Feb random

Since I am not great at documenting big activities that we do, because I never have my big camera or because we don't do any big activities :) I thought instead, maybe every few weeks I would just document our every days. Thats really what I will care about in 10 years right?

My girl, not a morning person. This is after I woke her for preschool.

 She is growing up so fast and looks forward to helping whenever she can. The latest thing is making sandwiches for lunch.

We've had some weeks of freezing cold weather and other weeks that the weather is so nice that we can't help but get outside and enjoy!

 "Baking" on a Friday night.

 Some favorite activities while mom cooks dinner. Kinetic sand and animals hidden in a box of rice. This really does keep them entertained the entire time I cook.

Working on preschool activities. Gavin has been wanting to do stuff as well. He will go to preschool next year, but so far is great at counting and recognizing letters and numbers. I have started introducing scissors to practice cutting lines and shapes that he can trace.

Lunch or breakfast out with friends. I get to chat with my friends and the kids get to run and play in the playplace and burn energy. Win Win.

 Gavin and his big personality!

Playing at the mall playplace. No outdoor parks for us right now, so we find the indoor places while we can.

We are just counting down the days until baby arrives and having fun while we wait. Keeping busy, trying to stay healthy and enjoying family time just the 4 of us.

Potty Training

Jan 30, I decided that at 2 1/2, it should be time to introduce Gavin to the potty. I've heard boys take longer to potty train so while Reegan was out of diapers except for night-time at 2 1/2, I had no expectations. He blew me away. This kid is so smart and so easy, he picks things up right away and doesn't whine about it.  At 2 we decided it was time to take his pacifier away. He only used the pacifier at night, but he loved his pacifier. I thought it would be a long, miserable process taking it away.  Nope, I was wrong. We just didn't give it to him one night and that was it, no whining, no mention of the pacifier ever again. So, back to potty training. I had no expectations.We bought the underware and had him sit on his little potty. I think his second or third time sitting on it he went. And many times after that he went. Now less than 3 weeks later and I would say he is potty trained. He even poops on the potty. We wear night-time diapers but that is it. If I knew it was going to be this easy, I would have done it months ago!!!

 His underware of choice. Spiderman and Teenage mutant ninja turtles.

I can't believe we are basically out of diapers. Just in time for baby and another round of diapers to start. I am so proud of him, I can barely stand it. I love this boy!

Zoo

One of the best purchases I made this past year was a membership to the KC zoo. My only complaint is that it is a drive to get out there, but we have so much fun every time we go. It has been so much fun and the membership has paid for itself many times over. We had a surprisingly warm day a couple of weeks ago and decided to take advantage and I am so glad we did!

The tigers were a little rambunctious, close-up and I did my best to convince the kids they were playing, The roars were very loud which was entertaining, but I believe it was more in a fighting nature.

 I was surprised to see how interested in the snakes they were.

 Penguins are always a favorite.

 I don't think these two are going to need me to stand by them on the carousal for much longer.  Too big.

And look at these faces! Who wouldn't want to spend a whole day enjoying the outdoors with these two? We had such a great morning and look forward to our next visit.

Frozen 5th birthday party

Reegan's 5th birthday is tomorrow.  At 4:21am on February 11 it will be official, we have a big girl living in our house, no more toddler or preschool age girl. For her party she chose a frozen theme. No big surprise, frozen is everywhere and we listen to the soundtrack every time we are in the car, plus they ask to watch the movie all the time!

The party went through lunch time so we planned a lunch around the frozen theme. Easy to do!

 After lunch we decorated Queen Elsa and Princess Anna crowns and Reindeer antlers. The kids did so great. They were focused and loved the sparkly puffy paint and glitter glue pens. They may have taken forever to dry and maybe the kids wont want to wear them ever, but it was a fun activity.

 We played pinned the nose on Olaf. Jason drew this Olaf and I think he did great! He was even impressed with how great it turned out. Im not sure if any of the kids had ever done a version of this game before because once the blindfold went on, they were excited and some a little nervous.

 Snow Ball FIGHT!

 Presents...

 Cake :)

All the kids minus Reese. We had such a great time celebrating our little girl. She just gets cuter and more fun by the day. Jason and I were talking the other night that age 4 has been our favorite so far! I am so excited to see what the future holds for her and watch her grow up even more!