Featured at Simply Cherise

Somehow, I forgot to post about it here the first time that frog loves monkey was featured in on a blog.  Hrm...not sure how I managed to do that.  (It's here, at The Sweetest Memory.)

Exciting news though - it's happened again!

I'm the featured artist over at Simply Cherise.  Very flattering. :)  Go take a peek if you'd like to hear a bit more about what I do why I do.

Easter, Part II

Easter was a REALLY low-key affair for us, this year.

Richard had to work.  We'd already done the big egg hunt at my sister's on Thursday.  And, after playing with our friends on Saturday, Boo woke up sick on Sunday morning.  (GAH!  We were the plague carriers!  Dangit!)

The kids had actually forgotten that it was Easter. 

They were on the sofa, tired and congested and watching tv with their breakfast (hey, they were sick), when I surprised them with their Easter baskets.  Talk about excited!  We don't so the Easter Bunny and they don't get candy, but I tucked a few things into their baskets that they were excited about.  They each got a set of bunny ears, which they thought were funny, and a little stuffed animal, and some Annie's gummy bunnies.  There was a set of egg-shaped sidewalk chalk for them to share, and Bug got some Silly Putty (which Boo always tries to eat) and a little set of wooden cars in his basket.  Oh.  And they each got one of those little washcloths that's packaged up super tiny and grows to full-sized when you get them wet.  Boo was so excited she asked to take a bath immediately.  Bug opted to play in the sink.

They spent the rest of the day attempting to eat the last of the eggs we'd dyed for the hunt at my sister's house.

The eggs my sister made specially for Bug and Boo.  Their names are on the other side.

Pre-Easter Playdate

The kids and I got to go have a bit of fun just before Easter.  Even though we've been here in Arizona for nearly two years already (how did that happen?!), given everything that's happened during that time, there hasn't seemed to be a lot of time for us to get out and meet people.  But we do have friends, and for that I'm very grateful.  :)  And, that we *all* seem to have made friends in the same family, well...that's just awesome. :)

So we got to go play with our friends.

It was a really nice, relaxing day.  The boys, both four, alternately had great fun with each other and then seemed to delight in shouting at each other.  The girls, both hovering on either side of a-year-and-a-half, mostly still play near each other, but have taken notice of each other.  There were moments that I wondered if they weren't developing little crushes on each others brothers.  And I always enjoy hanging out and talking with Kendall.  She's awesome.

The kids dyed a few eggs, though I didn't manage to get any pictures of it.

Boo got to wear her first tutu, and I think she fell in love.  She liked it so much that Kendall sent her home with it.

Boo and Luca.

Much fun was had. :)

(And, Kendall has a shop!  Find her at www.hennyandev.etsy.com, www.facebook.com/hennyandev or www.hennyandev.blogspot.com.  She does CUTE stuff.)

Shop Goodies - Baby Things

Been doing a ton of sewing for the shop lately.

Some of my recent favorites in the baby items category...

Car Seat and Nursing Cover Combo

Diaper Strap

Diaper Strap

Swaddling Cloths (Not in the shop yet)

30 Minute Pants

I've been doing a LOT of sewing for the shop, and while the kids typically end up with new clothes when I do that, Bug has kind of been shortchanged on that front lately.  Adding lounge pants to our offerings was a boon for him though, and he loved them.  (Yay!)

Bug isn't much of a fan of fabric shopping - though he does have an impeccable eye - but he does really like picking out fabric for his own projects.  He also loves Lightning McQueen.  A lot.  So he picked out some Cars fabric a week or so ago and it's been sitting here, waiting for me to do something with it.

I'm guessing it was a bit of insanity, but when Richard had the kids at my sisters, I realized I had about thirty minutes before I needed to go meet them and thought, "Hey, I wonder if I can whip up those pants before it's time to leave?"

Short answer, yes.

And he loved them. :)  (Yay!)

Butterfly Day at the Desert Botanical Gardens

A few weeks ago, we headed out to the Desert Botanical Gardens.  I love the botanical gardens.  I especially love that, once a month, they offer a free admission day.  In the spring, that even includes admission into the butterfly exhibit, which is amazing in a way that I can barely even begin to describe.

Since it's ridiculously late and this post is seriously image-heavy, I'm going to let the pictures do most of the talking...

Boo, getting ready to load up and hydrating before a long, hot afternoon.

LOVE these glass sculptures.  I have no idea how they don't get broken in bad weather.

All ready to spend the afternoon looking at amazing things.

Turns out that, this year, instead of offering free admission for the day, they offer free admission for half of the day.  We ended up arriving about ten minutes before they wanted to start letting people in and, given that it would have cost quite a hefty sum for tickets for all of us, we opted to hang outside the gates and have lunch first.  There were lots of neat things to look at out there, too.

