the big show is almost here!

This afternoon, SweetPea had her first taste of being in the limelight... and she LOVED it! I honestly wasn't sure how she would do being on stage and having an audience and now, I am looking back and wondering why I was worried about it at all. Not only did she remember her dance steps (and proved it by "running through her steps" back stage) but she smiled, had fun and totally ate up the applause and adoration.

I was a little surprised that she was so "willing" to go through everything on her own since I can still remember that moment of fear racing through me before I would get on stage to perform. I loved to dance and loved my classes but getting up in front of a group of people for any reason has always left me anxiety-ridden. Thankfully, SweetPea didn't inherit that from me since she wanted all eyes on her the entire time... even when she wasn't supposed to have them.

My very own little Cinderella, reaching for the prince

It did shock me though how much she didn't enjoy the make-up. After looking forward to that for weeks now, she couldn't wait to take it back off again. Ah yes, there's my girl! I knew that my genes must have entered into her development somewhere.

But the costume? She kept calling today "costume night" and couldn't wait to put her ballet dress on. When tap was over, she refused to allow us to change her back into street clothes. The shoes? She would live in her tap shoes if we let her. Tiaras and bows? Oh yes, the more the better. But make-up? Yeah, she can definitely leave that one alone.

Biggest thrill for today though was receiving her first bouquet from daddy. I am not sure who was closer to tears... daddy handing his little girl her flowers or SweetPea accepting them from him. It was one of those moments that you just know that you will cherish the rest of your life. The look on both their faces at that very moment in time.

our 27th annual fishing derby

Over and done with for another year. I can't believe that Pork has now competed in his first ever fishing derby. Or that Peanut and SweetPea got to enjoy another year. I would like to say that Pickle enjoyed himself but I think that he spent more time walking around with a buddy than he did fishing (and this was his last year being able to compete). Punk... well, he decided, once again, to remain at his dad's than come and join us. So it was his loss.

No big winners in our house hold this year. Didn't see anyone break Peanut's record from three years ago but they had some nice sized fish on the board. I was a little disappointed to find out AFTER the derby that any fish turned in got an angler certificate. Had I known that, I would have let the girls turn in their small fish.

SweetPea with her hand-caught fish

That's right, both my girls caught a fish! Peanut caught hers with her pole and some bait while SweetPea caught an injured fish with her bare hands lol. Pork tried fishing a bit but found it better to just beat the water with his rod and hope for the best. The best turning out to be hooking his sister (we took off his hook after that and just let him continue to attempt to beat the fish into submission).

Our little friend that came fishing with us, C, didn't managed to hook a fish either but he DID end up winning one of the door prizes. I think that that brightened his day since he was a bit bummed over his streak of luck.

We missed last year's derby due to SweetPea's soccer pictures and boy had things changed! For one, there wasn't a casting challenge anymore. For two, the pond wasn't packed to the gills the way that it normally always was. Our group caught less this year than any other year as well, even though there were less people there. Maybe it was the liverwurst we attempted to use as bait... Going to have to remember to stick with the hot dogs next year.

Buttercup and Wesley

Ever since we went on vacation and SweetPea watched the movie "The Princess Bride", we have been inundated with requests to legally change the names of our two youngest children to Buttercup and Wesley. SweetPea goes through many days where she will only answer to her self-appointed nickname and requests that you call Pork by Wesley. She has gone as far as introducing herself by this new name, attempting to write it on her lessons and scolding me for calling PorkChop by the "wrong" name. To be honest, I find it insufferably cute that she has developed such a liking for a character. At the same time, I get enough weird looks without people wondering why I chose to name my daughter Buttercup.

Dueling to a "draw"

Tonight, while forcing Wesley to carry her baby for her (since Buttercup is a princess and Wesley just says "As you wish" which really means "I love you"), I made him a little cardboard sword so he could be happier. Didn't last long before Buttercup insisted that she needed a sword too but that hers needed to be longer and thinner and not so black in the handle.

The two then raced outside and proceeded to duel. Didn't last too long before Wesley's sword was quite a bit crumpled and Buttercup noticed that her sword was better for drawing pictures in the sand.

