National Pancake Day

Today is National Pancake Day at IHOP! They give away a free short-stack of pancakes to all customers! While this is great and I am all about free food, I am not all about the lines and waiting especially with two little ones in tow! Sooo.... I brought Pancake Day to our house:) Not for breakfast, mind you, because that is way too much for me to think about before school. We did it for dinner instead! YUMMO!! I even changed up the usual round pancakes for some other, more interesting ones. S loved the lady bug and snail shapes! She ate THREE pancakes which is unheard of for her! Maybe I should make food into shapes more often:) It was fun to celebrate National Pancake Day even if our pancakes were not free!

If You Give A Mouse A Cookie

This afternoon M took S to see If You Give a Mouse a Cookie at the local children's theater! She loved it and especially loved having her daddy there with her! All of the kids were invited to come sit up front, but S preferred to stay in Daddy's lap during the play. I think they both had a great time and enjoyed some time together! They went to dinner at "Old McDonalds" afterwards to end their date night!

The butterflies on her cheeks are compliments of Gattitown from earlier in the day with birthday girl, Olivia Kate!!

Morning Cuddles

Flip Flops

Oh how cute were these two kiddos this afternoon running around the house in their new flip flops?!?! We took a trip to Target today for many things, one being new flip flops for S. Success!! She loved them and was so excited to put them on after dinner - had to use them to bribe her to eat her spaghetti with no sauce and like two bites of corn(so picky!). But, finally she finished, and I also went and found the pair I'd gotten C at the end of last summer on clearance ($7.99 for hers and $1.74 for his - I love clearance when I actually get the size right for the next year!). This makes me ready for summer time:)

Makin' Pizza

Last night the kids and I made pizza for dinner! WELL, S and I attempted to make it while C was only interested in stealing the cheese:) I threw some on the table for him to snack on as we finished up the pizza!! Luckily it was a pretty afternoon and he was easily distracted by the back deck!

READING!!!

Tonight S read her first word by herself, "dog"!! I have not really worked with her on reading yet because, well, because it seems so hard and stressful to teach a kid to read so I've just avoided it:) We've done lots of letters and sounds and stuff so I guess we've done pre-reading stuff, but not actual reading. I was sitting with her and writing in her new notebook she got for Valentine's Day and I thought I'd give it a try since I had one-on-one time with her for a few minutes for the first time in about forever!! We tried a few and she got them with some help from me. BUT, then she started getting some by herself! I am such a proud Momma!

Oh, and it should be known that her first real word that she said was "Ab"(Abby - our dog's name) so it would only be fitting that the first word she reads is "dog"!! HA!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!!

The kids had school today and it was S's class Valentine's Party and I was so glad to be able to help! We set everything up in their class while the kids were in music class. Me and the other two moms helping out snuck little peeks in at the kids as they sang their hearts out:) Then they came back into the room, ate cupcakes and other goodies (which had BRIGHT pink icing on them, thus they had dyed-pink faces by the end of things!), and then we played a few games!

S was so happy to have me there and I was equally as happy to be there:) I love that she loves having her mommy around!!

New Baby on the Street

Today we had a baby sprinkling/lunch with my neighbor who is pregnant with a sweet little girl! It was good to spend a few hours with the girls and catch up some. We may be neighbors, but we go in about 100 different directions during the school year. We should really do it more often!

Valentine Date Night

Our Sunday School class had a Valentine's Party tonight and it was so fun and entertaining to be with all adults! We got a sitter for the kids that was not any of the grandparents. This was a first for us and I admit I was a bit nervous about leaving C-man! He had a cold and wasn't in the best of moods but he did pretty well except for a little hiccup at bedtime, but our awesome babysitter took care of it:) Yay for having someone we can call on should we need her again!

The party was a blast! Several of the guys in the class formed a band, "The Love Machine"(I'll give you one guess who came up with that name - my husband of course!!) and played throughout the evening. We had Olive Garden cater the meal and several of us made desserts. Oh the gluttony:)

I am already looking forward to doing this again next year!!

