WINNER!!!

I have closed the comments on the giveaway. I visited random.org tonight and entered in 1-90 (there were 91 but one comment was from my cousin so that didn’t count, she can’t win her own headband). The lucky winner was commenter 57

 

therealnanann, on May 28th, 2009 at 10:45 pm Said:

Thanks for the giveaway!

My 3 year old only wears dresses and skirts, so I am naturally drawn to those. The one with the green & blue is great!

 

Congratulations!!!

You can visit her blog here at http://nanannwoogies.wordpress.com/

Thanks to everyone who commented/participated. This was lots of fun and I hope to participate again.

Out and About this Summer

Next week I am getting out of this house. I am going to be making playdates next week because… wait did I mention I’m getting out of the house. 🙂 Problem being I am not going to be able to throw money around the town for fun things to do. That won’t stop me.

Next week I already know we are going to Suson Park to meet the farm animals and then we are going to tackle the botanical gardens (I’m a member so it’ll be free to get in, we’ll just have to pay for the kids to get into the kids garden). Those two places will be FUN!!! I also have calls or e-mails into all the cousins. I decided not to sign my kids up for anything this summer (except horse riding lessons), we’re going to have fun doing other stuff.

JT and I also decided that we are going to go someplace local every couple of weekends this summer (or at least try to). We were excited to go to the Smokies but just coldn’t get a huge lump sum to go so instead we are going to take a couple day trips here and there. Much more afforadable.

Our first weekend of fun will be next weekend. We are taking the kids to see UP! Easy enough and fun, the kids will love it, they can’t wait to see Dug. A couple other excursions include:

• Meramec Caverns – L was curious about caves, what better way to learn about them
• Branson for one night – we’ll do Silver Dollar City
• Six Flags – JT does not want to go to here, but it’s inevitable
• Springfield, IL for one night – Lincoln overload, gotta love it
• A cardinals game – L has been bugging JT for a year to take her to a game
• Circus Flora – heard nothing but great things about this circus

I also want to go camping but JT isn’t a big fan of camping. I think it would be fun to do for one night, but we don’t even own a tent.

That’s quite a list, but we are excited to tackle it and very excited to show the kids all these things. So now that I have a list, I just need to set the reservations and game plan. I’m an over planner can you tell?

Other things we’ll have fun doing this summer:

• Swimming at my dad’s
• Playing in the sprinkler
• Having playdates
• Taking our bikes to the park
• Horse riding lessons with Nana

There are so many fun things to do in the summer, I can’t wait. Plus I am waiting to hear about a membership to our local pool so even though the kids aren’t signed up for a ton of lessons, they will still have a great summer.

Fashion Challenge Friday

Miss L has been busy, since school is now out I have decided that she can pick her outfits for the summer. Who cares!!! The only time I don’t give in, when we are going out for a special occasion. Otherwise.. let the clothes fly.

Here are a pair of shoes she’s been wearing around the house, they are a pair of Fancy Nancy shoes from Target

Here she is in her “hula” skirt (that’s what she calls it), a red shirt and her pink and blue polka-dot rain boots. At least the skirt and shirt match

Then today I let her pick out her own outfit and to inspire her I let her watch Ro and Ree’s flickr slideshow. She looked at me after watching the slideshow and said, “Can I dress like those girls?” I told her of course she could. This is what she came up with…

She chose a dress I found at Target (that I love), I was saving it for a special outing but she couldn’t wait to wear the dress. Then she paired it with a pair of orange leggings from Children’s Place. Not bad. I never would’ve put these two together, but it looks cute.

Of course she had to add an accessory later… Fancy Nancy paper glasses

There you go the best outfits from this week. Check out Do They Have Salsa in China for more Fashion Friday.

My Giveaway

(I’ve made this a sticky post, it will stay here until Sunday night) Keep looking it’s down there wanna a quicker way to find it here’s a link. You can comment until Sunday, May 31st at 9:00 pm CST. Thanks for stopping by.

Sunday was lovely

We went to my friend Heather’s house for a barbecue and had a great time. I kept meaning to blog about it, but life kind of got in the way. Here’s Heather’s post

They have a great driveway for playing

L loved Savannah's scooter, now she begs for one daily

Homemade ice cream time

 Here’s the recipe Heather found.

