BALLET!

 I never thought I'd just melt while I watched my little one take her first ballet lessons...I was always sort of a "tomboy" when  I was younger. But I am absolutely loving all the fun girlie things that we get to do now that I have 2 (and soon to be 3!!) little girls.

j

 

 First, she has Ballet for 30 minutes... and then Tap... that is pretty darn cute too! :)  Daddy got to see her last week and was pretty impressed too... how can you not love a little one in a tutu???

Then there is little sister... she is just DYING to get up there and dance too like her big sis!!She tries to take off her shoes the entire time we are there.  And for the past 2 weeks she wants to wear a tutu at home, on our daily excursions, during naptime, and at bedtime.... I have to sneak the tutu away to wash it every few days! :) She will be out there soon enough!

 

Preschool Playdate- Letter J- Christmas Activities!

For our last preschool playdate before the new year, we did lots of fun Christmas Activities and focused on the Letter J.

First, we read a story about Baby Jesus- it is called Stable in Bethlehem -a Christmas counting book.

We used small blocks that I got from Dollar Tree for the kids to used to count while reading the story.

My two year old LOVED pushing the button on the plastic candles and lighting all the lights! I thought that was a great fine motor skill-- she was so serious about it!

Then she used my old cardboard advent calendar and had to pull out each box... in each box was large gold jingle bell! She was so suprised at what was in the tiny boxes- she loved it! :) The other kiddos wanted to do it as well! :)

For playdate we sorted different Christmas tree patterns from the awesome 1+1+1=1 blog/website.

Then they had to put the Nativity scene in size order. I got most of these cute printable ideas  from 1+1+1=1.  She has the cutest things for tots and preschoolers! Love this blog/website!!

We talked about the letter J and used a candy cane (upside down) to make the letter J for baby Jesus!

We also put stickers on the letter J and talked about Jesus' birthday! :)

Both of these activities are also from 1+1+1=1.

Then we made Christmas tree cones.  We took ice cream cones and colored icing green. 

 They spread the green icing on the cones and sat them upside down.

Afterwards they put sprinkles all over the icing to make the trees look decorated.  It worked best to ROLL the trees in the sprinkles.  They turned out cute- and YUMMY too!

We read the story of the Little Drummer boy and each child played drums on different canisters and bowls that we had.  We have one drum and so each kiddo got to be the "drummer boy" for part of the song. 

Then we worked on colors and shapes with a cute christmas tree coloring activity.

We also worked on our letters and writing skills.  Tracing on these cute forms - I laminated them and we used dry erase markers.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2011! 

Our trip to Build A Bear

My husband's Aunt Mary sent our girls such a sweet gift this year ( I think I was almost as excited as them!) She sent them gift certificates to Build A Bear.  We took the girls a few nights ago (on a week night- weekends at the Mall are CRAZY in December!)

Scarlett chose a Bear and Lily chose a Cat.  Here they are helping press the foot pedal to STUFF their animals! 

Lily was so excited to help stuff her kitty!

They had to choose a heart to put into their animal- they had to give it a BIG kiss to fill it with love! :)

 After the stuffing was done they had to give their animals an AIR Bath... they are brushing and "cleaning" their new pets! They just LOVED this :)

Then they picked out outfits... Scarlett chose a princess dress and Lily chose this ballerina dress... they both also insisted on panties!! They have PANTIES for these animals! LOL (thought that was so funny!)

All dressed and ready to go on their way!  We went over to a special computer and had to name their new animals- Lily named hers "Bo Peep" (where did this come from?? I have not idea! lol) and Scarlett named her bear "sunshine".  She informed me today that she was not going to play with sunshine today because bears "hibernate" in the cold.... I was pretty impressed with this! lol

Off we go with our new pets!  Love these boxes... they were so excited! Thank you Aunt Mary! Wish you could have been here to enjoy all the excitement!  We love you!!



Happy Thanksgiving... and some Turkey "licious" snacks!

Scarlett and I decided to make some cookie and candy turkeys... we have seen many variations of these all around the blogosphere and here is our rendition! Enjoy!

 Scarlett and I used shortbread chocolate striped cookies - one for the "wings" on the back and one for the "body" at the bottom.  We used chocolate icing as the "glue"  to glue the cookies together and then we glued a Rollo on the front and a candy corn as the beak on top.  Pretty cute!

 The second turkey we just completely made up together... Scarlett actually helped me figure out how to do the head of the turkey! She is so creative sometimes!! I was about to give up and she stuck the head on top of a toothpick- perfect!

 They are pretty self explanitory- from the pictures... a Reese's pieces cup for the body.  3 toothpicks with gumdrops for feathers and a 1/2 toothpick with candy corn for the head!

I have so many things to be thankful for but mostly for my husband who works hard for us everyday so we can have the things we need and I can be at home with my sweet girls.  I am also thankful for two beautiful, funny, intelligent little ladies, Scarlett and Lily... and our soon to be 3rd baby girl... thankful that this pregnancy is going well and that baby #3 looks to be healthy just like our first two.  Praise God!

I am also very thankful for all of my family and my husband's family- they are SOOO awesome! And I am thankful for the friends we have made through the years... my oldest friends and my newest friends... they are all special to me in different ways.  I feel very blessed for all I have.

Happy Thanksgiving- Enjoy the holiday season!

Lots of "sugar and spice" making everything nice at our house!!

On Friday, we found out that our 3rd baby is going to be a .................GIRL! :)

Scarlett and Lily were very excited- we shared the little video the sonographer took with them (they were bored after about 1 minute- they aren't very exciting! LOL)  They looked at the pictures too- very sweet.

I have definitely decided if and when we try for another little addition to the family we are probably NOT going to find out the gender.  We've done it 3 times and it's just not as exciting any more... I think it would be so neat to just find out at the birth... what a neat surprise! I'm pretty sure the hubby agrees with me at this point too! :)

Little baby girl 3 was in the funniest position- she was curled up tight in a ball and her feet were over her head! Already the little acrobat! :)
Here's her funny photo below:

The sonogram looked great- everything checked out and she looked very healthy... lots of prayers for a continued health pregnancy, healthy baby, and quick/safe delivery! :)

We are REALLY excited!  Looking forward to April 2011 for our newest version of the family!



Halloween Madness at our house! :)

Our Annual Family Halloween Party!

Once everyone shows up an oohs and ahhs over all the fantastic costumes we eat dinner!

* I make some homemade chili and Mac N Cheese for the kiddos... everyone else brings the fixins' and the drinks!

j

 Then we hit the pinata! Almost every child--- ages 1 and up want to take a hit at the pumpkin pinata- fun fun!

Lily takes a hit at the pinata!

 Then Scarlett gets a chance to take a WHACK!

 

We go smallest child to biggest child--Our 6 year old friend broke it open this year! YAY! CANDY!

(everyone makes a run for the candy!)

 

Next comes the "line up"! We used to do this on our couch every year... too many kids to do it on the couch anymore!  Now we lined up on our fence in the backyard- Say CHEESE!  

(I am still missing about 3 or 4 kiddos in this lineup.. .sheesh!)

 After the line up we get our glow sticks and go trick or treating on our cul-de-sac... 

the perfect amount of houses for little 2, 3 and 4 year olds!!

Lily  (aka Cinderella) says "Trick or Treat!"

 My favorite of the night--- Chim chimeney, chim chimeney, chim chim cher eee!!  

Love my BURT AND MARY POPPINS! Too Sweet! :) xxoxo

I hope you and your kiddos had a fun and spooky Halloween too!! 

xoxoxo