Family Teaparty

Last week Aly was totally begging for a teaparty with her friends. Of course with me being so informal, I don't have any teapots or teacups. One of Aly's friends gave a great teaparty birthday party and gave me the grand idea of going to thrift stores to collect various teapots and teacups. So that is exactly what I did. While I don't quite have enough yet for 4 or 5 of her friends to come over, I had enough for a family teaparty.

Of course all day Sunday Aly is begging to have a teaparty. We tell her we will after dinner. While I am doing the dishes she grabs one of the teacups, plays with it and breaks it. Oh well, it only cost 50 cents. Now we are down to 3 though so I definately need to get on the ball to find more.

Pizza making

Saturday I decided to let the girls have a try at making their own pizzas. Boy was I amazed at how easy it was to let them do it all by themselves. I was even more surprised that a two year old would be able to do it and follow the directions. I bought Boboli pizza bread, squeazable pizza sauce, already shredded cheese, pepperoni, and olives. They had a blast!











The funny thing is just three months ago when I took the girls to Round Table Pizza for a tour and to make their own pizzas, KK didn't like touching the cheese and made me to it. This time she had a blast and touched everything herself! I was so happy.












Their pizzas turned out so good. Did you know that Aly made hers a pizza face? Look below at the pizza on the right. She used pepperoni for hair and the olives were the eyes, nose, and mouth. She came up with that idea all by herself!

Friday Night Bowling

Friday night I decided to take Aly bowling since she has been asking for the past few weeks. She decided instead of having an Aly Mommy night out she wanted to have a family night out, so we all went. Let me just say that technology can really hurt a girls game! Do you know that they have computers now that will put up the bumpers for the kids and take them down for the adults? Yeah, and guess what that menat for me? No bumpers and a bad score. In the beginning of the night I couldn't find a light ball. The first 3 frames were horrible for me. I finally went and asked for an 8 pound ball and that was when my game got a bit better.














Daddy showed Aly how to hold her ball correctly. Do you know what is cool about the little 4 poound balls? The have four finger holes at the top and a thumb hole so the little kids can use their whole hand to bowl. Aly enjoyed bowling for the first five frames.
















KK enjoyed bowling as well. She was pretty funny to watch. She just wanted to grab that ball and throw it right away before she even reached the lane. So we made her wait until we got to the lane to hand it to her and she threw it. Unfortunately she didn't have enough power and the ball didn't make it all the way to the end. So for the rest of her game she got to use a little metal ramp to launch the ball from.

KK's toilet training

Well today I thought I would try a new approach suggested by KK's occupational therapist. He suggested that I put a pair of underwear on her and then a diaper over the underwear. That way she feels the wetness right away and my carpet is not getting peed on. I also have to put her in a onsie. For those of you that don't know, if KK isn't in a onsie she will pull off her pants and diaper and pee or poop right on the floor. So until she is potty trained she will be wearing onsies.

Well, this morning I was able to get her to go pee on the toilet. We did the potty dance and she got 5 skittles. Later after attempting to get her to go again, she refused so I put the underwear and diaper back on. Within 5 minutes she peed in her underwear and to my surprise didn't ask me to change her and didn't try to take them off. I was shocked. She didn't seam to care and walked around in them for a good 20 minutes until I changed her on my own.

So the rest of the day I didn't put any underwear on her. While I was on the phone with my step-mom around 8 she started to try and take her onsie off. I took this as a cue and brought her to the bathroom. To my surprise she peed in the toilet. I was soo happy. This is the first time she has ever gone twice in a day. We did the potty dance and she got 5 skittles. Hopefully this will give her some motivation to go in the future!

Aly makes me soo proud

While I was up on the computer yesterday Aly was downstairs coloring. She colored me this picture of a cat and wrote our cat's name on it. Our cat's name is Shadow and if you see at the bottom of the picture she wrote: SADOW. I think that is pretty amazing for a four year old. We have never told her how to spell Shadows name. She told me she sounded it out. The next picture she drew of a sun and she spelled that all by herself as well. I am soo proud of her. She amazes me every day!

Earlier today I told her that tomorrow was sharing at preschool and she needed to bring something that starts with the letter B. Immediately she decided to bring her bunny. She said to me, "Mommy, I am going to bring my bunny, BBBB, starts with bunny!"

The Diet Competition

KK's occupational therapist told me he was having a weight loss competition with his wife. After hearing this I thought it would be a good idea for hubby and I to do the same thing. So I asked hubby and he agreed. We both thought it would be a great motivation.

