Play-doh differences

The difference between boys and girls is so clear!

Snowy day

We start getting a little craz..er, creative cooped up inside on a winter day. This morning, the kids had fun dressing up in Charlton's sweat shirts.

"You are my sunshine" by Caroline

This has been a favorite song in our house lately. Rylan loves to make up his own version, substituting words like sock, sandwich, etc.. in place of sunshine. I even taped him singing one with Mommy in place of sunshine. It melted my heart and was super cute, but I can't get it uploaded from my phone to Youtube yet. Here is a little sampling of Caroline singing at breakfast.

A few cute things.

We took Bethany lunch at work today. The kids were so excited to see her at the hospital, play with her stethoscope and badge, and roam around the ICU lounge.

When we left, Rylan exclaimed, "That was fun!"

"Yes," I replied "that was a special treat."

"No," Rylan corrected me, "Treats are chocolate."

Caroline is crazy about biscotti. Cranberry, chocolate chip, almond biscotti. Both she and her mom have been rather addicted this winter.

Lately I noticed she was eating it in a new way, almost like a beaver eating around a tree or corn on the cob. I teased her about eating it like a squirrel, and she told me she was trying to eat all the "booowies", the cranberries. And I thought she liked the chocolate best! What 2-year old likes craisins that much?

Valentines Breakfast

This post is a little late, but here are some cute pics of our Valentine breakfast. We made heart-shaped pancakes with one of our favorite toppings, sprinkles!
Heart with bite marks. Yummm!
Even Batman can appreciate some heart-shaped pancakes.

We tried going to the park, but it was too cold and windy, so we opted for some play time at the mall playground instead. After naps, the kids opened their Valentine's presents, a stuffed Bullseye horse for Caroline, an IronMan action figure for Rylan.

It was a blessing to spend the day with the ones I love the most.

While I was cooking dinner....

the kids were upstairs playing and I heard a lot of banging and crashing going on, but thought it was coming from Rylan's room. I figured they could only do so much damage and then we would all clean it up when dinner was over.
Then Caroline came downstairs with something sticky and pink all over her shirt and I knew she hadn't been in her brother's room.
She had been quite busy in the bathroom....




Yes, that is toothpaste all over the toilet seat.

The linen print dress re-make

When I was younger, I had a favorite dress from Land's End. It was loose and comfortable and I loved the sweet spring time print on the linen fabric. It wasn't terribly stylish to begin with, but since I wasn't a fashion diva, that wasn't a problem for many years. Finally I parted with the dress, but couldn't bear to just give it away to Goodwill or someplace random, so I passed it along to a good friend I knew would wear and enjoy it.
Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Caroline and I ducked into the Salvation Army store before a Little Gym class and I spied THE dress! I am so sentimental, especially about certain clothes, so I just couldn't pass it up. I didn't know exactly what to do with it at the time, but knew I could figure out some way to use all that nice fabric with a little girl in the house. At only $3, it was also a steal!
I copied a jumper dress already in Caroline's closet and it turned out so cute. I think I will buy a pattern next time, because there were a few anxious moments with cutting all the pieces symmetrical. Thankfully you can fudge over some little mistakes with sewing.

Here is the finished dress.
I wanted to preserve the pintucks near the hemline.


Aren't these buttons adorable? I didn't find out until after I pulled them off the package that they are dry-clean only! On a dress for a 2-year old? Ooops. I think these will be going in the wash, very gently and if they don't last, I'll just replace them. Caroline was more excited about some ladybug buttons than these anyway.

I had enough fabric left over to make a matching tote lined with some coordinating left-over quilt fabric. Caroline was excited about her "petty purse."
I will try to get a picture of my little sweetie actually wearing the dress, and maybe with the tote also. We have been having some warmer weather here in Colorado, so hopefully we will have a chance to try it on soon.

Dreaming of spring

Mommy is having such a wonderful time being "just" a mommy now that she doesn't have to work so much. Her sewing machine has been humming and here is one of Caroline's new dresses. There are actually tiny hearts in the pattern, so we are wearing it in honor of upcoming Valentine's Day. The dress is actually reversible and has a pink and white print on the other side.

The Colorado spring look! In June, we will be able to wear it as a sundress.
The tractor makes a great prop for our spring dress.

Painting

Caroline's first attempt at painting with watercolors. She seemed to really enjoy it and had a much longer attention span for it than her brother, who whipped out a painting and was done in 2 minutes flat! That's the reason for no pictures of artist Rylan.

Not a big fan of paint on the hands. We did painted handprints for our Valentine cards and Caroline was distraught. "Take it off, Mom!" she kept yelling over and over again! She did let me finish the art project and we managed enough cards for all our closest family.

Braids!

I am trying to let Caroline's hair grow out. She is getting more cooperative with letting me fix it, but it is at such an awkward length right now. Long enough to get tangly and look messy, but too short to stay in a ponytail for long.
We tried two little braids a couple days ago.



I thought she looked adorable, but way too grown up! She looks like she should be starting preschool with Rylan.

We still have several months of winter left, but our winter clothes are looking worn and tired. Plus Caroline is starting to grow out of some of them. My solution? Pull out some summer dresses, put a long-sleeve shirt underneath, and add some leggings. Voila! We have a fresh "new" outfit that looks a little more like spring.

Thank you for our cards, Grammy!

The kids loved opening their fun and sparkly Valentines Cards from Grammy.

Will you be our Valentines?

Cold snowy days + a holiday coming up= a good excuse to bake cookies.

Rylan making a heart-shaped face.

Monkey see, monkey do. Caroline actually came up with this charming trick and Rylan copied her.

"Pinkles" are so much fun. Caroline ate all her vegetables in record time tonight so she could get one of these for dessert.
My little helper, garnished with some flour.

Speaking of cold, it has been unbelievably cold here in Colorado. Last night, the thermometer read -20 degrees. Now, that is frigid. Rylan and I set out bowls of water yesterday (where the daytime high never climbed above zero) to see how fast they froze. It took about 1 1/2 hours for a cereal bowl full to freeze solid. We had fun playing with the big ice cubes. Yesterday I also decided to clean the dried snot off Rylan's car window while the car was warming up in the garage. (Yes, my son still finds it more convenient sometimes to use the window rather than ask for a kleenex. Sigh...) The windex froze to the glass before I could wipe it off!

Today while we were staving off the cabin fever with a trip to Focus on the Family, Caroline had a huge poopy diaper. I needed to use the baby wipes stashed in the car, but they were a frozen brick. Since I had also forgotten my diaper bag at home and was too embarrassed to beg a diaper off some sweet mom at Focus, we had to run to the grocery for diapers and non-frozen wipes.

Tomorrow is supposed to be 35. That will feel like a heat wave, so we will be tackling grocery shopping and maybe the library if I feel really energetic. I definitely won't be forgetting my diaper bag this time, just in case,