Beaverdale Lights

This is our third holiday season in Des Moines, and we've taken a drive through Beaverdale every year. Our first year here, Santa was actually standing in the circle where Ashby Avenue meets Wallace Lane, and he was handing out candy canes. We haven't seen him there since the first year, but every year the lights get better and better. This year, literally almost every single house in a 3 block stretch was decorated. It's beautiful!




I took a quick video of parts of the drive. It's worth driving through, especially if you have kids who love to see the lights!

Western Gateway Park and the Pappajohn Sculpture Park

You might be surprised at how kid-friendly a sculpture park can be. It doesn't hurt that the Pappajohn Sculpture Park is packed with Pokespots for the game PokemonGo. Here in Des Moines, it's quite the hot spot for PokemonGo players, and the park is always busy, busy!

But before I get into the fun of the sculpture park, let me talk about the park that's right across the street from there: Western Gateway Park. 

There's a man-made creek called a water runnel that runs through Western Gateway Park. It smells chlorinated, and it's meant for people to play in. Dogs play in there, too! 

Urbandale Parks Challenge: Walker-Johnston Park

For our third park in the Urbandale Parks Challenge, we went back to Walker-Johnston Park. I love this park! There's something to do for kids of all ages. Even the skateboard park was filled with teenagers practicing tricks and having fun. I think it's great when big kids can stay busy and challenge themselves in public parks.

On our drive over, the kids let us know that they were hungry. From the sound of it, they might have been close to starvation. Thankfully, there's a McDonald's on the way to the park. We picked up a couple Happy Meals and had a little picnic.

Supposedly, there's an area of the park filled with play houses for little kids to explore. I still haven't found it. Our kids were happy to explore the slides, which range from very small to tall & steep.

Oliver decided he'd tackle the giant metal slide. Before now, he'd always been too afraid. Almost all the kids use their shoes to slow themselves down and not go too fast, but a few of the bigger kids shot down the slide like a cannon! They were all having so much fun. I really was thrilled to see the kids have a good time and face their fears on the big slide. One kid kept approaching the slide as if he'd go down on his belly, head and arms first like Superman. Then he'd think better of it and go down on his bottom.

Walking by the skateboard park:

Here's video of the big slide:

Foam puzzles are the best puzzles for preschoolers

I just have to give a shout-out to what I think is the coolest toy innovation for kids: foam puzzles. In all fairness, we actually only have one foam puzzle, but it's fantastic!

After our kids graduated from the shape puzzles, where you drop characters into their corresponding shapes, we tried to buy them miniature jigsaw puzzles (the classic cardboard kind). We also purchased wooden puzzles. Neither of the kids liked these. They would try to shove pieces together, and Jo especially would get angry when the puzzle pieces didn't lay flat or got slightly bent.

I was browsing Zulily for Easter gifts this past winter, and they had a Frozen foam puzzle (25-pieces) for almost nothing. Not knowing what to get Jo (and knowing she likes Frozen), I decided to get it for her. It's been a big hit with both kids. Oliver was able to piece it together himself right away, but Jo needed some help. She liked to work on it with me, and we did so regularly. Fast forward a couple months, and she's putting together by herself completely. She puts it together, pulls it apart, and puts it together again.


                       

It's also hard to break. She can pick it up, move it around, and the puzzle isn't falling apart. It saves on tantrums. There are few products I feel are just so great, but this is one of them. I then went online to find a foam puzzle with more pieces. We're now expecting a 98-piece Cinderella puzzle in the mail, ha! But at least it'll be a good challenge for quite a while.

Witmer Park

                       

The only playgrounds within walking distance from our home are at schools. Although people have told me it's OK to play at the school playgrounds, I still prefer to go to actual parks. Besides, it gives us an excuse to drive around and check out the city!

We park off 34th Street. If you drive on 34th, north of Forest, you can turn in as soon as you see a wooded area (Witmer Pkwy). There's a small parking lot in front of the pond. From there, there is a short trail to walk on that takes you to the playground. The first part of the park, near the pond, is full of trees and shrubs. When you get to the playground, everything opens up. There's a playground, a field (where there are sometimes free movies in the park), and a couple of baseball fields. Across the field is 37th St, where there's street parking.

We've been to this park multiple times, and it's never been crowded. Often, we're the only ones at the playground. There are usually people out walking their dogs, so it's not too isolated.

