Watermelon Festival

This past Saturday was the Rush Springs Watermelon Festival. Rush Springs is a small town just about 30 min from us. We decided to check it out. Even though I grew up in this area I cannot remember ever going. There was a display of watermelons.
This is the Largest Watermelon category.

The winner was 114 pounds!

There were also several rides there. It was like a little carnival! Grace tried out her first roller coaster. She was not a fan though.

She preferred the "merry-go-round" much better!

There were also several little tents set up with things for sell. We walked through most of them but didn't buy anything. They had a lot of cute outfits and bows for girls.

We stopped and bought a watermelon from someone selling them out of the back of their pick up truck. Then we headed to a roadside vegetable stand that we had visited a couple of months ago. There we got a cantaloupe and a couple of peaches!

Grace wanted to eat the cantaloupe!

And Olivia got to try a little taste of watermelon!

I don't know if you can tell or not but the girls are wearing their matching watermelon pj's. Grace has really been into them wearing matching pj's every night (and every naptime!). They each had a fleece sleeper that matched. Olivia outgrew hers (0-3 months) a while back but Grace kept pulling it out and finding hers and wanting to match. I took the girls shopping at Children's Place last week and we bought matching sleepers in every design they had both their sizes in!

Sidewalk Paint

I have been finding a lot of fun things on Pinterest lately.
One of our favorites this week was the sidewalk paint recipe.

It was a bit cooler (only around 100 - we finally got some rain!) and there was a slight chance for more rain (perfect for washing our sidewalk after we were finished) so it was a great chance for us to try it out.

The recipe is simple: 1/4 cup cornstarch, 1/4 cup water mixed together with some food coloring.
I am putting food coloring and cornstarch on our shopping list for next week because we have been finding lots of fun activities that call for both of them.

Grace had a great time painting our sidewalk (she even painted the house a little!).
And we got more rain (and even cooler weather today - we spent some time outside and Grace said it was COLD!) so the cleanup was super easy :-)

We will definitely have to do this again!

Grocery Shopper

I had a little helper with me on our last grocery shopping trip!

I decided to give Grace a "job" to help keep her occupied and make shopping for food a little more fun for her. The night before our shopping trip I made our lists. Yes, we each had our own (although my list had all the things on her list and then more). Grace's list had things that she likes and things that would be easy for her to find in the store. And her list was in pictures (google images came in very handy!). There were carrots, bell peppers, milk, meat, cereal, cheese, and juice all on her list. She also got her own notepad and pen (and also some crayons). However, I think her favorite part of grocery shopping is the very last aisle. The way our store is set up, the ice cream section is the very last thing you walk by. Grace always loves to pick out a special treat before we checkout. This particular trip she chose a box of Moo Bars!

Ready for Preschool!

Since we are going to start homeschooling this year we decided we needed an office makeover.
Add some shelves and canvas storage baskets, curtains, a refurbished chair and cushion, and some paint and it looks GREAT!

The before:

The camera was foggy so this isn't a great picture but it was all I could find.
This is looking in from the door. Grace's table, easel, and shelf on the far wall. The desk is on the right and there are two windows with our big toy box between them on the left. We have a bookshelf behind the door. The wall color is undecided upon - my Mom calls it sage and our neighbor calls it taupe. Either way it is sort of dark. Add in dark floors, dark furniture, and dark blinds. Kind of a dreary place we only used as a playroom. The floors are EXCELLENT for paint projects with the girls though. They clean up quick and easy with a baby wipe!

And now for AFTER:

We moved the toy box out and put the table where the toy box was. Added Egg Custard paint to the walls (it really isn't the school bus yellow it looks in this picture). Hung some curtains (made by my Mom. THANKS!) Refurbished an old kitchen chair by painting it red and recovering a cushion (again, made by Mom). I put a cork board above the desk (trimmed it in the same material as the cushion and curtains). We also added the storage baskets and shelves. They are great for organizing all of our craft supplies, crayolas, and extra office supplies.
And I put up our Chick-a Chick-a Boom Boom tree, which is our theme for this school year.
We had Olivia's jumperoo in there so she could play while we were finishing up things and since it matched the room we decided its new home would be next to my desk.
And I have actually moved the computer back to the desk.
I just love being in our new *bright* room!

FIVE!

My Five Month Old!

Olivia is still the happiest baby around. She is ALL smiles all the time! So it wasn't hard to get some pictures of her with a big grin on her face.

We had her well baby check-up this morning (we weren't able to get an appointment at 4 months). Grace was very outgoing and greeted the nurses by asking "What is your name?" They loved starting their morning like that! Olivia gave them some smiles too :-)

She is growing up FAST!
She is up to 13 lb. 7 oz (33%) and 25 3/4 inches tall (55%).
She can now roll over (the doctor congratulated her on starting off the hard way - back to belly).
She loves her toes. She will just hold on to one foot and stare at it. She does the same with her hands. She really likes to observe everything a lot. She loves her jumperoo but after a little while she gets tired of the music and just wants to figure out how the toys work.

She is such a great sleeper!
Such the opposite of her sister (who, by the way, is now a pretty good sleeper too).
A 3 hour nap is not uncommon at all.

I wonder how much she will change this month? I just want to freeze her at this age!

Rodeo!

On Friday night we went to my little hometown's rodeo. We live just a few miles from where I grew up and it has been a few years since we had been to the rodeo (Dustin had been once before). We knew Grace would enjoy seeing all of the horses and cows!

It was HOT but the sun was going down and there was a little breeze so it didn't feel too bad at all. It started at 8pm (when we left around 7:45 it was still 100 degrees) which is past Olivia's bedtime and we knew she wouldn't enjoy being out in the heat so I put her to bed at my Grandpa's house since he lives right down the road. Maybe next year she will be able to enjoy seeing horses and cows too!

Uncle Billy showed up to watch. He rides in rodeos quite often but has been too busy working so he was just a spectator this time. He did take Grace to participate in the Calf Scrabble. It was open to all kids 12 years and younger and they chased a few cows around the arena trying to get the ribbon from their tales.

She came back and told us she won!

For a 2 year old having fun is all it takes to be a winner.

And then she wanted to go back out there and chase the cow again.

4th of July Parade

We spent the long weekend visiting Dustin's family in Joplin, MO. We wanted to enjoy some festivities so we joined some friends for his hometown parade on Saturday. It was a hot day, but not nearly as hot as it has been here in Oklahoma. I think we were there on one of their very first triple digit days but we enjoyed a but of the cooler weather!

Our friends invited us to a family get together to watch a firework display that night. Even though this was in someones backyard and put on by an individual it was one of the best shows we have ever been to. The display was set to music and we watched from the inside in the sunroom. This was Olivia's first time seeing fireworks and after a few minutes of looking at them she fell asleep!