All the kids shaking their containers

 

After a while the Daddies took over.

Yummy desserts

We had a great time and the kids can’t stop talking about their new friends. Savannah and L were so cute sitting at the dining room table drawing and talking to each other, I wish I had gotten a picture of that. Can’t wait to get together again soon.

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

The Ugly

• Our dog tripped coming up the stairs last night and he ripped his toenail off. There was blood everywhere, the kitchen looked like a crime scene. Gross. JT took him to the vet and $117 later he came home with a severe ear infection.

The Bad

• It’s been a tough week so far… Monday the sewer backed up; Tuesday – there was a gas leak here and they turned off our gas; Wednesday – a plumber came and fixed the leak, gas man came and turned on the gas and then the dog issues.
• Still haven’t found anything for the kids to do this summer. One of the downfalls of living in the city we don’t have a lot of options, it’s the Y or nothing.

The Good

• We have gas in the house again
• Our dog is fine
• Today is a new day (I’m off to wrap the kids in bubble wrap, there will not be any accidents today)

May Giveaway Day is HERE!!!

Today is the day!!! Thanks for passing through.

Do you have a little girl? If the answer is yes than my giveaway is perfect for you. My cousin has an etsy store and she sells the CUTEST fabric headbands. The one I am giving away is made of yellow gingham with a purple and white polka dot flower. In the center of the flower is a huge white button. There are purple satin ribbons that measure 11″ long. The headband itself is 17″ long. Here’s a picture…

To enter to win the little girl headband please visit the etsy store LivvieLee and leave a comment telling me what your favorite item is in her store (mine are the skirts she makes, my daughter loves them and they are often featured here on my blog). I will randomly draw a winner on May 31st at 9:00 pm (CST) and post as soon as possible, please make sure you include an e-mail address/way I can get a hold of you. I will not be shipping internationally so sorry to any these wonderful women out there.

Visit Sew Mama Sew and check out all the hand made giveaways this week, like my cousin’s blog.

Summer vacation is officially here!!!

I love this list. It’s a list of the 100 things you must do before you enter kindergarten and since L will be a kindergartener next year I thought it would be fun to coss some stuff off this list. I found it on several different blogs and now can’t remember exactly where I pulled it, so sorry out there. This takes my mind off of what else is going on here in my house 🙂 The ones that we have done are in bold

1. Go to the zoo – living so close we have been so many times, too many to count and I am sure we will be back this summer

2. Visit a farm – want to visit Suson Park or Purina Farms this summer

3. Go on a hike – we did this on Mother’s Day and it was a ton of fun

4. Play with kittens or puppies

5. Catch a frog

6. Make a gigantic mess – are you kidding me? She does this everyday

7. Help clean up a gigantic mess – you’d better believe I’m not cleaning all of that up by myself

8. Master the monkey-bars

9. Swing high up into the sky all by themselves

10. Try ice-skating

11. Go sledding – we bought her her first sled this winter and she was able to use it a couple of times

12. Make a snow-man – we do this every time it snows

13. Blow bubbles- Yep it’s a favorite pasttime of ours

14. Plant seeds and watch them grow

15. Have a pillow fight

16. Jump on a big bed – I catch her and her brother jumping on my bed all the time

17. Jump on a trampoline or in a bounce house – we visit Monkey Joes frequently

18. Hang out in a tent – I told JT that I want to buy a tent and take the kids camping this summer, he looked at me like I have three eyes, we’ll see

19. Spend days at the beach – I dream of taking my kids to the beach someday

20. Build sandcastles – we’ve done this on the beach at the river and in our sandbox

21. Go fishing – last year while at the lake we went fishing off the dock, we never caught anything but L sure did have a good time.