I am pretty certain that I am going to have to resign myself to a future of grandkids with names like Indigo, Humperdink, and Wesley. :)

Our first visit from the Tooth Fairy

Literally, our first visit from the tooth fairy. As a young toddler, Peanut was terrified of the idea of people/creatures entering her house while she was sleeping. There was nothing magical about Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, the Easter Bunny, etc. Those induced panic that I have never seen her such a young child. So we nixed them. I figured that telling a lie, even in good spirits and then having to deal with them coming to the truth wasn't something that I wanted to do anyway. I try to always be as honest as possible with my children, so why should I create magical beings when I try my hardest to incorporate magic into our every day life?
Easy... because this little face chose to believe in the tooth fairy all on her own. No one had to tell her that she exists, she just does. And while I could have sat SweetPea down and told her the truth and crushed her imaginative spirit, instead I took the time to explain things that we see with our eyes and those that we see with our hearts. The tooth fairy is one that we see with our hearts. As long as we believe, the magic is there. Once we stop believing, the magic ends. Amazingly enough, SweetPea agreed. And not just a "If I nod my head, my mama will stop talking" agreed but an honest "Like Santa Claus and the North Pole?" Yes, baby girl, just like that.

Someone got a very special visit during the night!

SweetPea was very impressed by her five dollars in bills and change awaiting for her under her pillow when she woke this morning. Even more impressed when mama said yes to paying for her own brownie from the local bakery. Daddy and mama didn't want the tooth fairy to get all the credit (because yes, we are selfish people and want some of that adoration as well) so we kept the tradition that I started and allowed SweetPea to "pick a prize" for losing her first tooth. Her choice? A mermaid Loopsie. Wonderful. So now I am on a mission to find Coral Sea Shells in the "big size".

Now that the magic of losing that first tooth has wore off, SweetPea has already started wiggling her second. Yikes! Thankfully, its not quite ready to pop out yet which is good for me. I am not ready for my baby girl to be toothless yet.

My baby girl is growing up!

I was really excited to share today about SweetPea's dance pictures. I even debated sharing some pictures of her in her costumes, all dolled up in her dance finery with her hair curled and that sweet smile of her's adorning her face.

Instead, I forgot to grab a single picture of her in costume. Totally unlike me. But I called it! While sitting in the parking lot of the dance studio, waiting for our time to go in and get SweetPea ready for her pictures, this happened....

Notice anything different?

Ahhhh!!! Wasn't she just born yesterday? Didn't those sweet baby teeth just make their appearance!? I knew it though. Once she showed me her wiggly tooth about a week ago, I just KNEW that she would lose it during her dance pictures. Actually, I had some very bad dreams about her literally losing it during her pictures, the gum bleeding and staining her costume and SweetPea losing her head. Instead, though, it popped out while she was having a snack while waiting for her pictures. No bleeding, no tears, just *pop* and her little tooth laid there in her hand.

She is beyond words excited for this momentous event. I really wasn't sure how we would proceed but she informed us that the tooth fairy was going to be paying her a visit tonight. Ok then, that solved if we were going to go down that route or not.

I am still in shock though. Punk lost his first tooth about a week before his seventh birthday. Peanut was about 6.5 years old when she lost her first. SweetPea blew them both out of the water by losing her first at just shy of 4 years and 3 months! Wow!

back to The Rink, we go

Out of the blue, SweetPea reminded me last night about preschool skate. I honestly thought after it fizzling out last year (unless we had friends attending with us) that she wouldn't think about going back this year. Well, then, someone in her dance class mentioned skating and she was hooked yet again. So of course, that's where we spent our morning... skating (and running) around the rink.

Look at her go!

I cannot believe that next year at this time, I will be chasing TWO around in skates. I may be doing that before the end of summer as it is. Pork is just so coordinated that I think that if I bought him some toddler skates, that I could have him join in the fun. And I know that it would definitely become more fun for SweetPea since she was pretty bummed again today that there were only five little ones there, two of them being her and her brother.

I am half tempted to hold off and wait until the summer break to try again. But our Wednesdays are so busy during those months since we do the library reading club. And I KNOW that she adores those trips. *sigh*

Part of me wishes that Peanut and/or Punk were younger so they could join this with her. Or that Porker was just a tad bit older so he could join in (not that I want him to grow up any faster than he is!!) Maybe once we get those toddler skates, I will strap on a pair and join them. Of course, I may need to invent some butt protector pillows first. 

and so it begins again

Its that time again. Sports season begins to reign supreme in our house. Tonight, Punk had his first soccer game of the spring season and SweetPea had her dance class, at the same time. *sigh* It really stinks trying to be the parent sometimes when you need to be in two places at the same time.

day one and he is already worn out!

Punk did fine last year attending some of his soccer games without one of us being there. Pickle would ride to the field with him and then they would ride home together. This year is proving that that cannot be the case. I arrived after SweetPea's dance class, in the middle of the second quarter, to find Punk sitting on the sidelines because of an injury. Flashbacks to the fall season, first game, where Punk broke his wrist flashed through my head. I checked and it looked ok... a bit puffy but no where near odd like when the entire field sat for him last season. I asked how bad it hurt and he said bad enough that he just wanted to go home. *double sigh*

Hubby thinks that he just is done with soccer. That playing with kids that are all way taller than him has him quitting. I know that he doesn't want to miss going to his dad's house on the weekends and having a weekend game does cut into how much time he can stay there (since bio-dad refuses to transport for game time, lame!) I guess that only time will tell. 

