthday party at a rollerskating rink today! Perfect for how icky it was outside!

I got ballsy and rented Jackson the TEENIEST pair of skates I have ever seen!

(The boy wears a size 6 in toddler shoes- haha!)

There was a lot of booty meeting the floor, but by the end of the morning, both kids were rolling around independently!! Not necessarily skating, but definitely rolling around without ending up in the floor!

This is just so sweet, it makes me Mommy mush.

I love what a great dad Tim is.

I love what a great big sister and daughter Keelin is.

I love that Jackson thinks his sister and dad are the COOLEST people on the planet.

Because, of course, they are!

I, clearly, didn't skate. But I did get to spend a lot of time holding sweet little hands and picking little selves up off of the floor! Loved it!

Where do you put the batteries?!

I was playing with my munchkins this afternoon and decided to snap some photos of them playing. I can count on two hands the toys these kids have that are battery-powered. Most of our toys are kid-powered :)

We used to have all of the light up, noise making, Disney character covered plastic junk. The more I researched, got headaches from the noise, and realized that the mess was NOT something I wanted in my home, we started slowly but surely minimizing the number and type of toys in our house. At last count, we have 7 toys that require some sort of power, including the tv that I have in the back of the house for the kids to watch the occasional movie on. The rest is mostly wooden, imagination requiring, and I love it! And so do they!

Keelin trying to use a wooden pizza cutter on a wooden apple stuck together in the middle with velcro. She's wearing a bioME 5 "K for Kangaroo" shirt.

Click here to see bioME 5's organic clothing options for kids!

Here is Jackson playing with the apple and Keelin playing with the darn pizza cutter ;) She's cutting a wooden loaf of sliced "bread" held together with velcro.

They were pretty hung up on play food this afternoon, but you can also see the Plan Toys lace up shoe, and the Melissa and Doug toys- the word matching game, the tool set, etc. We love Melissa and Doug, even though their items are mostly made in China and we wish they would make them here in the U.S.A.

Jackson, making a pizza for his big sissy!

Little mess maker! Keelin would run away before I could take many pictures with her in them. Don't know why she was being camera shy today :-/

So there ya go, y'all! Just a little peek into the toybox. So many people act like our kids are deprived because they don't have TONS of toys or the "latest and greatest," but shoot, they are happy kids and I feel good about what they have to play with. Kid-powered is the way we like to do it at our house :)

Oh, Happy Thursday!

While our friends spent the day wearing green and such, we didn't celebrate Saint Patrick's Day. We spent the. entire. day. outside! I have the pink shoulders (ouchie!) to prove it :)



Keelin at her finest and Jackson was climbing her chair. Wild ones!


This is how we spent our day! The kids got so muddy and messy that I changed their play clothes 3 times! That is how you can tell it was an awesome time!! :)

Jackson went mud puddle stomping, clearly. This is about the time we started going barefoot! ;)

Here is my 15 week and 4 day belly picture! I am starting to get a bump! Finally! This is just so exciting. :)

Oh, as for being productive today... I put diapers on the clothes line and took them off. Not productive, but I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed spending the day doing nothing but playing with my kids and enjoying the beautiful weather in my chair outside.

For the loves of our lives-

Tim and I decided this winter that as soon as the weather started acting Spring-like, we would get the kids some play gym things for the back yard. When I was out of town a couple of weekends ago for Elizabeth's baby shower, Tim put together the airplane teeter totter and the swingset. The swingset is small, sweet, and to the point. The airplane teeter totter is by no means minimalist- it was simply purchased for the love of the kids. Here are a few pictures of Tim's projects!


Keelin steering and Jackson hanging on for dear life!


Keelin pushing Jackson!


The airplane that nearly caused Tim and my little brother's heads to explode- it took 4 hours to build!



Our precious loves swinging together this afternoon!


I hate that the swing's chain was in the way of his face in this picture. He was just radiating pure joy.

Special thanks to Tim for being an amazing Daddy to our little ones. Any man can be a father. It takes something special to be a Daddy. So glad I'm married to one!