22. Go out on a boat – my kids have been fortunate enough to be out on a boat a few times in their lives

23. Play with blocks and puzzles – of course, all the time

24. Read the classic picture books – yes

25. Read a classic chapter book – yep

26. Check out library books with their own library card – no we haven’t done this yet, didn’t know they could

27. Get a passport – no this probably won’t happen for a while

28. Carve a pumpkin – every October she attempts to carve her own pumpkin and every year she is more helpful when her Daddy takes over

29. Hold a newborn baby (to see how much they’ve grown) – yes she was able to hold our friends newborn baby

30. Love a special doll or stuffed animal – kitty has been her friend since she was 14 months old

31. Bake cookies and cakes – oh yeah we all have sweet tooths in this family

32. Help plan their own birthday party – she helped me from start to finish with her Fancy Nancy party

33. Go to the circus  – we are planning on attending Circus Flora next month

34. Go to a museum on a quiet weekday – great idea

35. Play hide-and-seek – JT plays hide-and-seek with the kids all the time, they love it and run around screaming

36. Play a board game – we have game night at least once a week and we let the kids pick what games they want to play

37. Do nothing whatsoever all day – yeah we do this more than I’d like to admit

38. Try a sport – she tried soccer and she didn’t like it so we moved on to swimming, which she loves

39. Watch a sporting event – we are going to a Cardinals game around Father’s Day

40. Learn to swim – she is right now and she is a natural

41. Be tickled in hysterics – of course

42. Paint and draw as much as desired – she’s our little artist

43. Have the use of scissors and glue – yep she is always being crafty

44. Display artworks and other creations around the house – she also likes to use tape, which means there is always artwork around the house.

45. Learn to use a camera (and keep an album of the results!) – she is a budding photographer plus her pictures are really good, I do need to start an album, who knows maybe she will be famous someday

46. Play with clay

47. Pick flowers – a favorite thing of hers to do

48. Climb a tree

49. Gaze at the moon and stars – yes we do this often

50. Toast marshmallows – she did this on Halloween and she didn’t really like them

51. Learn to eat an ice-cream cone – It just never occurred to me to get her a cone, I just always get a cup

52. Watch a sunset – yeah we’ve done this and sat and talked about it

53. Learn to write their own names – I love that she can write her own name now

54. Learn their addresses and telephone numbers – yes she just learned these this spring, thanks in part to my mom

55. Learn their parents’ full names – she knows our first and last names but not our middle

56. Set the table – every night she sets our table

57. Clear the table – she clears her plate, everyone does their own in our house

58. Help wash the dishes – nah, our dishwasher does most of the work, maybe someday she will load it for us

59. Learn to say their pleases and thank yous and excuse mes – of course, my children must use their manners at all times

60. Watch fireworks – yes, the best in the US – Walt Disney World last year

61. Go to the ballet or theater or a puppet show – she’s been to the theater to see a couple of movies

62. Put on a ballet or play or puppet show at home – she has entertainment in her blood

63. Face paint – no she runs the other way everytime I suggest it at the zoo

64. Dress up in costumes at will – she changes her outfit 5 times a day and it’s usually a costume of some sort

65. Learn rhymes and poems and songs by heart – yep

66. Have a dance party

67. Enjoy friends at preschool and at the park – yep quite frequently

68. Invite friends over to play – all the time

69. Get to know grandparents – our grandparents are an important everyday part of our lives

70. Play with cousins – sure whenever we can

71. Become attached to a wonderful preschool teacher and/or babysitter – she was very sad to be leaving Mrs. O’Toole behind this year

72. Learn the name of our president – how could she not know the name of our president after all the media attention

73. Know the name of their town, state and country – yep

74. Be familiar with a map of the world

75. Listen to music from many different ages and genres – yeah she likes to listen to my radio station

76. Hear and learn words from a different language – thank you Manny and Dora, we can now say some spanish words and count to 10 in Spanish

77. Learn the difference between trash and recycling

78. Grow their own vegetables

79. Learn to ride a bike (or try!) – She just received her first bike for her birthday

80. Take a road trip – yep to Florida/Disney World last year

81. Draw a self-portrait – she had to in preschool all the time

82. Slurp alphabet soup – sure during the winter

83. Learn to twirl spaghetti on a fork

84. Pick apples – last september we went as a family

85. Star in a home movie – all the time

86. Learn a magic trick – we bought a wand at the dollar store that looks like it floats up your hand and she has that mastered