We decided against urgent care tonight since he can move his hand and fingers, something that he couldn't initially do in September. If the wrist still feels sore tomorrow, I will go ahead and make an appointment. Gut instinct is telling me that he probably just sprained it. Hubby's gut is telling him that its all just a way to get out of playing. I think that I need to just breathe and remember that just because he got hurt last season doesn't mean that he is seriously hurt now. 

tonight... tonight... we leave TONIGHT

Tonight is going to be BUSY! We still haven't settled completely on a departure time but we are thinking about midnight. Totally is going to depend on when hubby can get to bed so he can catch a few hours before our grand vacation. Breathe.. I need to breathe! Everything that should be done is now done minus packing the car and that has to wait until its here in the driveway. Kids are packed, I am packed, hubby is mostly done.... Animals have a scheduled care giver for each day.... Everyone is over-excited and doesn't think that they will sleep until we return... Yep, its vacation time!

rub a dub dub... two kiddies in the tub

Since my enthusiasm has been rubbing off on the littles, I decided to try something extra special today to give them something tangible to be excited about.... homemade bath-time body paint!

First, let me say that the recipe that I tried wasn't that great. It needed a bit lot of tweaking. And it didn't seem to "stick" well at all. But... it did serve the purpose of entertaining the littles while I bathed them and got them ready for tonight. Best of all, Pork actually liked the scent of the body paint so he was more than willing to paint things with it. I may need to see about making our own finger paints here and scenting them with essential oils to see if that will help him to play and discover more.

this is what happens....

when you party too hard.....

EXHAUSTED!

The last week of wedding prep, followed by the wedding, followed by celebrating Easter really has taken a toll on us all here. I decided to not do our lessons this week to give the littles and myself a chance to decompress before vacation. I really thought that we could use some downtime instead of micro-managing all our "spare" time.

This morning, the littles and I did spend some time making a cute Easter craft for our schooling space. I would love to share a picture of them but SweetPea wrote her name on her page and I can't figure out how to blur that part out. I will say that they made little chicks with handprint wings, holding personally decorated little Easter eggs. So cute!

We also spent some time this morning finger painting. Even PorkChop joined in which is saying much! I think that my sweet boy is getting over his dirty hands phobia just a little bit. I think that once the weather warms up and we can paint outside that that will help.  SweetPea always enjoyed getting to put on her paint shirt and play around with colors in the yard. Hoping that my small man will learn to appreciate it too.

Boxes are a HUGE part of our life right now with things arriving via the mail for our upcoming trip. Both the littles (and some of the bigs) have taken to decorating, playing in or with, all the larger boxes. SweetPea swore up and down that she didn't need a nap today and that if I let her play quietly in her room, she would be a good girl. Didn't take too long though for her to just curl up in the box and drift to dreamland.

just another manic Monday

And the countdown is on.... My sister gets married this Saturday. Which means that she has need of the small female children quite a bit this week. For Peanut, that doesn't mean much. She will still go to school as planned, but she will have to rush through her homework and chores to attend wedding preparations. For SweetPea, it means a week off of lessons since I feel that she has enough "excitement" to deal with right now.

morning routine fun

A break from lessons doesn't mean a break from learning. In our home, learning happens all the time. Our morning routine is to bring out all her prized "Loopsies" and spend a good half hour making up stories for them. They are not always long, drawn out plays. Sometimes, they are just minor skits, a mere bump in the road. Other mornings though, the loopsies band together to save the world from dinosaurs. They travel to the moon and discover space aliens. They get married, have babies, live their own lives.

Really listening to SweetPea play, she reveals so much about what is going on  inside her little head. Right now, its been mostly wedding planning. This loopsie wants to marry Ace Fender Bender but she can't because this one loves him too. Which is normally met with much grumpiness over her NEEDING more male loopsies. Which are hard to come by in miniature form. Even though Pork plays right along with SweetPea, its not every day that he allows his Little People to be brought in as substitute mates. But it definitely is cute watching Batman and the Joker pair off with their own loopsie friends.

