Posts Tagged ‘friends’

A Little Fall Leaf Action

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

We don’t have very many leaves in our yard, but I wanted Mikayla to get to experience playing in fall leaves.  So, we headed north to Smiths Grove to play in the leaves with Lylah and Lara.  I think the girls had a good time, and as usual Mikayla was her typical comical self.  We ended the day with a delicious breakfast for dinner and story time at the local library.  Mikayla loved dancing around with scarves and got extremely tickled when I painted her hands to make a hand turkey. 

IMG_9597 She was so excited to play in the leaves!

IMG_9598 Whoa!

IMG_9599 Seriously, look at that expression on her face!

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IMG_9605 She thought it was great fun to lay down in the leaves.

IMG_9606 Lylah, on the other hand, didn’t really understand why we were laying down in the leaves.

IMG_9607 Mikayla buried in the leaves!

IMG_9609 A failed attempt at capturing both girls sitting still, smiling and looking at the camera!

IMG_9613 A cute girl in fun fall leaves!

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Homemade Playdough

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2010

When Mikayla had some friends over for a play date a few weeks ago, we decided to try our hand at homemade playdough.  I am so glad we did!  It was easy peasy, smelled yummy, and not nearly as sticky as regular playdough.  Plus, if Mikayla or her buddy so desired they could eat it.  That’s right, edible playdough!  In school, when we studied spiders, we always made edible playdough.  The downside to this playdough was that it included peanut butter, something Mikayla couldn’t eat yet.  So naturally I went to Google and found this website with a lot of different playdough recipes.  We decided to go with the one posted below for our trial run.  I am so glad there are crafty people out there who think to mix up common kitchen items and create fun things like playdough for kids!  If you have never made your own playdough, you should very soon!  So much better than the store bought stuff.

Kool-Aid Play Dough
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/2 cup salt
3 teaspoons Cream of Tartar
1 package Kool-Aid Mix (any flavor of unsweetened)
1 tablespoon cooking oil

Mix dry ingredients together in a large saucepan. Slowly add water mixed with oil and stir over medium heat until mixture thickens to dough. Turn out onto a heatproof bread board or counter top and knead until cool enough for children to handle. Dough will be the color of the Kool-Aid mix and will smell like the Kool-Aid mix. (Can be stored in a tightly covered container for up to six months; however after about a month it tends to get a little stickier!)

Here are some pictures of Mikayla and the playdough, just ignore her unruly hair it was right after naptime!

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Halloween Bash 2010

Saturday, October 30th, 2010

We had another successful Halloween Bash.  The costumes were awesome, chili yummy (if I do say so myself), pumpkins amazing, and of course company off the charts!  Thanks to everyone who came out and helped us "go out in style".  My words can’t do the party justice, so here are some pictures to recap the evening. 

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Amazing Banner by Lara.

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Tribute to Willy Wonka himself!

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Cutest Dorothy ever!

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The Wizard of Oz Family!

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Avatar, Earbuds, and a Beautiful Ballerina!

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The Hippies

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Prince Charming, Cinderella, GusGus and their Rock Star Ladybug!

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Cat woman and Spiderman

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Collin and Allen (they were dressed as two other guys that were at the party…you would have to know them to get the costumes)

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Roller Derby Fan and Roller Derby Jammer

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Gorilla and Bride

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Whoopi cushion and Chilean Miner (and he stayed in costume all night, which meant no sitting down)!

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Pajama Party Girls

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Rocking it out with the Chilean Miner.

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Pumpkin Time!

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Brandi pretending to work hard 😉

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Best Pumpkin(s) ever!

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Scarecrow and Pumpkin being eaten.

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Ghost

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Scary face and Haunted House

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Apple and …(I can’t remember what the other one was…sorry)

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Pacman

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Stay Classy

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Halloween Themed Play Date

Monday, October 11th, 2010

Mikayla had one of her best buds over today for a play date!  We began the day by getting all decked out in our Halloween/pumpkin gear.

