Dear Tooth Fairy...

A couple of months ago while making Anna's bed, I found a post-it that read:

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I don't have a loose tooth yet but
I hope you're finding lots of teeth.

Love,

Anna

Well, weeks down the road we discovered she did indeed have a loose tooth. It's taken 3 weeks for the tooth to actually come out but today it finally DID! It's taken so long because there wasn't a whole lot of wiggling going on once Daddy mentioned there might be blood. I think Anna's response was something like, "WHAT??!! BLOOD???? (moan)". She is our delicate flower, you know. :) Believe it or not though, she managed to get over the whole blood thing and pulled it herself while at school. She did say there was a TON of blood though. The school office gave her the cutest little treasure box to bring it home in.

At bedtime, we'll place it in her tooth fairy pillow that we made based on a tutorial from "mmmcrafts".... along with a note that reads:

In this pocket you will find

A teeny, tiny tooth of mine.

So while I sleep where dreams are made

In this pocket I will lay

The little tooth I lost today.

Please Dear Fairy, tonight as I sleep

Leave me a coin, my tooth

You can keep.

Her tooth will sit in a little pocket below the teeth of the fairy.

I just hope the tooth fairy doesn't fall asleep and forget to take the tooth and leave a little treat. Since this is our first tooth, I'm unsure what the going rate is in today's dollars. I know 32 years ago, a tooth was worth about a quarter. Can you guys clue me in on the current expectation? Anna has been asking for a new doll but I'm pretty sure it won't fit in the tooth fairy pillow pocket!

And while, we're on teeth...look who now has two! He would NOT be still so this picture is quite blurry but at least you get the idea.

Boy Meets Pumpkin

Boy meets pumpkin... Boy contemplates pumpkin...

I don't know about you guys but I'm starting to see pumpkins everywhere...even in places where there aren't any. Can you guess where I found this one? Have you guys found any pumpkins hiding in strange places too?

Fruit of the Spirit

Little Lauren, don't you know? You need to some fruit to help you grow. Apples, bananas, and grapes are yummy but fruit of the spirit is for more than your tummy.

One of our favorite books is by Mindy MacDonald and is called "9 Fruits Alive". I immediately thought of this book when we got the newsletter from Lauren's preschool that said this Tuesday would be Fruit of the Spirit day. I panicked a bit because I didn't have a fruit costume and everyone was supposed to wear something "fruity". I figured I would work on it but then we went to Monterey for the weekend and I didn't think about it again until 4:30 am Tuesday morning. It was one of those "Oh SHOOT!" mornings. All I could come up with was an apple hat made out of felt and batting. So, I plundered around in the dark and found what I needed. When the girls woke up, I started sewing. Lauren said she liked it but, of course, refused to wear it. Her teacher was dressed as a bunch of grapes and I saw only one other kid dressed up...he was a pear. Other than that there were a lot of teachers wearing hats with fake fruit hot-glued to them. So, it would appear in the future, I shouldn't worry too much about Lauren being the only one not "fruity" enough. I still think it turned out cute though.

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

You may have noticed that there are links on the left of blogs of a few of my friends. If you'll scroll a bit further down you'll see that I've added some new links to a few other blogs I follow. One of the links will take you to Grosgrain Fabulous....she makes bEE-U-Tiful clothing and GIVES it away. You all know I've been on a huge Alice in Wonderland kick recently and we're decorating the girls' room along those lines. Click on the link above to see what Grosgrain is giving away. It's to die for!!

Love Notes

I’ve been placing “love notes” written on napkins in Anna’s lunch box each day. I tell her how proud I am of her and how much I love her. I also usually draw a picture of some silly little something. She never comes home with them so I thought she had just thrown them away. At back to school night, I looked in her desk and there was a little stack of napkins all folded neatly next to her math book. She told me she pulls them out to read if she’s having a bad day or feeling sad. It made me remember just how important the little things can be to our little ones.
In response to my letters, she’s been leaving little love notes for us all over the house. Usually at least once or twice a day, she will hand deliver our “mail” to us by saying, “Mail’s here. Mail is here.” So, I thought she might enjoy having her own little mailbox to use. I sat down and attempted to follow a tutorial for a fabric mailbox from giver’s log. It’s not perfect but I don’t think she minds. I just had to share some of her cutest notes to us. She is soooo funny and I’ve been saving my own little “stash” of her love notes to pull out and read when I’m having a bad day or feeling sad.

As long as your with me I will not lose you forever. With lots of love from Anna with lots of kisses.

Welcome to Annas terrific tea hose. Come today?!
Thank you for chooseing this one.

Mom, I am sorry I am not in bed but I was trying to sleep so hard but I can not do it. But I also love you. I hope you are not mad at me mommy. But if you are I am sorry. What is your reacticon happy or mad?

