Breakfast for Dinner

It's starting to become a "tradition" that if Dada works late or is out of town, we have breakfast for dinner.  Breakfast is thier best meal that they actaully sit and eat more than a few bites so when we have this they do really well.  Tonight it was panckake, bacon and blackberries.  Yummy.


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Weekend with Dada

I'm so lucky to have such a hands on husband as far as our girls go. I had some stuff this weekend to do away from the house & Brian stepped right in to care for them. They had a ton of fun & I think he & Hailey really bonded. This is a pic of him & Paige playing in the yard.


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AZ Literacy

For Hailey's birthday party we asked our guests in lieu of gifts to bring their favorite children's story for Hailey to donate to the Arizona Literacy & Learning Center.  Our friends were so generous and gave 13 books to donate!  All with great stories and illustrations.  I got a pic of the girls outside the building with the books because I didn't know if they would let me take pics inside. 

Then when we got inside it was such a pretty building that Paige was overwhelmed thinking it looked like a castle that we had to take on by the water fountain.

But, of course the Executive Director who took our books had to get pics too for advertising and their Facebook page.  She was thrilled with our donation and was so nice to the girls.  Thank you everyone for giving books and for making it such a great philanthropy lesson for the girls. 

March 29th

Today was Hailey's actual birthday.  She got a chocolate sprinkled cake donut for bfast...along with some yogurt and fruit that I slipped in later and an afternoon with mama since Paige was at school, however, she spent it napping.  (Nice!  I want to be 2 again!)

I'm singing Happy Birthday to her and she's singing with me.

This is Hailey precisely at 9:47am this morning, the time she was born 2 years ago. 
She's playing with a Barbie while Paige watches.

We are caked out after the doll cake so
I made a small batch of krispie treats
so Dada could sing to her after dinner.

Blowing out second candle of the day.  So many wishes!

I could reflect on the fact that she's 2 years old already and how fast she is growing.  But I won't, instead I'll say what a joy she is to have in our life and I'm looking forward to her future.  However, I wish she would stay little forever!  (I love our snuggles and story time together.)

Kristen's 2nd Birthday Party

My mom pulled out pictures of my second birthday last weekend and I was flabbergasted to find that it was a Doll Theme too!  It even had doll cakes!  And the resemblance between the girls and me is uncanny.  These are taken August 1976 (The backs of the actual photos have a stamp of the Liberty Bell on them to symbolize the Bicentennial). 

My 2nd Bday cake

The Doll Cakes

I still love cake!

I think Hailey really looks like me in this one.

Presents!

My mom still has the xylophone and the FP Boat that is in the blue box. 
The girls play with them at her house.

Smiles for cake!  Looking like Paige!

Paige? Hailey?  Nope, Kristen age 2.

Yosemite

I love this picture of.... My MOM and ME.  It's NOT Paige and me. It was taken at Yosemite in 1976. Isn't the resemblance amazing? 

Who's who? Which is which?

Both girls got dress up clothes for their second birthdays: 

Hailey at her 2nd birthday

Paige at her 2nd birthday



Ballerina Princess Party

One might say, I go over the top for birthdays.  I admit it, I do.  But celebrating the birth of our children is wonderful for me.  And for them to be able to look back to see and perhaps remember how we celebrated is a huge treasure for me.  This year Hailey is really into ballerinas.  She calls them, "Rinas."  It is adorable.  She and Paige also dress up like princesses daily, so I did a Ballerina Princess party them for her second birthday.  I again, used Pinterest for ideas.  I got the idea for the table to have a tutu from Pinterest and my mom came through with bringing it to reality.  She is such an awesome seamstress.  really, her work is amazing. 

The Girls waiting for the guests to arrive
(Wearing tutus of course!)

The Tutu Table

The Cake!

I got a HUGE doll cake from a local Mexican Market who does them for quiceaneras.  It was whipped cream frosting with chocolate cake.  We hired a Ballerina Princess to come to the party for entertainment.  She did facepainting, games, magic and read a story (I choose that in place of balloon sculpting because balloons and kids are just not a good mix at this age, IMO.)  The princess appeared a little haggard, atleast she wasn't what I was picturing, but, she was great with the kids and really kept the party going.  We had most of the kids from our playgroup so it was a mix of boys and girls.  I found it very interesting that even at this age, most of the boys had no interest in the princess.  However, they had a great time just playing in the yard with each other.   

Hailey getting her face painted

Parachute game

Fairy, Fairy, Princess game (ie, Duck, Duck, Goose)

Hailey watching the magic

Fairy reading the story
(I choose, "A Very Fairy Princess" by Julie Andrews)

The Boys playing

Hailey and the Princess

The Girls with the Princess

Hailey eating her birthday cake

Melting Crayons

I'm trying not to let Pinterest be a time suck for me so I'm limiting my browsing to things that I only want to look up.  Paige's teacher had done a project of melting crayons and we had so many little pieces in our crayon box that I decided to figure out how to do it.  It was really fun!  I sorted the crayon pieces by color into a muffin tin.