I am going to miss hearing her sweet chatter when real world crushes take the place of pretend doll ones. But I am also confident that she will be ok. Because watching her play, I can see that she has a good heart, doesn't want to see anyone hurt, and understands that sometimes, you have to lose what you love temporarily... because it will always come back to you in the end.

a week in review... Letter O

Wow... This week started awesome, hit a super low point and is coming back around now that I have decided that a break is needed in this house. I feel like it lifted a weight off my shoulders. I think that I am going to take a week off, not three like I was thinking yesterday. One week off, then a light, easy review week so we can have our 100 day party on the last day before our big family vacation. I can't think of a better way of ending this session... with a huge party for the both of us.

O is for Octopus

Or should I say the THREE of us? PorkChop has decided that lesson time can be fun. I already knew that he enjoyed cooking but I guess that I overlooked the fact that he can do more than I give him credit for. So from now on, I think that I will make sure that he can participate more. Not just with our sensory boxes but with our art and cooking too. And reading time, of course. I need to get some more Pork friendly books in this house.

Look who is starting to join in more!

 This week, we worked on the letter O. We talked about octopuses, owls and otters. We tried different kinds of oranges, deciding that little mandarins were good and blood oranges are too scary to eat. We snacked on cheerios (hey, they ARE little O's after all) and practiced writing "circle Os" everywhere. The littles helped me make some delicious orange cupcakes with a buttercream frosting that tasted just like vanilla ice cream. I think that this might have been one of my most favorite tasting weeks.

mmmm... orange creamsicle cupcakes

 In math this week, we have been working on addition. Everything in me screams that learning subtraction first would have been easier but everything that I looked into said to start with adding. SweetPea surprised me and seemed to catch on pretty quickly to the basics. Sure, at this point, its more just counting the pictures than really "adding" but she gets the concept. And I need to focus on that more... that she understands the concept behind what she is learning more than trying to get her to be perfect in a week at a skill that might be over her head.

taking a break from the table

 Together, we learned "Little Boy Blue" this week. I wish that I had thought to add a fun song in, but I think that I approached this week with a negative attitude and let it shadow my whole way of thinking. I didn't do as many fun things as I could have and I regret it now. I didn't even set aside a special activity, even though I really wanted to work on making jewelry out of Fruit Loops or Cheerios or something. I will store the idea away for the next time we run through the alphabet. I will DO the idea. I will learn from my mistakes as well as I want my children to learn and grow.

o is for owl

Because of our week together, I am not going to overplay St Patrick's day. I ordered each little a book and SweetPea's didn't arrive today as planned. They were temporary out of stock so hers will be here on Tuesday. I think that its a sign to give the kiddos a break and not to take all the "fun" out of a holiday just being a day to spend time together with our family. No green milk that will turn our poo funny colors, no crafts that I will feel the need to micro-manage. We will read our story on who St Patrick was, we will wear our green and we will make our traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage. Maybe we will make a special treat or maybe we will just buy something for dessert. Either way, we are officially on break!

my first sew-a-long!

I have never joined a sew-a-long before... No clue why, just never was interested before. I have done knitting ones though and loved the support and getting to see how everyone changed the pattern with their own style. But when I saw that there would be a sew-a-long for a dress pattern that I had been drooling over, I knew that I had to join. And so I did.....

first sew-a-long!

Irene's Peek-a-Boo Ruffle dress.... I knew that I needed to make SweetPea an Easter dress because I couldn't find anything that I liked in the stores. And I knew that it had to be a bit "funky" yet "girlish" because, well, that's my SweetPea. And since she will be meeting her great-grandmother (the one that she is named for) on Easter, I wanted her to look special. So I knew that I needed a special looking dress.

I had three patterns all picked and fussed over them all, taking them apart, fussing over this detail or that... but then this one caught my eye and I knew that this one had to be the one.

The sew-a-long runs all next week. I think that it ends next Sunday? I am not sure yet if I want to share progress pictures or not. Maybe I will, maybe not. All I will say is that bright colors, tons of ruffles and a twirly skirt is going to make this dress a huge hit!

a week in review.... letter N

Wow! I cannot believe that we are now officially over half way through our alphabet! And best of all, she is retaining it now! When she was newly three and we tried this, we didn't make it this far. I think that we made it to about G before SweetPea lost all interest in not only learning her letters but on learning anything "school" related at all. And now, this year, we are just about two weeks away from her big 100 day celebration!

practicing numbers

For math this week, we worked on practicing numbers in a more practical setting. She made a March calendar, writing in all the numbers. We also worked on classification... reading clues (by me) and filling in the answers (by her). I am getting VERY giddy watching her know how to write more and more letters from memory. It makes me feel good that I CAN teach her and that she CAN learn from home.