When we went today, there were firefighters who had attached their hoses to the hydrant and were spraying into the pond. I thought maybe they were filling the pond, except the pond was quite full! I later found out they were doing drills. The kids enjoyed watching them work. Well, that's not entirely true. I kept asking Jo if she saw the firetruck and the hose and the firefighters and the hydrant, and she would add in excitedly, "And the potty! A green potty!" Indeed, there was a port-a-potty.

Oliver's Cooking Show: Pumpkin Muffins

Oliver and Jo have been watching all of the old episodes of Oliver's Cooking Show, and Oliver asked me if we could do another episode. I can't believe it's been a year since his last one! So, I agreed, and I asked him if he'd like to make muffins for his show. My friend had told me about a 3-ingredient pumpkin muffin recipe a couple years ago, and we've made it a few times since then. It's easy and works perfectly!

Here's Oliver doing his latest cooking demonstration:

                      

Happy Fourth of July, 2014!

This year, Oliver asked me what we are watching fireworks for. I told him a little story:
A long time ago, our country was ruled by a king who lived far away. This king made rules and laws for us, but they weren't good laws. So, one day, we decided that we would make our own laws. That day was our first Independence Day. Now, we celebrate that day every year.

That seemed to do the trick! We went to the supermarket and got snakes & sparklers. It's been a long time since we've gotten to purchase things like that. In Colorado, it's usually too hot and dry to even allow sparklers for fear of wildfires.

Jo took a late nap so she could stay up for the fireworks show, and Andrew and Oliver lit some of the snakes. Oliver was afraid of them at first and ran away.

Then, went it got close to dark, we packed up and set out for Raccoon River Park in West Des Moines. For whatever reason, most of the major fireworks displays in Des Moines happened on July 3. Maybe it's to give city workers the Fourth of July off, but that's just speculation. Anyway, we set out for the suburbs. We barely entered the park before we decided to just pull over and set up our chairs there. I'm glad we did because it looked like a lot of traffic to get further into the park. In future years, maybe we'll wait and see the fireworks over the lake.

Here are the kiddos, patiently waiting for fireworks with their Fourth of July popsicles.

Here's Oliver with some sparklers! He's actually really good with them.

Here's a video of Oliver with his sparklers:

                   

...and Andrew helped Jo hold her sparkler, which she called a "rainbow."

At least, it was fireworks time! Oliver and Jo both loved them, and Oliver would guess which color the next one would be.

Jo wanted to wear the shades, even though it was pitch black.

Jo + Cat

For a few days now, Jo's been playing her toy guitar and singing the same song over & over. It's really clever & cute:

                       

Yesterday, we finally figured out what she's singing: the into to "Peg + Cat!" Once we figured it out, it made her song that much funnier. She does such a good job! My favorite is how she takes the guitar and holds it at her side when she's done.

Here's the link to the YouTube video intro of "Peg + Cat":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhhI6gNPgJg

Oliver was about the same age when he started mimicking videos he watched. I think this age is just the funniest, cutest age ever (minus some of the tantrums, of course!).

World's smallest bathroom (well, it's at least in the running...)

Before the woman who briefly lived here before us, a couple owned this house since the 60s. Our realtor told us how, as they got older, they no longer wanted to have to go downstairs (especially in the middle of the night) to use the restroom. So, they had a toilet added into the closet that sits above the full bathroom. That was the extent of this "bathroom:" simply a toilet in the closet, and a bare light bulb on the ceiling. No sink, no toilet paper holder, nothing. There's not even really any room to turn around.

Here it is:

I think the last owner didn't really know what to do with the room, either. She never added anything to it and might not have even used it. When we went and looked at the house, we were even asked, "What did you think of that weird toilet in the closet?"

When Andrew and I talked seriously about putting in an offer on the house, I asked him what we should do about that closet. Should we pull out the toilet and have the sewer line capped? He thought that would be silly, especially since we have little kids who might need to go potty in the middle of the night. He made sense, so I started brainstorming ideas for the water closet. I decided I didn't want the room to be an apology. "Yeah, we have a toilet in the closet. Weird, right?"

So, I decided to own it! Plus, with tiny spaces, you can do things you'd never even consider doing in a standard-sized room. I decided to try wall paper for the first time. I decided to hang pictures. I decided to add a mirror (a basic one that I brought up from the main bathroom downstairs. That room is a whole other story for another time). We got a towel ring and a toilet paper holder. Here is the finished bathroom:

Because of where the sewer line was, there was a big gap left behind the toilet. By big, I mean 10-11 inches!

