Love Week

We had quite the busy week at daycare last week! There was arts and crafts, sensory activities, stories, and so much sugar. The real highlight of the week was when a few of the Bigs were here Thursday and Friday! The Littles were so, so, so happy to have the Bigs here that they kept asking "can I watch you (color/read/play/walk/go potty/etc.)?" Luckily, the Big are awesome and incredibly patient with the Littles (although, we drew the line at watching in the bathroom!) and made sure to play games with them, helped them make paper airplanes, and helped them build Lego towns and waffle block cities.

Our theme for Valentine's week was (of course) Love and chocolate:

Chocolate noodles in the sensory and pretend corners. The kids definitely ate some, while A LOT stuck on their feet, hair, and clothes.

Colorful hearts. I put the glue and the kids put the pieces of paper on the heart. 

Daycare's King Cake. I told them why we were eating this cake (actually a sweet bread) numerous times, but all they cared about was that I let them eat cake for morning snack!

 A week full of all of her Valentine's outfits because, yes, she had numerous.

Working on Valentine's for their classmates.

Heart shaped quesadillas, broccoli slaw, peppers, banana.

These chocolate covered strawberries made an excellent morning activity and a tasty afternoon snack! When the minis got home, they made some as well.

I had planned on a no gifts Valentine's Day, but I couldn't pass up new vacation clothes for everyone.

Shaving cream hearts. Shaving cream with food coloring dripped on top. I had the kids gently press down their hearts into the shaving cream. These always turn out cool (we've done them for a few years now), but take forever to dry.

Perfect heart shaped sugar cookies that the kiddos got to help make, decorate, and then eat their's for morning snack on Valentine's Day.

Heart shaped ham and cheese sandwich, spinach with broccoli slaw, and banana. 

Our typical Valentine's dinner: heart shaped pizzas, salads, and chocolate covered strawberries. Hubs and I had a bit of a mix up with the pizza arrangements and we both ended up grabbing pizzas for dinner. Four pizzas was more than enough to feed us (and daycare) for a couple of days!

 It takes them a few tries to get a picture.

After Valentine's Day dinner fun.

We did our daycare Valentine's party the day after on the 15th. The day included donuts, brownie cookie cake, decorating Valentine's bags, passing out Valentines and treats, and then a couple of games.

They decorated their bags while watching the Olympics. We're thoroughly enjoying the Winter Olympics around here.

 I honestly haven't had this many kiddos at once since last summer. The coat area was overflowing! The days were fun and tiring all at the same time. The kids all spent a lot of time talking about this upcoming summer, what they'd like to do, and activities they'd like to repeat.

 Playing the floor is lava.

The cats really enjoyed my Valentine's flowers on the table (insert eye roll here).

One of our games was heart darts. I drew heart shaped dartboards on the window (with window marker) and the kids used Nerf guns to shoot at them. It kept the preschoolers and school agers busy for quite a while!

Their most favorite game ever: the Find It game. This time they found heart shapes they helped decorate beforehand.

Chocolate play dough with heart cookie cutters.

Friday was a free day. Their free day included waffle block building, board games, and card games.

 My favorite moment of the week was courtesy of these three boys (plus one more not pictured). They asked to watch a cartoon and I told them all it needed to be toddler appropriate. Everyone agreed on Guess How Much I Love You (based on the book). Of course, all of the toddlers wandered off to play, which left the big kids. I asked them if they wanted the TV off or if they wanted to watch something else. All three shouted, "no! The song's getting ready to come on!" As the theme song played, all three boys sang along and swayed (and watched the next episode). There's so many moments throughout the days that I'm reminded of how big they've gotten. Moments like the one mentioned makes me realize how little they still are.

Since I spent two full days talking about summer activities, I'm growing anxious to begin our spring activities at daycare and spend some quality time outdoors!

2 February Weekends

We were lucky to have two amazing, soul fulfilling weekends! Superbowl weekend was spent with family in town from Maryland. Last weekend we FINALLY got the chance to take the minis sledding and had a full family fun weekend. These types of weekends are my absolute favorite.