N is for numbers

In fact, we had fun learning that N is for "numbers".... and "notes". Which meant lots of singing, lots of counting, lots of playing Mother May I. Which was a more than a bit difficult when Porker wanted to play by just jumping around the room, which would lead to SweetPea joining in. But at least she would tell me how long she could "hop" (Mama! I can hop for four mim-its! Want to see?)

noodle sensory fun

I couldn't come up with many good "n" foods which is totally not like me. But we did have fun (Porker, more than SweetPea) with our noodle sensory box. And SweetPea helped me make spaghetti noodles for dinner. I also learned that while she loves helping me to bake, she is not too fond of helping me cook. At least not right now. For snacks this week, we dined on different kinds of nuts. PorkChop has become the king of the peanut! SweetPea has shown that she prefers pistachios. Nobody wanted to share my almonds with me, but that's ok... more for me!

learning about classification

We ended up not getting much outdoor time in either. Our weather has just been cold, rainy, windy or finicky. I am hoping that that changes soon. We really thrive on our outdoor days and look forward to our morning routine of riding bikes/walking up and down the street. 

n is for notes

Thankfully, Friday our weather was beautiful and we made it to the local library to enjoy reading month. SweetPea worked on the computers for a while while PorkChop played with the trains and the puzzles. They both entertained the idea of hitting the library more often, which I would love! I miss our library days, our park days, going bowling and skating.... I am ready for our summer routine!

March reading fun 

We only have two more weeks before our big break. And I am ready!

a week in review

Well, we made it. Getting back into the swing of things after a week off was rough. I think that I purposely made sure that each day of lessons was short because I just couldn't get my rear back in gear. At least it gave me some time to pause and reflect on the fact that SweetPea IS only four and that I don't need to push the two of us as hard as I sometimes do. I think that next week will be better because 1. it will be a more organized affair and 2. because I am going to make it a point of focusing more on fun and games and less on what I "think" she should be accomplishing. Maybe it will help the two of us not to feel so burnt out.

Monday, we worked on letter recognition and review. I always say this but taking a week off really seems to help things settle in SweetPea's mind. She goes from struggling by the end of the week at remembering all her letters/sounds to coming back and nailing them! Yes, there are still three that she is stumbling over (I... which she insists is Y, J... which she knows the sound, just not the name and M... again, sound is there but she calls it N). So I threw in some phonics just for fun. Yeah.... remember how I said that I need to focus more on fun and less on "work"... I said this and then think about how she sounded out FOUR words on her own. I think that once a week, we will work on this concept slowly but I am not going to add it in right now. Mainly because I don't "feel" she is ready yet but also because I am afraid my little bookworm isn't going to want mama to read to her if she can do it herself.

"hi"

Tuesday, we worked more on number recognition and shapes than letters. Again, I was totally blown away when SweetPea nailed all her numbers. Even 4 and 6, the two that constantly trip her up, she knew. Key thing that I need to remember is when she is struggling with remembering them, I need to ask her what they look like, not for her to find them. If she takes a minute to think about how you would write the number out, she can then find the number. But if you ask her just to remember, she will keep pointing until she figures out the correct one through trial and error.

Wednesday, we discussed weather and time. And how you can have a good time in bad weather. And how spring means that the trees will wake back up and have leaves again and how the snow will leave (we hope). We spent a good deal of our morning outside, marveling at the texture of wet, heavy snow (vs the soft, fluffy stuff that we have had most of the winter). We observed the different birds that are slowly coming back to our neighborhood (no robins as of yet though) and listened to their songs. I think that it made all of us long for warmer days and more sunshine.

Just keep working, just keep working

 Thursday was a "blah" day. No other way to put it. We trudged through our review and then took off for more "fun" as soon as we could. I didn't want to press too much review work since SweetPea had done so well earlier in the week. Sometimes, less is better and the things that are left unsaid are the gifts that we can treasure.

typical morning table

Today, we prepared for Dr Seuss's birthday with our own "All About Me" books. I was really shocked with how much of the writing SweetPea could do on her own. I did fill in the longer blanks since she is just not ready to be sounding out words yet (especially longer ones). Now we just need to finish collecting the pictures for her book. Since this was originally a kinder-aged project, I think that I will put hers up from this year and compare it with the next two years. Should be neat to see her handwriting change and her interests as well.

All about Me!

Next week, it WILL be back to normal around here. I think that I am psyching myself up to be nervous about it but then I also can remember that it will only be for two weeks. After that, we will have a party week (St Paddy's day, our 100 day celebration, maybe a spring craft day or two) and then it will be time to get ready for vacation. Really thinking that the week before our trip we will focus on Easter crafts and learning a bit of history about where we are going.

