owls, waffles, and wiggly teeth

this little boy is turning SIX on friday!

i found him yesterday morning up early, sitting in his bathroom.

he looked at me very sadly and said,

'mommy, i'm never going to be able to eat again.  see?'

he clenched his teeth together in an attempt to show me something was wrong.

having an idea,

i asked him to come close.

sure enough,

our little boy has his first loose tooth!

he's not totally sure what to make of it.

sometimes he is fine with it,

but other times he is very unhappy with the new sensation occurring in his mouth.

the news of the tooth fairy did perk him up a bit, though!

(bella is already trying to loosen her teeth to get the tooth fairy to head her way, too :)

i can't believe we are at the tooth-losing stage already.

one more sign of what a big boy jackson really is.

(jackson has a small spot on his front tooth from a nasty fall on a slide a few years ago, 

just in case you didn't think i brush his teeth ;)

wiggle, wiggle!

i'm sure he'll be showing off his jack-o-lantern smile any day now!

*******************

yesterday, charlotte wanted to wear her owl hat.

how could i tell her no?

the girls spent some time in the afternoon doing one of their favorite things-

coloring at their art table.

i love to see them hard at work.

bella traced her hand 

**********

march has brought the opportunity to see lots of friends and family.

last week we met up with some fresno friends at disneyland.

bella loved hanging out with aubrey rose.

then our dear friend, rose, came on the train friday.

i got to take her photos for her upcoming move to costa rica as a missionary.

we had a ton of fun with her,

spending a rainy saturday at the aquarium watching crazy seals and petting jellyfish.

(you can see some of her photos on bachmanville photography)

i snapped a few of the kids together.

they all smiled!

this NEVER happens.

and then we told them to make silly faces.

bella is SLAYING me in this picture.

i've got my hands full.

yesterday, jeff's parents arrived in town.

we love getting to try new things when we have visitors,

so today we headed to old town orange (love!)

and ate at bruxie for lunch.

sandwiches made out of waffles?

um, yes please.

the bacon, egg, and cheese waffle.

s'mores waffle.

pulled pork waffle

"grilled cheese" waffle

we are now big fans of bruxie!

the kids thought 'grilled cheese waffles' were SO funny.

we have fun plans with jeff's parents,

and then more family is headed down this weekend.

woot!

i love march.

and birthdays.

and paleo-cheating :)

********************

that's what is up in bachmanville!

let's turn this ship around....

this morning was one of these....

actually, it's been one of these types of weeks.

everyone seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed.

charlotte was just plain cranky.

and rocking a new cough and runny nose.

fun.

yesterday she screamed, kicked, and scratched for 44 minutes after her nap.

i was not looking forward to a repeat performance.

(do you think i'm mean for taking these photos rather than comforting my child?  

first... i totally did try to comfort her.  she was not having it.

if you get near her, she scratches you.  (see bella's face for example.)

and...i thought that i needed evidence for when she was a teenager.)

i had planned on a fun morning with my girls.

some nail painting,the park, and some exercise.

there was no way i was going to paint nails with all that kicking and flailing.

and taking her in public?  no way.

and honestly, exercising with a screaming toddler is, well, futile.

what to do?

how to start over?

i could feel myself starting to fill with frustration.

this was NOT how i wanted our day to go.

i decided we needed a craft.

monday we had decorated for fall with a few items i had boxed up.

i have a billion things on pinterest i want to make,

but none of the supplies.

or today, the patience.

what could we make with what we had?

i decided to bust out the paint.

i started helping bella make handprints.

charlotte was soon intrigued, stopped screaming, and wanted hers done too.

we had a few minutes of quiet respite while the girls painted.

(as soon as she was done, she was back at it. yikes.)

after jackson was done with school,

he made his handprints, too.

i hung them outside to dry while we ate lunch.

after lunch, it was naptime for the char-nado.

that kid hit the pillow and was out.  sweet relief for everyone.

we still had some crankies happening

thank you, jackson, for adding to the mix

so we grabbed our old bananas and made a batch of banana bread.

just before we put it in the oven,

jackson decided it needed chocolate chips.

so it was chocolate chip banana bread.