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Then we played some dress up and enjoyed the bubbles for awhile.Lylah Playdate 007

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When Lylah got here Mikayla was so excited, she ran up to the car.  The girls played outside for a bit and then headed inside for some homemade play dough action.  Lylah lasted a total of five seconds, but Mikayla played for quite awhile while the mommies prepped our lunch.  Unfortunately, I did not snap any pictures of Mikayla and the play dough, but will try to get some later.

For lunch we had Pumpkin sandwiches (ham and cheese sandwich cut into the shape of a pumpkin with cheese for the eyes and mouth), Frankenstein fingers (cheese stick with peppers for the fingernails), Skeleton Bones (Gerber Veggie sticks), Brains (broccoli), and Eyeballs (grapes).  For desserts we had Ghosts (frozen bananas on a stick covered with whipped cream and raisins or frosting for the eyes and mouth).  The girls ate it all up.

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Ghosts on a stick

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Frankenstein fingers and brains!

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Pumpkin Sandwiches

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They loved the ghosts!

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We ended our date with craft time.  Lara put together fun Jack-O-Lanterns for the girls to make.  They did awesome making them, but while we were trying to snap some pictures they promptly tore apart the craft!

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We had a great day, thanks Lara and Lylah for coming to play!

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Two weekend recap

Monday, August 30th, 2010

We have had a pretty busy last two weekends in the Kickert household.  Two weeks ago we headed to Somerset to celebrate Ben’s 10 year high school reunion.  It is hard to believe that he graduated ten years ago and this time next year I will be celebrating my ten year reunion.  To celebrate they had a quant picnic at a park where everyone brought their spouses and kids.  They had a inflatable water slide set up for the kids and delicious food to munch on.  We even got to enjoy the swings in between the rain showers.  Mikayla had a blast playing in the puddles and observing all the new faces at the picnic.  Even though I knew only a handful of people it was still fun.

**Sorry, I didn’t get any shots of the reunion!  I was too busy chasing Mikayla around and Ben was too busy socializing!

We went from there to Louisville where a dear friend of mine from college got married.  It was sort of a college reunion because so many of our friends from WKU were there.  I got to see my bible study leader from college (who made a huge impact on my life), who recently found out she was pregnant and of course a lot of the Bemis HOT-ties, as Merideth called us!  Plus a few other faces from my WKU days.  The strange thing was that most of us had kids in tow, kids at the sitter or kids on the way.  Crazy how quickly things change!

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Attempt of self-portrait by Ben

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HOT-ties with the beautiful bride!

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This past weekend was a little bit more slow paced as we stuck around BG.  On Saturday, Mikayla and I headed to the farmer’s market for a yummy pancake breakfast and to pick up veggies for the week.  In the afternoon we joined our friends Lara and Lylah at the park for a picnic and some fun in the sun.  It was HOT, but the girls were troopers and played hard.  I think the mommies were ready to go before they were!

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Such a big girl on the merry go round!

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Ahoy matey!

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Two sweaty babies, looking more like big girls than babies!

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Come on Lylah, it’s really fun in here!”

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My attempt at a self-portrait, also unsuccessful!

After church on Sunday, we spent another day in the sun watching the BG Hot Rods.  Again, Mikayla had a blast (as she does most places) watching people and running around.  I think she takes after her Great Pops in his people watching!August 2010 040

The men trying to catch a foul ball.

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Crawling away from mommy!

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Chilling at the game!

All in all it has been a busy, but fun last couple of weekends.  This weekend will be the same as the Altmaiers travel to BG AND I get an extra day off of work.  Thank you Labor Day!!

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Partying Like It’s Her Birthday!

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

Last weekend Mikayla’s good buddy turned one!  So we headed north to join her in the beach themed pool party!  We had a blast.  Thanks Lylah for including us in your special day!

 August2010 031 How fun is this birthday cake?  It was a crab ice cream cake!

August2010 032Mikayla was all tuckered out after the festivities, she fell right to sleep! 

