May 20, 2013 ~ Birthday!

Birthday Girl

My little girl turned four on Sunday.  I can’t believe she’s so old, so big already.  She’s become quite the little person, a story teller, bug inspector, singer.  Her imagination is boundless, and sometimes perplexing.  She’s fast to laugh, which is wonderful.  A bit too quick to cry, which is not quite as good, and is getting better.  She gets so excited about small things – opening her window in the car, a bumble bee, ants, wiggly worms, finding a rock, tickles.  When she laughs, her true laugh and not the forced one, it’s one of the best sounds.  She still will snuggle, sometimes in the morning, but more often at night after dinner before bed.  The snuggles are great.  She shares – usually without prompting – with her sister, they hug and kiss every night before bed.

We had her party on her birthday, and we had it at the park.  So many of her friends seemed to be having their parties at bounce houses – which are awesome! – we chose to do something different for hers.  Outside.  It wasn’t supposed to rain, but it did.  There was also a bit of last minute craziness, as the invites for her day care friends didn’t make it to the parents.  Oops!  Still, half were able to make it, she has good friends at day care.  Her other friends also made it!  Even with the less than stellar weather.

She asked for Strawberry Shortcake cake for her birthday.  How could I not oblige?  We also had strawberry cupcakes, with strawberry icing and rainbow sprinkles.  We had rainbow balloons.  I didn’t tie two up well enough and they floated up into a tree.  Oh well. Teagan told me she still had a purple one and Ashlin still had a yellow one.

Birthday girl with her flower piñata

We had a piñata, which made her so excited!  And it was a flower!  Mama, a flower!  I got one that you pull open instead of hitting.  The kids are still a bit too young to be swinging sticks around blindfolded!

Piñata!!

Everyone grabbed a ribbon or two and pulled!  Unfortunately, it didn’t open up, so I had to help.

Candy!

Even though it didn’t work right, they still loved it.  And the whistles and candy inside :)

We had kick-balls, airplanes, horseshoes and Frisbee.  The kids ran around with animal hats, which they got to keep.  They also got to leave with one of the balls and a balloon.  Yay balloons!  Everyone loves balloons.

moar beez?

Ashlin had a good time, dipping chips (to her knuckles!), eating macaroni and cheese, and cupcakes!

Everyone who said they could be there was there.  And they stayed and played, and ate, and had fun.  We even had a few people that stayed longer.  Teagan has good friends!

When we got home, she took a two hour nap in her big bed.  A two hour nap.

It was a very good day.

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January 18, 2013

One of my Christmas presents from Stu was a subscription to Dabbler, a site that will send information once a month about a new craft, hobby, thing! The mails are sent on the 15th, and I laughed when I saw it in my inbox:

It seems as if the universe is aligned against me.  People at work, on line, friends, all are trying to talk me into learning to knit.  Now.  After crocheting for a little bit, I knew I’d eventually learn to knit, as much as I protested.  Saying one hook was fine, no need for two needles.

So, I’m still not ready to learn to knit, but this mail was very nicely put together.  It explained about yarn, needles, stitches…  it had links to videos, information  resources.  A beginner’s pattern and step by step instructions.  I know that now isn’t quite the right time to start, but when it is, I’ll have a great resource to use.

Thank you.  It’s a great present.  Now, I can’t WAIT to see what they’re going to send next!

December 29, 2012

Snow Sisters

Wow.  Can’t believe it’s almost the end of the year.  This year has really flown by.

Today was a snow day!  Yay!  We were supposed to go home, have lunch with the ‘rents, get hair cuts, meet up with friends, have dinner with the gang.  The forecast changed plans.  We were expected to get about 6-8 inches.  Right now, I think we have a solid eight.  And who wouldn’t want that?

Earlier this afternoon, we all bundled up in hats*, coats, boots, mittens or gloves and headed out to play.  Or shovel the driveway.  The girls loved sledding down the hill in our yard.  They’re still small enough that it’s a good hill.

