Green Bean Telephone

Tonight during dinner, Arianna's imagination was going full-speed. First there was something about Rainbow Brite being inside of her green bean, and then she started pretending a green bean was a phone. She shoved it right up against her ear, and had some long conversations (mostly with Winnie the Pooh and Rainbow Brite). Messy, yes, but oh so fun! Kids are awesome! Now time to go get her bath started... :)

Meet Ike - May 2009

In May Joanne adopted this awesome tortoise. She named him Ikaika, or "Ike" for short. He's a really neat little guy. We even had the pleasure of having him stay at our house for a week while Joanne went out of town during the summer. It was cool seeing what a strong personality he has, and watching him change his behavior toward us as he got to be more comfortable with us. The only not fun part was when I was feeding him one time, and he misjudged the distance to the carrot I was holding, and latched on to my finger instead. Ouch! Tortoises don't have teeth, but man that beak of his is really sharp! (I had a nice blood blister to prove it.) Poor Ike was just as startled as I was, since he hung on to my finger as it (of it's own accord, mind you) tried to escape his clutches, and he thus was sent sliding about a foot across the kitchen floor.

That was a while ago, though, and we have since both recovered from the incident (thankfully he wasn't hurt or traumatized by his ride across the kitchen floor). :) And, I still say he's a very cool little dude. (I just don't offer him any SMALL carrot pieces anymore.)

For the longest time after our "tortoise-sitting" week, Arianna would ask Joanne "Where's Ike?" or "Do you have Ike with you?" anytime she came over. We haven't seen him in a while...maybe we'll have to make a visit to him one of these days soon. :)

Arianna Quote

Tonight we went out shopping as a family, and while we were driving we passed the City of Westland buildings, where they have a big display of Christmas lights and decorations. We pointed them out to Arianna, and she got really excited, and said, "Wow, that's really fun! I want to have a big huge party there someday!" :)

Arianna's Little Friends

I posted the other day about the awesome friends Arianna has. Well, I thought maybe I should post something now about the friends she plays with EVERY day...

I love watching her and the stories and scenarios she comes up with while playing with her "friends". Her imagination blows me away - I didn't know she would have such complex interactions with her toys at this age!!

(Notice the apple in the picture above? After she had all of the little friends gathered around the table, she went digging around in the box of Christmas decorations we brought upstairs last night, because she apparently remembered having seen this little apple. A perfect little snack for her friends! She informed me that they were having a party, incase you were curious.)

Rainbow Brite

A couple of weeks ago, I introduced Arianna to the magical world of Rainbow Brite. I looked it up on youtube and found "The Beginning of Rainbowland" (divided into like four segments). It was actually really fun watching it with her, and she loved it! I used to LOVE Rainbow Brite when I was a little girl!

Do these images bring back the memories

for you like they do for me?

So, while looking for some images to include here, I discovered that Hallmark has released a NEW Rainbow Brite. Seriously??

I'm not quite sure how to feel about this. I don't know if they're just producing merchandise, or if there's going to be some kind of show, too... (they have a little video clip on the website here.) I guess if the message is still focused around spreading color and happiness, it'll be better than a bunch of other shows that are out there now, right?? Still, some of me feels a little bothered by the modernization and tween-appealing look... Arianna and I will stick with the classic.

Anyway, I intended to write a small post about how it was fun to introduce Arianna to Rainbow Brite. I don't know what this has turned into, but I have the feeling it's kind of lame and at least slightly embarrassing.

Mushu

Yesterday Joanne came to visit, and brought Mushu along with her! Mushu is the sweet little kitty she found in September. She was out running in her neighborhood and heard a kitten crying, and found a little ball of fluff, all alone. The neighbors said he'd been out there crying all morning. Poor little guy! Being the awesome person she is, Joanne brought him home and became his mama. He had only barely opened his eyes, and couldn't push up onto his legs yet (just creeped along), so we (and the Vet) estimated he was about 3 weeks old. Joanne (and Lesley, her mom) taught him how to drink kitty formula from a bottle, and did all the things for him that a mommy cat would.

Mushu the day after Joanne adopted him:

See how tiny he was?

Now he's about 10 weeks old:

He's a really sweet little kitty. Yesterday was the first time we'd seen him since he was about 5 weeks old. He's grown so much!! Arianna had fun playing with him (even though we had to keep reminding her to be gentle). Maya was very excited to see him again, and wanted ever so much to play with him, but Mushu was a little too scared. By the end of the visit, though, he did warm up to the point that Joanne could sit right next to Maya with Mushu in her arms. Who knows? Maybe they'll be really good friends in the future (I'm sure Maya would love that!).

Thanks, Joanne, for sharing sweet Mushu with us!

Fun with Friends!

Arianna has a lot of great friends her age in our ward (church). She loves getting together with them!

