February 13

Our Valentine's Day Monsters

 

Grayson made great use of his googly eyes from Nana (his is the blue monster!) His should say "I only have eyes for you, Valentine!"

 

 

Nana also sent these two cute projects for them to put together. Neylan made the frog and Grayson put the dinosaur together.

February 12

These guys received a special package in the mail yesterday (we didn't check the mail until this morning, though).

 

Nana sent a fun Valentine's Day package with activities and candy!

 



 

Grayson's favorite thing in the box was the packages of googly eyes!

 

Thanks Nana!!

February 11

I had a tiny bit of dough left over from yesterday, so I let the boys pick out some fun cookie cutters to use to finish it off. Grayson picked 3 dinosaurs

 

 

I found the tiniest bit of chocolate frosting

 

And he finished them off with green sugar sprinkles. How festive!!

February 10

I got my bake on this afternoon! This rarely ever happens anymore. Neylan can't eat many desserts that are homemade and my hips can't handle the temptation. So, I just don't make desserts anymore. But, today I was given the task of helping host a Valentine's Day party for Grayson's Cubbies class. My job was to bake the cookies

 

Now, don't judge or laugh, but I honestly think this might be the first time I've ever made sugar cookies from scratch. And this was only because I forgot to buy dough earlier this week! Personally I don't like sugar cookies. Let's face it. For me, a cookie NEEDS chocolate of some sort! So, sugar cookies just don't cut it for me. They are bland and boring!!

 



 

After all the work, I have to say I'm pretty impressed. They turned out really well

 

And Grayson and his friends had a blast decorating them. Although, when you turn a bunch of 3, 4, and 5 year olds loose with icing, sprinkles, and M &Ms, the cookie gets decorated so much that nobody wants to eat it! That happened a lot tonight. Grayson ate his though. That's my boy. Never turning down dessert!

February 9

We live such an exciting life! We NEVER left the house today. After lots of playing and TV watching, I decided we needed a change of pace. A craft!

 

 

Our first Valentine's Day activity. Can you tell whose is who's?

February 8

Grayson asked if he could take playdoh to school today to share with his friends. I sent him with lots of cookie cutters and cool rolling pins, but she had something much cooler to do with the playdoh. Playdoh barber shop!!

 

 

Not sure Neylan's customer will be satisfied with his new do!

February 7

Every year in Renew, we have some of the hubbies fix us moms a pancake breakfast. Since Adam is working at church now, I nominated him to help out, so he became the sausage boy this morning.

 

 

Our project tonight can be named "Mom had good intentions, but what in the world was she thinking?!" I've had this little snack planned for a while and didn't get around to it for Christmas. So, I thought the boys could help make little treats to take to school tomorrow to share with their friends for Valentine's Day.

 

It's simple. Graham crackers with marshmallow fluff in between.

 

Then you dip in chocolate. I did the first step (spreading the marshmallow cream) and thought they could handle this second step.

 

Neylan dipped and immediately began eating (After yelling at them for touching the crackers and licking fingers, by this point flames are starting to come out of my ears)

 

Grayson dipped and took the sprinkles. While I cleaned Neylan up and banned him from participating any more, Grayson dumped half of the red sprinkles on these 3 small cookies. (Now, really questioning why I thought two toddlers could handle making food for others without spreading germs!) Now everyone is banned from the table and I decided I would have to finish these by myself. (I think it's safe to say my patience is running thin. It's Thursday!)

 

The finished, salvaged product. Maybe I should only allow them to cook when it's just for us. Having them help make food for others makes me nervous (especially during flu season).

February 5

A moment of togetherness on a pretty afternoon

 

 

My project for the afternoon was to spruce up this old sled that I took from my parents house at Christmas. This was the sled that I used when I was growing up, in the rare chance TN had snow! I don't know how old this sled is, but it's been around a long time. The metal was completely rusted, so I sanded it and spray painted it. It's not perfect, by any means, but it has a bit more color now than it did and makes a nice porch decoration.

 

 

February 4

Grayson started gymnastics today. We've been talking about doing this for a very long time because we've seen the potential and energy he has. He loved the class and caught on really quickly to the routines and various activities the teacher was asking him to do. There were 5 kids in the class, 3 boys and 2 girls (I was a bit surprised by that, but I guess I shouldn't be. Three year-old boys all need gymnastics), and out of those 5, 2 kiddos were named Grayson!! What are the chances?

 

 

Grayson loved the hour. Neylan, on the other hand, was a handful! He was soooo mad that he couldn't participate too. "Can I go in? When is it my turn? I want to go!" I thought I was going prepared by bringing the ipad, but he turned that down. That NEVER happens. He just pouted the whole time. But, we are going to let Grayson try this out for a little while and let this be his thing. Neylan is just going to have to deal with it. As painful as it will be :(

February 3

Our next door neighbors put this sign up in their yard today. Not sure if it will help, but people may slow down just to read what it says! People do usually go a little fast down our street, so we just usually hang out in the back yard. It's safer there.

 

February 2

The boys were dying to play with someone other than me today (I can't blame them), so we finally found some friends to go to Zonkers with. This is a great indoor amusement place and the boys love the rides. Also a great way to burn energy right before bed!

 

February 1

Grayson did a little project at school today and had to draw what he does at night. Ms Lydia was a little confused when he said he does projects every night!!

 

January 31

Playdate this morning with several Renew tables. All the kids brought riding toys and

balls. I think we burned a little bit of energy

 

 

This place also had a climbing wall. Grayson made it 2 feet off the ground, then got scared

 

Our "project" for the night was this new version of a pillow fight/wrestling. The boys had a blast!!

 

Surely, they'll sleep well tonight

January 29

I believe I have a pinterest fail on my hands :(

 

I couldn't get the wreath out of the pan in one piece. Will have to see if I did something wrong. Maybe the birds will eat the birdseed out of the bowl if I set it on the deck

 

January 28

It's over 70 degrees today, so we are headed to the zoo! We haven't been since November. Daddy decided to go to work later this afternoon, so we had a family day

 

 

Our zoo just received a new polar bear named Berlin. They are slowly introducing her to the other polar bear so they can be friends

 

and for the first time since we've had our pass, the sea lion show is happening again

 

Tonight's project was making rainbow slime