Jumpin' Sunday

One Sunday morning, you both turned into superheroes. Julia, you had CANDY POWER and a little Sister and the powers of sticky power. You were SWEETHEART (and had socks to match, very cleverly). Aidan, you were FIREHEAD with the power of FIRE, then you were WATERMAN with the power of WATER, then you were CAMO-man, who could camouflage himself, and then finally wound up being STICKYMAN with similar CANDYPOWERS to SWEETHEART.

You were abducted by the villanous BOUNCER and taken to his lair- network of obstacles, tunnels, mechanical bulls, trampolines, and balls to dodge,-so he could steal your crystal power from you and never return it. 

Despite a temporary truce on the dodgeball court, the battle continued through the bouncey afternoon:

Victorious, and kind of forgetting about their super hero identities, the two of you were treated to popsicles- where you seemed to battle eachother for some reason? or maybe you were dancing?- and swimming with the now-reformed villain and his better-half.

And then you moved on to your next challenge: battling the CHESSMASTER!

Get Medieval

In May, Uncle BJ and I bought Medieval Times Groupons.

So you know what that means? In July we got to get Medieval again! This time with Asher and Sawyer, Aunt Kari, and Uncle BJ!

We hooted, we hollered, we cheered on our YELLOW knight until he was decidedly executed in his first battle. Then we cheered on whomever was left, and whomever was winning.  

There were three Lords, who picked a fight they definitely won.

There was a regal lady who CAUGHT the carnation thrown to her by the Yellow knight (pre-death).

And there were goofballs, jesters, chicken on a bone, and a LOT of fun!

The pageantry continued at home, where the royal lifestyle suited us medievally. 

Julia Princess Fairy Cooking Lessons

Julia, we went to the bookstore over the weekend. You had been talking about buying a cook book for a couple of days. You know, so you could read the recipes, and cook the recipes, and learn to be a princess. When we got to the store, you couldn't decide on the Princess Cookbook or the Fairy Cookbook....so you bought both!

When we got back, you and I ventured out on making the first recipe: Princess Fairy Marshmallow Pops. 

There were three ingredients: marshmallows, sprinkles, and icing. 

We didn't have any icing, so we made our own. That had like 5 ingredients: powdered sugar, butter, milk, vanilla, and a little bit of salt.

You and I worked as a team from top to bottom on the recipe. 

You mixed the icing, added the food coloring, did all the prepwork and sprinkling of sprinkles...

And...man oh man... did they look good!

You, me, and Aidan did a LOT of taste testing along the way. The sugar intake probably lent themselves to the super smiles.

...and the yummy taste led to a LOT more taste-testing.

We froze the marshmallows, and waited for EVER (7 minutes).

Finally, when we sat down to taste, I decided to video the tasting.

The verdict: "These are Sweet. TOO sweet. Can I have another?"

THEN, after seeing the video, you decided you wanted to make an entire Cooking Show! So we ret-conned some footage, and you and your brother stickily hovered over my shoulder as you guided the creative edit of the video, including musical choice and sound effects.

The video turned out super sweet!

I hope this week goes by fast so we can get on to the next cooking lesson, sweet treat, and video!

Some Sweet Summer

Summer is going by too quickly from my viewpoint. But I am so thankful for all of the quiet moments, splashy fun, family time, Grancamp adventures, and even for the slow chaos of living in a construction zone. 

I sometimes find myself battling the urge to do activities and just 'do nothing' (which winds up being less stress and more fun sometimes!) This summer you both have really taught me a lot about slowing down and, as you have been saying lately Aidan, "just go with the flow."

In one day, I helped each of you make something awesome. Julia- you and I made cupakes!

Aidan- we made slime!

You've also spent a good deal of the summer away from me and mommy, as mommy is going back to school and I'm at work. You've been spending weeks with Mimi and Pops and Yaya and Baba. Sleepovers, swimming, hot tubbing, cooking, making, playing, and loving.

Big hits this summer: STENCILS, Cousin Kaelyn, Cousin Holden, Dogs! (including Sandy), Weird Al Yankovic, Boxes, Sleepmasks, Grancamp, Friends, Cursive, Addition, Sewing, and Bone.

This summer has been full of reading, drawing, learning, playing, and dreaming. Here's just a small sample of what you've been up to, and how much you've grown!