SPRING FUN!

PRESCHOOL: SPRING AND EASTER

We made kites on Tuesday for preschool after talking about how windy it gets during Spring! And then of course there was NO wind to fly them. Really? It's Idaho. The wind is ALWAYS blowing. But today... today it stopped completely, nothing, nada, zip, zero, zilch! Haha. But the kids ran as hard and as far as they could in my little backyard, and we got them up a tiny bit. Guess what the kicker is? The wind picked up about an hour after preschool and was blowing things away by evening. lol! Oh my luck sometimes astounds me! ;-)

On Thursday we had an Easter Party. We decorated fun Easter cups and canvas bags (to hold the eggs of course). Then it was time to go find eggs! This Easter Egg Hunt was a little different than most.  I had their initials on all of them and told them we were going to practice following instructions as we hunted for our eggs. I would call out a color, and they had to find 2 eggs of that color with their initial on it. They did great! It took a little longer ... didn't help that Jay kept picking them up and moving them haha... but they had a lot of fun! And it was great to see them help each other out as well!

I put blank paper out as one of the centers and ALL of them came running. Haha. The other centers sat empty the rest of class. 

CLEANING

Seriously. Why haven't I started this sooner? I might actually be able to stay on top of things with these two at my side! They helped clean the bathroom, the living room, and the kitchen! What Good Helpers!!!

RANDOM PICTURES

Blurry Leo's Place picture. But it's the only one I took the entire time we were there. lol.

 Bumper cars.

 Crystal's barbie photo shoot

I did have to help her with this one. Haha.

Jay's Stats: Age 2

JAY'S 2 YEAR STATS

I totally forgot in my last post to add Jay's stats. He had his 2 year appointment the day after his birthday and he is doing great! BUT he is a TANK!!!! Haha. 

He didn't have to get any shots (Yay!) but while we were there I had them check Lily's hemoglobin because she'd had anemia in the past and I'm AWFUL at giving her the iron supplements. Poor girl. Went in for JAY'S appointment, and SHE had to get poked in the finger! Well her levels are normal so all is well. And we had McDonald's for lunch to make up for it!

Just a few weeks before his birthday Jay started talking like crazy. Now he will attempt to say just about anything you ask him to. And he speaks in complete sentences a lot of the time as well! It all seemed to happen at once for him. I'm very happy because I was beginning to worry about him a little. 

STATS

Weight: 30 pounds   83%ile (He almost weighs as much as Lily!) 

Height: 34 inches     31%ile

Like I said the kid is a TANK!

Jay loves to play with trains, cars, and tools. But he also loves to wear the girls' dress up shoes and, necklaces. He loves to play sweetly with the dolls, and to make 'food' in the toy kitchen as well. He also has a major obsession with mops, brooms and especially VACUUMS! He likes to flirt with the girls (and not just his sisters!). No really. He gets this look on his face and teases them. It's pretty funny. 

This weekend all the binkies went missing, so we put him to bed without it. He didn't even really cry for it!!!! Hooray! He's now gone 2 nights and one nap without it! Hoping I don't give in, and we can be done with them a little sooner than expected (the girls were both 2.5)! 

Next stop: Potty Training! Gah! My nemesis (yes I realize I have many of these)! I have sworn to everyone that with him I was never going to do it. Changing a diaper is way easier than having to find a bathroom all the time! Haha. But alas he has taken a major interest in the toilet, and he seems to be more prone to diaper rashes lately so it's probably for the best. Now to just find TIME. I have to have at least 3 days of nothing to do and no where to go which has proven to be difficult! Conference weekend would have been PERFECT... but of course it has to be Easter too this year. Oh well. I'll just HAVE to wait a little longer. Haha. Wish me luck!!! I'm so not looking forward to it!

Aunt Maddie kindly reminded Jay not to squeeze his CapriSun, and he gave her this look (without blinking) for a good 5 minutes. Sheesh! If looks could kill!

It's his birthday. He can have oreos for dinner if he wants too! Haha! My baby is growing up!

Choo Choo Jay is 2!

JAY'S BIRTHDAY

Well I had all sorts of plans for Jay's birthday this year. He has a recent obsession with trains which was going to make a perfect birthday party theme. My mom had a cake pan to make an upright train cake, so I was going to use it to make the front of the train for the table. The train cars were going to be filled with food, and each car was going to have a cute label on the side saying things like "Coal Car" "Grain Car" & "Log Car." Well with TOFW over the weekend and his birthday being on Monday, everything kind of fell apart. The house was a wreck (hey Ty did the laundry while I was gone at least... it could have been worse. haha), the cake fell apart getting it out of the pan Saturday night and and had a MASSIVE headache so I gave up on it, and I totally spaced making all the cute labels for the table. Haha. I'm just glad I didn't forget the food! 

