Category Archives: Toys & Games
Getting right into things!
Owen wanted to open his presents as soon as we got home…and Katie really wanted to help. She had a hard time accepting that these were OWEN’S PRESENTS and there were none for her. But he’s a nice brother so he let her help on a few.
Then we took a little break so I could go walk on the treadmill and they could play on the bounce house…and also so Owen wouldn’t blow through all his gifts in the first day!
Afterwards, I noticed Owen was wearing a new Minion #selfie shirt and I asked if he knew what a selfie was. He said no, so we took this picture:
And then he grabbed my phone and took this:
Back to the gifts! 🙂
She loves carrying this guitar around.
More Sorry!
Len Christmas in July, Year 2
This year the party was at my mom’s house! Katie “helped” with the party prep!
Katie loved her Anna dress from Grauntie Rose!
The cousins being silly!
If there’s water, the kids will come.
Bubble wands at the ready!
The annual by-age lineup: Katie (3), Owen (6), Aubrey (7), Gracie (9), and Nick (11). You’ll see a direct Owen/Nick comparison tomorrow. 🙂
Everyone always complains but I think they secretly enjoy the family photo! 🙂
Our little Santas.
Owen was GIDDY with the bazooka Grauntie Rose got him! It’s almost like she knows him exactly like I do. :p
Katie LOVES her Frozen magic music wand from Grauntie Marilyn.
No snow? Grass angels!
Ice cream face!
Overall it was a great day—the kids all had a blast together, the food was abundant and delicious, and everyone had fun relaxing and playing games. I think it was the right decision to move our Christmas to the middle of summer!
Teaching Owen how to play Sorry!
We taught Owen on the exact game board Gramma Jean taught me to play on 35ish years ago!
Kid Fest!
It’s Milltown week so we took the kids downtown to Kid Fest! They had a blast!
She LOVED the popcorn. The SnoCones…not so much.
Making bracelets and necklaces with Gramma.
Then Owen got to ride in a racing canoe!! Some of the racers were the back seat paddlers and took the kids up and down the river. It was his very first time in a canoe and he loved it!
If you notice, he’s watching what the pro does and copies him to steer the boat!
He said he was a little scared at first but then he was okay! We were SO proud of him!
Owen loved sitting in the big fire truck—and even got to turn on the lights and the siren! Katie wanted NOTHING to do with any of it. 🙂
Getting a ninja turtle mask!
And lastly, our crazy photo booth pictures!
Owen got a yahtzee!
Gramma Jean has been teaching Owen how to play Yahtzee!
I’m not saving that Lego.
Subtitled: Well that’s a first.
Subtitled: That’s not how you play with Legos.
Subtitled: Owen put one up his nose, Katie ate one.
Subtitled: There will be NO pictures of this.
Subtitled: SERIOUSLY?!
Submitted: Katie ate a Lego head today.
Tom and I were in the office and Katie was watching TV. She came into the office and said she put Elsa’s head in her mouth. She knows she’s not supposed to put toys in her mouth and she usually tries to hide it, so we were interested. Tom asked where Elsa’s head was and Katie pointed to her throat.
What?!
We asked if it was in her mouth. No.
We asked her to go find Elsa. She was indeed headless.
We asked again where Elsa’s head was and she pointed to her throat.
Kids. 😐
Someone was excited!
We surprised the kids with a bouncy house and this was Katie’s reaction to seeing it for the first time. How can that not make you smile?! 🙂
Bubble Shrieking
Sibling Lego project!
Katie got a Frozen Lego set for her birthday, so of course Owen helped her put it together! (It was WAAAAY to old for her so I knew he’d have to help her!) We ended up having Katie pick out the pieces as we needed them and then Owen would build it. It worked pretty well.
It took two days (which drove Owen insane) and he eventually did the last part by himself…
Birthday party presents!
We waited until after the party to open presents. Everyone stuck to the Frozen theme and Katie loved everything!
The last gift from us:
Katie’s 3rd Birthday Party!
Daddy and Owen went to pick up the cupcake cake and the pizza before the party!
We surprised the kids with a bounce house borrowed from friends!
Owen testing out the Frozen stick-on earrings!
Everyone had a good time and the bounce house was a success!! I’m losing my mind, though—I didn’t take a picture of the decorated table OR the food table! 🙂
Katie’s birthday presents, take 2.
Present #2 she picked, which was opened after dinner! Are you sensing a theme here? 🙂
And the shot that makes it all worth it! 🙂
(If you can’t tell, it’s a reversible Anna/Elsa doll. You flip the skirt over and the other doll is underneath. Her friend had one at T-ball and Katie co-opted it and carried it around forever. So I got her one off ebay probably two months ago and it’s just been waiting!)
Elsa vs. Robot
Edited to add: I posted this picture on Facebook and these were the great responses:
We found the bubble machine!
