Birthday Party Prep!

This pic is from the other night- a bedtime snack of clementines and "Bapples..." As Griffy would say.
Mira's Birthday Cupcake Cake. Her favorite color is green (which I have previously mentioned) and her favorite candy is m & m's (nem and nems). I decided to go with a green theme this year because cartoon themes are overrated and I wasn't overly thrilled with Dora or Hello Kitty. Maybe it will be boring, but I thought the cake turned out pretty good. I just did cupcakes and iced them in white. I finished it with some green sprinkles to fill in the holes.
I bought a million holiday M & M's. I was unaware that there are two colors of green in a holiday package...therefore, I thought I was going to use half of them, but was only able to use a third...I have a TON of leftovers which is quite dangerous. They are my favorite candy also.

Mira, Brooks, and I put up the ornaments after G went to bed tonight. She got really into it!
My OCD child had to lay them all out before she could put any up.
She was really wanting to put all of them on three branches on the right side. I had to encourage her to go somewhere else.
She was irritated at me for taking too many pictures at this point.
Her finished product- so proud!

hello out there?

Does anyone read this?? It's really hard to post when you don't think anyone's reading.

Makeshift Preschool

So some of you know I've been preschooling Mira at home since she is too young to go this year. She is definitely ready. We are at Letter G- I was doing 3 days of each letter but I quickly discovered that she was overly bored spending so much time on each one...so we usually do one or two days now. Today was the first day for G but she already knows the letter, so we'll probably just do this one day. Here she is lacing a big letter G cut out of posterboard.
Here she is cutting out her Gloves that she stamped with Green stamps and will paste on Green paper. She loves today because she LOVES Green.
So I spend a ton of time on the internet finding activities and things to teach her about each letter and such. We are also doing an advent unit right now. Yesterday I made a felt board and we made the stable. We read the first story of Mary and Joseph going to the stable and put them in the barn with the donkey and other animals. Each week we'll build on it. We also made a felt Advent wreath with candles that she gets to put a flame on each week.

With every letter we do some cutting, pasting, stamping, doing puzzles, etc. Today I just focused on the letter and the color Green, but I usually form the day around an animal. For F we did fish and she stamped big F's on a big Fish and little f's on little fish. We also did patterns with little and big fish. Then we glued pompoms on a fish to make him pretty. Every day we do a new letter I do one picture where she usually glues things togethers and colors and put it on the fridge with the words Ff is for Fish! She gets to look at it for a few days until we move on. It seems to be working- when we read she points out the letters she knows to me. F and E are obviously sometimes mixed up!

I am thinking after I get past H or I we'll spend a couple of days just reviewing what we already know. I have actually enjoyed the time because it makes me focus solely on her for at least an hour each day. It's sometimes hard with Griffin always pulling at my leg, but sometimes we do it during his nap. She seems to be thriving on it and really looking forward to the time!

Mira is 3!

Mira is so tired today she finally gave it around 3 and fell asleep sitting up with Brooks. She refused to lay down. We started the day going to church and then came home for pizza and some family.
Here she is with her little cake- the real stuff happens next weekend.
She got this baby center from Casey and Reese. Right now it's the biggest hit!
Getting ready to open it.
She walked into her closet and said, "What IS this?!" It was pretty cute.
Playing memory with the grandmas.
She's had a fun day but I don't think she processed it all because she's so tired. Both the kids and Brooks have bad colds and I think it's caught up with all of them. I'm just hoping I don't get it! I'm a little overwhelmed as I've been working a lot it seems and I have a ton to do. The house is a mess and there are about 8 loads of laundry to do. It's the first Sunday of Advent and I really want to start teaching Mira about Advent this Sunday for preschool. I haven't had time to prepare yet! Oh well. I know it will all work out.

Birthday Surprise Extraordinaire!

G man- so cute. He looks so big here! First some more pics of the kids playing doctor. M giving G a shot- he's making a run for it!
He is pretty good at humoring.
So we painted M's closet for her birthday. She needs a place to play without Griffin bugging her and taking everything. She loves to play with tiny toys, but I just haven't been able to get them for her...until NOW!!! Here we are just getting started. We just painted the back half and are using the front for her clothes. I wanted to do Green because it's her favorite color all the way, but it just was too dark, so I compromised.
Yellow is done!
I stenciled the Alphabet across the top where she could see it. She's learning her letters so fast!
I also did some stenciling at the back of the bookshelves above where there will be books. It's not great, but I think cute.

The finished product minus some toys and babies.
I also have to add her chairs and craft stuff.
She's going to LOVE it!
I am dying for her birthday to get here. I am so excited! I know she's going to love everything!

Albany

We went to Albany today. Got there about 11 and stayed til around 3. Mira is really into playing doctor- she likes to be the patient or the doctor. Here is grandma giving her a shot.
Grandma took the kids to Pamida and got them some toys. G got this stupid dinosaur that roars and walks- he thinks it's hilarious every single time.
Playing some more.
My guy.
Here are some pics from yesterday- vacuuming like every good man should.
Being Mira's patient. He's pretty good about it when she orders him around.

Thanksgiving at Carriage Square

Went to Carriage Square to eat dinner with Grandma Betty last night. The kids had a good time. I got them a couple of new movies for the ride and brought their jammies along. Cousin Max and Mira are about the exact same personality. It was cute.
Someone had a PIT BULL puppy. It was named Dementia. Nice. Why do people think that's ok?
Griffin was a pill- he ate peanut butter crackers and 2 packages of gummies for dinner.
Partners in Crime.


Off to Albany today!