Raine had been begging me, incessantly, to make her a Rapunzel dress. I kept telling her no, that she could put it on her birthday wish-list and maybe I would buy her one. I’m not the creative, crafty type and my time is far better spent doing other things. But Raine IS the creative, crafty type and she wore me down. She knew exactly what she wanted and the dresses available online were NOT it. In a moment of weakness, my right brain overtook my left brain and we found ourselves at the fabric store buying supplies. Then we came home and I made her a dress. (Yes Mom, pick up your jaw from off the floor; I sewed something . . . by myself. At one point I even uttered the words, “hmmm, this probably needs some interfacing. I better add some.”) I found the pattern here and modified it to fit Raine’s height and the image in her head.

Raine was thrilled with the end result; it was EXACTLY what she wanted.

Raine wore her new dress to The Little Mermaid marionette show in Grapevine on Wednesday. The theatre said to come dressed up like a princess, so Raine did. They even gave her a big flowery bracelet for doing so.

The show was really neat. It’s amazing what they can do with those puppets (although they are a little creepy looking up close).

Posing with Ariel after the show. The puppeteer is standing above her on the edge of the stage, posing the arms and head of the puppet for the photo. Raine claims she liked standing by Ariel, but I think her body language tells a different story!

Carter found this statue to be much less scary than the puppets and climbed up next to it on our way back to the car.

Not only did I make Raine a superb princess dress, I also helped her make this awesome 3D Rapunzel tower.

She LOVED it!

Yes, I have definitely moved up a few rungs on the “cool mom” ladder!

Carter turned three-years old on the 12th!

To celebrate, we went to the water park and met up with a few of our friends. Carter swam by himself for the first time that day — he is such a fish! I have been giving the kids swimming lessons this summer, hoping that Raine would be able to swim by the time the summer was over, but Carter has been the one to really excel. His complete lack of fear in the water is definitely an asset in this respect. Here he is swimming between Daddy and Raine.

Carter’s FAVORITE thing to do, however, is to splash!

Here is a video of his swimming and splashing.
(It also captures Raine’s progress toward swimming — tentatively sticking her mouth in the water to blow bubbles — not quite what I was hoping for at this point, but it’s a start! Ignore me repeatedly asking her to blow bubbles when she was already doing it, it was so bright that I couldn’t see her face in the camera display before repeating myself.)

After we were sufficiently fried by the sun at the pool, we headed home to open presents. Carter loved the Mack car carrier and Lightning McQueen that Grandma/pa Dewey gave him.

Raine knew just what Carter wanted: a BALL!!! Every time a box came in the mail, Carter would tell me that he was sure there was a ball in it for him.

Carter wanted hamburgers for dinner, so we headed over to 5 Guys.

Then we swung by the church to try out Carter’s new plasma car — fortunately, the AC repairman was there and had the gym nice and cool for us!

This was Carter’s preferred source of momentum!

There was also a little basketball going on.

And finally, it was time for cupcakes. Carter wanted worms on them.

A few notes about Carter:

• Carter is such a fun-loving, happy guy.
• He sings all the time — even in church, at the top of his lungs “doo dee doo la lo la lee…” and so on through the entire hymn.
• He is starting to get over his shyness around strangers and will just act silly now instead of hiding behind me.
• Carter loves to read, sitting on your lap with your arms around him. He is a snuggler!
• He still thinks Raine is the coolest person he knows and loves to be her pet dog. He even lets her dress him up as a “girl dog,” complete with pink sequin skirt and yellow flower shirt, but of course he also has on his goggles!
• Carter loves to run and jump and crash and play wild but he also likes to take care of the baby dolls and rescue stuffed animals.
• He is a sweet little guy who loves to ask “why” about everything.

 

The weather was crazy cool this week so we had all sorts of outside fun. Tuesday evening we invited a bunch of families over for a cook-out in the back-yard. Thursday morning Daddy and the kids washed the cars . . . and a couple of kids!

That evening we headed over to the Hurst Stars and Stripes celebration. They have live bands playing on the stage and a whole field full of bounce houses for the kids.

As the sun started to set we hit the food trucks and did a little dancing to the music played by the disco cover band.

Last week, I stocked up on all sorts of fun glow-in-the-dark paraphernalia at Target. We pulled it out while we waited for the show. The kids loved it!

Carter had a glow-stick ball and Daddy had this awesome hat and helicopter glow-sticks.

