Messy Monday - #1

 Let me tell you some things about my friend, Carolyn.  She has a background in special education.  She is the mother of three boys.  Her parents have a great big backyard that they are willing to let us invade.  She is very awesome.  All of these facts came together and the result: Messy Mondays!  I am so thankful for Carolyn and her creativity and willingness to put these things together.  

Messy Mondays are exactly what they sound like - a bunch of my mama friends getting together on a Monday for the kids to do something messy.  It's great for me, since I am not inclined to be a very messy mama, so it gets me out of my box so to speak, and I'm sure my kids appreciate it.

We had our first Messy Monday this week and the kids had a great time.  Our messy activity was shaving cream painting!

Enjoy...

 Adam was a little reluctant at first - he's always been more of an investigator than a dive-right-in kind of guy.

 

 Once I put some shaving cream on my hand to show him, though, he was on board.

Clara really surprised me with her enthusiasm.  She started off playing on the blanket with the other babies.  After a bit, I brought her over to see what the big kids were doing and once she saw that she said, "enough of this baby stuff...I want to get messy!"

This was only the beginning...

  

 Then she dove right in!  After this point, I could no longer get her to look at the camera as she was completely focused on the task at hand.

  

"This is awesome!"

"Oh no, what have I done?"

  

 Afterwards, the kids played in the water to clean off.  This is more Adam's kind of activity and he loved this part.

  

Again, Clara surprised me.  Normally she isn't a huge fan of water that sprays, but she was totally into this.

I'd say our first Messy Monday was a success!  Stay tuned for future messes  :)

Thankful

This has been a year of growth and change for Adam and the Swensons.  We are so thankful for many people that God has put in our path - amazing people who are very good at what they do.  Ms. Jessica has been Adam's preschool teacher this year and, unfortunately, will not be back next year.  I wanted to get a photo of her with Adam on the last day of school, since she has been instrumental in Adam's progress this year and Adam loves her.

Adam and Ms. Jessica

In the midst of all the crazy...

there's a lot of sweetness, too.

Porch Beautification: It's Coming Along

My latest mission has been to get our porch looking a little prettier.  I've always wanted a house with a beautiful front porch and rocking chairs.  While our porch now is a little smaller than my ultimate vision, I still think I can beautify it.  Step one was the wreath.  I did the patriotic wreath for occasions, but I wanted one for everyday use.  So, off to Pinterest I went and here is what I came up with...

This idea totally stood out to me and it was so great to be able to choose exactly the colors I wanted.  Of course, if your address is longer, you may want to use smaller numbers.

THEN, I found this idea for tiered flower pots and, again, was so excited that since I was making it myself, the colors would match perfectly.

So, here we are so far.  Next up is power washing the porch to see what I can do about that ugly mysterious design that has been stained into the porch since we moved in.  Have no fear, if it doesn't come off with power washing, I already have an idea for a super cute door mat to put over it.  I also have been entertaining ideas of painting the porch.  Time will tell.  Oh the excitement!!!  Stay tuned  :)

The Children

Our firstborn is now three and a half years old.  He is very active and wants to be outside all the time.  The neighbor kids have taken a huge interest in him and his sister and ring our doorbell daily to see if Adam can play.  Adorable.

Here is our handsome boy!  He's sitting on the counter getting ready to feed Gill, his fish.

Ugh, I love this boy.  We have such fun together.  My favorite thing is when we cook together.  He is so curious and enthusiastic. He has also become quite the reader - both on his own and with Mama and Daddy.  We got him some "Bob Books" on the recommendation of our librarian and he is able to read them aloud all by himself.  He is a great hiker and still likes trains, diggers, and fire trucks.  He loves people and thrives on play and cuddles - SO endearing.  People are drawn to him

The girl is sixteen months old and has developed her own sweet and spicy personality.  She loves Mama and Daddy, but is also very social.  She waves and blows kisses to everyone.