87. Try different hair-dos – we experiment all the time

88. Practice writing letters – she loves writing her letters

89. Practice counting to 100

90. Make up stories – quite an imagination she has

91. Send a letter – yep we are currently working on thank you letters from her birthday

92. Receive a letter – she finds this exciting

93. Ride on a merry-go-round – yep

94. Give away toys and books to less fortunate children – of course

95. Learn the value of coins and bills

96. Keep a piggy bank – yes, it’s a snow white bank and she has $23

97. Try a musical instrument

98. Have a heartfelt wish granted – seeing the princesses and eating in Cinderella’s castle on her birthday

99. Have a heartfelt wish denied – she wants to go back and do Disney World again, too expensive

100. Receive a million (make that a billion) heartfelt kisses and hugs from their parents – is this a trick question?! of course.

Feel free to use this list yourself just send me a comment so I can come over and read your list. I guess we have a couple more things to cross of the list but all in due time.

Today was supposed to be better (UPDATE)

Our first day of summer vacation, poop is all cleaned up and I was going to start reorganizing the basement. I had an appointment today with the gas man to come and replace our meter downstairs, you know I completely forgot. Of course I did what with all the chaos yesterday so I was laying on the couch this morning (JT took the car) in my jammies, no shower and L was still sleeping, I hear a big car pull up outside. Oh shit! Oh shit! The gas man was here. Lovely, I was running around getting my robe and the dogs all put away and I twisted my knee something awful (it’s been bugging me since I started my workout). So I let the gas man in downstairs and he starts working away, I hear a knock at my back door and he tells me we have a gas leak, several little ones actually. He needs to check behind my stove, so he comes in shuts down my stove and heads back downstairs to see if the pipes are now holding pressure, um no they aren’t. So he turns off my gas and locks it with pipes not attached downstairs and tells me to call a contractor to come and fix it, um aren’t you the gas company? Shouldn’t you be fixing the problem? He leaves and that’s that.

I have called my mom who is handling the situation with the gas company over the phone (it’s her building) and JT is on his way home to help me move some things in my basement so either a contractor or someone can come and fix everything. It’s gonna be one of those weeks. Seriously!!!

I told the kids what was going on and L says, “What does that mean?” I calmly say “well we don’t have any hot water and I can’t cook on the stove”. L being the cute little girl she is says, “That means no mac & cheese, no noodles, no soup, no cookin nasun” Yep, that’s right baby… Nasun (nothing)!!!

*UPDATE: No one was available to come out and fix the leak today so we are still without gas and we aren’t positive if someone will be able to come out tomorrow. It’s extremely frustrating and we are extremely pissed off at the gas company. They told us that they can’t fix it because they didn’t break it, also the guy that was here told me that they don’t want him spending too much time here, so looking into the leak isn’t possible. So what are they good for? What do they do? They sure are quick to collect your money or shut your gas off if you can’t pay them. Nothing like having a monopoly control your gas.

Top Ten Tuesday – Things I Will Never Tire Of

I am so thankful for everything in my life, all of my blessings. The other night I started to think about all of the little things that just make me smile, the things that happen frequently.

1. Carrying my sleeping children to their beds, it rarely happens but it makes me smile when it does.

2. Scared kids crawling into bed and just needing a cuddle to feel safe. During a thunderstorm is when it happens the most.

3. My son’s random kisses, always on my cheek, always unexpected and always wet.

4. Watching my children succeed at something brand new, like soccer and swimming.

5. A fire in a fireplace keeping your warm while watching it snow outside (I think this has happened maybe a handful of times in my life)

6. Laughing with my husband at a joke we both share.

7. The cool summer breeze after a rainstorm, the smell is one of the best parts too.

8. Listening to my children ask questions or say something that makes JT and I share a giggle or a smile. Like yesterday on our way to our friend’s we passed a huge white church and L says, “Look J it’s Washington”. Meaning she thought it was Washington D.C.

9. A moment of silence, no explanation needed 🙂

10. A good night’s sleep, even though this happens rarely, it’s one of the best feeling in the world.

With my list done now I am off to bed to hopefully revisit #10, we’ll see. Visit Oh Amanda for more top ten lists.