Sunday, August 25, 2013

birthday bear

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated Jake's second birthday with a low key party at home. We invited a couple of friends, the Bowmans and the Bentons, over for dinner and dessert and just let the kiddos play.

 
Earlier in the day, Jake received this digger in the mail from Grandma and Grandpa.  It happens to be from the same set as the bulldozer Charlotte and Toby picked out for him, so he has been having a lot of fun with the two of them together.  (He even tried to sleep with them in his bed the first few nights.)

 
I tried to keep the menu simple and in line with Jake's favorite things, so we had BBQ chicken, sweet potatoes, steamed broccoli, grapes, and raspberry lemonade.  And there were chips and snacky things too, of course.  Since diggers and dirt are Jake's favorite things right now, I made a "dirt cake" for the kids' dessert and a "mud pie" for the adults' dessert. 

 
Mmmm...  crushed Oreos, pudding, Cool Whip and gummy worms.  :P
The adult version was a pudding deesert as well, but with a pecan crust and cream cheese and no Oreos.  :)

 
It was a rainy day out, so we had the kids all roll this ice cream ball around the living room to make a quart of ice cream as well.  It was our first time using it, and the ice cream was pretty good, considering it was made by little kids playing for 30 minutes.  We tried it again another night since then, and the ice cream came out much firmer with Rob and I rolling and shaking the ball around.
 
 
Jake received such perfect gifts from his friends!  A piggy bank (which he had been just recently asking for- since both Charlotte and Toby have ones.) And a punching balloon, which was a stroke of genius!  All three of our kids have loved playing with that.

 
His own soccer ball and cones! 
He knew immediately what these were, as again he has had the little brother torture of having to watch Charlotte and Toby play on teams, while he is still too young to join in.  And a fun sprinkler, which we will for sure be making use of in our new backyard (which is large and grassy but boring.)

 
We just adore Jacob. 
He is so loving and cuddly.  He watches everything that we do, and tries his best to be "big" and keep up.  He is another chatterbox in this already talkative household.  He worries when someone cries, but would rather sit in time out than say "I'm sorry" when he has done something wrong.  He loves music and drawing as well as dirt and diggers.  He is easygoing and kind to other children and animals.  He eats everything.  (Which is perhaps why he was 37 inches tall (98th%) and 32 pounds (90th%) at his 2 year old check-up.)
 
Happy second birthday Little Bear!

Saturday, August 24, 2013

A busy week (or two) of milestones

After we came home from PA and NY, we had just two weeks before the start of school here and many things to do.
 

First on my list was a haircut for our big Jakey boy.  He made it nearly 2 years without one, but it was time.  He started to cry as soon as the stylist started cutting, but she popped a lollipop in his mouth and the rest of the haircut went very smoothly.
 

 
Here is Jake with his new big brother haircut.  This was also Charlotte's first day of first grade as we headed out to wait for the bus. 
 
Charlotte is so low maintenance and I LOVE it.  (I am sure this will change at some point, so I will enjoy it while it lasts.)  She insisted her lunchbox and backpack from last year were still good, and although we did buy some new clothes and shoes, she chose to wear an older favorite outfit for the first day.
 
Now that we are already a few weeks into school, I have 2 favorite things about Charlotte's teacher.  The first is that she not only indicates negative behavior (moving from green to yellow, to red) but also positive behavior (as kids can move up each day to blue, purple, and then pink.)  This system REALLY works well for Charlotte, and she is thrilled when she works her way up to pink.  My second favorite thing is that she sends home a homework packet each Wednesday that is due the following Tuesday.  This gives us the flexibility to work on homework when we are in the mood and to not have to work on evenings that are already busy with other activities.  So nice.
 

 
Toby also had a big milestone this month as he began Pre-K.
I really struggled with the decision to send Toby to Pre-K and even more so with finding the right program- for both of us- but he wanted so badly to start school this year, that I had to figure it out. 
 
I visited FIVE preschools in the week before school started.  I ruled out the first four because of: location, cost, class size, uniform requirement, curriculum I didn't care for, too long of a school day... but mainly because of the feeling I had while there.  (Toby's only request was that the school have a good playground.)
 
Our last visit was to the Mother's Day Out/ Prechool at a local Methodist church.  I loved the small classes (Toby's has 8 kids with 2 teachers,) the 3 day/week option, the warmth of everyone I spoke with, the bright rooms and well maintained (but simple) toys, the weekly music class, and even the leaning of the curriculum to include messages from the Bible. (Toby's favorite lesson so far was for the letter A and was about putting on the Armor of God - Ephesians 6.)
 
I am so glad that Charlotte and Toby are both happy in their respective schools.  It also gives Jake and I a bit of time to spend together running errands and doing things that Jake likes to do... at least until baby sister comes along!