I so love this.  It makes me want one somewhere in the house.  As if that wouldn't be pretentious.

 Once inside, there was SO much to see!

Enthralled.

Riding in style.

She was happier in there than she appears to be.  Honest.

I love this tree.

Hummingbird!

And then...butterflies!

Boo was SO EXCITED.

She knew she wasn't allowed to touch the butterflies...so she bent down and kissed one instead. <3

I adore this child. <3

A Texas Mountain Laurel...which I never saw in Texas.  It smelled like grapes.

A really cool art installation.

Quail!

Bug LOVES to run!

She's chatting with a chipmunk that was in the plants.

They got SO close.

See?

 

These lovely women - who's names are escaping me - chatted with us for quite awhile.  Very nice ladies!

 

Terrible photo of me, but Bug is so stinkin' adorable.  That smile!

There was a LOT that we didn't get to see.  With only spending half of the day there, we basically saw the butterflies, took a short walk and stopped for lunch before heading out.  There's quite a lot more.  (Seriously.  We've been probably four times so far and there's still one half of the place we haven't seen, yet.)  We're looking forward to heading out again soon and taking some of the other trails.  And, of course, seeing the butterflies again!

Easter, Part I

I know it's not Easter yet, but we've already done our big family celebration.  My sister's ex-husband has their kids for the weekend, so we did the big family thing last night.

I have to admit, I'm a little surprised (and quite pleased!) that their Easter baskets are still around.  This was the third year we've used these baskets, and they're just made of felt.  I'd hoped they'd last for a few years, but I'm kind of surprised that they've survived three years, three moves and some pretty rough handling in the playroom.  Considering that I think I paid $1.50 for them, I'd say we've gotten our money out of them.

I'm not sure why but, this year, Bug and Boo were both a little obsessed with wearing their Easter baskets as hats.

 

 

Bug had a lot of fun dying eggs with his cousins.  Boo was still a little young to take part (in my opinion), but she also didn't seem terribly interested in it.  She played outside for awhile, then just kind of orbited the table as the bigger kids finished up the eggs.

Bug dyed ALL of his eggs green.  It's his favorite color.

Then it was time to hide the eggs!

I'm a little embarrassed to say that we hid eleven dozen eggs.  Yep...eleven dozen.  In my sister's backyard, which is about the size of a postage stamp.  (And we ended up leaving another 18 eggs in the fridge.  I can't even imagine where we'd have put them!)  Luckily, we were hiding eggs for little kids, so putting them in plain sight was totally acceptable.

 

I was particularly proud of this balancing act.

 

 

Eventually, we just took to tossing them onto the lawn...

 Being the youngest, Boo got first crack at the yard.  We gave her a head start of about 30 seconds or so, so she could figure out what was going on before the big kids plowed her down in their quest for eggs.  She picked up on it pretty quickly and did really well on her own, though she did have parental help in reaching some of the eggs she found but could get to on her own.

 

And the hunt is on!

Afterwards, the kids sat down and counted out their loot.  Mom gave them each a quarter for each real egg they found, and all of the plastic eggs had some change inside them.  Considering the number of eggs out there, they all banked even though most of the eggs only have a few cents inside them.

Not sure how I didn't get a picture of Bug with his eggs, too...

And then they attempted to eat ALL of the real eggs.  Before dinner.

We'll do something low key on Easter, but they really seemed to enjoy the big deal. ;)

Oh, Hello! - and A Farmer's Market ;)

Oh, look!  I still have a blog!

I'd apologize for not having updated in...forever...but, well, we've been living our lives. ;)

And I've got a few pictures to prove it.

Last week, we headed out to the big farmer's market.  As much as I talked about markets last year and the year before, it's actually the first time we've headed out this season.  There's just been too  much other stuff going on!

Bug is four now, and decided that HE was going to push Boo (almost two!) in her stroller.  She doesn't ride in it often, so she was pretty tickled by the whole thing.  He even pushed her around - with some minimal steering assistance - for  about ten minutes before he gave up on it.

We saw some really great stuff.  Flowers and veggies and some super yummy prepared foods.

The kids loved the veggies.

Boo watching the live band while we ordered lunch.

We got the BEST hot dogs ever from these guys...

Seriously.  SO good.

All of the hot dogs are named after actual dogs, which was cool.  I got the Igby - blue cheese, cole slaw and bbq sauce.  Sounds maybe a little strange, but I've craved another ever since.

After lunch, we picked up some super yummy, all natural popsicles.

Bug got chocolate raspberry.

I got prickly pear and passionfruit, but Boo snagged it immediately.  She did allow me a small taste.  Quite yummy.

And, yes, she finished the WHOLE thing.