SweetPea's fourth birthday extravaganza

Woohoo! Not only did we do this, but SweetPea's party went off almost without a hitch! And the small, very minor things that DID go wrong, I know they didn't matter a bit in the grand scheme of things. SweetPea had a blast, she got to see her best friends, everyone showered her with attention and best of all, there were Loopsies galore. What more could a girl ask for for her fourth birthday?

I honestly was scared that this wasn't going to pull together numerous times this morning. It got so bad that a half hour before the party was scheduled to start, I was tempted to call the entire thing off. That's how stressed I made myself for nothing. Well, it didn't seem like it was for nothing when I was living in the moment but looking back, I should have realized that our missing perfect wrapping paper, our uncooperative kiddos, no one knowing the party time (and me being very late with replies) and a nonna who couldn't make it because she was unpacking all don't mean much. What was important to SweetPea is that her best friends did come, that she had Loopsy decorations all over the house, that there were balloons, and that her and PorkChop could walk by and steal as many chocolate button suckers as they wanted.

Loopsy world a success!

 I did underestimate just how capable fours are of entertaining themselves. They only colored on the sheets that I printed out for maybe five minutes. PorkChop lasted the longest at ten. They never even touched the cute frames that I bought to decorate with them. As for the scavenger hunt... yeah, that didn't happen either. Instead, the girls drug out the dinosaurs, PorkChop's super heroes, and the balloons and made their own party in the living room.

Only inviting two girls her age (and one about six months older than Porker for him to play with) really worked out well too! The three girls had enough company so that everyone played together well but had enough room to do their own thing too. B really enjoyed the animals and had a blast getting to play with the puppies and the bunnies. A was more into doing puzzles and dressing up. C enjoyed her time playing with the "Kindle Fire" (what SweetPea calls her Vtech tablet). SweetPea had a grand time dancing and singing and flitting from one thing to another. Typical girl.

happy birthday SweetPea!

Our buffet style lunch worked well too since the girls (and all our other guests) could come and help themselves as they pleased. No one felt pressured to eat at a certain time and yet, by the end of the party, everything but the cake and the chocolate suckers were gone! Which means that everyone basically ignored the goodies and ate from the fruit and veggie platters and from the cracker/meat/cheese trays.

Miss SweetPea was blessed with Loopsies galore! So many in fact that her four miniature Loopsies are remaining in their packaging for the night because she is preoccupied with the one bigger and two medium sized ones that she received. I am going to be shocked if they don't all end up in bed with her tonight.

breathe in...... breathe out

SweetPea's birthday party is tomorrow so WHY did I feel that it was a good idea to wait until the last minute to get everything done?! I absolutely hate trying out a new recipe when I need it, much preferring to give a test run a week or two in advance so I can play around with things. But nope... instead, I waited until tonight to test/make/bake her birthday cake. First time making a homemade white cake, first time trying the polka dot method, first time going off a not so highly regarded recipe by trying all the alternative methods at once... This should be fun.

polka dots in the baking making

Not only that but I just finished her dress for tomorrow. Not the costume outfit that I wanted but a pretty cute heartsy black and pink dress. I didn't have time to do the pettiskirt for under it but thankfully, it doesn't look like its a necessity. I did manage to try it on Princess Crabby and it looks long enough (yay for alterations!) and the split covers what it should even without the petti.

I still haven't wrapped gifts, decorated, cleaned, anything. And the party is in just a few hours. Hours that I do need to find time to sleep during.... unless she wants ME to be Queen Crabby tomorrow.

I know that this party will go off without a hitch. I know that I can manage to get everything done in time. I know that, looking back, she won't even remember the stress that went into mama being sick at the beginning of the month and having to push everything else back so I could get better. She won't remember anything but the fun that she had, the balloons that she popped, and the cake that she will eat. And I am happy for that. Because right now, I am freaking out!

a week in review... Valentine's

I think that this has been the most dis-jointed week that I have ever done! We ended up schooling on Monday, taking Tuesday off for SweetPea's birthday, schooling Wednesday, taking Thursday off for Valentine's day and then schooling today. But at least we had a good time this week with all our projects. Didn't accomplish much in the way of progress with letters or numbers but we did use the skills that we have worked on already. Makes it a winner in my book.

On Monday, we made Valentine cards for daddy. I let the kiddos finger paint with their feet to create hearts that we wrote our message around. Daddy was so surprised when he came home to see his newly dried cards from the littles. I think that he was quite touched. And the biggest shock of all... PorkChop, who vehemently refuses to touch finger paints for more than ten seconds, had no trouble having the paint smeared on his sweet piggies. In fact, that part was down right hilarious.

