Impressed

That about sums it up! :) All the girls in Madeline’s dance class are under 3. All the girls except 2 had been in it during the fall lessons. I was told in December by a friend that she was amazed what Mrs. Trish could do with the girls at this age and I have to say that after today I am pretty darn impressed. These girls are doing dance moves and they are all doing them together.

Madeline decided that she wanted to be tinkle bell today so she really stands out in the green.

Bike Rides

The weather is getting warmer which means we are outside. When we were outside last year we would hang in the drive way as the kids played in front of the house and go for walks where the kids would ride besides my friend and I. This year I kind of feel that it’s not enough. The kids need a open path to take off on. They love to peddle fast and fast they go. Now instead of the leisure walks I have taken up leisure bike rides. I have a great friend that I walk with and I’m really not sure how we are going to be able to walk when the kids need to just burn some energy, cut loose and ride. It amazes me how fast they are going and to just watch them ride makes me realize how fast they are growing up.

Rewards

Colgate had a really cool promotion going on where the kids could click on stars for items that they completed… brushing teeth, reading a book and washing their hands. This lasted 2 months. We put it in their bedtime routine at night and the kids loved it and have been looking forward to the reward at the end… a toothbrush. The promotion ended in December so I went to the store and got toothbrushes for them, boxed them up and waited until the postman came. Caleb has been running to the mailbox the last few days awaiting their toothbrushes so the kids are pretty excited to have finally received their package.

Highlights from our week

I thought I would try to start to do highlights from our weeks since there are so many moments that touch my heart.

Madeline went poo poo on the potty tonight. HUGE party here!!! We celebrated with suckers… Madeline’s choice. After all the dancing, praising and congrats she was pretty proud of herself. Hopefully she will remember how amazing it is to go on the potty.

I took the kids on a bike ride this week. I thought I would just walk it like I did last year but was presently surprised that I ended up walking, jogging and running the whole thing. Yesterday, I dusted off my bike and we all went for a ride. It made me think of all the times mom (janice) would take us for bike rides. It also made me realize that my kids are growing up. I look forward to biking as a family. Though I’m really not quite sure what I will do with my leisure walking. Humm…. Might have to go out in the evenings for that one.

At B&N this week, Caleb happened to come across the book, “How to Train a Dragon.” He really wanted to take it home and read it but I told him the same response I give him every time… we will check it out from the library the next time we are there. Today we went to the library and he asked for it. I didn’t write down the author so we had to ask a librarian about the author and she said there might be a wait since the movie just came out. As soon as we found it, Caleb grabbed it and said, “mom, we found it. We found it mom” as he jumped up and down. It was really cute. I love how the kids are really getting into books.

Colgate had a really cool promotion going on where the kids could click on stars for items that they completed… brushing teeth, reading a book and washing their hands. We put it in their bedtime routine at night and the kids loved it and have been looking forward to the reward at the end… a toothbrush. They are so excited to get them in the mail. Well, tonight was the final night of 8 weeks of clicking the stars. We made a huge deal out of it and were so excited to see what our winnings were to discover that the promotion ended in Dec 2009. Bummer… They will still be getting their toothbrushes in the mail as soon as I get them and throw them in the mailbox when the kids are not looking. The kids liked this so much that I need to find something that they can click and do.
http://www.colgate.com/app/HealthyHabits/US/EN/HomePage.wsp

We gave away our patio table today. A friend’s husband came and pick it up. The kids and I watched Eric and the husband take it to the truck through the window. Caleb was really upset that we were getting rid of it. I told him that we had not used it in years and it was just taking up space. He starting crying and said we used it when he was 3. I stop, thought for a moment and said on your birthday and he said yes. The memory of his 3rd birthday came to mind. We made Spiderman masks on it. Eric walked in and Caleb proceeded to tell him that he wanted the table and he last used it when he was 3. Eric replied… Caleb that was 2 years ago. He eventually got over it but what an attachment.

Free Table

Orchid Show

Hair bow holder

It just tickles me pink how cute this turned out. I got a really cute frame (the one in the picture) last summer but all I knew was that it would be great in Madleine’s room. This weekend I came across this idea so I re-painted it white and found a great ribbon that brings out all of Madeline colors in her room. It turned out so cute that I thought I would leave it just as it was but this morning I put her hair bows on it to see what it would look like. I just think it’s adorable!!!

Take 2 – Ciabatta Bread

I decided to go again with the bread. This time I made my 2 loafs completely different from each other. The first I followed the recipe to a T. The second I decided to have some fun with a few different spices and WOW… I DID IT. I created the taste I was looking for. I am so happy and pleased!

Princess, Tea and Make-up Party

We had such a wonderful girl party yesterday. We invited just a couple of Madeline’s friends over. Madeline was so excited to have them here to play, do make-up and have tea.

Pretty Princess

Madeline was fascinated with herself in the mirror.

The girls absolutely loved applying their eye shadow, blush and then we helped them with the lipstick. They were sure beautiful and so proud of themselves! If you look closely at the pictures you can see the darker eye shadow, in lines, across the girls faces. Way to cute right!?!?!?




We then had a Tea Party. They were able to (with help) pour their tea and milk into their cup and spoon some sugar into it. Maddie had like 8 cups of tea. They really enjoyed it. Before, between and after the girls ran around being girls, enjoying each other and us mama’s had a really nice time chatting.


As you can see Caleb is not in the pictures… he is at school. I wanted to do something special for Madeline since I have done some one on one dates with Caleb. It was so much fun and I can’t wait to do it again. It just blessed my heart to watch these girls.

Cravings… Ciabatta Bread

A dear friend of mine made this wonderful, delightful, heavenly bread and if anyone knew me before a young adult there were two things I couldn’t live without… chocolate ice cream and sour dough bread. These two things were eaten by me, devoured and simply didn’t last long in our house.

Back to my story… I just happened to be at her house after she had baked a loaf and ever since I ate a slice, it is what I have been thinking about non-stop. I have even been simply clicking on her blog just to look at it… yes I am abscessed with this bread and you can see a lovely picture of it here http://scottyandnatalie.blogspot.com/2010/02/conversation.html.

I decided to try my hand at it and this is what came from it (picture below). I found two recipes on the internet and intertwined a few things to come up with mine. It was pretty yummy. I’m looking forward to making some homemade sour dough bread but I just have to get this one right first.

Bowling

The kids went to a Bowling birthday party. It was their first time bowling and they really enjoyed it. I found it really interesting that both of them wanted the heaviest ball which I think was a 8 or 9 lb ball. I’m really surprised Maddie didn’t drop it on her toes. Caleb loved to throw and really got into the game. He even had a strike. Maddie need help pushing the ball and just wanted to roll the ball and didn’t care about the outcome. It was really cute to watch both of them. I have also discovered to not have pizza at any of Madeline party’s because it’s her favorite and she will sit there for over a hour cramming pizza into her tummy and not caring what is happening around her.