We started with the small sled, the one person sled.  Teagan LOVED it.  She wasn’t too sure last year, but she’s bigger now.  She didn’t want to stop.  Ashlin, I think, felt a little left out, and we dug out the bigger sled.  She was very reluctant to go down the hill with her sister and I, but eventually agreed.  She had fun!  Each time, she’d do a “no, no no” but as we started going down, she’d say “yay!”

Teagan enjoyed her hot cocoa today.  Last year, she wasn’t convinced it was a good thing.

I did spell Stu a bit, let him sled with the girls, while I shoveled.

It was a good day.  Even with some of the tears and occasionally turned-off listening-ears.  Both girls were tired, early.  Heaven.

 

* Somehow, I don’t have a hat!  Oh! No!

November 5, 2012

Moon and Stars

The other day the girls and I made some Halloween decorations.  Yay for decoupage!  Relatively simple, but elegant looking craft.  One that can also be done at various skill and coordination levels.

Both girls love doing arts & crafts, but sometimes it’s hard to get the right craft for both of them.  Sometimes, what I find is too fine motor skill intensive for Teagan, but I’ve gotten better at measuring her abilities.  Most things do get aimed at Teagan, although now I try to get Ashlin involved too.  She used to go to the play room, or outside and swing, with daddy.  Ashlin gets a bit impatient with her coordination, and also tries to taste or eat everything.  But she does have fun,  and now can do a pretty good job.  Teagan tries to rush through everything, thinking she knows exactly how to do whatever it is we’re doing.  Once she realizes she doesn’t know everything, and stops to listen, she does great!

We each had one jar, made one votive.  I had pre-cut the shapes, some stars and moons, a jack-o-lantern.  Although Teagan could do the paper punch, she wouldn’t have had the attention span to do the whole craft.

Ashlin puts on confetti

I also had the girls do their decoupage jar in shifts.  Ashlin needs a bit more attention than Teagan, but with glass and sticky glue, I didn’t want either to be too unsupervised.

Ashlin really enjoyed putting the Halloween shaped confetti on the jar I had prepared with glue for her.  Her focus was intense, and she would giggle as she saw the paper stick to the jar.  She also put a few pieces of tissue over the confetti, but lost interest soon enough. The lure of Blue was too strong.

Moon and Stars for Teagan

Teagan watched while I did a few swipes of the glue, eager to put her shapes on.  She also did a great job applying the glue, ripping the tissue to small pieces – maybe the best part! – and putting it over the glue.  I let her finish putting the tissue on Ashlin’s jar, then on my jar and hers.

Applying glue

Mom’s Jack-o-lantern gets orange tissue

Waiting to dry

All done!

Spooky Votives

I think they turned out pretty good! We may do some more for Christmas!

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August 19, 2012 ~ the weekend in pictures

Oops.  Forgot to hit post :D

Fort!

We were told about Target having a sale on Slip n Slides. Best five dollars ever!

Slippy hill!

What *are* you doing?

We recouped a bit from all the sliding…

Blues Clues Thrall

We got some cheap fish to restock the pond…

New Fish!

We played on the swing set.

Swinging Sisters

Uh. Oh. Climber.

Ashlin decided to give me a heart attack.

Fish Reflections

July 29, 2012

Darth Piñata

We went to a birthday party today.  A party on the beach.  Teagan was so excited to go, she said it was “magical.”  The drive out was filled with words like “magic” and “sand” and “cupcakes.”

The weather wasn’t the best at the beginning of the party, you could see the storm roll in, but we changed Teagan into her suit and let her play in the rain.  Ashlin, well, we kept her in her dress, but let her play for a bit too, but then distracted her with goldfish.

After the rain cleared up, the kids ran through puddles. Teagan danced in the puddle.

We couldn’t keep Ashlin out of the puddle, once she saw the boys and her sister frolicking in it.

Soon, the water play had to end, it was cake time! Cupcakes for everyone!