I love you "toe" much Valentines

 We did work on learning to match our upper case letters with lower case ones this week. I really wish that I could find more themes like this because it was not only a great exercise but SweetPea loved it! Even better, since I could laminate them, I have them put up for next year! Bonus!! Eventually, I am sure that PorkChop will get some use out of them too.

heart upper/lower case matching

Since SweetPea is a puzzle-holic, I made sure to print and laminate two different Valentine themed puzzles for her. Sure, four piece puzzles are not a challenge when you have been doing 100 piece by yourself for about two months but they were a nice surprise. And well worth it too to see PorkChop trying to line up the pieces as well. Its amazing to see what all he is learning already just by being involved with us around the family table every morning.

puzzle time

 I think that the biggest thrill of the week was our very own Valentine scavenger hunt! Both littles thoroughly enjoyed running through the house with their "list" and bringing all their "finds" to the table. SweetPea even got creative and took different interpretations of some of the pictures. Way to go, little girl, thinking outside that box!

scavenger hunt fun

 For math this week, we worked on candy graphing. A little disappointing when your favorite color doesn't come out as the winner.... and a bit frustrating when your little brother is stealing/eating your homework but a fun game all the same. And the best part, when its a learning game like this, they really don't realize the skills that they are working on... They just believe that its all fun.

Sweetheart graphing

 Since this was a laid back week, I managed to throw some science into our mix. We worked on a "five senses" worksheet with our Sweethearts. Did you know that Sweethearts make noise? I really thought that she would select "no" but after shaking the bowl next to my ear, she assured me that what I was hearing was the candy rocking and rolling in there. Yeah, she had me there. We also learned that SweetHearts taste like ashes and smell like skunk. While PorkChop might be a fan of the chalky candy hearts, SweetPea takes after mama and thinks that they belong in the box!

Sweetheart five senses

I had planned on doing some special baking this week with the littles... making sugar cookies for all five of the kids to decorate... but it just didn't happen. Instead, SweetPea did help me bake her birthday cupcakes. She learned how to pour chocolate to make suckers. And she got to make frosting almost totally on her own. So our week might not have gone as I planned or hoped for, but we definitely had a great time celebrating!

Lalaloopsy world

I hate finding myself staring at the calendar, knowing full well the amount of work that I need to get done by a certain time frame and becoming paralyzed that I didn't start sooner. Or in this case, that I got so sick that I lost almost a week of prepping. So here we go, SweetPea's party is Sunday and I am not ready. Not even a little bit. Even changing some of my wants for her, I am not sure that I can pull this off. It just seems that I have so much to do and so little time to get it done.

birthday party preparedness.... take 1

SweetPea chose a Lalaloopsy theme for her birthday this year. I am not big on "character" parties because it makes me feel roped into the gimmicks that come along with each theme. But she did her other great love last year (dinosaurs) and since we are seriously considering doing a Super Hero theme in July for PorkChop (who is mildly obsessed with Batman), I couldn't tell her no. But I did put a limit on the amount of "copyright character" we will have.

Instead, I found molds to make button suckers and little button candies to decorate her cake. I found a recipe for a white cake with polka dots on the inside... perfectly cute for a fun, whimsical theme. Then I started getting crafty with the idea of making hair bows for the goody bags. SweetPea LOVES her hair bows so this was met with great approval. I lucked out and found some Lalaloopsy ribbon in three prints so I bought some up and started creating three different style bows. I had planned on making SweetPea and PorkChop Lalaloopsy themed outfits like I did last year with the dinosaurs but getting sick put that idea off. Instead, I have a beautiful dress almost completed for her in bright pink, white and black. Totally sassy print but very girly. Perfect for my little SweetPea.

For games, I printed off a ton of coloring sheets featuring the dolls. I am also hunting around for buttons and ribbon to make picture frames with the girls. I figure that I can always run off doctored photos of the girls with the Lalaloopsy dolls... or just buy a poster board and create my own Lalaloopsy backdrop. Either way would work. I am also working on creating a fun little scavenger hunt featuring crafty items.

Menu wise.... I think that we are going to go with fun little finger foods. Since the Loopsies seem to be based around sweets, I am thinking fruit kabobs, a veggie platter with a "sweet" based dip and maybe some lemonade?

Writing it all out, it looks like I am so organized but in actuality, I need to find the time to get everything done. I know that I work well when under a deadline but waiting until the last minute is not a good thing for my blood pressure.

Happy birthday SweetPea!

