How to Spoil Your Niece...

So, KK is in town right now on their cross-country trip moving back to Alaska :( ... but that means that I get to babysit her so her parents can go on a date! Here's the way to successfully spoil your almost 2 year old niece:

First, you feed her a yummy dinner of tacos sprinkled with a small fit from her cousin Mamu (which distracts her from missing mommy).

Second, you provide her with the Most Awesome Playroom Ever!

Then you provide her with the most awesome playmate / cousin ever! (She's really smiling, she was saying something right then...)

You give her a eucalyptus tree to climb whens she's pretending to be a koala.

You teach her all sorts of things like "My Auntie is the best!" and "I love you Auntie!" Of course her cousin Bebe threw in "Dolly? Do you like the dolly?" and "Achoo!" (You're welcome Didi!)

You let her conduct a puppy orchestra with a camero complete with backup singers.

You don't stifle her inner pop singer when she presses the "I've Been Workin' on the Railroad" button seventeen million times.

You let her have a fabulous bath with her Bebe. And you notice that you REALLY need to scrub the kids bathtub...

You also let her and Bebe share your bed and listen to them giggle and Bebe teaching KK new words (all good things!). You also are a super great aunt and don't take a picture with the flash of the cuteness in the bed. You also have your brother-in-law (her dad) take a picture with his iphone and forget to remind him to email it to you. :)
I will miss the times I get to spend with my KK , but we'll at least see each other over skype and possibly at holidays.

This weekend

This weekend was my KK's and my Dad's (yes, they share a birthday) birthdays! KK turned 1! Dad turned 60!

We celebrated all day long and had such a good time catching up with family and old friends. My camera battery lied to me when I checked it and it said it was half full, so I don't have pictures with me of Dad's party. I'll have to get them from him. Here's the birthday girl though -

I made her that super cute shirt (but not the super cute petti-skirt). And if I do say so myself, she's pretty darn cute!

I'll get back with you later with all the fun of Dad's party. Gotta go fold clothes now...

The Long Lost Days from Ft. Polk

So, if you remember (or if you don't) we went to visit Aunt Didi, Uncle Mark, and KK in July at their new house. And if you also remember, I said that I would be able to tell you more about Day 3 when I got the pictures from Aunt Didi, since we had used her camera for some of them. Well, fast forward to me getting the photos like, oh, maybe 2 weeks ago, but yet forgetting to post them. So, to end the anticipation... here you go!



We went swimming at their big pool and had a splashin' good time. Even after the lifeguards told us that no toys were allowed. Really? The squirty alligator or the dive rings are a problem? But we do pick our battles, so into the bag they went. After that, it was good times splashing each other, watching Bebe swim (a lot!) and Mamu pretending he was a frog. He would hop in and out of the pool saying "Ribbit! Ribbit!" It was pretty cute.

The happy family! Isn't KK cute in her sunglasses?

Sorry Didi, I couldn't resist Mamu's face in this one.

Then, we went bowling. It was a good time and wasn't super crowded, so that was good. I'm pretty sure that Mamu won one of the games. It's probably because he got to use the bumpers and I didn't...

Mamu, Aunt Didi, KK, & Bebe



Mamu getting to use the cool slide thingy.

(AND I had to convince him it wasn't a real slide)

Our stylish shoes!

(OK...KK's are the only stylish ones there)

Me and my Mamu

Aunt Didi and Bebe

Da' Guys (as Mamu would say)

Of course, that night after we went to bed, we busted out the Banski's again. Only this time we were short a band member. Uncle Mark had to go back to work the next day, so he didn't stay up super late with us since he had PT at some awful hour in the morning. The next day we went to the park (in the heat and humidity) to wear out Bebe and Mamu so they wouldn't get too antsy for the forever long trip home.

We drove home in about 6 hours with only a minimum of stops, but bunches of traffic when we got closer to the city. The great thing was that Grandaddy was making us dinner and had it ready as we walked in the door! The even better thing was that Jason showed up to meet us at MG and Grandaddy's house and ate dinner with us! Then I found out that I was helpless on the drive home.

It was a great trip and I'm looking forward to them coming to see us in less than a month!

Road Trip Day 2

**This is a picture heavy post. For you people that know me, you know that I take pictures. Like crazy.**

So we woke up (ok, the kids woke us up) on Wednesday and got treated to a fabulous breakfast made by Uncle Mark - Texas shaped waffles, eggs, and bacon - YUM! Bebe was so excited to have a Texas shaped waffle and even asked where we lived. She saved that spot for last to eat.

KK enjoying her puffies for breakfast

Then we decided to take a trip to the closest "big" city - Lake Charles. We looked on their website and stumbled across The Children's Museum and decided to make that our destination. Bebe decided it would be more fun to drive in Uncle Mark's car, so Mamu and MG rode with me. It was about an hour or so away, so when we arrived, it was time for lunch. After a quick stop at Subway (and a discovery that Aunt Didi and Mamu both LOVE meatball sandwiches), we were off to the museum!