(i did LOVE that jackson read all the instructions for us in the recipe. 

he couldn't quiet figure out the fraction measurements :)  

and.... it made me smile to see him in my apron)

the bread was in the oven,

charzilla was down for a nap.

so we went outside to finish our handprints.

i drew pumpkins on the painted papers for the kids to practice their cutting

while i cut out the handprints.

our cutting still needs some work.

sadly, the batteries ran out on my timer.

so the bread overcooked a bit.

but the kids were so proud and excited to try their creation!

i taped their little handprints around the frame on our mantle to make a little wreath.

nothing fancy-

i don't think anyone will be pinning this :)

but it made me happy.

and it made the kids, at least the big kids, happy, too.

nothing today happened or turned out quite like i planned or hoped.

but sometimes different is just as good :)

charlotte should be asleep for another 30 minutes.

let's hope she wakes up happier.

otherwise...

i'm going to need another craft.

rainbows & rainy days

i love rainbows.

god totally knew what he was doing when He made them.

i love the perfection of the color combination.

rainbows just make me happy.

i've let rainbows have a place in my home.

on charlotte's bookshelf....

jackson & bella's bookshelf...

and in my closet.

today was one of our long days.

several days a week, jeff leaves early and gets home late at night.

those days have a tendency to drag on if i don't have my stuff together.

i've been spending sunday nights on my pinterest page, figuring out fun things to do

to help schedule our time with fun things.

i had found an art project awhile back that i thought would be fun for the big kids' bathroom.

today was a rainy day...

perfect for a project!

 

i took a canvas (super cheap on sale at joannes)

and a big box of crayons.

i removed the blacks & browns.

then bella & i sorted them into colors.

 she helped me hot glue the crayons onto the canvas in rainbow order.

we made sure to put the matching wrappers together, and all the crayola labels facing out

this afternoon the rain let up, so we all headed outside.

we plugged in the blow dryer and started to heat the crayons.

 it was cold outside, so it took awhile for the crayons to heat up.

at first, we tried to do them all at once. that didn't work, so we worked on just one color at a time.

jackson lost interest after the purple.

 bella just loved it when the crayons started to melt.

the wind was blowing, so sometimes the crayon melt went sideways instead of straight down.

 i love the texture of the melted crayon on the canvas.  so pretty!

bella was very impressed with our final product.

charlotte liked it too!

my little artist!

i had so much fun with my big girl today.

we love doing crafts together.

she even signed her artwork.

can't wait to put this up in her bathroom!

little drummer boy. and girl.

it's summer here in the bachman house.

summer means camp, swimming, and popsicles.

it also means all 3 kids home all day- so i'm trying to plan lots of fun crafts & activities.

bella loves crafts.

jackson does not.

so if i want jackson to jump on the crafting bandwagon, i gotta speak his language.

jackson LOVES music.  and instruments.

after finishing a carton of oatmeal, i said, hmmmm...  what can i do with this?

how about..... 

oatmeal canister drums!

both kiddos were excited.  

i let them pick out any color construction paper.  

bella picked pink.  (surprise!)  jackson chose green.

knowing we had a mess in store, i made them wear aprons from the dollar tree.

(side note...check out jackson's face.

charlotte went all wolverine on him during our recent trip to costco....

apparently you don't want to make her mad while trapped in a shopping cart.)

i put out a variety of things for them to decorate their papers with.

paint & sponges, dot stampers, and letter/animals stamps.

the kids quickly got busy decorating their papers.

jackson liked the stamps... far less messy.

bella is always a fan of creating the biggest mess possible.  

she went for the paint.

the pink paper turned... purple.

charlotte wanted in on the action, so i set her loose in her highchair 

with some construction paper and finger paints.

 

she was COVERED... all the way to her binky.

 

after an hour of paint and stamps it was time for....

A BATH!

( insert bath, getting dressed, lunch, charlotte down for a nap

and then we were back at it.)

their papers were dried.

time for stickers!

once they had been sufficiently decorated,

mommy finished them up.

i taped the papers around the canister,

punched holes in the sides,

& added some string to go around their necks.

what drum is complete without drumsticks?

we wrapped some yarn around the ends to create mallets.

at last... our drums were ready to play!

serious business.

give me a beat!