Swim Lessons

S started swim lessons last week and we have them for two more weeks! She is a fish!! She is loving loving loving being in the pool again(PS - I think I have convinced M to buy into a neighboring subdivision's pool this summer so we can go whenever we want - YIPEE!!):) I am very scared this summer with two in the pool since I'm 99.9999% sure that I won't be able to stick C in his stroller on the side of the pool and get away with it this year like I did last year:) I want S to be able to know the basics and be able to "swim" enough so that she can at least get to the wall should she need to this year! Oh, she'll still be in her puddle jumper, but I have a huge respect for water and want to have a little extra security for my sanity sake this summer!

PS - She is wearing a swim cap because she has tubes in her ears and her earplugs always fall out(not much fun trying to find clear earplugs in a large pool!). The swim cap helps to keep it in plus it keeps her hair dry so that we don't have to dry it before going out to the car after her lessons!

Awwww...

These two make me smile... and drive me crazy sometimes too just to keep it honest:)

Belated Birthday Present

For C's first birthday, we had gotten him this super-cute rocking horse. Well, the night before his party, we went to put it together and realized that it was not built correctly and we couldn't get it together. I was so sad!! I felt awful for not getting him something - although honestly he didn't know the difference! I tried to return it to Walmart and they wouldn't take it back. Again, very sad!! So, it has sat in our garage for seven months taking up space. This weekend M decided to take another crack at it since he has all this new tool stuff. And, YES, victory!! He got it put together and the kids are so excited about it:)

Paci Free

At the suggestion of C's early interventionist, we have officially done away with the paci!! YAY!! We really didn't use it much, though! Not for sleeping but just for making a whiny kid be quiet:) I think he associated his diaper bag with the paci, so I got him a big boy backpack and there is no paci in there! Not that he didn't look about a thousand times at church yesterday(I was told), but there was nothing to find. Hopefully in a week or so he'll stop pointing to where they use to be and just know that they are GONE!

Circus

I took S to the circus for the first time and it was so much fun for both of us!!! Our library was offering a reading program and the incentive was a free ticket for the kids for the circus! Seeing that these things were $25 each I jumped on it! We went with some friends and it was all of the kids' first time there! There was so much going on at once that I think I could go again and not see the same thing again! SO COOL!! My favorite parts were watching the kids in total awe and the motorcycles in the metal cage together - EIGHT of them! From what I can gather S's favorite parts were riding in our friends' minivan three wide in the backseat and the elephant doing the handstand! Great outing for us to get to do together!:)

The Love Machine

Two years ago our Sunday School class had a couples' Valentine's Day party and had live entertainment provided by some of the guys from the class who use to be in bands, sang or played a guitar. Now, the band has been reestablished for this year's party. The kids and I dropped by to watch one of their rehearsals one night and boy was it entertainment! S and C loved playing Daddy's drums and then when Mr. Dan got there they were totally enthralled by the electric guitar. I think the band has its first "groupies"!!:) C-man even jammed with the band on one of the drums with Daddy(see last picture!)!

Switcharoos

There is a local consignment sale, Switcharoos, that I get at least 90% of my kids' clothes from twice a year! I volunteer to work a four hour shift in order to shop before anybody else. However, there are a LOT of other volunteers that also shop early and will "camp out" all day in order to be the first in line to get in and shop. I got my water, snacks, comfy clothes and tennis shoes on in preparation for a full evening of shopping! I typically arrive around 20-30 minutes before the doors open. I asked the first person in line (as they were closing up their camp chairs and shutting down their laptops) what time they'd gotten there that morning for a 5pm sale. 10am!!! WOW! So they had waited SEVEN hours to buy clothes. Crazy!! I acted like the crazy camera lady and took pictures as I was waiting in line, walking in, while doing a little shopping and while waiting in the hour long line to check out! These pictures don't do justice to just how crazy and intense this place is, but you'll get at least some idea anyway! OH, and S got her first two princess dress up clothes courtesy of Switcharoos - Snow White and Aurora! She loved them!!!