Best BrickLoot box yet!
A dinosaur-themed box! Owen loved it! The only bad thing is the kits aren’tLegos—they’re lookalikes—so they don’t stay stuck together as well. Owen actually asked us to glue these all together!
Trying to get one good picture of his goldfish and NerdySaur.
She was so excited to find this!
She was playing in the basement and came upstairs to show us her great find!
It’s never had batteries in it—and never will—but it’s still über annoying.
Owen at the bus stop
Playing guns by himself while being first in line to get on the bus!
Game 7: Raptors vs Scrappers
One of Owen’s teammates (surprisingly, there’s not too much of this with his team):
Katie’s same friend was there with her purse—and an Elsa/Anna doll—again today which kitty quickly co-opted as her own. The mom had no problem with it because she was just happy her daughter was sharing. 🙂
Katie off playing with her:
Our little catcher!
Owen’s two at-bats:
Taking a break from chalk
Owen’s day off!
Today was a teacher work day so Owen didn’t have school. I also picked today as a day for no technology—no TV, no iPads, no iPhones—so I try to do at least one fun project. Today I picked cake. 🙂 Owen did pretty good cracking eggs and mixing and I just let Katie dump things into the bowl and mix (with help). 🙂
Taking a Lego break.
Doing chalk in the back yard (on the steps—and as you can see in the next picture, any cement surface) since it was very sunny and the front doesn’t have shade OR anywhere to sit.
I told Owen he looked very dapper in his shirt (I had sent him upstairs to get dressed in his own) and this was the look I got: Yeah, I know. 🙂
That look. All I did was ask her to smile for a picture. Stinker.
I then surprised Owen with a Brick Loot box so he had fun building the Lego-ish toys. This was a 3-in-1 toy and I was surprised he actually built all three!
Gifts from a little boy.
He usually brings me some new creation every morning. 🙂
A successful Lego mini build!
Tom was able to come home from work in time to go with us for the monthly Lego build.
Once again, it was a complete cluster…though completely different than the last time. This time, we were prepared with our blue Lego Passport, but as we got in line, the lady in front of me told me we needed to have a white card. What?! I briefly explained our last attempt and them telling us we needed the passport but the line to get the passport was 100 people long. She said she had no idea about the passport but this time we needed to wait in a different line to pick up the card which would then allow you to get the Lego set. What?! Ugh. Thankfully Tom was with us so he and Katie went and waited in the ticket/card line and Owen and I waited in the actual Lego line.
Two different visits, two completely different routines. I don’t know why they seem to have no clue what’s going on. At least the lines for both weren’t long at all.
So we got the Lego pack and decided he wanted to build it right then. They have tables set up with numbers on them (which I had no idea why) but I asked if we could build it and we were told that we didn’t have an appointment. What?! Yeah, turns out when you pick up the card from the other line you had to tell them whether you were just picking up the Lego or if you wanted to build it at the store. Tom thought we were leaving (as did I) plus the next open time slot was an hour away. I told the worker that my husband picked up the card so I had no idea that there was an appointment time and I must have shown my exasperation as he took pity on me and said there were some openings because they were ahead of schedule so we could go ahead and build.
It took Owen all of three minutes to build the flying saucer. I took my first picture at 5:15, the completion picture at 5:18, and the post-build picture after we left to meet daddy and Katie at 5:20. 🙂
Meanwhile, Katie had been playing down the hall at the play area. 🙂
Sidewalk chalk paint, Day 2
They weren’t nearly as excited as they were the first day, and I’m not sure why. (They were eager enough to WANT to do it, but once we were outside and painted for 10 minutes, they were about done.) And of course, since they stayed perfectly clean the first day, I didn’t make them change into different clothes…and it’s the day Katie got paint all over her.
So I pretty much did all the painting just so it wouldn’t be wasted.
Owen’s big Easter present…complete.
He loved Lord Business’ Evil Lair—and he would have had it done in one day, but he spent a lot of time playing video games with daddy instead.
Click for a full-size version.
Sidewalk chalk is boring after paint.
We had only used half of the paint, but the driveway and sidewalks were about out of room so we just used regular chalk today. Normally this keeps them occupied for at least an hour, but after the coolness of the paint yesterday, they were not having much fun with the plain chalk and it only lasted about 15 minutes.
Sidewalk chalk paint!
Even though I was the one that bought the paint, I really hadn’t been looking forward to it at all (because…mess!) but then I read this article on Facebook: Why You Must Let Your Kids Jump In Muddy Puddles (about the Muddy Puddles Project) and I instantly knew what we were doing today. If you read the article, get your tissues handy.
And a few close-ups of some of the drawings (taken the next day after they were completely dry):
Kitchen Lego Battle
A bunch of Owen’s Legos migrated to the kitchen counter… He said they were having a battle.
