My good house cleaning tip

I have no idea of this is original, but...
I have a flat mop (a microfiber floor mop), and not only do I mop the floor with it, but it works great to "mop" the walls or the outside of the fridge. Washing the walls takes so much less time, when I mop them. By the way, the pad of the mop is machine washable so its easy to not cross contaminant my wall with my floor. I have multiple machine washable mop refills.

I love this

She looks so teeny and she is so teeny. Her head is down she is looking for eggs.

More Musuems

I got the "Community Exploration Pass, that is why there is so many museum trips. And with this post we are finally caught up, no more April posts. Although who knows if I'll go back to march and finish spring break?! Once again we went last year, this year there were no frogs.

We took everyone. Grammy, Bampy (I don't get why kids can say gran, but not gramp, it comes out like bamp), Dad, and even the love birds in the back.

Do you think they are looking at "golden"?

We are hunting dinosaur bones.

Do you love the pig tails? I do!

Art with kids

We finished out or month of museums with the Museum of Fine Art.

Is there a way to train your children to like art? My husband doesn't like it, but he does have a lot of art people in his ancestry? I like art, but most of my family I wouldn't take to an art museum, they aren't fun. How to I get my kids to like it. Take them, expose them? I don't know. Ask them questions? Show them brush stokes?
I did not ask my husband to come, because if I have learned one lesson in life you should never take a person over 12 to an Art Museum unless they choose to be there. Bizarrely enough although he has never wanted to go with me, he did want to go with his sister earlier in the year. Unfortunately I didn't think of taking out my camera, but I think he would actually enjoy some of the museum, there is a lot of Latin American art. The other thing is, even if you don't like art that much it is easy to go with people with kids, when I'm with my 4 year old there is no pondering art, its move move move the whole time.
Here is what we liked, after I remembered to pull out the camera. All the Aztec, and other Latin American art, and Native American art, my son thought was way cool, but it was the beginning, so no pictures.
The stick horse.
All the India pieces, my children see them all the time in my yoga video so I figure it was nice for them to see some in real life.
I've always been a fan of Asian art. Ever since I was a small child. I don't ever remember someone telling me they liked it, I just have always liked it. My first remember exposure to art, was a songbook, Go In and Out the Window, would suggest to anyone who wants to expose their child to art, and/or who likes traditional nursery rhymes and songs. Its out of print, but there is a lot of used copies out there. Anyway, back to the Asian art, there are a couple of pieces in the book, and I always remember loving them, as a very young child. Look at this little Emperor and Empresses , they are so intricate, I can't imagine someone making them.
I love this plate. I like sheep. Most of these pictures are probably out of focus, I didn't know if I was allowed to use flash. But then sometimes I forgot to turn off the flash!
As we wandered through the paintings, I thought about the different influences in what draw me. My mom likes art, so clearly she has influenced me. I don't know if she would actually like this, but she is definitely a fan of Western American paintings.
Great Grandma, or just my grandma has a lot of replicas around her house. This reminded me of her, I don't know if I exactly like this piece, but it definitely draw me in. It so familiar. With a lighter background, I'm sure anyone could picture this in her house.
But because of my songbook, I have a definite preference to early American looking art.
Although only after Asian, This is probably my favorite piece in this museum, it looks Asian, but it was actually painted by a French guy?! in France?
I really don't care about bronze sculptures at all, they do nothing for me, but I wanted documentation of my presence in the museum. I think its a Napoleonic piece maybe.
My son super much liked this. I don't know if it was the lion, or the horrific history of the Colosseum, he is drawn to a horrific things. He said it was the lion, but isn't always good explaining his emotion.
This was probably my second favorite piece.

My son was very interested in the the impressionism pieces. Or as he said "blurry"
He remembered this piece from a year ago.
My son might get a long well with Aunt Alisa. Seven years ago I remember she was in a Gothic Christian mood, my son was really really involved with this. He stood there for five minutes.The Roman stuff I also like. I don't know if its because it is so old. Or if its because Disney did such a good job of making the vases look exactly the same in Disney's Hercules.
I remember this piece from last year. Its a make up tube. CRAZY.
I really like this piece. I thought this picture represented my marriage maybe? My husband's has a lot of family history tying to the Southwest, and I spent every summer of my childhood driving through it on our way to see family. It holds apart of my heart.
Every red blooded American child should stand next a mummy in their lifetime, in fact enough times that they remember it. He was the one that went up to it, he asked if someone died there, I explained that thats were they buried people. (Sort of)
I think I have a cool religion because you can find pictures like this in my scriptures.
The end.

Super Fantastic in 15 years

These pictures are great now, but they will be so super fantastic in 15-20 years my joy can not be contained for my children. They are great pictures because they are all of my kids' cousins on their paternal side. My kids are super lucky to see so many cousins multiple times a year. The other great thing is they will get a similar picture of all their cousins on their maternal side in a few months. So lucky!

Tulips and Temples

With my parents in town, I took advantage. J loves to go to "my temple" (he only owns/"my" at least 3 temples, I guess all the ones in this valley). I want to see Tulips, he wanted temples. I didn't know, I instinctively did know that I couldn't handle two walking children by myself. N babe is normally in a stroller, but who wants to stay in a stroller when there are flowers to see, and your brother gets to run.


I love this picture. Its not a fantastic shot, but I like it, its almost posed, but not quite, its raw. My daughter is being 16 months old, my son is getting in her face, and she is being silly in response, there is pretty pictures in the background.
Of course they love a fountain.J taught N that you can throw money in the fountain. She loved that, her grandparents obliged her whims. She just kept throwing and throwing, she is just finishing a throw/drop, and telling gramps all about it, in this picture.


Do you love her tennis outfit? It makes her daddy laugh when ever she wears these skirts, she has two. I thought it would really please him if I paired it with a polo.

Dirty Baby at Great Grandma's

...with only one pig tail.

She is a crazy little toddler. She is so picky! In the store, we already fight over what to buy. The other day she found this clearanced pink easter bunny. I put it back and switched it for purple, she refuses to play with the purple, throws it every time I hand it to her in the car. She was at the store getting a dress with grammy, shook her head no to every shirt grammy suggested until the pink shirt was found. Then we went to dresses, once again shook her head no to every cute dress I found, until grammy found a pink one. She has been putting her crocs on herself one foot at a time for days. The other day she figured out how to put both on. Instead of being glad, she started screaming and yelling, I thought what in the world. She took one off, and went away. She came back with them on the right feet, she had originally put them on the wrong feet. What 16 month old knows when her shoes are on the right feet?!