five favorites (04/28)

I feel like I’m always saying this, but it’s been a crazy week, so I missed doing my “Five” yesterday! We’ve been having as relaxing a Saturday as possible, so I’m happy to have a little time to catch up on here.

ONE. We all missed our favorite guy this week, because he was in Chicago at the GOTO Conference! It was a little rough without him, even though he gets serious credit for helping me with as much as he could before he left. I was super sick the night before he had to go, so he did a lot, including grocery shopping and cleaning up the guinea pigs. He really is the best.A couple of photos from his trip… Of course, he gave a talk on Docker (what else?), so Molly and Moby (the whales) had to tag along with him. Michael had some fun sending pictures of them adventuring around Chicago to Kaya and Kaelyn!TWO. While Daddy was gone, we tried to enjoy being outside as much as we could. I was a little too optimistic about the first 60-degree day, so I filled up the water table (with warm water) for the girls. The water cooled off a little too fast, and the girls got a little too wet, so everyone ended up cold. They still loved it, though!
This was Nella’s first time really playing with it, now that she’s good at walking and standing for long periods of time. I think this will be one of her favorite summertime activities.We had some fun at the playground. Don’t let her sad puppy-dog eyes fool you, Scout loves walks (and always tries to tangle herself up around the picnic table…)I enjoyed some time reading out in the hammock! I love that Nella walked over to me and asked to come up in it too. (Also, check out her bedhead! She seriously has the wildest hair!)THREE. Our homeschool mornings have been pretty relaxed here lately, and honestly, I’m okay with that. It’s kind of a combination of parenting on my own for a week/pregnancy sickness/spring fever/being done with all our kindergarten work besides spelling that has had us taking our time and just doing what we can.

I was so happy to see these girls snuggle and start reading as soon as they woke up one morning. They are obsessed with the American Girl books right now, and although I typically use them as read-alouds, Kaya can actually read a little of them on her own. I’m so grateful that they love learning, and that we all get extra time to spend together because of our choice to homeschool.FOUR. I guess the girls have been doing too much yoga with me lately, because Kaya wanted to make her own workout video (she even told me to “put it on Facebook”)! She came up with all her own exercises, and the theme of the video became “Exercises You Can Do with Your Cat”. Haha! I love her creativity.She wrote out every move before we could start recording…Some moves included planks/pushups with your cat on your back (I definitely would not recommend doing this with a real cat. Ouch!)……and lifting your cat high above your head while doing squats. Yup, pretty sure a real cat would have nothing to do with any of this…I didn’t post the whole video, but hearing her say “Namaste” at the end was just too dang cute, so here’s that.

FIVE. If you tell Nella to “say CHEESE!”, this is the face she makes now. Cutest little smile ever!Seriously, what’s more adorable than a smiling Dalmatian puppy?

Happy weekend!

Linking up here and here today!

five on friday (06/10)

ONE. We made a new friend at the playground this week- this little kitty! He comes looking for us every time we’re there. Basically, he’s the friendliest cat ever. My girls adore him, and Kaya now refers to him as “my favorite cat” whenever she’s talking about him.

He reminds me so much of the cat I had growing up, so I don’t mind him hanging around.

This photo has some awful sun flare going on, but it was too cute not to include.
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TWO. My kids have turned into total monkeys! Kaya saw that cat jump up on a rock, so of course, she wanted to try it, too.

Kaelyn is trying to be a big kid before she even turns two! My heart is probably palpitating the entire time she’s on this very tall, very steep ladder, but she can do it, all on her own, so I try to let her have her freedom.Of course, I’m usually right underneath her, ready to attempt to catch her if she slips!

THREE. Flowers are blooming in our yard! It’s been a fun surprise to see what the old owners had growing here._MG_3026 _MG_3028

FOUR. We did some preschool work on the letter M this week! Kaya loved decorating the letter with marshmallows. I think I have finally found a way to plan out our activities that works for me, too. I was thinking of sharing some of our “lesson plans” in some kind of preschool series here on the blog… but we’ll see if I actually get to it!
_MG_2990FIVE. Little moments, like seeing my girls sitting on the back steps together, watching their Daddy work on the house, completely melt my heart. I love these two little goofballs (and this is the smile I get when I tell Kaelyn to say “cheese”… she takes instructions very seriously)._MG_3020

Happy weekend!!! 🙂