Cheap fun

Spring Break and a limited budge drive you to scour the internet to find some fun, cheap activities for your children.  The sidewalk chalk paint was a huge hit.  I simply mixed corn starch, water and some food coloring and voila! ….two happy kids. : )

Fun at the Zoo!

Well after walking nearly a mile to the zoo last year and dealing with crazy crowds, we had vowed we would never go to the zoo during Spring Break again.  Well, we decided to roll the dice and try again.  The weather has been BEAUTIFUL and we really wanted to do something outside.  We planned a bit better this time, though.  We had food and snacks packed the night before and we left early and got there right when the zoo opened.  We got great parking and we were able to see the popular exhibits that usually invite long lines before the crowds got there.  It was crowded towards the end, but we had a really nice time.

My three little sweeties…this was Brooke’s first outing in the stroller.  I think she liked being able to look out as opposed to being backwards in her car seat.

She was a happy girl!

Getting there early gave us the opportunity to see the tigers in a fun way.  They are usually sleeping, but we got to see them playing with their toys and splashing around in the water. 

Mikayla brought her camera with her and took pictures of everything.  She actually caught some good ones along with the silly ones that you would expect from a 7 year old.

This was the best part about going early.  We have always had to wait in a line to see the pandas and then we had to kind of hurry through so that other people could have turns.  This time we were able to walk up and just sit and watch the pandas walk around, eat and play.  This was definitely the highlight of the day.

The “phanatants” are always a favorite of mine.

I thought this was a cool pic.  One of the zoo employees was walking around telling everyone about this lizard.  The kids really liked being able to get up so close to it.

Well, Brooke was not thrilled with this plan, but I just had to get a pic of my little chicks in the birds nest.

I always love seeing the gorillas.  They just look so peaceful, yet powerful. 

Its hard to see in this picture, but this mom has a her baby wrapped around her leg and she walks around.  It was so sweet looking.  I feel like this sometimes, maybe that’s why I liked it so much.

Gavin and Kayla had such a great time together…I love how they are best friends right now.

Brooke did good most of the time, but I think there was so much going on that she just fought going to sleep, so she started getting a little grumpy.  All in all though, she did really good.  We had a couple mini meltdowns that we easily cured with some cuddling.

Gavin and Kayla got to spend some time in the petting zoo while Brooke and I watched.

The Peep Mobile!  I had to get a picture of the with one of my all time favorite sweet treats.  We got some pretty sweet samples, too!

She did finally give in and go to sleep…about 10 minutes before we left (naturally).

It was a fun day for all of us and I really enjoyed the opportunity to spend some time with my family.

Princess Ballet

My mother in law took Mikayla to a local ballet company’s production of Sleeping Beauty.  The little girls were supposed to dress up like a princess.  Thankfully, we have quite an extensive collection of dress-up clothes.  Mikayla made a beautiful little Snow White. 

We had fun trying to get some “beautiful” poses…..

I have to say, though, that this pose depicts my little Mikayla’s personality a bit better. : )

Lunch with friends

I’m part of a Facebook group for mommies of babies that were due around the time that Brooke was due.  A couple of weeks ago, one of the mommies was in town while her husband was here for a business trip, so some of us that live around here got together for lunch.  We had a great time with each other and had so much fun watching the babies interact with one another.

St. Patty’s sweeties

I know this is late, but I just had to share this pic!

MIni photo shoot

Brooke is almost 9 months old and has recently started sitting.  I really wanted to take advantage of her new skill and capture some pics before she figures out how to crawl.  My sister, Laura is a budding photographer (and a VERY good one), and she agreed to take some pics of Brooke.  I just LOVE how they turned out.  Here are a few of my favorite ones....it's hard to just pick a few, though!

A rare occasion

As our family has gotten bigger, gotten busy and has moved around, it is a rare occasion that we are all together all at once.  Well, this past weekend, Dan and Kim were in town for her Spring Break from Tulane grad school.  EVERYONE was able to make it down for a family meal and evening together.  It was so nice to see them and spend time with them.  We took the opportunity to have my parent's neighbor to come over and take a picture of us all.  Pretty informal, but so nice....

