Fairy Garden

For the past year, Eleanor has loved all things dinosaur.  We have listened to dinosaur songs (oh yes, two whole CD's full of songs about dinosaurs), done dinosaur puzzles, read countless dinosaur books, seen the dinosaurs at the zoo (twice), thrown a dinosaur birthday party, visited Dinosaur World in Plant City, eaten at the dinosaur restaurant in Downtown Disney, visited the dinosaur store in Cocoa Beach, watched The Land Before Time and many episodes of Dinosaur Train, and pretended to be dinosaurs many, many times.  I have completely loved her fascination with dinosaurs (along with planets and pirates, two of her other favorite things), but I have to admit that I'm excited that she is finally into something a little girly: fairies!

Eleanor loves telling stories about fairies and pretending to be a fairy, so today we made a fairy garden.  I took her to Michael's and let her pick out a few things.  It was fun to see what she wanted for it versus what I would have picked out.  They had a little set of  toy fairies, but she said that she didn't want those because she already has fairies; they're just invisible.  I love her imagination!

First, her's my fairy and her double-tailed dinosaur brother going on a walk.

We looked at lots of bird houses, but this is the one Eleanor picked out to be her fairy house.  She also picked out her paint colors and spent a long time painting her fairy house just how she wanted it.

We got a little one for Arthur to paint too.  This kept him occupied for probably 30 minutes!  He painted for a long time, then when I thought he was done he did the sign for more.  I gave him another color and he kept signing for more colors.  He is quite the little artist!

So proud!

Arthur's final product
Of course you can't tell, but the inside is almost completely painted!

Eleanor's fairy house

Eleanor's fairy garden.  The "mushrooms" are actually wooden drawer pulls from Lowe's that I painted.

She loves it!  We keep it in this box so that she can put the lid on (after taking the fairy house out since it's so big) and keep out destructive little brothers.  It's also nice because it can just slide under her bed for storage.

Growing up

It has been over a month since my last post, and I'm too overwhelmed to remember what all has happened in that time.  So instead, here are some pictures!

Arthur really loves wearing headbands.  Not sure what Eleanor is up to here.

I love those rare occasions when they actually work together on something.

Buela came to visit over her spring break.

Arthur built that shorter tower all by himself

My TALL 18-month-old!  He is growing up so fast!

Sibling love

Eleanor wanted to have her picture taken, too.

Some friends and I went to a chocolate factory in Orlando where you get to make your own chocolates.  SO fun!!

My kids were fans, too.

I bought several crates in an attempt to organize my closet.  Eleanor found them before I put them away though, and decided that she was a predator and would hide and wait for her prey.  "I am camouflaged!"   Then she started calling Arthur her prey...

Of course, whatever big sister does, he has to try too.

I just found him on here one day playing with the airport.

My little dinosaur helper

All boy

They are growing up so fast!!

Dinosaurs and more

A few weeks ago we went to Tampa and our first stop was Dinosaur World.

Yup, it's just a huge park with life sized dinosaurs!  The museum had some very cool fossils too.

Dinosaur playground

This little girl was in heaven

Digging for fossils

Eleanor wasn't the only one excited by the dinosaurs!

We walked rather quickly past some of the displays...

Eleanor's favorite dinosaur, Orfax the Dilophosaurus, next to a life sized replica.

(And yes, he wears a sparkly silver "scarf".)

Back home...

Arthur REALLY enjoys helping me clean anything and everything

I love to watch my kids eat corn on the cob.  Their faces are hilarious!

Hunter built the kids a sensory table that we now have filled with beans and little Easter things.  Eleanor got to help paint!  She also painted the top of Hunter's head.  "Eleanor, did you just paint my head?"  "Oh, I'm sorry Daddy.  I thought it was a table leg."

I change around the toys on this play table every once in a while.  I put away the trains and went upstairs to get some different stuff to put on it, and when I came back this is what I found.  I guess Arthur thought it looked like a good place to relax!

"Enough of your lies, Mama!"

This was probably the funnest thing Eleanor has ever said to me.  The other day we all got in the car and I had her yellow headband in my hand.  I was putting my seat belt on when she asked me for her sunglasses.  I said, "I'm sorry Eleanor, but I don't have your sunglasses in the car.  They must be in the house somewhere." Eleanor used a firm, scolding voice and said, "ENOUGH of your lies, Mama!  I see them in your hand!"  Hunter and I died laughing and tried to figure out what she was talking about.  I realized that her sunglasses are also yellow, and when I held up the headband to show her what I had she got kind of sheepish and just said, "Oh."  I have no idea where she got the phrase "enough of your lies" - probably from her dad's odd sense of humor - but I have to give her credit for using it correctly!

And another one...  Eleanor was playing with a measuring tape and pretending to measure her imaginary mouse:  "He is 4 days old."  "Eleanor, a measuring tape doesn't tell you how old something is.  It tells you how long something is."  "Okay.  Let's see...he is one pound long."  Hmm.

Little Miss Fashion decided to put on her dad's socks over her pajamas.  We thought her feet looked like goat hooves.

Arthur has always enjoyed books, but lately it has become his FAVORITE thing to do.  I find him like this all the time.

Sensory box fun

Arthur decided it was time to clean up

This child LOVES to help out around the house.

SO proud!

Helping Daddy 

Arthur refuses to let anybody else feed him.  I was brave and gave him oatmeal to feed himself.  Never again.

This morning I was in the other room doing laundry and I came out to find this.  When they're not fighting, they can be very sweet.