First Day at Preschool

This morning was Blake's first day at his new preschool.  No more home daycare.   It was a little bittersweet.  It makes me realize how quickly he's growing up - he just can't be old enough for preschool!  But it's a much better situation having him go to school with Dylan now.  Dylan was very excited that Blake would be going to the same school as him & that they would get to see each other at "outside time". 

I promise, they were excited....contrary to what this picture looks like.  It didn't help that right before I took the pic I had to slather a thick coat of sunscreen on them both which they both absolutely detest. 

When we got to school we dropped off Blake in his new class first.  He started crying and getting really upset.  I was prepared for that.  As much as it hurts, I knew it was coming.  What I didn't see coming was Dylan getting so upset about Blake being upset.  He was almost in tears worrying about his baby brother when I dropped him off in his classroom.  I promised him that Blake would be ok and that he'd get to see him outside.  He told me he was going to "play with him and make him happy & laugh" and be a "good big brother". 

I love these two!!

Weekend Rewind

For not having a whole lot on the schedule, this weekend sure flew by and seemed busier than ever.

A little Taco Bell "oh yeah!"  from Dylan - his favorite place to eat!

Blake loved it too.

My Saturday morning helper!  He followed me everywhere cleaning!

We went to a jungle animal birthday party that was loads of fun.  All the kids got to pick out which animal they wanted face painted and Dylan chose the panda bear....

Following this picture he immediately decided he wanted it off.  You can almost see the tears in his eyes here!  He didn't like the black eyes & mouth and thought he was going to turn into a monster.  So we quickly washed it off and it was no biggie.  Several other kids did the same thing and some wouldn't get their face painted at all...so bravo for trying it D!

Blake trying the jungle rock wall.

After the party we headed to McD's to play & eat some dinner.  Dylan ran into a friend from school there and we ended up staying about an hour longer than originally planned!  But they had a good time.

Haha! Blake at McD's.

My craft project of the weekend.  Blake is starting school with Dylan on Monday and he needs his own bag to take all his stuff in. 

After heading for a long day at the park riding bikes & playing with a friend from school we came back home & Blake wanted to play some t-ball. 

Dylan just needed to cool off with a popsicle.  It was a hot day!

 

Mommyhood

I love days like this.  I was in a frantic rush (as usual) in the morning to drop Dylan off at school and quickly get Blake to his daycare before speeding off to work.  As I am dropping off Dylan I always help him open up the food I've packed for him for breakfast.  I bent down to help him open everything up and he goes "No, Mommy...stand up!  Show everyone how pretty you are today!" Awwwwww....melted my heart. 

I continued to help him open up his food and he was especially excited about a particular bag of Spiderman fruit snacks I packed for him.  He turns to me and says "Mommy, you're the best!" and gave me kiss.  Just when I think this must be the best morning drop off ever...Blake quickly realizes he's not receiving any attention and throws his sippy cup at me as hard as he can and hits me straight in the ear.  Ear!  Then both boys proceed to crack up.  My head is still ringing.... 

Happy Birthday, Old Man!

I can't believe it has been nine years!  Rosco, you are still a puppy at heart, always ready to play and are great with the boys...which is why we love you so.

 

Happy 1st Birthday Blake!

I'm a little late in posting this (Blake's birthday was last week) but things have been a little busy around here lately.  My baby turned ONE (I can't believe it 's been a year already!) 

Before headed to daycare. He knew he was a stud ;)

We had his party with family over the weekend and Dylan decided on the theme.  It was a Very Hungry Caterpillar birthday. It's Blake's favorite book and when he gets it out, he insists on you reading it to him at least 5 times.  We kept it pretty simple and just did a few decorations.  But I think it turned out pretty cute!

 

 

Who's ready to eat??!?

 

 Enjoying all the Hungry Caterpillar's fruit! This turned out to be a very fitting theme for Blake...he is our own Very Hungry Caterpillar...he eats, and eats, and eats!

 

About to open some presents!

 

Let me get some of that cake!

 

Waiting...sort of patiently....

 

 

He wasted no time at all.  I missed the "money shot"...he picked up the entire piece of cake with one hand and shoved it in his mouth.  Then part of the cake fell to his tray and this is the picture I got.

 

No matter....I think he got it all!

 

Happy Birthday, Blake!

Happy Valentine's Day!

I won't even begin to start to tell you just how late I was up last night finishing all of the Valentine's goodies for Dylan to take to school today.  Apparently, I grossly underestimated just how long all of it would take. 

Dylan decided he wanted the super hero tootsie pops again this year.  I remembered that they were an easy task so I guess I thought they would just take me about 30 minutes to crank out 30 of them.

Wrong!! But they are very cute & Dylan was excited to hand them out to his friends at school.

Then I had this wonderful plan of making some gorgeous brownies with beautiful candy coating on top and sprinkles to give to the teachers.  It would be this beautiful gift....they would praise me and ask how I did such a great job.  As though I was "super mom"....

Then THIS happened.  NOT what I was picturing at ALL!!

So those ugly brownies went into an even uglier tupperware dish for us to eat later (despite the ugliness...they still tasted good!) and I had to rack my brain on something I could do last minute to give to the teachers.  I remembered how I made a candy coated popcorn mix for Easter last year that was delicious.  I checked my supplies and I actually had some red candy coating that had been leftover from something before. So I popped a couple bags of popcorn, drizzled the candy coating & poured on some sprinkles.  Threw it all in some ziploc bags and put them in the same cute goody bags I made for the kids at school.

(Much more attractive!)

When all was said & done, this momma was beat! But I was still able to get the boys up and going and excited for the day. 

(You see it, right?  You see their excitement, don't you?)

That's better! 

It was a lot of work, but the boys looked adorable & they had cute goody bags & valentines that they were so excited to hand out. So it was worth it! 

Easy (Non-Candy) Valentine Goody Bags

Dylan's school is having a Valentine's Party tomorrow.  We were the first to sign up for what item to bring and of course Dylan chose goody bags.  I figured that since Valentine's Day is a pretty "candy-centered" holiday that the kids really didn't need a goody bag filled with even more candy.  They were all exchanging Valentine's during the party which would pretty much guarantee an abundance of the sweet stuff.  So I decided that we would take a different route with the goody bags.

I started out with just plain old brown paper lunch sacks & cut them in half with pinking shears.  Punched a whole in the top & threaded some red ribbon for a handle.  Then I cut out a heart from glitter paper & attached it to the front of the bag.  Not too shabby for last minute, huh?

I went to Target to round up some fun stuff to put in the bags.  I found some really cute assorted foam stickers that came in a huge tub, tattoos (pirate for the boys, hearts for the girls) & bouncy balls.  I found some Valentine themed Disney coloring pages online & printed them out, rolled them up and tied them together.  I also included some crayons to color the pages with.

A pretty good little assortment!  The best part was that Dylan helped me put all the "goodies in the goody bag".  He kept saying "Wow, we've got lots of work to do! I love working!"

After all 28 were finished....it DID feel like work!