I decided to take one last photo before the fireworks started and managed to capture Raine’s face as the first one shot overhead! She spent the entire show with her eyes closed and my hands over the earphones — she really hates fireworks! By the time it was over, she was asleep on my lap!

Happy Independence Day!

. . . the hill won.

Those are the worst two; she also has road rash down her entire left thigh, left elbow, right forearm, and the palms of her hands. She told Daddy that she went “sledding, but without the sled.” That was a very big hill and a very big crash!

Momma’s towing and ambulance service. (My legs were burning by the time I got all that home!)

I have said in the past that Raine is one tough cookie . . . not any more! Don’t get me wrong, it was a horrible crash with some really nasty injuries, but there has been no end to the whining the past two days. Maybe it’s just the big things like broken arms and split chins that she handles well! I’d rather not test that hypothesis. At least her silliness wasn’t injured!

I never cease to be amazed by the imaginations these two kids have! The past few weeks their creativity has been in over-drive — the pictures on my camera don’t even capture half of it.

The stuffed animals around here never have a dull day, especially “Cocoa” the dog — bows on both ears, a sequined gown, bracelets, earrings, this dog has it all!

On the 20th, Raine decided to be a kitty. I was in the bathroom getting ready for the day when she came in and announced her plan. She asked me to draw whiskers on her face and then went off to make some kitty ears, which she subsequently taped to her forehead.

The 25th was crown day. She whipped up these two beauties in a matter of minutes and they wore them on their adventures as the Princess and Prince of Deweydom!

The inspiration for these crowns came from Cousin Alexa, who we visited on our whirlwind trip down to Houston the 18th and 19th.

Raine’s favorite color has changed from pink to purple recently and she has been desiring a new crown to match her new favorite color. Fortunately for her, this summer she has the coolest nanny in the world! Savannah brought her a sparkly purple crown for their craft one day and it has been on her head ever since!

Not to be outdone, Carter has a new passion in life as well . . . swim goggles! This was the scene at dinner the other night: Raine with her sparkly purple princess crown on one side of the table (above) and Carter with his swim goggles on another side.

We went to the water park on the 27th where Carter tried out his goggles (which were really Daddy’s goggles and so didn’t fit hardly at all) and he was IN HEAVEN!! I took a shower after we got home and this is the scene I was greeted with as I exited the bathroom; apparently he didn’t get enough “splashing” at the pool!

Yes, these are definitely going into the “First-date Scrapbook”!!

Of course, this is how it ended! It was so ridiculously hilarious to watch that I couldn’t bring myself to stop the insanity before he got hurt, all I could do was take pictures. Fortunately, the injury wasn’t serious and he was back to his crazy self in no time.

I can’t image where the kids get their crazy climbing/jumping ideas from . . . certainly not from their parents!

Allow me to rant here for a moment before this next photo: I am not a fan of the princess movement. I have been avoiding and discouraging it for Raine’s entire life. But, the inevitable has finally caught up with us and Raine is embracing it whole-heartedly. I want her to be able to express herself however she sees fit, but I have decided to only allow princesses into my home that meet my standards. For example, everything from dress-up and dolls to toothpaste and band-aids come in a princess variety, but I refuse to buy anything that features an immodest princess. Raine is quite proficient at spotting anything immodest and agreeing that we don’t want it.

One thing that I’m having a hard time with are the dress-up gowns. Raine loves to dress-up and I firmly believe that it fosters her growth and development to do it . . . but none of the princess dress-up clothes are modest by themselves. Obviously, Raine would have clothes on under them, making them modest, but I still would rather not even go there. For now, Raine is using one of the dance outfits that Savannah gave her. It is equally (if not more) immodest than the commercial princess gowns, but since we already have it in the box I haven’t bothered fighting it.

Raine insisted on wearing her “Princess Rapunzel” dress to the restaurant the other night. Daddy tried to tell her no, but he obviously didn’t succeed. The jury is still out on whether or not this is a battle worth fighting!

When Raine gets a creative idea in her head, she will not stop until she has given it life. Today, she came home from church and insisted on making a wagon. There was no putting her off or talking her into doing something else. She had an idea and wasn’t going to stop, or let you do anything else, until that idea was a tangible reality. I was pretty impressed with her end result, which she loaded with stuffed animals, hitched behind her, and pulled around the house!

Both of these kids’ creativity amazes me. There is no doubt that they inherited it from Grandma Dewey’s side of the family — I believe Grandma Gabbott is the most creative person I know — so all I can do is sit back and be amazed. I provide the tools for them but they supply all the ideas, it is a fun experience for me to be a part of!