Ashlin really enjoyed hers, dantily shoving it in her face with both hands. Teagan, well, has a bit more practice, and allowed herself to look around.

Once the cupcakes were devoured, it was piñata time! Teagan has never seen a piñata, nor been at a party with one, so she had no idea what to do.

Stu told her to pull her ribbon, along with the other kids. It was a slow opening piñata, needing a bit of adult encouragement to release the treats. Teagan wasn’t sure what to do with the treats that fell down, so didn’t scramble for them like the other kids. As the kids drifted away, one very sweet little girl gave Teagan some snacks from the Darth piñata.

Afterward, Teagan was talking to Stu about the piñata. She asked “who him?” “What him name?” Stu told her his name was Darth Vader. Again, “who him?” “Well, he’s a dark lord of the Sith.” “Him have candy in him head.”

July 28, 2012

Today Teagan had a play date with a friend from day care.  I had hoped to pull out the sprinkler and have all the girls play on the lawn. When it started storming this morning, I got a little worried, but the rain stopped and it dried up enough.

I had mentioned about possible water play to the mom, so her daughter was ready!  After the two screamed their greeting, we went into the play room for a bit.  When that started getting a bit tired, or the girls got argumentative, I suggested the sprinkler.  I really wanted to use it today :D

After all three girls got changed, and Stu turned it on, the bigger girls started playing around, running up to it and dashing away.  Ashlin, at first didn’t want anything to do with it, she had more fun just running around.  Stu turned the water pressure down a bit, and Ashlin went in.

And she drank.  A lot.  And laughed.  And Teagan laughed, and tried to drink too.

There was much cavorting!

Once Ashlin decided she was done, the girls raced through the sprinkler, one on each side of the hose.  Again, but on opposite sides.

Then, Stu turned it up full.  Teagan’s friend played in the mist, while Teagan tried going in.  After a few attempts, she decided it hurt too much, but was still fun to try.

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July 22, 2012 ~ Sharing

Today at the pool, Teagan shared.  She shared her Trail Mix with PopPop.  First, she would pick one piece from her cup – LaLa put a handful in a cup, because Teagan ate all the M&M’s from the bowl yesterday – and then take a bite.  She would then pass PopPop the uneaten half to finish.  Unless it was an M&M.  She would eat all of that.

My girl is so silly!

May 9, 2012

Driving home from day care with the girls was fun.  As we pulled out of the parking lot, I looked back and Ashlin was totally rocking out to the song on the radio.  Fun, Some Nights.

You can’t really hear the song in the quick  video I grabbed at the stop sign.  The song was just about over too.  I tried to play it from YouTube, but someone pulled up behind us and I had to move along.

I like Some Nights much better than We Are Young, Ashlin has good taste :D

We listened to videos during dinner:

Imagine Dragons, Queen, Electric Guest, Elmo with Elvis Costello, Elmo with Katy Perry, Elmo and some ducks, Elmo with India Arie.  And then Fun again.

It was a fun dinner.  With kicky feet.  And Teagan almost got the alphabet right, after the 5th time listening to Elmo and India Arie.

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May 4, 2012

Happy Birthday to Stu! How cool is it to have a Star Wars birthday?  At his daughter’s request, I made cupcakes.  After the girls ate dinner, I lit the candle, he blew it out as we sang for him.  Then everyone got a cupcake.

Excuse me, waiter!

After eating more dinner than her sister, Ashlin devoured her cupcake.  And then called the waiter for another cupcake.

All dun!

Ashlin gave us the sign she was all done… a bit prematurely.  She looked down and saw more cupcake, which she finished immediately, and then tried to lick the crumbs off the tray just to be sure she got it all.

Cupcake!

Teagan did stop singing long enough to eat her cupcake…

It was a good day.

And Teagan had a very good week.  So we had a very good week.  Birthdays and cupcakes are a great end to the week.

Happy birthday, Stu.  Love you.