A Peanut Painting

After a particularly difficult hour with this little peanut (I resorted to carrying her around the kitchen in the Ergo Carrier in an attempt to curb the whinig… that’s why she has funny red marks on her legs)… something strange came over me and I got out paint for her to decorate her Valentine box to put in the hallway.

A friend organizes a valentine exchange for the hallway kids each Valentines Day. Lil’ A is obviously too little to understand, but I figured if the other kids are opening boxes and taking out cute cards, then she would enjoy doing the same. She’ll love passing them out too. Passing things out to their rightful owners is one of her favorite activities in this stage. And I know it’s more than two weeks away, but I may be a polar opposite of a procrastinator and I already helped all three kids do their boxes. Done before February even starts… booo-yahh!

Aaaanyway I normally would run in the other direction if someone suggested painting with a one year old. But this time I set it up myself. I honestly don’t know what came over me.

She loved it and so did I, actually.

She’s so darn cute. That’s mostly it.

Huh? What’s this?

Uh oh, Mom?

Love this grin…

And her even bigger grin!

She did require a trip to the bathtub after that. And we might need to have a chat before next year about black not being a very appropriate color for Valentines Day, but that can wait.

:)

Love my girl. She just might end up being super crafty like her Mama and her big sister, we shall see!

All Ready to Head Out

All by Herself!

Sweet N poured and flipped a BUNCH of pancakes all by herself this weekend.

So proud of her.  Both my kiddos are always so eager to help in the kitchen. If it weren’t for busy Lil’ A, I’d probably have the mental space to take more time to teach them kitchen skills. Someday soon…

Surprise Movie Night

Mike is on a trip, so I work extra hard to keep our kiddos happy and busy.

Today they had an all-afternoon playdate with some friends, and they came home to this surprise!!!

It’s their dream to have a movie night with the sofa bed out. They ask a lot and we almost always say no.

It was really fun to have it waiting for them when they came home!

Add some pizza and a movie and it was a really fun way to spend an evening. And don’t be fooled by Lil’ A there… she did NOT just relax and hold still, she basically never stopped moving. (Typical!)

And after they went to bed I watched TWO more movies in that sofa bed myself. I never EVER EVER watch three movies in a row. I don’t know what got into me!

:)

Traveling Bags- Touched Up by Mama

We live very near a particular outlet store that I love! The other day I was browsing and stumbled upon a large stock of rolling backpacks with names embroidered on them! The company does embroidery, and I’m guessing since the holidays just passed, they had lots of extra misprints or something, I dunno. But whatever the reason they were there, I scored three bags.(Scored definitely being the appropriate word here… they were only $3.50 each, and regularly they are $50!)

I have a thing about my kids having matching things. Not identical in color, but the same type of the same thing. This applies to water bottles, lunch boxes and the the like. Rolling backpacks for airplanes definitely fits into this category. I mean, wouldn’t it bring anyone else great joy in their heart to see three matching backpacks all lined up at the airport ready to go?

Okay maybe it’s just me.

Aaaaanyway.

I’d like to send my apologies to Hayden,

…Ava,

…and Grace.

I’m sorry your bags didn’t work out for you. But we sure plan to enjoy them.

Sidenote: I  found a bag that had my son’s actual name embroidered on it! I freaked out for a second and snatched it up until I realized that I don’t actually want people in airports to know my boy’s name. “Kid safety 101, Suzanne, get your head in the game!” (Then I put it back).

So my next stop, naturally, was Hobby Lobby, to brainstorm up a way to cover those names. I was thinking fabric or iron on patch or something, until my eyes landed on this little gem.

Fashion tidbits… you are MINE! They cost more than a bag itself (even with a 40% off coupon), but whatever!

And then I recalled this item which I already had at home.

Gra’ndma’s Grab Bag’ of buttons is about right… My Mom bought it for us during her recent visit. It’s like she knew or something.

Anyway, after literally about ten minutes of hand stitching we had this:

No more names. And some cute accents instead. How about that adorable little super-boy button. C’mon!!!

Happy thrifty, match-loving Mama!

And happy “We got new bags for the airplane!!!!” kids.

(He was excited, I promise.)

Peekaboo!

How have I never posted this? These pics are just the cutest.

The first three are before Lil’ A quite got the hang of peekaboo. She’s trying, but she’s missing a key element… actually covering her eyes!

Then she got better. And dare I say cuter?

(Oh woops, she slipped back into old habits in the next one, ha!)

But I do believe she made up for it in enthusiasm!

Ha, another slip up…

She makes my heart burst…

Jammies on the Chair

All three of my kiddos share a bedroom. The littlest one often sleeps longer than the big ones, so that prevents my big kids from being able to put their jammies on their hooks (the system we have) before they go to  school in the morning.

Soooo I usually have H put his jammies on this chair near the door so that it’s easy to put them away later.

And this is what he does…

It seriously cracks me up! He take the time to put the undies and the socks over the tops of the chair, I don’t know why… but it really gets me giggling!

What is That Doing There?

I have a busy girlie. She’s busier than my others. I have here a collection of photos from the past half year or so.

It’s entitled “What is That doing There?!!”

I think you’ll get the point.

1. Half the contents of my parents’ bookshelves on the floor.

2. A snow boot in the baking cupboard.

3. A whisk on my baby’s toes, on the couch.

4. A whisk outside, in the play kitchen.

5. A ball and a play cup and a remote control all in the shoe closet.

6. A boy and his baby sister in the bottom of the pantry, snuggling?

7. A baby in the laundry cart.

8. A baby in the corner of the balcony with a plant!

9. An empty dish soap bottle in the toilet…

10. A pair of little girl undies in the dishwasher.

There you have it. A small portion of the scavenger hunt that I live in daily…