A lesson on spider webs

Daly is outside helping Ryan with the yard work.

'Mom! Look...a spider web! Spiders have butts. And strings come out of them. So they can hang from trees.'

Dressed appropriately for the job.

Before a quick refresher on how to hold 'siffy-scissors'.

Daly sticks our her tongue when she's concentrating...just like Dad.

It was then time for watering. Ryan unrolled the hose and started in the front yard. As I was hanging the laundry, the girls came running over, pretending to be scared of the water, and hiding behind 'the curtains' the sweat pants, jeans, and t shirts hanging from the line.

Reese was yelling at the top of her little lungs, 'AHHHH! Wadah!!'

Daly just kept yelling, 'The hose are coming, the hose are coming!'

Backing Black

Palmerston North is hosting two Rugby World Cup games and the city has really embraced the opportunity. On Wednesday, Georgia was set to play Romania. Knowing full well that us locals would have a hard time getting behind either of these teams, the brilliant people of Palmerston North devised a plan.

The 'city' of Palmerston North would support Romania and wear yellow. Those living outside the city, but still in our Manawatu 'county' would support Georgia and wear red. They even got our mayors in on the fun:

Down in the Square, events have been planned all week to get everyone involved. Tons of fun stuff for the kids to bounce on, play around, and laugh about. The girls and I put on our yellow, looked up Romania on the map, and headed into town.

A giant inflatable rugby field.

The girls have been passing a cold back and forth for about two weeks.

Their coughing has been well documented...

Parents stood outside this play area to swing
giant rugby balls at the kids as they ran through.

The girl has got skills.

The All Blacks obstacle course.

The All Blacks are New Zealand's rugby union team.
The Kiwi's love for the sport, and this team, is intense.

Ryan breaking through the tackle.

Daly took a more subtle approach and ran in between the defenders.

Little sickie ready for a nap.

Our green screen pic with some of the All Blacks.
We've decided there is no way these guys are this big in real life...

The Georgia - Romania match was completely sold out. Ryan and I were so excited to get two grandstand tickets from a close friend! The rugby was not fantastic, but the atmosphere was amazing. I was really proud to be a part of New Zealand hosting the RWC {which is huge for such a small country}. I was even more proud of our little Palmy for being such wonderful and supportive hosts to a great sporting event.

Treasures found

I'm sitting here crafting with the girls. They have been happily playing with their new Moon Dough and the dog house it comes with. I was busy mod podging away {more on that later}. All of a sudden Daly started yelling, 'MY FEET! MY FEET!! The bugs are getting them! The bugs are getting my feet!'

I looked over to see what was going on {as I assumed a huge swarm of bugs had not magically appeared to attack my little girl}. Turns out she had been sitting on her feet and they'd fallen asleep. To send those bugs away, she had to sit on her bottom. Daly sat back right away and continued playing. Three minutes later she looked up at me and said, full of excitement and relief, 'Mom! The bugs are gone!!'

In other news, my camera's SD card has been temporarily misplaced/forever lost/taken and hidden by my thieves daughters. I know, I know - it should've never been out of my camera, but I really love using my computer's card slot...it makes it so easy to dump photos without all the cords!! ...I digress.

After a day without finding said SD card, I began the hunt for another one. I knew there had to be another memory card sitting in a box in the garage somewhere. I went straight to the electronics-and-every-single-cord-we-own box and quickly found the camera I loved right before the Nikon I use now. I took out its card and slipped it into my camera, turned it on, and my heart immediately started smiling...

This was Reese's first trip to Disneyland. She slept through most of it. 

{November 2, 2009}

Daly still calls him 'Jumbo'.

This is the kind of smile only Disneyland can put on a child's face.

From happy moments to scary ones. As I was strapping Daly into her car seat, she asked to play with my keys. 'No harm in that,' I thought. Well....

As I walked around to the driver's door, I heard the doors lock. Grrrrrreat. The woman at AAA was so sweet. I can remember her asking me, 'Now, sweetie, do you want me to stay on the phone with you until the tow truck gets there? I know this must be very stressful. Are you sure you'll be okay?' Luckily, I was still parked in front of my mom's house. {Thanks for taking this picture with my camera from the living room, Mom.}

On the phone with AAA.

If you look closely, you can see Daly singing in the back seat.

She was clearly distraught... 

Reese's 3 month pictures.

I can't resist. Here's Daly at 3 months.

A lovely woman from La Salle {Ryan was helping out with girls' basketball at the time}

made these pink blankies and headband for Reese.

Sisters.

{Daly, 20 months. Reese, 3 months}

Reese's first Christmas. She slept through this 'first' also.

{Christmas 2009}

This is still one of the girls' favorite toys.

That was the last picture I took with my little black camera. Just a few minutes after Daly finished opening her gifts, I got to open mine - my Nikon. Since then, taking pictures of my girls and preserving our memories has been so much more fun, more rewarding...and the results, more beautiful.

Cleaning and cake

Life has been pretty uninteresting lately {and believe me, this is not a complaint}. No big trips, no exciting basketball games, kinda icky weather that has kept us from venturing outside. This sort of week tends to force my camera to stay inside its warm snuggly bag.

Yesterday, I woke up inspired. Actually...I think a piece of tupperware {for the millionth time} fell onto my head as I was opening the pantry door to grab the cereal for breakfast. Time for the six month complete clean out. I wish I had taken a before picture {although it may have been a bit embarrassing}, but here's what it looks like now.

Another major catalyst for this project was the fact that the girls have become so much more independent lately. They will go upstairs to play, and I can actually hear them happily humming along for quite some time without a scream, a cry, or that big 'THUMP' we all know means trouble. It's truly amazing. I have been waiting two years, two weeks, and five days for this exact moment. The girls can willingly, peacefully keep each other busy.

In the clean out of the pantry, I found my angel food cake pan stuffed way in the way back, super dusty corner. This, mixed with a pin I found during one of my 'I-need-a-pinterest-break' breaks, led to a hankering for some homemade chocolate cake.

Source: lickthebowlgood.blogspot.com via Lyndsey on Pinterest

Although my angel food pan did its job, the cake is certainly not as beautiful as it could be. It is, however, as delicious as it could be. Beyond delicious. Time to start looking for a cute bundt pan to make the beauty match the delish.

Reese, my little sous chef, was a really great helper...and so good for my ego. She kept tasting the batter and saying, 'Mmm, good Mom!' The little girl already knows how to use flattery to get what she wants.

And here's what Ryan and the girls did while I was playing chef. Daly has now taken to playing superhero! Last night she grabbed a toy trumpet to use as her gun to defeat the evil daddy tickle monster.

Then it was time for dancing. The girls love when we turn on the big bose speaker, hit shuffle on the ipod, and start rocking out. When Elton John started singing, Ryan and I both said, 'great song!'...and Reese started swaying slowly to the music {the girl's got my rhythm, thank goodness}. Her face as she danced with her daddy was priceless. This is wedding rehearsal dinner material...

And speaking of angel food/bundt pans...ever heard of using yours like this? See, Ryan, my time on pinterest is not a complete waste! Think of all the sliced fingers and dropped corn kernels I've saved.

Source: realsimple.com via Lyndsey on Pinterest

Nationals

Time for a mama post. Here's what I was up to last week...

I can't even explain how much fun it was to play competitive volleyball again. I rediscovered that little lion who'd been napping pretty much since the day I finished playing for Pepperdine.

During the four day tournament, we played seven teams from all over New Zealand. We definitely didn't finish as well as we had hoped, but it was still a great week.

Now back to your regularly scheduled, child-centered posts...