I can still remember the first song that hubby and I heard four years ago today. As he was holding his baby girl in his arms, the song "You're Gonna Miss This" came on and hubby just melted. It was a pretty emotional day... We didn't know what we were having until Miss SweetPea popped out and hubby announced to me and the midwives "No penis!" Yes, the first words that hubby ever said to our beautiful little girl was an announcement that she was missing a fundamental part of her anatomy that daddy was sure that she would be born with. Which might make it sound that hubby wanted a boy, but nothing could be further from the truth... He just never thought that he would have a biological daughter.

the big FOUR

SweetPea was my first home birth. If she had been my first birth, she might have been my only home birth. But only because after birthing two babies very easily, SweetPea decided that she wanted to be sunny side up. That she wanted to have her cord wrapped around her neck. That she wanted to get stuck and not be born. She was my stubborn little girl then and she is still very headstrong today. Headstrong, independent, full of sass... I wouldn't trade her for all the world!

Its amazing to think that in four short years, my "little" 8lb 8oz 21.5 in baby girl has turned into such a big girl. Lighting up the room with her smile and her tall tales.... surprising people with her elephantine memory... entertaining everyone that she meets with her dancing and singing.

I feel so honored to be her mother. To be the one that gets to see all those firsts and gets to celebrate each new accomplishment with her. I am so blessed to have such a healthy, bright little girl who fills my heart with such joy. I have said each year since 2009 that she is the best Valentine's day gift that I could have ever received... and she still is.

sharing treats with her dance class

Even though today is her birthday, tonight at dance she asked to pass out cupcakes to all her friends. She wanted to share with everyone her special day. And it didn't just stop at dance.... SweetPea thought of everyone on her birthday and how she wanted to share with them. Share her homemade chocolate suckers, share her birthday cake/cupcakes, share her new Dream Light.... Everything was about making sure that no one felt left out today.

Its moments like this that make me realize that I am doing a good job raising her. There might be trying times and there definitely are days that are not fun. But then there are times like now when my heart swells with such pride over the caring, thoughtful, considerate child that I am preparing to one day, set forth into the world.

a week in review.... M

I really didn't think that this week was going to happen. Being sick for the majority of the week, I just didn't have the stamina to plan out an awesome week like I normally would. But knowing that I plan on having a "break" week next week so we can focus on Valentine's day and knowing that the week after that would be our mid-winter break (since the bigs are off school that week), I knew that I needed to plow ahead this time. Which meant a week filled with tears and frustration... and even some on SweetPea's part too. But we made it. And I don't think that either of us are too scarred because of it.

M is for mountain

 This week, we focused on the letter M. Our crafts were making mountains and a mouse. I wanted to do a monkey hand print set so we could do a felt board version of "Five Little Monkeys Swinging in the Trees" but I will have to save that for another time. I just didn't have the energy to fight with PorkChop to get his two prints done and SweetPea was, honestly, happy to be cutting our workload short.... even if it meant less craft time.

learning measurements

 For math this week, we worked on measurements. Not just measuring how many inches items were, but working on conceptual measurements like narrow vs wide.... heavier vs lighter.... tall vs short. I am pleasantly surprised to see SweetPea really take off with these. I know that numbers are not her favorite thing and I am sure that I am partly to blame for that. So to see her enjoying a math week was a nice change.

 

making Mounds

 The letter M is a fun letter to create yummy food around. On Sunday, we made chocolate cupcakes with homemade marshmallow frosting. On Tuesday, we made Mound truffles... to which SweetPea decided that she is beyond done liking coconut. On Friday, we made muffins... to which she replied that she is done eating those as well. *sigh* At least she still likes cake.

marshmallow sensory

 Our sensory pans this week were marshmallow filled... Which meant that PorkChop ate more than his fair share of his work. SweetPea wasn't too enthused with this one either but I am guessing that that was my illness rubbing off on her. Everything that she normally loved doing, this past week, she just totally dragged her feet. I am thinking that when we do the letter N that I will change her sensory pan up a bit. Maybe make it more themed instead of just practice on filling and dumping and piling.

all about the M

 Our nursery rhyme this week was "Do you know the muffin man?' I thought that it was beyond adorable that SweetPea tells you that the muffin man lives on "Journey" Lane. We had fun taking turns being the muffin man and sharing our baked goods with everyone. It turned out to be a great blessing that snow day was also our nursery rhyme day because it meant more people to share our wares with.

Who says homeschooling has to take place at home?

I wanted to do a movie day with Madagascar but the ps3 and I are still at odds. Instead, I made tents in the living room and we camped out and watched some cartoons together. Wasn't quite the same effect as my vision of playing movie theatre, complete with popcorn and water bottles, cardboard box cars and a dimmed room, but it was still fun. Every once in a while, getting to veg out as part of your lessons is a good thing.

m is for mouse