My target weight loss is 6 pounds which will bring me back to my normal comfortable weight. My clothes are getting tight and I am starting to feel gross about the extra 6 pounds of fat I have accumulated.

Hubby's target weight loss is around 8 pounds so we aren't far from each other.

Last night we went to Alyssa's ice cream social. My secret to staying away from sugar--wear tight pants that you feel overweight in and it will help you to not give in to the temptation. Hubby must not have had tight pants on because he had an ice cream Sunday and two cookies. (I had two small bites of his second cookie but that was all I had)

So I began teasing him that he was putting me in the lead to win. This is really debatable though because he plays volleyball two nights a week and he said he will probably go running on his lunch breaks. Me, being a full time stay at home mom, gives me no opportunity for any of that. Yesterday, I was lucky enough to manage 30 minutes on the exercise bike. Most of the time I try within ten minutes KK is trying to climb all over the bike, which makes me have to stop for her safety. So, we will see how the rest of the week goes and if my little KK gives me the opportunity to exercise on the bike.

Wish me luck!!! What is your prediction, who will win on Sunday's weigh in?

KK's turtle costume

KK's halloween costume finally arrived in the mail yesterday. She chose to be a turtle and luckily she still fits in infant clothing because the costume we wanted for her only goes to size 18-24 months. We picked her squirt from the Finding Nemo movie. We thought it would be fun since Aly is going to be a frog for Halloween. If we are lucky enough to get their pictures together I will definately be wanting to frame that one!

Aly's preschool friend

Sunday night we had Aly's favorite preschool friend Maya and her family up for dinner. Maya and Aly are born only 8 days apart and they seam to have the same shy personality at school and a more reserved personality as well. They get along great.

Before Maya came over I talked to Aly about taking turns playing what Maya wanted to play and what she wanted to play. I told her Maya's favorite things were dinosaurs and the dollhouse. Aly did a really good job and when Maya came over the first thing she did was ask her if she wanted to play with dinosaurs or play with her dollhouse. After awhile, they played dress up as you can see in the picture below. The funny thing is, Aly doesn't really ever play dress up. Her and Maya look so cute!

Diaperhead family fun!

Daddy has quite a strange sense of humor but the kids really enjoy it. The other night they all grabbed diapers and put them on their heads. They thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I was lucky enough to be behind the camera!

Aly's first hammer experience

I was so excited to see Aly take an interest in hammering nails. She naturally used one hand too until she got tired. I couldn't wait to tell Daddy. Hopefully this will lead to some quality Daddy, Aly time hammering some nails on the weekend.

The last picture I just had to show. It was one of the first days Aly has ever played with a large group of girls from preschool. The played chase and follow the leader. When they were tired they all sat down at the picnic table and I was able to get a picture of them all together.

KK's first Ponytail

Unfortunately this was a week ago and I just haven't had time to upload pictures and blog. So hopefully today I will get caught up on some blogging.

In an attempt to see if KK's short hair would fit up into a pony tail, I skillfully tried to put up as much hair that would fit. As you can see she really doesn't have enough hair and within minutes she pulled it out anyway. She took some cute pictures though. The last pictures shows what happens when I try and take a picture of both of them together. It is impossible! KK always runs away! So my darling daughters, if you ever wonder why you didn't have many pics together when KK was small, this is why!

Dreaming

I had a dream about my Dad last night. Anytime I am lucky enough to dream about my Dad I am so happy. If I get woken up in the middle of the dream I try so hard to go back to sleep and return to the same dream. Last night I dreamed that we were together in the 66 Chevy II Nova that he let me drive the first year I was licensed. I dreamed that we were going to Round Table Pizza together on a Friday night to get our pepperoni pizza that we ordered many Friday nights.

When I Dad first passed away I dreamed of him almost every night for the first three months. After that it decreased to weekly. They say when you are dreaming of a loved one that passed that they are visiting you in your dreams. I like to think that and it helps me to feel closer to him.

Aly's drawings and her schoolwork

I just had to scan in the picture Aly drew of herself holding a balloon. Isn't it cute? I love how she put toes on her feet and made her hair. I also thought it would be fun to show some of the worksheets she has been doing lately. If you click on the pictures you can see it bigger. Look how she writes her name. Also on the bottom right picture she spelled the first three words on her own. She is so motivated to do school work. She sits at the table for hours on end asking for more school work to do and asking me to tell her the directions. I am such a proud Mommy!