Put them in a 250 degree F oven for 10 mins...


Let them cool and punched them out of the tins.  A few did stick and I'm still working to get them out (I think the silicon pans will work great and those come in different shapes too!), but the ones that punched out were awesome!  Here they are stacked.

Here they are laid out.

The girls really enjoyed playing with them.  They even got the concept of what we did because after I gave them the disk crayons to play with, they put their new crayons in their play oven to melt.  It was so cute.  And obviously a good learning exercise too!

Paige liked the crayons so much that she dragged Brian out of bed this morning to show him the disk crayons and to have him color with her.  Great idea that took up a day and a half of play.  We'll see how excited they are about it tomorrow, but goodness, to recycle, be free of cost and to get enjoyment & learning out of it...SIGN ME UP! 

Cake

A preview to tomorrow's bday party for Hailey. I think I'm the one most excited.


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Sisters Apart?

Today my mom and aunt picked up Paige after school and had her spend the night with them.  My mom took some pics of Paige on her patio playing with my old baby buggy. 













On the days that Paige goes with mom, I get extra one on one time with Hailey.  Tonight, I don't think she missed her sister at all.  This is her playing in the stuffed animal basket while I sorted clothes.  (Yes, that's a tutu on the floor!)  She looks very happy to me.  :)

Tutu cute?

Today was laundry day for the girls.  Ok, that was NOT phrased correctly at all...today was MY laundry day to do the girls clothes.  Combined it's only two loads, but I do it once or twice a week to keep up with it.  They seriously have to change atleast two times a day, or recently Paige is obsessed with certain jammies that she will wear ALL day, so those have to get washed more often so they are readily available and clean.  As I hung several tutu's up to dry tonight, I realized that one day I will miss this.  Is there anything cuter than little girl tutus hanging to dry? 

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Good Night, JohnBoy

There are a few strange, perhaps a bit too wholesome, things about me.  Two of them being that my favorite shows are Little House on the Prairie and The Walton's.  In a Walton's episode this week, JohnBoy was faced with a struggle of writing about serious topics like politics, government, history, psychology versus writing about family, which was something he knew, didn't have to research and it fulfilled him.  He then was obsessed about getting his work published.  In the 1930's they had no Internet to publish whatever you write instantly.  It struck me that a family blog is just that...a story about my family that I can publish instantly.  Though I have dreamed about living as pioneer woman in the 1800's or having a large family during the depression, I think I'm satisfied right here in 2012 where everything is at my fingertips, literally.  Good Night, Hailey; Good Night, Paige; Good Night, Brian.  I love you all. 


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PlayDate

We had our play group here to do a St. Patrick's day craft and playdate on Friday.  My mom has a ton of green fiestaware (it's her favorite color) so I borrowed it for the party.  The table looked really cute.  I also made a fruit salad with all green fruit and tortilla wraps made out of spinach tortillas.  The craft was Leprechaun Traps because the legend says that if you catch a Leprechaun he has to turn over his pot of gold to you (or in our case his pot of candy!).  It was a great morning, and I think all the moms and kiddos had fun.  I'm so happy we joined this group, it's been great for me for my PPD and the girls are thriving being around some great kids.  This is the only pic I got because I was busy just having fun! 



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St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day brings the Leprechauns to do Mama's dirty work.  Last year they took Paige's diapers.  This year...they took the pacifiers.  Actually the leprechauns (Dada Leprechaun in particular) left the rule that pacifiers can only be used in their bedrooms.  In turn the leprechauns left gifts...lots of things to do with your mouth, bubbles, hard candies, whistles, etc.  They also created mischief in the house by turning the milk and apple juice green, playing the the play area and mixing up the couch cushions.  So far the girls are doing fine without pacifiers.  Paige is ready, Hailey is having a bit of trouble upon waking from nap, she still wants to suck a little.  I did prepared them by talking about the Leprechauns coming and they would take the "pac".  I think they were relieved with the rule and actually it's making the transition easier.  Thanks Leprechauns!  See you next year! 

My aunt and mom made a great cornned beef and cabbage dinner for St. Patrick's Day evening.  We went to their house and it was delicious!  (Magically Delicious?!)  My aunt also bought Irish soda bread and it too was really good.  I'd never had it before.  Very sweet with raisins.  Yum.  Great day all around. 
 

