In Collin's Words

Batman has a belt, and Aquaman has a belt. But Superman doesn't have a belt, he knows how to hold his pants up!

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Collin: Lets play "Manger Scene". I can be Baby Jesus, you can be Mary, and pig (a stuffed animal) can be Joseph.

Me: what about Grace? Can she be a shepherd or a wise man?

Collin: No, she can be the donkey. You need to sit on her because you are Mary! Sit on her mommy!

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After several attempts to delay bedtime...

Me: Collin you need to go straight to your room and go to bed

Collin: actually straight is to Grace's room. My room is straight then turn, see?

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And lastly a picture of my sweet silly boy with his Avengers bow & arrow he made with daddy. (I don't think any of the avengers actually use a bow and arrow, but he sure thinks so!)

Baby Einstein

Proud bragging mommy moment alert! Yesterday while driving home from our week long Thanksgiving trip grace was holding her baby in the backseat & eating a graham cracker. I heard her say "mmmmmm baby cracker" then looked around and she was feeding her baby a cracker...she said a 3-word phrase!! I was so proud I took a picture :)

And because no post is complete without my handsome big boy, here he is figuring out how to use the sand scooper at the park - these kids are smart :)

Thanksgiving Party

We are just going to ignore the fact that it had been MONTHS since my last post. much happened during those months...some wonderful, some sad, and some even sadder, but that will be a longer post for another day. For now, a picture post from my phone will have to suffice :)

Friday we had the most adorable Thanksgiving Feast at school! Collin & Grace dressed as Indians and Daddy even got to join us :)

I hope everyone has a fabulous Thanksgiving!

“Projects”

Lately I have been making an effort to actually do some of the things that I have “pinned” on Pinterest.  There are so many fun ideas that it can be overwhelming, but I have decided that I will pick 1 fun new activity a week + 1 new learning activity that goes along with what Collin’s teachers are doing at school.

Collin has been loving it & as soon as Gracie goes down for her morning nap he starts asking what “project” are we going to do :)

Each day we are home I pull out a special book that is only for “Project Time”.  It is basically a preschool workbook that has tracing activities in it along with letters.  Collin picks out a page, then we work on it together.  When he finishes he gets either a special sticker that is just for “Project Time” or an M&M :)

Next we pull out his special Spiderman notebook where we practice drawing the “letter of the week” from school…this week is “B”.  We have only been home 2 days this week, but he is already starting to be able to make somewhat recognizable “B’s”.

Then, depending on how much time we have I start our Pinterest Idea.  Here are a few of my favorites…

This was just plain painting, but he LOVES it :)

We made an American flag.  I drew lines on the paper & he cut out all of the red & white stripes himself!

Then we glued them on in a pattern.

Finally, the stars :)

We also made a land & sea picture (idea stolen from VBS) and used stickers & drawing to put animals where they live.

Collin’s favorite has been the vinegar & baking soda project where we made bright colored “volcanoes”

Counting out cereal pieces.

Grace enjoyed this one too!

This was one of my favorites…I drew Collin’s name on a piece of paper and gave him a Q-Tip and paint to make dots following the lines of the letters.  I did 1 to show him & he filled out the rest – mommy was so proud :)

 

This was an idea I got from their school, to pick a book and focus activities around the book.  Collin picked a book and we did everything they did in the book.  He picked “If You Give a Pig a Party”

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We built a fort out of blankets, decorated with balloons, and had a pillow fight.

Grace enjoyed the fort too :)

I’m not perfect, but I am trying to be more intentional with our home time.  And it is fun too :)

NASCAR Date Night–don’t judge

The one thing I thought I would never be able to say about myself was “I like NASCAR”.  The closest I ever came to participating in any type of NASCAR event was a NASCAR themed date party in college – basically a spoof on all of the stereotypes you hear about NASCAR fans.  It was lots of fun, but not exactly something that made me want to get into the actual races.

Ten years later…

Yes that’s me!  After a ride on a yellow school bus all I had learned about NASCAR was that many of the stereotypes we made fun of in college were actually based in reality.  Let me just say that it was interesting!  I was still skeptical at this point, but with free tickets and an awesome babysitter for the kiddos I was really looking forward to a NASCAR double-date with my hubby & our sweet friends!! 

My sweet friend Annie – her hubby hadn’t warned her about the other fans we would be seeing, and she actually didn’t know that it is basically a “redneck” thing.  I think she figured it out when a man with a heavily bandaged arm winked at her when she got on the bus…or maybe it was when pretty much everyone on the bus besides us was drinking…or maybe it was when several topless guys got on the bus behind us covered in sweat and in desperate need of shirts – sorry Annie!!

Inside the racetrack they have these cool headphones with video controllers that you can rent – they allow you hear what the drivers are saying, and give you different stats & views from inside the racecars.

I don’t think I will be buying season tickets anytime soon, but we had a great time & really got into the race!  Of course we were cheering for Tony Stewart (Office Depot driver), and even though he started the race dead-last he ended up winning the whole thing!I was surprise how much I enjoyed it – so fun!!  Hopefully we will be able to go to another race sometime :)

I like NASCAR :)

Family Beach Day

Today we took advantage of Son being home on a Saturday, and had a family beach day! 

Walking down the boardwalk to get across the dunes – we finally are down to only bringing 1 big bag, a few toys, chairs & towels!  Why do we need so much “stuff” for just a few hours??? 

I love this picture :)

Collin has become quite fearless – playing in the shallow waves – it is fun, but makes mommy nervous too!  Son was joking about me making Collin wear his life jacket in 6” of water…but it made me feel better, just in case he got too brave and took off before I could grab him :)

These are some tired babies after a fun day in the sun!  Grace NEVER messes with her hair/bow but for some reason today she was not happy with it.  We started out with two cute piggy tails, one disappeared before we even made it to the beach, and the other one didn’t last much longer…this is the mess of hair we were left with :)

Soccer

I am in LOVE with this little boy!!

Today was his first day of soccer – I cannot believe he is so big!  While he was practicing, Son & I both kept saying how it didn’t feel real that he was big enough to do this!

He is in a small program called “Soccer Shots” that is basically a weekly practice session for 8-weeks.  We thought it would be good to start small to see if he even liked it before we committed to an entire season of practices & games!

It’s only been 1 week, but he had a great time & is already talking about it at home :)  Collin is such a talker, that is how I can tell what he is really enjoying – it’s all based on how much he talks about a certain subject!

Anyways, the class is open to ages 3 – 6, so he was one of the youngest.  I admit I was a little skeptical about how he would do out there with the coach by himself, but we are very proud parents – he did awesome!  He listened to the coach & really caught on quickly to everything he was taught.  Anything could happen next week, but so-far-so-good!

My handsome boy is the smallest in his class :)

But that didn’t stop him from doing just as well or better than all of the “big” kids! 

Practicing the “airplane” – put one foot on the ball & hold out your arms.

Water Break!

Getting ready to score his first ever goal!!!  Proud mommy & daddy & sister cheered him on!

Sitting on the ball & waiting for instructions from the coach…at one point he was the only one still sitting & listening :)

The only hard part for him was near the end when they divided into teams & had a mini game…he got frustrated and came over to us.  Son said, “Collin you have to kick the ball into the goal”.  Collin’s reply, “They aren’t sharing, they won’t give me a turn!”  And an anonymous overly-competitive mommy replied, “You have to take it away from them!  Go kick it away from the other kids!!”  LOL – I was THAT mom today ;)

And because no post can be exclusively about one precious baby without at least a mention of the other…here’s the princess looking precious as ever playing mini-golf on Saturday!