Bubble Prints

Supplies:

bubbles
food coloring
heavy white paper (we used cardstock)
straws

Pour your bubbles into a shallow tray. Mix in your coloring (it takes a lot to get a really concentrated color.) Use your straw to blow bubbles and the lightly press your paper to make pretty pictures.

This has a small learning curve but is very fun. The kids, and adults, kept coming back to make more and more awesomeness.
Justin even made one for his mom's fridge... how cute!

Job Applicant

Landon's looking to join the Blue Man Crew. I think he has a good shot.

Silly

messy

boy

Tasty {MESSY} Treats.

Can you guess what we are making?:

Sorry, no chocolate dipping pictures. That ended up being too difficult for the kids (what with the bananas slipping off the sticks) So my camera fingers were covered in chocolate.
Did you guess: Chocolate Covered Banana Popsicles!!?I must say, it was a much tastier treat than Kami's original idea (which was to wrap bananas in Kraft cheese singles. yum.)

And, surprisingly, very messy. I must be honest, it really never occurred to me that this could be a very messy treat. (Mushy slimy bananas, melty chocolate, and sprinkles that dye everything... who would have thought?) My favorite is Kami is now sporting a chocolate handprint on her back courtesy of her little brother.
Although, I am sure I haven't learned my lesson because our next homemade treat on the horizon is fudgecicles/pudding pops. I'll let you know how those go.

YAY! for special treats!

Chore Charts

Today I made these. They have been on my list to make for a couple months at least. We are on our way towards routine... wish us luck. (I am so excited.)

I used the template I got from here to make these.

What's My Name

Kameryn said to me today "Mom, what is my name that isn't Kami or Kami G.?"
I confidently told her "Your name is Kameryn."
Apparently not. Apparently, as she informed me, her name is "school girl".

Nice. Somebody might be slightly excited for school.
now we all have our own special names. Courtesy of miss Kami G.... I mean "school girl".

Brandon's nickname is cheese.
Landon's is kitty.
Cooper doesn't get a nick name.
and me, well I'm jalapeno.
Sweet. no... Spicy.

Summer Fun

Okay, I'm really behind on this post (along with others.) These pictures were taken the end of June.
Trampoline Fun:
That girl... I can't tell you how many pictures I have of her like this... She thinks it's funny to take a picture of her head between her legs. Go figure.
Cooper wanted me to get pictures of him jumping "high high as the sky"
All three playing on the tramp. You can't really tell from this picture but we put a sprinkler under the tramp (A favorite summer past time from back when I was a young whipper snapper.) They thought it was great. Here they are trying to run around really fast so they slip and fall down.

Popsicle Madness: I love Kami's face... and Landon's belly.
These kids would live on popsicles if I let them. I tried to put them on a high shelf in the freezer so they would have to ask. Instead, they scale the shelves of my freezer... I've given up and we've just moved them lower within reach.

Lounging by the Pool:
Kami is such a ham for the camera. I probably have 60 some odd pictures of her from this day. "Okay mommy, now take a picture of me like this." These were my favorites of the 60. (these and the above picture of Kami's bum on the tramp. Honestly?...)

Brothers:They were intent on sharing this car. TOO CUTE!

It's all about the slide!:
Brandon, my ever amazingly fun husband, brilliantly decided to put the hose on the slide. A hilarious riot erupted. We've been doing it ever since. As you can see below, these kids can get some distance.

Kami perfected her sliding art. Notice the "prayer" technique. It's so she would keep her hands and legs inside the ride at all times. It took her a while to build up the courage. She kept giving herself little pep talks. I was laughing so hard, she is a HOOT! "Okay, okay..." as she waves her arms in mad circles "this time no hands, I'm serious!"
But she did it, and check out those splashes!
This is the only "splash" picture I got of Cooper. It pales in comparison to those of Kami's...
But, here's why. The little guy would keep one leg pressed up against the side and inch his way to the bottom. Go figure.
Happy summer fun!

Like a Baby

Sleep.
It looks like pure bliss doesn't it? All those soft white covers... Unfortunately for mommy and daddy, it was the exact opposite. For someone so little, he sure knows how to take up a lot of space. bed hog.But look at that face. (and the time on the alarm clock) I'd say someone is starting the day off right. (Unfortunately he still managed to wake up on the "wrong side of the bed".)

Photo Op

I just deleted 75 miscellaneous photos of blurry ecstasy from my camera. Pictures of pages from the American Doll magazine. Pictures of nostrils. Pictures of mom (me) randomly going about daily life (tying my shoes, holding Landon, picking up toys.) You get the picture right?

I've deleted all of them but decided to save this one because of it's obvious uniqueness and innate sense of random goodness. My children tend to take pictures of the things that fascinate them. Apparently I have a son with a foot fetish.

Name Game, part 2

Apparently this is a recurring theme in the Bowen household. Some of my more frequent and devoted readers might remember a post with an identical name written 2 1/2 years ago, name game (I'm just kidding, I don't have any devoted followers)
Here is Cooper's take on it.
All men in our household have the same middle name, Jay. It is actually only Cooper's middle name, but he is insistent that it belongs to all the boys. So we have "Toopa Jay Bowen" "Lanny Jay Bowen" and "Daddy Jay Bowen"
Coincidentally, Kameryn and I share the same middle name as well: Grace. (which is really only Kameryn's middle name) So our names are as follows "Tamin Gace Bowen" and "Mommy Gace Bowen"
I'm pretty sure we would all be ____ Jay Bowen if it weren't for the fact that Kameryn was so adamant her middle name was Grace. There have been a few fights about it this past month. It must have been during those fights that Cooper drew the conclusion that all the boys in our family had the middle name Jay and all the girls had the middle name Grace.
We go with it.

On an awesome side note: Kami knows our phone number!!! Smart girl. (kindergarten prep is freaking me out... more on that later.)

Yo Ho, Yo Ho

I had dressed up like a pirate for Cooper's party, thinking he would think it was really cool. (I even made sure not to shower so it would be authentic...)I promise I'm not angry. We are making pirate faces.

Unfortunately, Cooper took one look at me and started screaming. Apparently girls aren't allowed to be pirates. Only boys. Eventually he warmed up to me... but so did the weather. It's really hot when you are all decked out like a pirate. I probably smelled like one by the end of the day. But of course I couldn't miss a photo op with my pirate, so we got all decked out again right before bedtime. I sure love this boy! Look at the pirate faces he's pulling.

Kami wanted to be a "fake pirate". So we took her picture with her brother. I love her interpretation of the "pirate face".

And, of course, never one to be left out of a photo taking opportunity...

He followed me around the house screaming until I figured out that he wanted his picture taken with the hat as well...

a pirate's life for me!