Preschool Holiday Party

Today Lea's preschool had a little holiday party. The parents and siblings gathered in the little gym while the 3 year olds sang some holiday songs. It was adorable! And, as you can imagine, pretty funny, too. Most kids didn't sing... a few were really into it... and a couple were just totally doing there own thing. Lea was somewhere in between all of that. ;)

Watching their teacher, Ms. Keisha.

Singing!

Not happy with the boy beside her. lol

Lea was the only one who took a bow at the end.

After the performance we gathered in their class room for a little pot-luck lunch. We had cheese, crackers, veggies, fruit, ham and pepperoni (which Lea couldn't get enough of!). Oh... and don't forget the cookies!

Me and my girl!

Lea and Jackson playing with his Rudolph nose.

This is Lea's self-proclaimed favorite thing at school. )

Lea's teacher, Ms. Keisha, is pretty special. From the very moment that I met her, I knew my baby girl would be safe in her care. That says a lot because we visited several preschools & spoke with many teachers before making a decision where Lea would go. Lea loves Ms. Keisha, too.

Sharing a laugh.

Ms. Keisha and Lea

"Gingerbread" Houses and Salt Dough Ornaments

I've spent the past couple of days just hanging out with my girls. The house is a mess and I haven't really cooked dinner in awhile... but none of that seems to matter recently.

We made salt dough ornaments a couple of days ago and painted them today. I was pretty impressed with Lea's painting skills. Believe it or not, she isn't really into arts & crafts (Gasp!). Her preschool teacher said she is always the first to finish a project and run off to play when they do crafts. She didn't get that from me! Anyhow... like I said, she actually took her time and painted the ornaments very well. I was so proud!!

Cutting out the ornaments.

Concentrating on our paintings (while Emma watches!).

Painting

I also assembled two "gingerbread" houses for us to decorate. I used graham crackers and homemade royal icing. I made them the night before so they would be hardened and ready to decorate the next day. Lea LOVED all the candy I had gotten. She wasn't that into decorating her house, though... she just wanted to eat the candy! We still had a good time. I had Teddy Grahams, too. She thought it was hilarious to make her house look like bears were climbing all over it. ;)

"I'm going to pretend to take a bite, mom!"
(I am pretty sure she actually did take a bite.)

Tasting her work.

I also managed to make peppermint bark today and actually, I got a couple loads of laundry done, too. :)

Disney on Ice

Last week we took Lea to see Disney on Ice. It was a special night for just Lea... Emma stayed home with Gaga & Papa.

We had a blast!

Before the show, I stopped by the dollar store and got Lea a big glow stick, a couple small princess dolls and a Ring Pop. I didn't show her these things until we were in our seats, just before the show started. She was thrilled... and actually asked if I had gotten it while we were looking at the gift items there. lol

 

We had great seats... less than 12 rows from the ice!

The show was better than I thought it was going to be (we had never been before). It was kind of like a musical... played out on ice. I'm not sure what I expected but I liked that they acted out the stories. We saw The Little Mermaid (my favorite!), Tangled (not my favorite...we actually haven't even seen it), Brave and Beauty & the Beast (Lea's favorite!).

7 Months!

 

Emma is 7 months old now. Hard to believe that she has only been here for seven months... I can not even remember life without her.

She weighs just over 15 lbs (about the 15-20th percentile) so, yes, she is our little peanut! Here are some facts about her now...

• Emma has two teeth already! (the front, center, bottom two teeth) Lea only had two teeth on her first birthday so this seems early to us. I realize it's totally normal. :)
• She still doesn't babble much. She's pretty quiet! (unless she is screaming...which she is v.e.r.y. good at)
• She rolls all over the place.
• She kicks a lot...and hard.
• She pulls her knees up under her and rocks back & forth on her hands.
• Her belly laughs are goofy and infectious. No one makes her laugh as much as Lea!
• She has a great appetite. She has eaten sweet potatoes, peas, apple sauce, pears, green beans, bananas, avocado, peaches, prunes and mango. She's loved all of it...except the green beans!
• She loves puffs and can now pick one up with her fingers. She's still working on getting it into her mouth. Usually she picks it up, gets it TO her mouth but then has trouble actually letting go of it.
• She blows "raspberries" all the time!

She is always chewing on something... her hand, teether, paci or toy.

Blowing raspberries!

See those two little teeth?!

New Wreath

Since we painted our front door bright green, I have been wanting to find the perfect red wreath for Christmas. I just couldn't find something I liked, though (and anything of good quality is so expensive). I like simple... nothing too big or fancy. So, I decided to make one...

 

I LOVE it! And, I have to admit... I think my bow turned out pretty darn good.

 

The entire project cost me less than $12. I got one of those straw wreaths (it was wrapped in plastic) for $2.50. The red ribbon is like a burlap material (wired) and it was $7.99. Then, I already had the bow ribbon. Just a little hot glue and a few minutes later... Ta-da! :)

Thanksgiving Crafts

I am terrible at remembering to take pictures of crafts as we go... so I apologize. I only have pictures of the finished products. These are two super easy crafts, though, so you should be able to figure it out! lol

I saw this one on Pinterest and had to try it. And, I have to say, I think mine turned out better!

I simply traced each family members hand then cut them out (each on a different color paper). I drew the turkey body free-hand and cut that out, then added a beak and a waddle. The hands were then layered and glued onto a pretty piece of craft paper. The turkey body was glued on last. Finally, I wanted to have the year on there, so I used some self-stick scrapbook numbers. I framed it in an 8x10 matted frame that was on sale at AC Moore for $10! :)

 

 

I got the idea for the next craft from Lea's preschool. I saw these hanging in the window of the older kids room and wanted to try them. Again, I drew the corn cob and husk free-hand, then cut them out on yellow and green craft paper. I gave Lea some finger paint and told her to make "dots" on each corn cob. I think she did pretty good! We strung them together with yellow yarn (I punched holes in the tops of each cob) and we hung them from the fireplace mantle. :)

 

Compare

Here are two pictures of me at 3 months old and 6 months old...





Now, here are two pictures of Lea at the same ages...

 

And, finally, here are pictures of Emma at 3 & 6 months old...

 

 

I think it's safe to say we all come from the same gene pool. What do you think?!

Our Girls!

Have I mentioned that I LOVE having two girls?! It's so funny because when I was pregnant with my first, I was convinced she was a boy. I won't lie... I was a little disheartened to find out she was, in fact, a she.

It turned out to be the best thing to happen to me. And then I was lucky enough for it to happen again! ;)

I took my girls out, dressed in their matching outfits, in the hopes of getting one or two decent photos of them. Well, I got several great photos! M&M's certainly helped me coax Lea into cooperating and Lea helped me with Emma.

Here are some of the pictures...

 

And, for fun, here are some of the blooper shots!

This one just makes me giggle. Poor Emma!

And to stop Emma's crying fit, Lea ran circles around her....
Emma laughed so hard!

Playing with flowers. :)