Oh My Goodness! This museum was very, very, cool! Mamu and Bebe had a blast! It was three levels (and we didn't even get to do all of the stuff) and even had a small soft play area for KK to play in.

The awesome water table! You moved the blue and yellow plastic rectangles to change the flow of water.

We stayed for a couple of hours and then headed back to Aunt Didi's house. We did have a fabulous stop on the way home - Dairy Queen!

Uncle Mark made us yummy spaghetti and homemade meatballs (Mamu was SO EXCITED!) for dinner. After dinner, we went to play at the playground that is right behind Aunt Didi's house! You just walk out the gate and there you are!

Then Bebe got to play the Wii while Mamu and KK took a bath.

The Banski's made a return performance and I do say that we got better!

Road Trip Day 1

So, we left on Tuesday, July 20 at 8:00 am to go pick up MG and then got on the road! We got to meet MG and Grandaddy's new kittens (Ben and Jerry), switched cars, and got on the road! I had packed a bag full of different things for the kids to do, plus a cooler with juice and water, and the infamous bag o' snacks (grapes, cherry tomatoes, goldfish, Kix, pretzels, and graham crackers) so we were entertained. Bebe also brought along her "Hear Us Sing God" CDs - there are 2 CDs with 50 songs each on them sung by small children. I was able to listen to the high pitch for a while and then we switched over to XM radio Margaritaville for our dose of Jimmy Buffet and friends. We stopped for lunch at a McDonald's (not a fabulous choice, but when you're driving through East Texas - there's not a lot to choose from) and let the kids run around a bit under their shade tarp; the playground was too hot.

Me with our GPS friend - Quigley

Bebe playing.

Then we hit the road again and got to Kilgore, TX. We went to the #1 tourist destination in East Texas (that's what it said) - The East Texas Oil Museum! The last time we had gone, I was about 5. That's been over 25 years ago (26 to be exact). It was a pretty cool museum. Very interactive for the kids and Mamu kept saying "Men get Oil out of the ground". We went on a journey to the center of the Earth. You ride on an elevator down to the center of the Earth! Our trip was narrated by Professor Rockbottom and his pal (forgot his name). It was both educational and interesting at the same time! We got to look at all the great exhibits and watch a film on the Oil Boom. We spent a good hour to hour and a half there learning about "Men get oil out of the ground" and both kids were sad when we had to leave. Believe it or not, I remembered parts of it!

Bebe, Mamu, and Me at the East Texas Oil Museum. That's carpet on the wall - it was pretty cool.

Mamu, Me, and MG waiting for the 8 minute informational video on the creation of the museum.

Bebe and Mamu listening to information about the Oil Boom.
MG learning too!

Mamu drilling for oil!


The Elevator to the Center of the Earth!

We then drove, and drove, and drove, and drove, and drove. And drove some more. Luckily, Mamu fell asleep for parts of it (it was quite past his nap time) and Bebe enjoyed her CD #2 of Hear Us Sing God.

Well, I don't know about you, but no road trip for us is complete without a stop at Dairy Queen! Thus began the hunt for the Dairy Queen. Let me tell you, for being in the backroads of Texas, passing through towns with as little as 300 people (last census count) there weren't a lot of choices! We finally saw one, I did a U-turn, and drove quite quickly (ok - I sped) to the Dairy Queen drive-thru. We got our ice cream (which did take quite awhile, but we were willing to wait) and got on the road again. The kids got a cup of ice cream to share and it was bigger than mine! Sadly, a lot of it went to waste because both kids ate what they wanted and it looked like they hadn't made a dent in it! Oh well.

Mamu enjoying his ice cream!

We finally made it to Louisiana -and discovered the speed limit was 15 miles slower there on the road - that's right folks - 55 mph on the highway. It felt like snails were passing us after doing 70 in Texas. We then discovered that we were heading for the wrong gate, so Didi had to direct us via iphone. We finally made it to the main gate and got our day pass. Then we drove to the other side of the post to get to Didi's house. We made it! Uncle Mark, Aunt Didi, and KK were so sweet and made dinner for us. Then we got the kids into bed (it was past their bedtimes).

Then I got talked into playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band. It helped that Didi has the Aerosmith Guitar Hero. Needless to say, we formed our own band - the Banski's.

The first performance of the Banski's!

Where did that name come from you ask? Well, on our day pass to get on post, the guard has to write down who you are visiting. He totally butchered Uncle Mark's name (turned Uncle Mark into Uncle Marco) and put the name as Banski. We found that quite humorous (probably because we were a little bit silly after being on the road for almost 8 hours) and thus it became our band's name. We stayed up way too late, but we were having a lot of fun! Then we hit the hay because the kids would still get up (in our opinion) way too early in the morning.