On our way home we stopped to see some friends we hadn’t seen in over a year.  We had a great visit, and the girls even got some play time in before we hit the road home.  It was a fast weekend, but one packed with fun and friends!  These two are only two months apart.  It is hard to believe how much they can change in just two months time.

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She was teaching Mikayla the “easy way” to get on the couch! 

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Showing off their bellies.

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Playing with the creepy baby doll. 

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Field Trip #8

Wednesday, August 11th, 2010

I am a slacker and didn’t get to blog about our eighth and final summer field trip before school started.  Our grand summer finale was spent at Barren River Lake “Beach” with Lara, Lylah, Emily and Bella.  The girls (Lylah, Bella and Mikayla) had a blast, and so did their mommy’s!  The water was a little yucky, but what lake water isn’t really?

Mikayla is such a dare devil when it comes to water, that she didn’t even really want to hold my hand as she waded through.  When she would occasionally fall down, she would just sit and laugh.  She loves to crack herself up!  Here are some snapshots of the day.  Lara got a great one of all the girls, so I will have to try and steal that one!

August2010 019 Mikayla was a big help pushing Lylah along, that is until the ground got too hot for her!

 August2010 021   August2010 024After she fell down and was cracking up.  Notice the big scrape on her cheek, this is when she was playing with the big kids during our slumber party.  She thought she was bigger than she was!

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August2010 027 August2010 028Staple mommy and daughter picture, just ignore my pasty legs!

I am sad that our summer vacation together has ended, but I know Ben is excited to resume his daddy time with Mikayla.

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Field Trip #6

Saturday, July 10th, 2010

For our sixth field trip we ventured back out with Lara and Lylah to Indianapolis, Indiana.  We did a lot of things the two days we were there, but the highlight was going to the Children’s Museum.  The girls were real troopers the whole trip and didn’t really “breakdown” until we got stuck in traffic for two hours on the way home.  On the way up they refused to take naps.  It was almost comical because they were studying each other and trying to figure out how two babies got in the backseat.  We went straight to the museum and enjoyed lots of fun exhibits.  We even traveled Egypt and back in thirty minutes!  Here are some photo highlights from the trips.  However, the photos don’t even begin to grasp how cute the girls were playing with each other.  They are roughly three months apart, but they play so well together.

blackerries and Indy 018 Toddle Play Place at Museum

blackerries and Indy 023 blackerries and Indy 025 Turns out my daughter loves to play in dress up clothes.  She got really mad when I took this animal costume off of her.  Sidenote – we weren’t sure what kind of animal this was supposed to be, any guesses?

blackerries and Indy 027She was loving this scarecrow.  There were also flowers with holes to place the stems in.  She liked this game a lot. 

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blackerries and Indy 033Cutest couch potatoes ever! 

blackerries and Indy 034There was a whole mirror maze exhibit.  My daughter is so vain and loves to look at herself in the mirror, so this was another big hit! 

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blackerries and Indy 044First carousel ride.  Really difficult to get a good picture! 

blackerries and Indy 045 Everytime we went around the carousel a lady had a monkey puppet and Mikayla was mesmerized.  She is a big fan of puppets as well.

blackerries and Indy 046 Mikayla made it safely to Egypt, even if she is a little wet from her water.

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Again, this child loves to play dress up!

blackerries and Indy 051Cutest Egyptian babies ever! 

blackerries and Indy 054 We even made some new friends…

blackerries and Indy 055 …did a little baking…

blackerries and Indy 058 …rode a sphinx…

blackerries and Indy 061…and petted a crocodile, all in our trip to Egypt! 

blackerries and Indy 062 Cruising along on some motorcycles.

blackerries and Indy 064 Disco Diva!

blackerries and Indy 067 Barbie fun

blackerries and Indy 068  blackerries and Indy 070Barbie is busy, can we take a message please?”

blackerries and Indy 071 Loving on the doggie

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Two sleepy babies after a long day of playing at the Children’s Museum!

