Little Stella Broke her Arm, again

 Stella post surgery

Stella fell off a small slide at Castle Park yesterday and broke her arm in the same bone (the humerus above the elbow), same complicated break.  Stella and I went to Whidbey General in Coupeville and they put her in a heavy splint until the swelling goes down.  She has two pins in her arm.  Our surgeon was Dr. Picco.  I was vewry impressed with the care that the doctor and his staff provided.  Despite how upsetting the event of her breaking her arm, we had the best possible hospital experience.  Thank you Dr. Picco, Tom, Kathy, Laura, Dorie, and the other Kathy! 

 Stella with Grandma Vicky, before surgery.  We almost had to go to Children's last night.  Happily the doctor on call felt confident about being about to pin her arm into place.  Also glad I brought a bunch of books for Stella!

 post surgery, recovery room

 

I took this photo a little before she fell off a different, smaller size slide she was climbing up.  Stella in the purple striped shirt.

Thank you all for your well wishes and offers to help out.  I feel blessed to have such a wonderful community!!

Painting away the Rain

 

 

 We are all big fans of face paint.  Shown above is marina with a flower, drawn by me, and Stella, with "wild cat" paint, applied by, guess who?  Her!  Much to my surprise.  

This is the face painting book we have: http://www.amazon.com/Face-Painting-Inc-Klutz/dp/0932592856

Autumn Walk at the Farm with the Girls

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Disguise

Stella dresses as a leopard. Halloween is around a few corners and we always love finding costumes for dress up at our local thrift store, Good Cheer.

Cute Kiddos, Babies, and the Naming of PJ

Stella told me, above picture, that she was giving baby some "booby". She loves her babies. We haul them into stores, take them in strollers, feed them, and fetch them out ofthe car when they are missing from the house. All at Stella's insistence.

Marina and the ever-lovable PJ the cat. He was born and raised at our house with the girls around and is incredibly tolerant of their noise, energy, and hugs. He, in fact, seems to thrive on it. What a sweetie. PJ was named after a pony that Marina became attached to at the Island County fair a year ago. After trying out several other names on him, the name PJ fit just right.

Brawny

Stella Nurses . . . with a fork?

Summertime Kids Crafts: Painting Outside with Your Kids

We used finger paints outside on the two sided easel. Stella (1 1/2 years old) had one side to paint on and Marina (4 years old) had the other side. When the weather is nice and warm it is fun to set up some messy paints outside and let the kids experiment with them. After they finished their pictures on the easel, they both began to paint their bodies. Bath time!

Above: picture number 1

Above: picture number 2

Baby Plays Harmonica

Riding Joey

Marina on Joey with Caspian snacking in the background

Marina has some new riding boots and she enjoyed using them on one of our beautiful sunny days here on Whidbey Island. When I take her riding I put little Stella in the Ergo backpack, saddle up one of the ponies for Marina and lead her through some of the most beautiful trails around, especially this time of the year with the canary grass standing taller than the ponies, the yellow splashes of buttercups, the continual sound of birds singing and chirping, and the green, green, green of everything sprung to life in early summer.

Stella has no fear of the horse or any other animal for that matter. Above: trying to feed the horse flowers, Below: posing on the horse for a picture. Stella is still too young to ride without assistance, but she loves sitting on the horse

New boots

My Flower Girls, it's going to make you smile! And some pictures of flower jewlery

Sister flower faeries

Kisses

And more kisses

Fragrant Rose Neck Wreath from a climbing rose variety

Marina made these flower rings by wrapping the stems around the flower heads and tucking them in.

Making a Tent out of a Couch, sheet and some kiddy inspiration

Kids love tents. LOVE tents. Tents, forts, crawl spaces, blankets, tunnels. I'm not sure what it is about kids or tents, but the fact remains: build it and they will come. My kids often request a tent, their fav being the one I make on the couch. We use a couch, a bed sheet (flat), and some hooks from the window blinds. I poke a hole in the sheet to fit on the window blind hook on one side of the couch and then repeat on the other side of the couch. You could put hooks in your wall for this purpose. Then I fold the bottom of the sheet under the couch cushions to make a pretty safe fort that they can't easily fall out of. Which is important because Stella is still a bit uncoordinated with her movements and tends to fall a lot. See pictures below for more info. Happy tent making!

Inside the tent. The girls have toys, seat cushions, and big smiles.

Above: another view of the tent

Playing with each other. You get to hear the chattering, laughing, and even the squabbles.

Above: Stella sees me and . . . (see below)

. . . runs away!

Peek-a-boo!

I Just Couldn't Help it. . .

Okay so having little kids is just one photo op after another. Stella (1 yo) has been wanting to be part of just about everything that Marina (4 yo) is doing, as long as she is quick enough to catch on. Chocolate, check. Scissors, check. Beads, check. Painting, check. Pens, check. Ballerina outfits, check. The list goes on. With the dangerous-for-babies endeavors we deal with Stella's upset at not being able to be included, but some of the other things, like messy endeavors . . . oh well, I am resigned to cleaning them up by myself for the next couple years. Wait how many years did you say?!?

Baby Ballerina: I safety pinned one of Marina's outfits to fit Stella (why do they call them safety pins when they have a really sharp needle at one end?)

Marina in a matching ballet dress, showing off her watercolor artwork on the windows

Baby Blue-Eyed Ballerina

The cat can finally appreciate Marina's petting skills

"Bunny Bear" on the Bear Chair