My mom and my mother in law were LIFESAVERS on Monday. Crystal and Lily had eye appointments that ended up taking 2 hours and I thought it would be 30 minutes, so the day was half over already. My mom came over and helped me clean my house (and did she ever... my sink has seriously NEVER been this clean. She works magic I swear. Haha). Ty's mom called and asked what she could do and if I needed her to get a cake or ice cream or something. I then told her what happened with my cake and not only did she get a cake but she called and had them make a train cake! My mom gave me pointers on how to make a train out of a large box we had from Lily's new car seat at which point she had to leave and I had to make a quick trip to walmart for spray paint. 

I got back from Walmart and Ty's mom was there with the cake and rolls I had asked for. She then stuck around and helped decorate the living room while I crazily spray painted a box outside in the WIND. Yeah that was fun. Haha. She left to get Grandpa, and Ty got home at which point I put him to work making the train track from the driveway and sidewalk outside to the front doors. I was seriously ironing the picture to Jay's tshirt as people were showing up for the party. Yikes! I felt so unprepared! Haha! Good thing it was just family so it wasn't a big deal! I had even forgotten to put up the happy birthday sign! Ty helped get food in the cars and on the table! Jay started helping himself to the food in the train cars while we were getting things ready... especially the "coal car." haha. He ate 4 oreos before dinner! 

Jay was spoiled clear to death. Haha. He got a bike, a Thomas the Train track, a police station car track, a remote control train, clothes, and a lawn mower bubble maker. Thanks to everyone who came to celebrate our baby turning 2! He was still so excited about the night long after everyone went home that he didn't want to go to bed. We let him stay up an extra hour or two but he still protested when we finally made him go to sleep. Haha. I'm glad he had such a wonderful day!

The day after his birthday he got a package in the mail from Aunt Brooke and Uncle Todd. It was a VACUUM! Haha! He carried it around all day and vacuumed my rug many times. He even had to nap with it!

MY BIRTHDAY

My birthday was on Wednesday. I kind of thought we'd go to lunch with my mom, find something fun to do with the kids, and celebrate with ice cream cake when Ty got home from work. Well Lily decided to get the stomach flu instead. Which I was pretty upset about I'll admit it. I may have had a small melt down in my room that morning after she threw up the first time. lol. But she honestly wasn't as sick as she could have been. She only threw up twice, and I only had to clean it up once. Haha. She was still running to the bathroom all day, and for me just the THOUGHT of getting the stomach flu makes me queasy. Haha. So I wasn't feeling great all day either. 

My mom was awesome and brought me lunch (if I were her I would have stayed MILES away from our place. haha). When she dropped it off, it had a 'cake' made from reese's peanut butter cups with a candle in it. It was so sweet of her! My visiting teacher also came by and dropped off a plate of WONDERFUL cookies! And on another positive note I spent the day in my pajama pants! Haha! 

Ty brought Cafe Rio home and we had ice cream cake after the kids went to bed (Lily thought she was all better but we thought she should wait another day before sugar. haha).

 THE PARK
Well Spring Break for Crystal was kind of a bust. It even snowed enough on Tuesday that it stuck to the ground for a while! BUT by Friday the weather was WONDERFUL! We were out and about without our jackets! The girls spent the night at Grandma Leslie's Thursday night and I met them at the park Friday to pick them up. They had a blast playing on the toys and a small hill there. It was so nice to let them loose to run around. Jay though... that boy makes me nervous sometimes! He refused to use the stairs and kept climbing up the arched ladder thing. Gah! He even almost fell a few times! Had Crystal not been there to yell for me I don't know that he would have been able to hold on at one point! He sure loves the toys, but I wish he wouldn't try doing everything he watches the girls do!
(PS. I actually had a sun burn Friday night! Time to pull out the sunscreen!)

READING MARATHON

Crystal has been participating in a reading contest through her school for the past 2 months. It is coming to an end on Wednesday, but we have been slacking a bit for the past ... well... month. Lol. By slacking I mean she's been just reading her regular 20 minutes a day and nothing extra. Since she's only in kindergarten, time I spend reading to her counts as well. So this weekend we started a reading marathon. We put the tent up in the living room, put bean bags and pillows and stuff in it, made popcorn, pulled the treat basket out (which was a bad idea with Jay around. He was STUFFING his face with any candy he could get the wrapper off of. lol. We had to put it up after a while so he didn't get sick!), and started to read. She'd read several of her books to me and I would read a chapter book to her. The tent is still up in her room so we can continue our marathon for the next couple of days to see how much we can get in the last minute. haha. She's only 6 and I'm already teaching her how to perfect the skill of procrastination. Yikes! 

GROWING UP

Crystal is growing up so fast. MAKE IT SLOW DOWN SOMEONE PLEASE!!!! I feel like my head is spinning! She got her spring pictures done, and we broke down and bought some since she actually smiled for the camera this time. ;-) 

Then not 2 weeks later while I was at Time Out For Women, I get a text with a picture of my little girl without one of her top teeth! Her two front bottom teeth have already fallen out and adult ones have grown in. Now its time for the top two teeth! Both of them have been loose for a while, and one of them finally fell out! I'd say the second one will be out in the next day or two. It's getting pretty loose as well! The tooth fairy is going to be poor if they keep falling out like this!!!