Princesses, Cookouts, & Pigtails

Over the past few months, Sydney has come to love princesses and often time requests that we "Watch a princess movie." Whenever she finds this tutu skirt from Aunt Nonnie in her drawer, she insists on wearing it around the house.

Princess Sydney resting on the floor.

Last weekend we got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows at Sulfur Springs with the Heatons. It was a perfect night to enjoy by a fire (which took us like 45 minutes to get going... haha).

I was excited to use my roasting sticks for the first time. I made them about 3 years ago at a Relief Society Fabulous Friday craft night, and they've just been sitting in our garage just waiting to be used.

Jack was really excited to light sticks on fire.

Spencer entertained cutie pie Anderson, who I can't believe is big enough to almost be walking.

And, as a random note, I found one of Sydney's dresses in my closet that I'd never had her wear before and absolutely had to take her picture in it before she grows out of it. It was a hand-me-down from Wendy's girls, but it's extra special because it was one of the dresses I bought for her girls to wear at our wedding. Now my own little girl is big enough to wear it!

Spencer loves it when her hair is in pigtails. I think they're pretty darn cute too.

Progress

Work on my treasure chest has been painfully slow. I have successfully worn through about 3485793485 pieces of sand paper and about 2 pieces of steel wool just trying to get the rust off of this thing. I have also been stabbed by a sharp piece of metal during said sanding (it was minor), but luckily no lock jaw has set in yet. Despite using face masks to keep the rust at bay, I still usually have rust dust on (and up!) my nose when I take the mask off. And the words "I think I'm getting the orange lung, Pop," frequently run through my head when I see that dust flying around.

So just to jog everyone's memory, here's what my trunk looked like when I got it:

Rust.

And more rust.

Here's what it looks like now, after being sanded 3 times:

Less rusty, but still rusty and dirty.

Top view before.

Top view after.

I never took a "before" picture of the inside, but here's a small peek at the kind of paper that was lining the trunk (plus there were a few ugly lithographs in the lid):

It was lined with brown, stinky, rotten paper.

Now that's all been cleaned out.

Whenever I'm in the basement sanding away, I dream of having a Dremel to help me with my dirty work. Spencer had to buy one a while ago for school, but the battery charger doesn't work anymore. I think we are going to order a new one soon so we can both get some good use out of it! I still have a long way to go with this project, but I'm excited that it at least looks a little better than it did when I got it.

Fall Heaven

Today was the start of pick-your-own apples at Patterson's, so we made the trek out there for apples and the Family Fun Fest. It was SO much more fun this year with Sydney since she was actually big enough to enjoy everything.

Family Photo

Sydney had fun helping us pick apples :)

We picked about 10 lbs.- I'm sure they'll be gone in like a week.

After we finished picking, we walked over to the Apple Barn to get tickets for the Family Fun Fest. I was trying to get Sydney to model by the pumpkins, but she was too distracted by the tractor to ever look at me.

Thank goodness we actually got to ride on the tractor, or she would have been devastated! The first thing we did when we got back there was the corn maze (which is more like a trail through the corn rather than an actual maze).

Sydney had fun walking through it for about 2 minutes.

Then she kept saying, "I want hold you Mommy!" over and over, so I carried her for most of it. It's not easy carrying an extra 27 lbs. around in your arms! She is getting heavy!

Every now and then Spencer would run ahead and hide, then try to scare us as we walked by. I was keeping my eye out for him, then turned to look behind us, and he was crouched down like this. Sydney thought it was pretty funny.

Farmer Suzy taking my little pumpkin for a ride.

Sydney liked riding this car, but it was a little tricky to push her on it because you steer with your feet, and she was obviously to small to do that. Spencer held her on his lap and I pushed them, and then we switched. I turned the wheels a little too sharply, and Sydney and I totally fell off!! How embarrassing! Spencer and I were both laughing pretty hard.

The highlight (at least for me) was this super long slide in the woods. It was the perfect speed for Sydney to go down by herself, but fast enough that it was still fun for me and Spencer to go down too. He stopped going down with her after some guy sarcastically said to him, "I think someone is having a little too much fun," so then I took the reigns and went with her about a hundred times (and enjoyed every minute of it!). And if other parents thought I was a weirdo for being the only parent up there, oh well. After all, Sydney was free and I was the one that had to pay $6 to get in. Might as well get my money's worth, right?

I think the highlight for Sydney was riding the big tire swing. She could have been in this all day and been a happy camper.

She didn't quite know what to make of the hay, though.

My & my Sydney.

Spencer wowed us with his skills on the stilts. He walked pretty far!

He cracked me up when he climbed in this tractor with Sydney. He couldn't even sit up straight, so he totally looked like a giant in it.

