Bunny and Monkey: A Tale in Pictures

Sock Monkey recently joined our family of toys. He and Bunny started to bond. "Bunny," said Sock, "I love your shirt."

"Thanks," said Bunny, "you can try it if you want to. Bella has one to match. You'll fit right in."

"Wow, Bunny, it fits great," said Sock.

"I almost think it looks better on me than than you," continued Sock. Bunny was sad.

"Just kidding! You're the best, Bunny." "I love you," said Bunny.

The Evolution of Things

It's amazing how things evolve. This weekend I went to a few garage sales looking for some climbing toys for Bella. The only think I found (and ended up buying) was a workshop (the size of play kitchens) with shutters and a plantar box (and obviously a drop light, hammer, wrench)..and it was only $5! I brought it home and cleaned it up before she woke up. When she came into the living room, she screamed. She loved opened and shutting the shutters and putting her baby in the planter box...and hammering on everything with the hammer. Anyway, that got me to thinking that we should build her an indoor play area when we build her a bed (since we know we're going to have to do that soon since she can climb all the way up the changing table and dangles her feet off).

So I had an idea in mind (thanks to my good friend) to build her a playhouse with a bed on top, slide, and stairs. Maybe later we can add some of the climbing rocks (from the indoor rock walls) and a rope climbing net. I knew I wanted dutch doors...and the more I thought about it, the more Abel said I needed to draw this out myself. :o)

Then I happened across this site: http://www.customplayhouses.com/Theme%20Beds/fairytalecottagebed.htm

Abel doesn't want it painted quite so girly and I want the bed on top with the play area on bottom (we'l move her crib mattress to the bottom until she's a little older...then she can graduate to upstairs. I want drawers in the steps (for games and toys)with shelves on the side of the stairs. I also want it to have a dutch door and a small "mouse hole" that goes out under the slide along with a PVC "phone" that goes from the playhouse to the loft. And what playhouse is complete without a constellation ceiling? Inside, I also want to put in bookshelves, a toybox/window seat, a dropdown table (like that are in campers), and a chalkboard.

Where we're at right now, it's going to be EXTREMELY tight on space...but it's her play area and bed all in one so she wouldn't need anything (other than her dresser and armoire ofcourse--we can't get by without clothes!). Anyway, we're planning on moving this winter so that should help A LOT with the space-issue. Why not wait until we move? Well, this is going to take Abel several months to complete anyway...so I'm thinking it might not actually be completed until we move. If it's done before then, we'll probably move it in anyway. :o) How FUN!

Are there any features we've left off?

Vamping up the Layout

Blogger has made some features recently available (to those of us who rely on their free services) that weren't available before, so I decided to slowly start integrating these. This may be a multiple weekend project; we'll see how it goes.

Anyway, you'll see that I added some of my favorite blogs to share. Perhaps someday I'll have the time to do all of the things I want to do (ha ha) but I've enjoyed looking through these sites for the past year or so for inspiration. I just put the ideas in my pocket and save them for later (perhaps for another naptime or three-day weekend).

I didn't even know these ladies existed and have enjoyed following them through their adventures. I thought I would share them with you. Perhaps someday (when I have something more productive to post--andmore time ofcourse!) I'll make it to their lists.

Josh's Birthday Present

Josh and Amber decided they wanted to go backpacking, so for a birthday present, Amber got this tent for Josh. They decided to test it out while Isabella and Abel were napping (so noone would mess up the tent...I won't name names, but you know who you are Bella). Anyway, I'm not sure that I've seen a tent quite this tall--you could actually fully stand up in the tent!



Sarah is on the floor and that's Amber peeking out the window.

Old Town Sacramento

Ok, ok, I'm playing catch-up. We went to Sacramento for Easter and I never had a chance to publish the rest of the pictures. Old Town Sacramento was the oldest part of Sacramento (hence the name) and claims to be the start of the pony express. They maintained this old western feel to attract tourists...and it did the trick with us. We loved it!

A Trip to the Park

I have to say these were actually taken a few weeks ago, I just completely forgot about posting them. Regardless, these were probably some of my favorite pictures of the spring so far.

We took Bella to the park and took off her socks and shoes so she could walk better. She wasn't a big fan of the sand and actually stood on one foot for a while so avoid having her feet in it. So I placed her in the middle of the sand in the shade (so the sand was really cool on her feet) and she just started laughing. You know how cameras go, you can never take the picture fast enough to truly capture the moment...she actually started giggling and covered her mouth with her hands. Her shrugged shoulders with her laugh reminded me of her Uncle Justin.







Regardless, she still wasn't a big fan of the sand. That is, until the right motivation came along. A two year old little boy came along and was coaxing her across the sand. They walked off hand-in-hand.










He actually was handing her little things that he found on the ground and showing her leaves and little "treasures". One of these little "treasures" must have grossed her out because it caused her to shiver.

The Flower Fields

HINT: You'll have to left click on this picture to see Bella--she blends right in!










We visited the Carlsbad Flower Fields today. It's across from the Carlsbad Outlets (though no shopping today since we had daddy with us--those trips are better left by ourselves). The Flower Fields are filled with Giant Tecolote Ranunculus flowers. It's about fifty acres and they say only 1-2% of the flowers are actually sold--that's about 1 million stems! It's beautiful and definately something we'll do next year. Bella was more interested in walking (trying to escape) than enjoying a nice stroller ride. Most of the fields are roped off so you can't enter in to look at the flowers, but the far section in the back didn't have the tape around it so that's fair game in my book!

There was also a little sweet pea maze. It reminded me a lot of the pineapple maze in Hawaii, but not quite as big or as difficult. Someone didn't look very happy about doing it, but in the end, we had a good time. Next year we'll have a race!