Friday night we took in our first gymnastics competition. My cousin competes on West Virginia's team and was in town competing at ISU. We were lucky enough to go see her compete with all of our family. Up until this point, the only gymnastics competitions I was familiar with were those seen during the Olympics. I was amazed and thrilled to see the team comradery and how they cheered each other on.

Saturday afternoon we gathered at my aunt and uncle's house and caught up with our relatives (all over homemade Mexican food, margaritas, and Moscow mules, which just added to the greatness of the night). Sadly I failed to take pictures because we were fully engaged and enjoying our family time.

Super Bowl Sunday didn't go quite as planned. We lounged around Sunday morning, but mid-day it was apparent the youngest mini wasn't feeling well. She laid down for a FIVE HOUR nap! She and I missed out on the family fun birthday parties, but the boys went and had a wonderful time! We're now figuring out when to fit in a trip to the East Coast in 2019 to visit everyone.

After her five hour nap she woke up fever free, in a puddle of sweat, and thirsty. She didn't even bother taking her water bottle out of her backpack and instead lifted her backpack to drink. She thought she was pretty clever and cute for this. While the boys watched the Super Bowl with family, lil Miss E and I snuggled and watched a couple of cartoons before she went right back to bed. I was bummed to miss out on seeing the family, I sure didn't mind the one on one time with this girl.

 Last weekend was spent volunteering at the Des Moines Children's Museum, getting ideas at a home show, eating BBQ, watching Peter Rabbit, wished my mom (better known as Grandma) a happy (belated) birthday, and spent a couple of hours sledding down a hill!

These two happily helped me out at the Children's Museum, while Hubs and Harrison went to a home show (and gather plenty of ideas and business cards from vendors). While the minis play a lot at the museum, they've also become accustomed to helping pick up the toys and clean when needed.

After a long morning of volunteering, we treated the minis to Jethro's BBQ (their request). This is definitely not a place to go if you're a vegetarian, but I managed.

We had just enough time in between our late lunch/early dinner and the movie to stop at home for a "relax." Ok, so Hubs and I relaxed while the minis discovered an old box of pictures in the basement. Of them all that I saw, this one was my favorite because of the baby I'm holding. That baby is my cousin Silvia who has held my babies and been my daycare helper for a few years now. She holds a special place in our lives.

They HAD to get a picture with this poster so we remembered they want to see it when it comes out.

Our Saturday night: I went through my receipts for taxes while my husband showed his support. Nearly every night for the past three weeks has been spent doing some kind of work: writing, meetings, conference calls, taxes, etc. I have two and half more weeks of this madness and then it's twelve days of sunshine (if the weather cooperates), Disney, and beaches. It's about the only thing getting me through these last few weeks.

So bright and sunny that the icicles melted from our house.

Getting all five of us out of the house takes some work. The youngest refused to let me brush her hair, but when big brother offered, she stood still and happily chatted with his with he brushed. It's moments like this that I'm grateful to have the help and that they have each other in life.

Our weeknights have been booked. We finally made it over to my parent's house to give my mom the second part of her gift (the first part was flowers delivered to her on her actual birthday). Of course, to the minis that meant playtime. This girly girl cracks me up with her fake phone, hat, purse, and pom poms.

Then, it was FINALLY TIME FOR SLEDDING!!! Due to our incredibly mild winters the past couple of years, we haven't had a good snowfall to go sledding. While I had wanted to go to Waveland Golf Course for its large hills, we settled for the minis school just up our street. While it wasn't the biggest hill in town, we were able to walk there in minutes, walk back to our house for a potty break, and had A BLAST going down the hill again and again. Who knew that this would be a perk of our new house??

Ready, set.....and she went so she could win instead of one of the boys.

I was cracking up because Harrison tried standing on the back "to help you down the hill mom." He jumped off when he realized it wouldn't be the best idea.

Yes, that's my husband throwing snowballs at the minis and cheering when he hits them.

This one didn't go as planned (as I predicted).

The youngest hitched a ride home.