Musings of Gavin

Four is such a fun age (most of the time).  Gavin is such a cuddly little boy.  He loves to just sit with you, hug you and love on you.  He also says some just sweet little things right now.  Here are some of my favorites:

Gavin: "Mom, I have something to tell you..."
Me: "Yes, Gavin?"
Gavin: "I just love ya'"

"I never want another mom" (or dad, if he is talking to Jeremy)

"Can I be your best boy forever?"

Of course, these sweet sayings are also coupled with some not as nice ones when our sweet little boy is having a little meltdown about not getting his ways.

"I don't love you anymore!  I'm giving you no more kisses!"  This one always makes me laugh.  He knows I love kisses, so he's trying to deny me from them.....thankfully, he doesn't hold out for long.

I love this little guy and want him to stay little forever! (As I do with all of my children)

Mikayla’s new bed

So having the girls share a room has been a little challenging in the space department.  They were doing really well actually sharing a room, but I seriously wanted to pull my hair out everytime I walked in there.  It was just….cramped.  There was always stuff everywhere and it drove me nuts.  I saw a bed at Ikea I wanted and lucky me, found a used one on Craigs List for half the price.

This is  a picture of the disassembled bed.  Not very girly….but I took care of that.  we painted the wood pieces white and covered the blue panels with pink fabric.  This thing was a pain in the you know what to put together.  Well, actually, the assembly wasn’t that bad, but getting those panels into the grooves about put me over the edge.  Jeremy helped me though and with some true Wonder Pets-style teamwork, we got it done.

This is a picture of the girls’ room when you first walk in the door. 

This is a view of her bed.  I am SOOO pleased with how it turned out.  I really love this bed.  It is a loft bed, but it is only about 4 ft off of the floor, so changing the sheets and putting Kayla in to bed isn’t tooo bad.   It has helped greatly with some storage issues.  We moved the stuffed animals out of their closet and into the bins underneath her bed.  Their dirty clothes, which always seemed to be all of the floor, now has a bin in the closet to stay.   The nightstand will have to move eventually (before Brooke figures out how to crawl out of the crib), but we’ll cross that bridge later.

The kids have loved have a little play area.  Mikayla likes to take Brooke under there and play with her and read books to her. 

It has been a fun place for all to play.  I also like that her toys pretty much stay under there, which means they aren’t all of the room.  I can actually breath and enjoy this room now.  That’s a success in my book!

Sweet baby Nora

I have a new niece!  My sister had a sweet baby girl on February 24th.  Her name is Nora Jean and she is just so darling.  I love getting to cuddle with her!

I was fortunate that Jeremy was off the day after Emily delivered, so I was able to drive to Athens to see the new babe.   I’m not going to lie, I got very teary when I picked her up.  She is so teeny and my baby is so big (relatively speaking at least).  It feels like yesterday that Brooke was that small.

Doesn’t Emily look fantastic for just having had a baby 24 hours ago?  That’s what you get when you only labor for about 6 hours and push for, maybe, 15 minutes (she’s a delivery rock star!).

Look at all of this hair!  And that is not baby fuzz, my friends.  That is big girl hair that you can put all kinds of clips in.  I must say that I am a tad jealous.

The kids, well, mostly Mikayla were so anxious to see their new cousin.  So the weekend after Emily and Nora came home, I made the trek out to Athens again with my little ones in tow. 

Mikayla was a natural holding Nora.  She has had a good bit of practice!  She just loved getting to hold a little baby again. 

Gavin did a good job, too.  He was satisfied with a quick hold, though.  He did remark at how “shute” (cute) she was. 

We thought that Brooke should have a turn holding her baby cousin, too.  She was pretty enthralled with her.  She particularly liked trying to poke her eyes out.  I think she is jealous of all of the hair. 

I love this picture.  Brooke was just so interested in Nora.  I like to think they were reacquainting themselves after their brief separation from their time in Heaven together. : )

This picture makes me a little emotional.  I love how happy my mom is when surrounded by her grandchildren.  She is a great grandma to them!  I also want to note how good Andrew has done with having a new baby sister.  He has been so gentle and patient with her.

This is just a funny pic I had to share.  Nora’s foot is on the left and Brooke’s midget-sized foot is on the right.  She is barely in a size 1.  I have no idea what I am going to do when she starts walking.

I get to see Miss Nora again soon and I can’t wait to see how much she has grown….they grow all too fast, especially in these first few weeks.