Tambourines

Last night we were watching The Goodnight Show. There craft for the night was making tambourines out of tin pie plates. Emma asked "can we make that?" (like she does to any craft they do) and I say "No baby, we don't have any tin plates" She looks at it and says "But that's what our pizza comes in tomorrow." Ok give the girl props for knowing that and connecting the two. So I sent a ziplock bad and a note to her teacher and lunch lady to send me 6 pizza tins. They did. We made them and the kids loved it.

Putting the pinto beans in

Coloring on their tins

The finished products

Showing off their tins

Orbitz mouth

We've all seen those commercials for Orbitz gum. The ones where they make the people insanely dirty then show their white teeth. Well we had a reenactment of one of those at our house. Emma brought Garrett up to the back door and said "Mommy Garrett has dirt in his mouth" I looked up from the computer and sure enough he looked very brown around the mouth and his tongue was very dirty. Gross. I first took him to show his Daddy.  . . . Since it's his fault he's a boy . . . . Next we went to the bath room where I washed his face and tongue with a washrag. Finally, we brushed his teeth to make sure all the dirt was out. After it was done he go to go tell daddy "i clean mouth"  . . ahh the joys of toddlerhood!

Friends come over

Emma has made a good friend in Casen. He is My friend Julie's son. They are 4 days apart in age. Casen has been taken with emma for a while now. He loves it when she gets to skip school and come to daycare to play with him. Emma loves playing with him as well. We've babysat Casen and his sister Kinley (close to Garrett's age) at their house before. This thursday they came to our house to play. Emma and Casen waited and waited all week for them to come over. The 4 kids played great! I love that they have a kid for each of my kids to play with. Plus I know their mom well enough I know they have a similar upbringing and will not do/say/watch anything I might be against. I love this mutual friendship for both my kids and me (I <3 Julie too!) 

Emma vs. The Pole

I got a call from Emma's school today saying she was ok but had a bruise forming from running into a pole outside. What?! Apparently Mrs. Workman blew her whistle to get the kids to line up and Emma came running . . . not looking first . . and ran into a metal pole with her face. Ouch!  They put emma on the phone and she was crying and asking for me. I decided it'd be better if I just went and got her instead of her being sad and moody for her teacher all day. (ok let's face it. the mommy-come-hold-her-baby instinct kicked in for mommy) So I went to get her. She was fine by the time I got there but I'd already made the trip so I started to take her. When I told Isaac I would be back for him he got the almost-ready-to-bust-into-tears look. So I took him too. :) (yes, I realize I'm a sucker) They spent the day with me at daycare and had a blast playing. :)  Emma was showing off her bruise to everyone. . . like a badge of honor. Too funny. I laughed most of the way there about my daughters gracefulness . . . I'm afraid she got that from me . . well now that I think about it her Aunt Tanya (who she's most like) tried to catch a ball with her face before. Maybe it's her fault! 

Noodles

Emma's class was studying China and the Chinese New Year last week. Mrs. Workman had the class attempt to use chopsticks to eat rice and noodles. She said it was pretty funny. Here are a couple of funny pictures.

Valentine's Partys

Emma's Valentine Party

Garretts Valentine Party

Getting to pass out their cards to their friends

The spread . . .

Happy Valentine's Day

Valentine's morning the kids woke up to their Valentine's buckets with chalk, bubbles, shovels, a DVD, and headbands (for emma only)and they each got a balloon. They were so surprised. It was a great sight. Then we ate our Valentine's cinn. rolls. It's a tradition for our family to go out to eat Valentine's morning. 

WYWO - Kitchen

Our new kid free zone

Our new curtains . . see how well emma cleaned up her toys!

The beginning of our kitchen redo . . . .

Matt look at all the clear counter space!

Our priceless masterpieces

A view from the front hall

working on creating some of  the artwork in  the new kitchen

The beginning . . . the flowers! ahhhh!

Hard at work

The story:

This weekend Matthew was in TN with the teens. Last weekend while I was at mom's I was talking about what I could get done to surprise him. (we both like to do that occasionally) We talked and talked and finally decided the thing we could do and have the biggest impact (for good) on my house would be to redo the kitchen. So, Mom came up this weekend armed with paint swatchs, tape, hammer, drills, and the like. She had it taped off before I got home from work Friday. We painted the primer on Friday and did the rest on Saturday. My Saturday night my kitchen was redone, my downstairs bathroom was fixed up, my downstairs had curtains, and I had several good ideas for more improvements in the rest of the house. :) Tis is just proof a parents job is never done. Not even after they move out, go to college, get married, or have their own kids. You still have to go kick them in the rear and help them out. We used to hate our kitchen. It had ugly flowery wallpaper and it has 3 different types of flooring. Now I am loving it. (the floors still bad but mom isn't a miracle worker) It is so pretty and inviting now. We also moved all the kid stuff out of the upstairs living room. It has been deemed a "kid free zone" and is only for adults to sit and talk or eat or play piano, or just be. :)  

One of my Favorites

Po-po is one of Garrett's favorite people. When we got close to Grannys house this past weekend he kept saying "where Po-po's house" "I want po-po's house" it was cute. He LOVES to play with his po-po. It wasn't so cute on the way out of town for 10 minutes (no lie!) with him crying "I want po-po's house" I'm just thankful Me-me and po-po are able to be such a big factor in my children's lives. They were such a hugh influence in mine and Tanyas. We Love you Me-me and Po-po!

hiding

Garrett has completely fallen in love with the game of hiding. He hides his "ruff ruff" behind his back and says "whered ruff ruff go?" he looks so cute while doing this I might add. then he brings it out from behind his back and says "heret is!" Now mind you he'll be 2 next month so alot of the time when he hides puppy it's very easy to spot and the grown up has to really pretend to not see it! Like today when he had the puppy on his lap and his sippy cup sitting on top of him. Then he asks where the puppy went. Ummm . . only a blind person couldn't see it but Mommy played along so as not to spoil the fun. :) I think he might have gotten this love of hiding things form one of her favorite people Po-po. Po-po likes to try and trick the kids by hiding things under his arms. Thanks for the fun and smiles!