6 Months!

On Thursday Olivia turned 6 months. Half a year has gone by since she was born. Now less than half a year left until she turns 1.

I love taking her picture each month with these blocks that our friends Chelsea and Elly got us.
She is growing so fast! I pulled out both of the girls' baby books and last month Olivia was already taller than Grace was at this age. I am not sure how big she is now but I know she is taller than she was a month ago. I just had to move her jumperoo and excersaucer to the second height position.

She loves to hold onto things. She grabs at everything! And, of course, if she can get her hands on it she puts it in her mouth. She isn't too crazy about baby food though. We have given her some here and there and she normally just spits it out. Tonight we gave her a sweet potato fry and she loved it. I think she likes to be able to hold her food and chew it.

She was kicking the block in this picture!

And she always gives us BIG smiles.
She is just the happiest baby ever!

Wordless Wednesday

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!