After all that, we drove to their market and got donuts. And what do you know, they had swings over there too. I think eating a donut while swinging must be the kind of thing this kid dreams about :)

Craft & Cutie Pie

Now that I painted my kitchen, the complete lack of color left it feeling a little drab. I bought some new dish towels (white with plaid stitching in red, blue, yellow, and green) and came up with a little art project to brighten up the room a bit.

So I took a sign that I already had, turned it over and painted it all white. With the design I wanted to put on it in mind (birds on tree branches), I put painter's tape in various places. I freehanded the tree branches, traced on the birds, then used a razor to cut out my pattern.

Painter's tape over the white background.

I painted over the whole thing in blue, then took the tape off the birds, painted them green and red, then peeled off the rest of the tape.

Voila: The finished project.

I'm going to hang it above the sink. I want to make another one with a yellow bird on it to hang above the doorway to the dining room.

I can't help but add these darling pictures of my Syd playing with Spencer's new phone last week.

Just chillin'.

I love love love her face (and slight double chin) in this picture.

And for the record, sometimes when I call her "cutie pie," she points to herself and says, "I cue pie!"

Labor Day in Lakeside

Hooray for long weekends! We got to spend Labor Day in Lakeside for our annual visit, and upgraded to a 3 night stay so we could pack in more fun.

On our way there, we were driving into the sun. When that happens, I usually grab the atlas we keep in the door and hold it up to keep the light out of Sydney's eyes. She wanted to hold it, so I gave it to her. When I turned around, this is what she was doing with it. Guess she thought she could just do it herself. Cracks me up!

We pulled up to find the gang on the porch at our cottage: Taneyhill.

On Saturday morning, we headed over to the park for Sydney's favorite thing in the world- the swings. She can easily sit in a swing for over an hour. We have a picture of her in these very swings in her room, and it is crazy to see how much she has grown since we last visited.

It was a super windy day, hence the jeans and long sleeves. We walked along the path by the lake and watched big waves crash into the pier (which they closed for the day), then meandered through the streets on the way back to the cottage. I was so excited to find out that there was a community wide yard sale that weekend, so we got to browse through stuff at a few houses. Right around the corner from our cottage, there was a yard sale with a bunch of antique furniture, and I was drooling. I literally tried to walk by that house every time we were going somewhere, because they kept bringing out new stuff throughout the day. On our way to lunch, I saw this big treasure-chest-like trunk, and I decided that it needed to be mine. So after a little wheeling and dealing, I got this baby for $20:

Come to find out, that covering is metal, so I basically bought a bunch of rust. But I'm sure it will look good when I'm done with it! Hooray for a new fun project!! But I digress...

This golf cart made for some good entertainment. Sydney loved trying to buckle and unbuckle herself, and Benji had fun climbing in an out of it. They were also very entertained with the little rocks at the front of the house. Thank goodness we brought our bucket and shovels :)

Later that day, we took another visit to the swings, this time with cousins. I think James was telling Sydney, "Get out of my bathtub."

Coming back from lunch: Spencer, me, Shauna, Pat, Jean, Melissa.

The owner of our cottage was outside a lot and chatted with us pretty regularly. He told us about this old car he had, a 1933 Ford with a V8 engine (the same kind that Bonnie & Clyde used for all of their bank robberies) and offered to take everyone for a ride. He was the second owner of it, and it only had like 70,000 miles on it!

Spencer and the Gusty's going for a ride. From what Shauna told me, they got slightly high on engine fumes.

One of the highlights of the day for me was renting bikes and cruising around town. I loved seeing Sydney wear her cute little helmet.

It felt like I hadn't been on a bike in years, but it was so much fun.

Even Sydney liked it- check out that smile!

We rode down to the lake, climbed down the rocks (in our flip-flops), and threw some rocks in the water.

When we got back, we found Nonnie and James riding around on this low-rider. We took turns taking it for a spin. Later that night we went to watch fireworks that were part of Lakeside's end-of-summer festivities. Sydney was in HEAVEN, and not even scared one bit.

On Monday morning, Sydney pounded her breakfast. After she ate her "breakfast casserole" and about 1/2 a cantaloupe, she also wanted a donut. Uncle Dan bought some with sprinkles for the kids, and instead of just biting into it, she picked off the sprinkles and just ate those.

After packing up the car, I was going to park it in a lot and hitch a ride back to the house with Spencer in the golf cart. We were stopped at a stop sign, and all of a sudden this guy wearing stilts walks by with his kids. How random is that?

My cutie pie.

James and Sydney. Love his forced smile.

The whole crew: Jay, Pat, Jim, Jean, Melissa, Shauna, Benji, Dan, James, Sydney, & Spencer

We also had a great time playing shuffleboard, Eucre, Catch Phrase, and just chatting with everyone. Hopefully we'll be back for Memorial Day 2011!