So, I filled it will a shelf! I looked everywhere and finally found a floating shelf on Target.com that fit the dimensions of the space almost perfectly.

See something different in that picture? Yes indeed, I found a toilet tank sink! It is actually the coolest thing I've ever seen. I got it online from SinkPositive, and it's an eco-friendly sink. Instead of going into the toilet tank when you flush, the clean water from the line first goes through the faucet. You wash your hands with that clean water, and the used "gray water" then fills the toilet tank. So, the water automatically flows as soon as you flush the toilet. I took a video of it because I think it's so neat. At the time of the video, the bathroom wasn't yet completed.

                       

Finally, we replaced the bare bulb with a simple pull-chain light with a cover. We also swapped the bulb to a CFL so no tall people would burn their head stepping into our bathroom closet. Powder room. Water closet. WC. I don't know what to call this room.

One final look:

The room is simple, obviously. But I just think it now looks like a bathroom instead of a weird toilet in a closet. And that makes me happy :) I now consider our house to officially be a 1.5 bath!

Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt at Scheel's

We took the kids to Scheel's to check out the free Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt event they had on Monday. We were given clues that led us from station to station throughout the store. At each station, the kids had to complete a challenge to earn a prize (usually a plastic egg with a little surprise inside). At the first challenge station, the kids had to putt. I helped Jo hit it once, and then she picked it up and dropped it into the hole. She was probably wondering why we were making it so difficult with the putter.

There was a hopscotch station:

 There was a Bozo Buckets station:

Jo liked the prizes the best:

There was an egg balancing station. Oliver did a pretty good job with this! I helped Jo, and she enjoyed tipping it to watch the egg fall and break open.

And best of all there was...

The EASTER BUNNY! Jo was brave enough to give him a high five. Oliver went in for the hug!

BEHIND YOU!
                       

Everything looks fun to a toddler, even building a patio.

I've been working on digging out a patio. With all of the dirt I've removed, I've filled all of the raised garden beds. I created an area for strawberries. Now, I'm scattering dirt between some sprouting spring flowers (Tulips? Daffodils? It's a surprise!). Jo decided to help spread some of the dirt by playing in it.

We're not ready for patio stones yet, but we decided to purchase them over the weekend because Home Depot had a sale on them: 88 cents each! They looked like a lot of fun to Jo.

She's kind of cute, and definitely funny to watch.
                       

The kids water their garden

We're officially homeowners again! We closed on our house on Friday, and we quickly jumped into projects. Andrew's working on railings for the basement stairs, and I'm working on digging out a patio to extend the old one and planting a garden. So far, we planted a couple of early spring crops: snap peas and lettuce! I think the kids are very happy with all of the space in the house and yard, especially after our extended stay at the hotel.

Here are the munchkins watering the garden and climbing over the soon-to-be patio:

                       

South Karen Acres Park

It was another perfect almost-spring day on Friday. Temperatures reached 60, and there was a nice breeze. It's perfect park weather, so the kids and I set out to play at yet another local park! I looked for parks nearby on Google Maps and found one called South Karen Acres Park. It's just a little southeast of Walker-Johnston Park, where we'd played the day before.

This park is in the middle of a residential area, but it has some wide spaces for kids to run and play. There was also a little kid-sized basketball hoop, and there was a (currently empty) wading pool for the summer.

The playground was small, but the kids loved it. That is, they loved it until Oliver spotted...

...the ride-on, sand-digging crane!

That was when he went crazy for the park! We used to play with those all the time when we were kids, but I think they mostly disappeared when sand parks were replaced with wood chips and gravel. Oliver took to the crane immediately and dug and dug and dug.

Here's a video of him working so hard:
                      

Jo just loves to be outside and play. She has no fear on the play equipment and was content to just keep climbing & sliding.

I had to keep telling her that this climbing wall was for going down and not up. She seriously kept trying to go off the edge there.

Wee!

Digging in the sand:

There was also one of those merry-go-rounds that they used to have at parks when we were kids!

And, again, we spotted a trail running through the park. A few cyclists went by as we played. I checked the map. Apparently, this trail does a big U and can take you back to Walker-Johnston Park, where we played yesterday. About halfway along that trail is a main trail that you can follow south all the way into Des Moines and the parks there.

Photos of the kids playing with some trees and planting magic beans for a beanstalk:

I'm really looking forward to seeing these parks and trails when everything is green. Just a few more weeks!