A Childhood Memory

My brother sent me some pics today of one of our favorite places to go when we were children. Our grandparents own a small parcel in Long Beach, WA and would let us visit there as often as we would like. One of our favorite things to do was to scour the beach and find sand dollars. As you can see on the picture on the right there are a bunch of sand dollars that we collected the last time we were there as children nearly 20 years ago. That was the last time I ever went. My brother has been there numorous times since because he still lives in WA. I am hoping next summer to take a trip to WA and it would mean a lot to me to be able to go back and stay a night or two here.

Finally KK strikes a pose!

I finally was able to capture a few photos of KK. She even said smile and posed. Here are her posed shots:

Aly the Alien

Yesterday Daddy let Aly have some new washable markers to color with. When she was doing coloring in her coloring books, she decided to color on herself. This isn't the first time she has colored herself. Last time she did the exact same thing and colored her face. We took the markers away but I guess it didn't make an impression.

When Daddy asked Aly why she colored on herself she said she was pretending she was an alien. When Daddy asked her why she used green she said, "Because aliens are green Daddy."

Let's hope KK doesn't start to get any ideas from this! Good thing the markers are washable. Our nightime bath and some extra soap took care of it all!

Aly likes to look pretty

Well Aly had her second day of school. I asked her if she wanted to wear capri pants, shorts, or a dress and she choose her favorite frog dress. I put her hair up in a pony tail so she could look

pretty. Lately she has been more interested in her looks and has wanted to dress nice so she can look pretty. Yes, Daddy, our little girl is growing up and very much wants to be a girlie girl, at least for the moment. Don't worry though, she loves the outdoors and getting dirty so we might just get the best of both worlds.

I try to take pictures of little KK but she does not like the camera. She looks away and runs off. Whenever I do get a good picture it usually took me like 20 tries.

Strawberry Shortcake, Frogs, and Pigs

KK has recently really gotten into Strawberry Shortcake. All because a friend gave us a hand me down VHS and gave Aly two Strawberry Shortcake dolls for her birthday. Since KK has been so into it, I found some Strawberry Shortcake socks at Sears on sale for a dollar so I bought her a package of two. When we got home she really wanted to wear them. The funny part is she wanted to wear both pairs at the same time. I tried taking one pair off before bed and she cried because she wanted both pair on. So I left them on. The next morning I wanted to take them off and give her a clean pair of socks. She was upset so I compromised to letting her wear one pair. That day I found a Strawberry Shortcake pillow case on clearance for $3 so I bought her and Aly each one. They have been carrying their pillows all around the house. You know what will be on our Christmas list in this house.

Aly's current favorite things are pigs and frogs. The frogs she has loved since she was two but the pig thing is recent. It is really cute though. She carries her pig stuffed animal with her everywhere. I will have to take a picture of the two of them and post it. She has plenty of frog stuff. Anytime we see a shirt with a frog on it we buy it. I guess now we will have to do the same thing with pigs. Although, I think it is pretty hard to find pig shirts. It will be cute to see how long the pig thing lasts.

So guess how lucky I was tonight? For the first time ever I had both girls in bed by 8:45. Yeah, I finally get some Mommy time. Hubby is playing volleyball so I get time all alone. So weird but so needed!

Aly's first day of school

Today Aly started her second year of preschool with Mrs. Gilinda. Last year she was in the 3 year old class and this year she is in the 4 year old class. Doesn't she look so cute in her new dress? She even let me put her hair in pigtails and left them in until we came home after preschool.















I stayed the first half hour of preschool and was able to take a few photos. Here she is on the left playing with playdoh. On the right she is playing at the art easle.



When I picked her up she seamed very sad. I don't know if she was tired or just overwhelmed. Her preschool class changed from 20 students last year to 25 students this year and she had 8 new students in her class. She was very happy that she got to see her friend Maya though. The first thing she asked me was if we could have Maya over for a playdate.



What was even funnier was when I asked her how her day went. She told me that Isaac threw sand in her eyes and that he pushed another student down so they sent him home. (Lately we have been telling Aly that if she bit another student at preschool or did something really bad they would send her home). I wasn't sure whether to believe Aly or not because last May Isaac threw sand in her eyes. I asked her an hour later if she was tricking me and she told me she was. Isaac didn't do anything to anyone today and some new boy was being naughty.

I think Aly is happy to be back at preschool. She loves her teacher and was excited that this year she gets to spend three days a week with her.