We also went on a bonus field trip this week.  I will try and post about it soon, but now must get back to cleaning and packing for our big trip!

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Field Trip #4

Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

For this field trip we traveled out of the city, county and state.  At 10pm on Saturday evening we got in the car and began the trek to Tallahassee, Florida to visit some dear friends and their precious baby!  We drove through the night and arrived in time to take showers and head to Molly’s baptism.  A few months ago we were honored when Catherine and Dave asked us to be Molly’s godparents.  It worked out perfectly that we were able to come down and be a part of this special day with them.  Here are some pictures from the event (courtesy of Catherine because I did not take my camera).  Molly did beautifully and Mikayla actually stayed in the service right up to the sermon.

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After the baptism we went back to the house where Mikayla took a really long nap (I guess she was tired from our car ride).  On Monday we just hung out at the house while the girls took alternating naps.  It was almost hysterical how it played out.  When one would go down the other would wake up.  Ben and Dave ventured out to play disc golf and Cat and I even managed a trip to a fabric store!

On Tuesday Mikayla and Molly got to experience a first together (which I think is really special).  They both got to visit the beach/ocean for the first time.  At first Mikayla wasn’t much of a fan but after awhile she seemed to enjoy herself.  Here are some highlights.

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It is kind of hard to see, but the sand says “MLK 6-22-10”

Altmaier visit 010 Swimming in the ocean with daddy (this was before we discovered the horseshoe crabs and nobody wanted to get back in)!

 Altmaier visit 019 Mikayla was just as content sitting in the sand eating snacks and drinking her water.

Altmaier visit 023 Altmaiers with cutey Molly!

Altmaier visit 026 Hanging out with daddy!

Altmaier visit 031 Cheesy grins!

Altmaier visit 036 Family photo op!

Altmaier visit 042Mom, look at the water!”

Altmaier visit 043 Just hanging around!

Altmaier visit 048   Digging in the sand.

We love visiting with the Altmaiers.  We have a special type of friendship (you can read about it here).  Thanks for hosting us and letting us be a part of Molly’s life!

We are at the end of June, which means summer is almost over.  I have a few more field trips up my sleeves so stay tuned.  You can read about previous field trips here, here and here.

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Sewing Envy Decreased

Friday, June 11th, 2010

Awhile back I made a post about having sewing envy and my desire to learn to sew.  Just recently I made a post about “Sewing Boot Camp” and how I wanted to make this shirt for my first project.

“Boot Camp” started on Wednesday.  We began the day by trying to figure out my hand me down sewing machine.  It turned out that we needed a different sewing needle.  Apparently my husband who also uses the machine likes to sew with a really large needle!  Dacia braved the pouring rain and headed to the store for supplies while I stayed home with the kids.  When Dacia returned we began cutting out the fabric pieces and got right to work. 

After four hours of sewing, talking and tending to kids we still had a lot of work to do, but “boot camp” was over for the day.  After I put Mikayla to bed I got back to work.  I finished the pleats all by myself.  They were actually a lot easier than I thought they would be.  At 9:30 I decided to put the sewing away and go watch the Blackhawks win the Stanley Cup. 

car and shirt 023Progress Day One – With pockets, chestband, shoulder straps, and hem still needing to be done. 

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Progress Day One – Without pockets (this is what I ended up with), chestband, shoulder straps, and hem still needing to be done. 

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Up close shot of pleats. 

On Thursday I headed to Dacia’s house to finish up the shirt. And here is the end result (please ignore my hair and jewelry, I was wearing brown).

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Sewing was not as difficult as I thought it would be and I am excited to have learned some very important skills on this shirt (straps, pleats, ruffles and hems).  If I did it over again there are some things I would change, but all in all I am pretty excited about my first sewing project.  My next project is going to be a skirt for Mikayla.  I think I might try this skirt made from dishtowels!

Thanks again to Dacia for helping me out and Carson, Callie, and Mikayla for putting up with us sewing for two days!

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