A Year in Reflection

It just dawned on me as I was cleaning up tonight that it has been a full year since I stopped working outside our home.  Today, looking at how busy our days are, I seriously DO NOT know when I would go to a paying job.  Yes, there are some days, (ok, most days) when it feels like the movie Groundhog's Day...wake up, get Hailey, change diaper, snuggle with Paige, make breakfast, watch Sesame Street, empty the dishwasher (just to fill it up again), play, run errands, nap, learning time, get dinner started, wake up from nap, quiet time, make dinner, have dinner, etc...Yep, most days are the same.  However, I'm confident the girls are well adjusted because of this routine and are home.  Sure they catch the crazy germ once a year that is going around, but that too is healthy.  We have so much fun all day.  Yes, there's lots of redirecting, teaching, frustration (by all parties), but most of all there is love, comfort and a sense of safety.  I feel grateful for this time with them and treasure each second (even though some of those seconds include me wanting to scream at the top of my lungs).  I'm excited to see how this time leads or molds or affects the girls in their future lives, as really that is what all of this is for.  It's not an instant thing like a paying job can give you, be it a product developed or a patient thriving from treatment, it's a long, long process that takes years.  I hope my hard work pays off. 

'Learning Work'

The weekends are different from our normal weekday routine because we have Brian home.  I like to spend time with him or get out to run errands.  So we don't do much 'learning work' as I call it.  However, I was able to sneak in some flash cards with both girls this morning.  The flash card have animals and letters on them.  I ask Hailey what animal it is to help expand her vocabulary and I ask Paige what sound the letter makes.  It's great.  Then this afternoon Paige started playing with shapes and colors and started grouping toys by color.  However, we went into detail about why they were grouped, what was different and the same about the groups, etc.  She really enjoyed it and we eventually started running out of toys to pull off the shelves to "group."  So despite it being a weekend, we got in a bit of 'learning work.'

Paige's "groups"

Wicked!

My very generous aunt bought my mom, herself and me awesome seats to go see the Broadway National Tour play of Wicked!.  It was such a fun night.  The play really is amazing from the sets which are steampunk, the costumes, also steampunk with a bit of whimsy and sparkle thrown in, the music and singing talent beautiful, great dancing, good acting and the writing is outstanding.  It's a really cool prequel to the Wizard of Oz and how the characters develop and come together in the end.  But what stood out to me most was that it was about two women and how they are able to become exactly what they want.  A rare thing to find in entertainment, even today.  I may find myself even reading the actual book one of these days.  After the show, the cast was accepting donations for the cause of HIV/AIDS and were collecting money in the lobby.  My aunt and I got our pic taken with one of the Flying Monkeys...who by the way are scary in the play too!  Thank you to my husband who stayed home to care for the girls while I got to attend. 

Me, my aunt and my mom in front of
the playbill sign

My aunt and me with a Flying Monkey

Counting

Yesterday I noticed that Hailey counted some objects (I can't remember what) from 1 to 8.  But I wasn't totally positive so I didn't really react too much.  Today, yes, she counted a row of chairs 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud.  Then she counted some flowers on a couple pages in a book we were reading tonight...only from 1 to 5.  But nonetheless, correctly and without hesitation.  So, she knows her shapes and can count, but I still can't get her to know her colors yet.  Such the opposite of Paige who knew her colors first then shapes, then counting.  (Paige by the way is counting to 20 pretty well these days.)  So interesting to see two different people learn. 

Keeping House-- Just Thoughts

Keeping house is now my full time 24/7 (literally) job.  I am grateful that I GET to stay home and do this.  There are so many things that go with the stigma of keeping house.  Having meals planned and made from scratch; having a clean house all the time; organization; and well behaved, well adjusted children.  I achieve this about a quarter to half the time.  I have found that I am a pretty easy going mama and let the girls lead me in what activity they want to do.  This stems from the Montessori theories.  If they want to color, I color with them and don't make the beds.  If they want to play outside, I have to be out there and can't get a load of laundry in the washer.  If one is napping, we need to stay downstairs so things upstairs don't get picked up.  I'm fine with all this.  I love it in fact.  However, I have things that are starting to bug me that I don't do and really need to do.  One in particular is PLANNING.  I need to be better about making a grocery list, sticking with it at the store and then actually making the meals I plan.  I also need to create some sort of schedule for the girls at home.  Such as Breakfast, Reading, Play, Naps, Games, Outside, etc.  They love structure and will thrive with this. I also need to create a schedule for me... Monday = laundry, Tuesday = change sheets, etc.  Will I do this?  Or will I continue to play with my girls and let things be as they are?  Perhaps I'll try the "PLANNING" and see if I like it.  I know more things would get done, but spending time with these precious beings is priceless and I'm not sure an organized life should replace it.  I'll let you know how it goes.