Dear Mommy,
I know you had a bad day I hope tomorrow is better I love you. Good bye.
Hope this spot. O
As long as your with me I wont lose you forever.
Hug this spot O
Kiss this spot O
From Anna to mommy

Dear family
I love you all I hope you all had a good day good bye I will always love you.
Fair well.

Share the soap!

Give love! Anna Kleist
1+3=4

To do list:
Morning break
Doll break
Breakfast break
Say good morning
Say my ABC’s
Spin in the dining room
Spend time with family
Hold Jacob
Give Mom Dad love
(Followed by a picture of the 6 of us with a dancing heart!)

Stay tuned for Anna’s short stories!

Thar's Gold In Them Thar Hills!

The day after the air races we headed out to Virginia City, NV. I had picked up a brochure in the hotel lobby and thought it looked interesting. As neither Doug nor I had ever heard of the place, we were amazed to learn what a big history this "little" city had. The Comstock Lode was discovered there in 1859. Gold mixed with high quality silver ore was recovered in such huge quantities that it turned many prospectors into millionaires over night. Apparently over $400,000,000 was mined from there and it was said that Virginia City had the richest silver strike in the world. At its heyday, it had over 30,000 residents, a 6-story hotel with an elevator, and was said to have financed the building of San Francisco. The wealth of the Hearst family supposedly started here as well, financed by $400 borrowed money.
We arrived there early before a lot was open or the crowds really poured in. We really enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the architecture and Doug was surprised that there were so many buildings still occupied even though there were huge cracks running through a large portion of them. While meandering around, we came across the Virginia City Mercantile. It was filled with barrels of candy and marbles. There were old signs and posters and pretty much anything you could imagine. There was just a lot to see and do. My friend Trish tells me there's a train ride you can take with an "attempted robbery" by gun-toting outlaws but we missed that one. We also left before the mine tour opened.

It's beautiful country up that way. The girls enjoyed the drive there as we wound higher and higher. Anna kept saying, "You can see the whole world from up here." Lauren was worried we were going to tumble off the hill and said numerous times, "Guys, we shouldn't be up here!" :) Back in Reno, we decided to pick up lunch on our way back to the hotel. As we were unfamiliar with the area, we decided to take a gamble on a Mexican restaurant that was looking a bit seedy on the outside because I had a hankering for a chimichanga. We walked back out pretty quickly though as where they seated us had a desert and cactus display with half-eaten tortilla chips and french fries covered in ketchup. We had seen a "Hawaiian-style Cheeseburger" place up the road so we decided to give that a go. It was very busy and people were super friendly. All the kids got leis, and fruity drinks with parasols. Anna and Lauren were pretty funny because they kept negotiating each parasol that came to the table. I think Lauren ended up with most of them at the end of the day. We had an awesome plate of nachos and decent burgers. The best part though was that everything was free. That's right, you heard me...FREE. We noticed there was a sign on the door that read, "Staff training in progress." We didn't think too much about it and went on in. Apparently the place wasn't even opening until the following day and we just lucked into a trial run and a complimentary meal. How cool is that?

Reno Air Races

Believe it or not, we are still here and still going strong. It seems like it's been forever since I posted last. I have a ton of posts to catch up on but it's just been nuts around here lately. We've had the entire interior of our house painted. The painters will be finished today! Everything's been in disarray. We'll get the upstairs back together tonight but then we're starting a carpentry project downstairs and it will be chaos once again.

In the meantime, here are a few pictures from our trip to the Air Races in Reno, Nevada, two weekends ago. To be honest, I had never even heard of the air races but it turned out to be really spectacular. There were some of the most beautiful planes I had ever seen there...racing and on display. We got there on Friday to avoid the crowds and it was just perfect....although hot, hot, hot. We started the day by watching Patty Wagstaff.

Then we took a stroll through several of the display areas with the old....

...and the new.
We watched a few races...
...and took a break for a little kid-style fun.

Lauren even learned to do back-flips.

Since the sun, heat, and noise were such factors, we tried to keep everyone protected. Sunglasses for the girls...

And a hat for Jake.

We made sure that Anna and Lauren wore headsets.

And for Jacob, we trimmed some adult ear plugs and used band-aids to hold them in place.
They worked great until he realized they were there.

We tried headsets.

They didn't last long.

We finally resorted to covering his ears whenever the planes flew by. He actually didn't seem to mind this option and so I spent a lot of time with my hands over his ears.
I'm finding it increasingly difficult to get a good picture of all three kids at the same time. I saw the opportunity for a cool shot here with the planes flying in the background. The planes were in the middle of a race so I had everyone get ready to smile when they came back around. As you can see, this first take was not the one. I had about 256 more similar to this one.

I finally got this one and although it isn't anywhere near great, at least everyone is looking at the camera. Granted they all have racoon eyes, are squinting, and if you notice...there are no planes in the background at all! Oh well, I tried.

We ended the day with the Blue Angels. The kids really seemed to get a kick out of them but after the show was over, they were content to head back to the hotel for a little pool time. It was a really nice day!