the peas are in!

matt loves gardening and is sharing his love of it with molly. she had fun last year helping and this year, i think, will be better. they put the peas in the ground today. we bought molly a pair of rain boots to use in the garden so she didn't ruin her shoes. she was so excited to wear them today! here's a picture of her ready to go out.

molly's favorite part about today's gardening experience was actually putting the seeds in the ground. she's obsessed with trains and anything that is in a row/line is a train. so, therefore, as they were dropping the seeds in, molly thought they were making a train. she made sure to add smoke at the top of the train and coal towards the back. she even added a few wheels on the side!

see all the green already?? matt built a greenhouse and planted peas this winter. they survived! we should have peas soon!!

ready for a baby

molly has thoroughly enjoyed getting all the baby stuff out. she's facinated with it all and it's a whole new world of discovery. she took a bath in the baby tub, has laid in the crib and watched the mobile, played with the gym, sat in the carseat and swing and of course, has her dolls doing this stuff all the time!

quite the little mother

molly loves playing with her dolls. she loves changing their diapers (usually they poop!) and picking out new clothes for them. recently she received a changing table and this makes playing with the dolls all the better. these dolls have multiple diaper changes - one right after the other because they're constantly doing an "i" (sorry alex!). she enjoys wiping them and then attempting to put a new diaper on. i'm going to have to watch sophie extra close or she's not going to have a diaper on and constantly be wiped!

in this video, you'll see molly with her doll on the changing pad. this time, the diaper doesn't go on all the way and she's whisked off to bed. complete with a kiss and a hug, the girl is ready to sleep. i'm refering to her as "the girl" because as of now, that's her name! she has girls and boys and one doll named sophie (this is the one that gets changed the most!)

cookin' up some fun!

molly absolutely loves her kitchen. she'd play in her room all day if i'd sit in there with her. matt and i tire of sitting in there cooking the same things over and over but nonetheless, we do it. she's quite the little chef and makes a variety of interesting concoctions. everything goes with everything! she cooks for us and for all her dolls and even makes the cats taste things on occasion (when they cooperate with her). cookies are one of her favorite things to make. she loves to mix them up, roll the dough and use her cookie cutters to make her cookies. then into the oven they go. only to come out about 10 seconds later piping hot!

smoothies are a big hit for molly. she loves drinking them. we call them the "special drink"! they usually are a special treat because we don't get the stuff to make them every week. this week, however, we did and molly has enjoyed one almost daily. she also makes smoothies in her kitchen as well with her little blender. a bit of everything - onion, asparagus, fruit, bread, donuts, chicken, "cow" (hamburger), you name it, it goes in. and let me tell you it's delicious! molly's special drink must be mixed for quite sometime to obtain the perfect smoothie and almost after each new ingredient is added!



this is also one of molly's favorite games - she sits in the cradle and tells matt and i what to cook for her. quite the little queen!

yep, i'm still a teacher!

just a couple days ago it was kansas day. as a teacher, i always taught a kansas unit during social studies complete with different activities and fun projects. this year, even though i wasn't in the classroom, was no exception! i think it's just ingrained in me....what am i going to do if we move to missouri? missouri day sounds so wierd!

molly and i didn't do much, but i thought it was a good time to teach her where she lived and a few things about kansas. we painted a sunflower, went to the kansas day expo in town, and made a kansas book with the different symbols from kansas. she had a blast doing this and yes, learned a bit too! molly can look through the pages of the book and tell you that the turtle is a box turtle (i skipped the ornate for now!) and that the bee is a honey bee and the flower is a sunflower. she can also tell you that she lives in kansas and point to where i wrote "paola" on the map. i suppose the best though, is that she is a true kansan, and can point out the jayhawk. not just any jayhawk, but the ku jayhawk! i tried printing the state of kansas jayhawk symbol but that would not do - it wasn' t a jayhawk. however, when i printed the ku jayhawk, it was! rock chalk molly!

charlie in pajamas

the other night molly did not want to put her pajamas on. so i tried using charlie as bait. normally, this works. she's not a fan of the cats using her things. she shoos them off her bed when it's time for her to be in there and does not like them to "play" with her things. so, charlie got the privilege of wearing the pjs. molly thought it was hilarious and so did matt and i. charlie on the other hand, not so much!


(not sure why his eye is green!)

rinsing dishes - great fun!

our dishwasher bit the big one yesterday. actually, we think it's been coming on for quite a while now. the dishes simply weren't looking the cleanest - it appeared that the soap wasn't rinsing off. i blamed it on cheap soap and bought some name brand but that didn't fix it. last night i noticed that there was water standing in the bottom - a good 25 cups worth! matt checked it out and it doesn't appear to be clogged. so anyway, we are back to the old fashioned way of washing dishes. turns out, molly loves it and get so excited! molly's job is to rinse the soap off. she does so well too -being careful to turn the dish over and get all sides. who knows, we may save a bit on electricity until we get a new one, but i think we'll make up for it in the water department. molly isn't the quickest but nonetheless, she enjoys it thoroughly! (and i'm thankful for the help and joy in her - it makes the task much more pleasant!)