Corban

Corban and Arianna were able to have two fun playdates last week. On Wednesday we went to Munch Bunch (a monthly potluck the sisters in our ward have) and they played together in the gym, and then the next day Corban came over to our house for a couple of hours. They play really well together. Corban is such a sweet, tender little boy.

At Munch Bunch:

At our house:

Alonzo

Alonzo is another little boy who's a good friend of Arianna's. He had a birthday party playdate on Thursday this week (the 18th) to celebrate his 3rd birthday. Arianna enjoyed playing with all of the kids, but I think she especially enjoyed when almost everyone had left and she had Alonzo mostly to herself. :)

Alonzo and Arianna eating cupcakes.

Mandee (his mom) made pink cupcakes for him, since that's his favorite color and that's what he wanted. That's how cool these people are. :)

Oh yeah, and because Arianna wanted Pringles instead of cupcakes at her birthday party, they got some Pringles so she would once again have that option. Mandee said her boys made sure of it. They are SO sweet!! And yes, Arianna did take two bites of her cupcake, then gave it to me saying she was done, and was very excited to learn that there were Pringles!

I'm very grateful for all of the wonderful children Arianna has as friends.

Catch Up

It's been a while since I've posted - time to play catch up!

Our Family Camping Trip - May 2009

In May this year, our family went on a little camping trip a few hours north of here (near Gladwin). It was so nice to get out in nature and spend time all together, without any distractions from the everyday hustle and bustle! This was Arianna's first time to go camping (how did that happen??), and she was very excited.

Arianna slept for the first hour or two of the drive, which was very nice (especially since she does get car sick sometimes). I thought she looked so cute the way she rested her head on her hand! (Notice her motion sickness bracelets - they work everytime! She's never gotten car sick when she's wearing them; only when she takes them off.)

A yummy ice cream cone treat in the car. Arianna was just introduced to ice cream cones this summer, and she loves them! :)

Excited to be on vacation!!


At the campground, having a delicious strawberry snack.

A little messy, but oh so good!

Trail Mix. We made this large bag of trail mix for our trip, and if I remember correctly, we ate almost the entire thing during our 3-day vacation. Wow!

Arianna's clothes and carseat cover, hanging up to dry. Why? Because she did indeed get carsick. We were AT the campground, had already chosen our campsite and were just filling out the form....and that's when she threw up all over. Poor girl.

There were a lot of these webworms around....

My Dear. :) (That's a bug repellant band around his neck.)

These terrible chemicals saved our vacation. Once we got to the campsite and started setting up, Arianna started majorly freaking out whenever any flying bug came near her. We tried working with her and explaining that she was okay, but she seriously was having downright near-panic attacks, screaming and crying with sheer terror. We normally wouldn't want to use any chemicals, or kill anything, but our natural methods weren't working to repel, so we broke down and bought this Raid at the little general store nearby. Arianna was fine once the mosquitoes weren't flying around her head anymore... I felt a little guilty, but mostly just relieved.

Making dinner. Tofu dogs and baked beans. Yum! :)

A Catterpillar Adventure

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Arianna loved the tent!

Arianna in her very own chair.

Heating up water for hot chocolate.


A neat tree stump nearby.

Writing in the dirt road.

During a nice walk.

Arianna being a cutie on a stump...

Pondering the intricacies of a Morel mushroom.

Some Daddy-Daughter love.

Dandelions...

Another yummy dinner; cheesy broccoli noodles, and cheeseburgers.

Arianna playing with her toys.

Hot chocolate!

"Bacon" sizzling over the campfire. This was the most delicious "bacon" ever!

Getting ready to go home...

Arianna enjoyed playing in the tent before we took it down.

Ever since she's been able to manipulate objects with her hands, Arianna has lined things up like this.

The water pump.

Enjoying some last moments in the beautiful surroundings before going home...

The lake. We went on some great walks around this lake.

Mommy and Daughter.

Another view of the lake.

On the way home, we stopped so I could take a picture of these lilac bushes. This is probably only about half of them. They were huge and beautiful, and looked so cool growing all by themselves out in the field!

We stopped off at Frankenmuth on our way home to have a little more fun before our vacation ended. To our surprise, they were having some huge dog celebration. It was pretty cool, and we all enjoyed seeing a lot of neat dogs. Arianna saw this inflated climbing/slide thing, and got VERY excited, so we forked out the $2 (or whatever it was) to let her have some fun. I kind of enjoyed it myself... :)

Jeremy and Arianna, enjoying Frankenmuth (Arianna is

probably looking at some dog).

All in all, it was an awesome family vacation, and made us all want to be able to go camping more often. It was so relaxing to be out in nature, away from all of the "noise" (literal and figurative). Whenever we're able to get out to someplace like that, it makes me wish we lived out in the country, away from the busyness of city life. Some day.....