Here she is playing with her friend Mason.  We are so sad that Mason is moving away this week, but we hope to reunite them in the future and continue their budding romance.

She went from having two teeth to six in the period of a week.  It wasn't the best week of her life, but she took it surprisingly well.  It is amazing to me how she mimics everything that Adam does and catches on to things so quickly.  She loves life.

Her favorite food is pizza and her favorite song is "The Wheels on the Bus."  She likes playing outside, but doesn't love feeling the grass on her legs and prefers to stay at the water table on the deck splashing around.  She says da da, cat, dog, hi, and up, and she points to all the people in her family.  She is such a sweet girl and we are all quite smitten with her.

Just wanted to share some photos of my two loves!

Claire's Wedding and a Trip to the MN

We traveled back to the Motherland for my cousin Claire's wedding over Memorial Day Weekend.  Well, actually we had to stop off in Wisconsin for the wedding, but don't worry, we scurried back across the border just as soon as we could  :)

The wedding was outstanding.  We got to see lots of family and it was a truly beautiful wedding celebrating two lovely people.  The kids were real troopers, sleeping in four different places over the course of the trip.  They were a bit overwhelmed at times, but really hung in there like champs and had plenty of fun in the process.

Once again, it was a real whirlwind, so I didn't get as many photos as I would have liked.  I need to be better about bringing my camera so that I can capture all the memories of the kids with their family.  These photos were either taken with Phil's iphone or lifted off of my Aunt Bethy's facebook page.  Enjoy some of the highlights...

Waiting for the wedding to begin.

Phil and me at the reception.

My cousin Nicole is missing from this photo, but this is the closest we've come to having ALL the Vanden Boom girl cousins together in...well a long time.  Very cool photo.  We could have included Clara, but she's a different generation.  And she was in bed.  Mostly the second reason (you'll notice Adam crept in there)  Left to Right:  Lauren, Shawna, Kenzie, Me (and Adam), Claire (the beautiful bride!), Addie, Maddie, Carlie, Jacque, Grace, and Brooklyn 

The day after the wedding, we proceeded to the Lake to spend some time chilling with The Fam.  It was very relaxing and the kids had an AWESOME time with Grandma and Grandpa and all of their aunts, uncles, great aunts, and great uncles and second cousins.  There were a lot of them!

Here is Clara with Aunt Jessie.  Jessie fashioned this head piece out of her sweater to protect Clara's little head from the sun - hilarious!  Clara kept it on the entire afternoon.

Grandma and her girl.

Adam enjoying his Unco Matty and his second cousins.

Here's a picture of my dad chillin' but check out Clara in the background on my mom's lap.  Excellent.

Investigating the boat with Grandma.  The kids spent a good part of the afternoon just hanging out in the boat.

Down in Albert Lea, Adam had a very memorable experience - he got to sit on Shelley for the first time!  I was so proud of him because he was not scared at all and totally loved it.
He also got to take lots of walks with Grandma, feed the chickens and collect eggs with Grandpa and play with lots of toys in the yard.

Shelley wasn't the only animal Adam was interested in riding.  As you can see, Adam and Birdie (my parents' dog) have really bonded.  I couldn't believe Birdie just let Adam sit on her like that.

Mama and Clara enjoying some beautiful Minnesota weather.  Grandpa Casey got Clara started on her golf game this trip.  There's room for improvement.  She'll just stick to driving the cart for a couple more years.

Good times with the grandparents.

These last two shots kind of wrap it all up.  The kids were so tired from all their fun that they both slept for two hours on the plane ride home!

Who Needs A Paci?

 We've been working on weaning Clara off of her true love: the paci.  She's been doing really well.  She still has it when she sleeps and in the car, but other than that, we have very few complaints.  She's been finding some awfully creative alternatives, though.  

Exhibit A:  A plastic piece of celery from her play food

And, my personal favorite...

Put a cork in it!!!