Treasure Box

Yesterday, my friend Abbi posted a blog on a fun craft project she found.  The recipe was simple: rice, alcohol, and food coloring.  I knew this would be something Knox would love, so we set out to make our own version last night!

First, the recipe:

I used a 5-lb bag of rice.  The ingredients are 4 cups rice, 3 Tbsp alcohol and 2 Tbsp food coloring per batch.  I made two colors, and to be honest, I just guesstimated on the measurements.

I decided to make a dark blue, an orange and then the third color was just the naked white rice.

Once you've mixed all of the rice up, pour it on the cookie sheet to dry in the sun for about 15 minutes.  Once dry, you can pour it into your treasure box and begin the fun.

Here are the "treasures" we used...all from the dollar bin in Target.

All three colors before mixing:

And after:

I did the mixing and such after Knox had gone to bed.  

The first thing out of his mouth when he woke up was "I wanna see the RICE!"

He was so excited...

Love that chubby hand!

He played for a solid 30 minutes before we went for a run.  Once home, it was the first thing he wanted to do. 

Daddy showed him how cool it feels for it to run over your hand.  He has done this a million times since.

I could just melt at that smirk.  He was so excited to find a purple fuzzy.

And then a red one. 

I've since added loose change found in a junk drawer, a random button and some small cars.  He has played  BY HIMSELF for over an hour.  And I've vacuumed about 50324234 times.  But it's totally worth it.  All I hear now is "I wanna play it more.  Where did the rice go."

Go on...get you some rice and make a treasure box!

Brave!!

This past weekend we were invited to sweet Ella's 6th birthday party.  She had a "Brave" party at Cinemark.  We had a little party room, ate cake, opened presents and then had preferred seating for the show.  You never know how a 2-year-old will do in a movie, so we brought along his paci and lovey...and we're happy to report he did awesome.  He watched the whole movie and never made a huge scene.  Whew!

Here's the sweet 6-year-old:

Her adorable cake:

She even had delicious cupcakes for the littles!

Knox dug into the party favors a little early, and gave us a little "Hollywood" action!

Ella's granddad gave her a Merida (the main character) wig and jewelry...it was a hit.  

Once she had the wig, tiara, earrings, necklace and twin baby doll...she was a happy girl!

We had so much fun!  

Soccer Tots Finale

Knox isn't in love with soccer.  He likes it for a little bit, but it's not something he asks to do on a daily (or even weekly) basis.  Every time we are at the Soccer Tots lesson, he tries to escape to see what is going on in Lil' Sluggers, the T-Ball version of classes.  It's pretty funny, actually.  For the final class, though, he did great.  He enjoyed the drills, and actually did really well!

Rolling the ball with his feet.

Team Huddle

Final shot with his coach, Pathe.  This man is the most patient, fun-loving guy!  We enjoyed him so much!

And now, for your viewing pleasure...what it looks like when Knox plays soccer:

He likes every activity for about 5 seconds.

He loved the pyramid demolition.

This was his favorite part (note:  had NOTHING to do with soccer)

Getting his medal for completion!

Next up...Lil' Sluggers!  We figured he wanted to watch them so bad, maybe he'll be a left-handed baseball star :)

Back-to-back

The Canyon Creek Crushers are champions, again!  This time Knox and I were able to be there when it happened.  It's so funny to me how nerve-wracking a neighborhood softball game can be, but we were definitely heckling and acting like this was the MLB.

They easily won their first game, and after a rain delay didn't have too long to wait to play in the championship game.  Knox was thankful for that...keeping him occupied is always a bit of a task.

He was happy to congratulate his daddy, though!  The "big" game was played against a hard team.  In fact, the last time they played, the Crushers lost 15-0.  Seriously.  We think it's because Stephen was out of town (ha, just kidding...4 others were out of town as well).  Tensions were high, all of the moms in attendance were nervous...but they did it.  In overtime.  Stephen had a great game, but came home with bruised ribs and a pulled hammy.  It's real serious, folks.  

The dudes...so pumped.

Knox was saying "I wanna go home," the entire overtime.  He's not too pleased to then have a photo-op.

One missing teammate, Mike Obert (the reason for the "O") had to miss the game due to West Nile and West Nile Meningitis.  I'm happy to report that he's on the mend, but we were rooting for him the entire time!

And our Crushers.  So proud!

He couldn't go to work the next day, he hurt that bad.  I asked him if he regretted playing so full-out and his response?  "It was totally worth it, we're back-to-back champs."  

H-Town fun!

I can't believe it's been a 10 days since my last post.  Ridiculous.

As you can imagine, we've been going non-stop and haven't really had a chance to slow down.  I'm finally getting around to documenting all that has happened the last few weeks, so get ready for a post-filled week!

The weekend before last we headed to Katy to see the Dotsons.  Kelly was in the Woodlands for the 4th and came to Katy once we got in town.  It was fun to have everyone in one place for a few days, and we took advantage or the down time and relaxation.

Most of our time was spent by the pool.  We played games, had a few friendly competitions and got too much sun...and Knox had fun, too!  The Dotsons bought Knox a pirate ship for the pool, and he LOVED it. I adore these pictures of him having a good time and lounging around...too cute!

They also got him a critter catcher.  Glenda saw my post about foraging for leaves and snails and thought he would love it...she was wrong.  He was OBSESSED.  Papa helped him catch a few lizards and a few bugs, and he spent the entire weekend checking up on George, Louie and Phil.  Yes, we named them.

We let them go before we came home, but he's already found some things around our hood to replace them.

We also made our way to the City Center.  We always go there once a trip, and it has never let us down.  

We danced...

We played football...

We ran around at the speed of light...

And even did a few somersaults for the ladies.

He slept well that night...promise!  We ended our trip with some waffles, and Knox made sure they were whisked to perfection.  He loves being able to help!

We had so much fun, and look forward to going back soon!

The 4th of July: Part Two

Once Knox woke up from his nap (and us as well), we headed down to the M streets to hang out with our college gang.  Brian recently got a house, so we have been down a few times to enjoy the extra space.  He decided to smoke some meat in his birthday present from Amanda, so we had to get down there!  

The Fiji's discussing meat.

Smoker extraordinaire

It was still quite balmy, so Brian turned on some sprinklers to water the grass.  The guys decided to run through them with Knox...he had so much fun!!

Such fun.  I think Swaim might have enjoyed it more than Knox!

Once the meat was done, we chowed down.  The pork shoulder and brisket were awesome!

Of course the dudes had to light some fireworks.  I was panicked the cops were going to come the entire time...my how times have changed.  I'm such a nervous nelly now!

A "4" for the fourth!

Brian's upstairs roommate had jumbo jenga.  We had a great time playing, and dominating (thank you, Amanda!).

Then the Whites got there and we lost Knox.  He and Madison had so much fun playing, eating ice cream and chasing/riding on Andrew Dino:

After a sweet kiss night night, we headed home to a much-needed bath and bedtime.  Knox did the same :)

I hope you all had a great fourth, and were able to spend the day reflecting on the true meaning of our freedoms, and the lives lost to protect it.