Valentine's Party 2012

A few years ago I threw a cookie decorating party for Valentine's Day. I had a really good time and planned to make it a tradition. Fail. Out of guilt I did one this year. I decided since I have a group of girls at my house every few weeks for our regular playdate I'd just fancy up that day a bit and call it a party. We had decorations, fancy table settings, Valentine's crafts, and cookies to decorate. Voila--party.

February

Apparently I'm no longer a blogger. Sads. I cannot keep up!
Here's February.

Maggie gets congested quite a bit at night so we bought her some of those nose strips in the kid's size. She wears them most nights. Well, one day she decided she needed it at school. I figured at some point during the day she'd rip it off. Nope. She came running out of the school that day with the nose strip still in place.

We had a snow day. I had no idea what to do with my kids for a whole day stuck in the house. We started with coloring. The markers were scented so this was the result:

Maggie did homework with her friends from school (a stuffed rooster, pig, and mouse).

Caroline played with the lip noisemaker I passed out in the goodie bags from our Valentine's party (for another post!).

We played with balloons and paddles made from paper plates and craft sticks. You can tell this didn't last long. Maggie got so frustrated with Caroline not being able to keep up.

Daddy shoveled us out.

January

Apparently I was too busy trying to get my entire life organized and all of my new years resolutions complete ASAP and I forgot about this here blog.
Let's catch up, shall we?

Maggie's school assignment:

Maggie struggles with staying hydrated. We try everything to get her to drink!! My sister, Julie, has taken to texting pics of her drinking water and asking for one in return. This is one of those pics we texted to Julie--look, we're drinking!!

Did I mention Patrick got reading glasses?

Frosting is goooood:


Every time Caroline catches a cough it turns into croup. It's miserable!! What's worse is that every time we try to administer the medicine she vomits it all right back up. We realized it was because the medicine is in an alcohol base and it's quite strong. Patrick suggested we give her a screwdriver (a cocktail of orange juice and vodka). So we mixed her meds with some OJ and down it went! Yup, I played bartender to my 2-year old :-(

Green smoothies. Since I don't yet own a Vitamix I have to beg mine off friends. Luckily I have very kind and generous friends! (My very own Vitamix is currently on it's way--thanks to that AWESOME husband of mine!).

Caroline went into the basement playroom and picked out this outfit herself. Then she came up to dance for me. Love that she enjoys performing.

Final Pics of 2011

Maggie made a new discovery this Christmas season--hot chocolate. She requested it a lot!

We made a trip to a sporting goods store to buy me some goggles and a swim cap. Maggie saw some children's goggles and begged me to buy them for her. I said I would ONLY if she put her head under water the next time we went swimming. She wore them all that day and has yet to put her head even close to the water when at the pool. Will this girl ever learn to swim?

My sofa finally came. I was so excited when I bought/ordered it back in October then it took what felt like a year to arrive!

An evening out. Maggie and Caroline are both wearing my headbands. You might wonder why I let them run around town looking like that. I'd like to say I have a good excuse or that it normally doesn't look like that. I can't and I won't. I just don't care to fight that battle. Whatever they want to wear it fine by me.

Again, I'm not going to fight the outfit battle:

Since Maggie's birthday is during summer break she got to bring a treat into her kindergarten class on her "half birthday".

A quick trip to the mall for last minute gifts meant I had to reward these girls somehow. A moment in a photo booth proved to be the perfect thing. They were so excited about it and I got the cutest little strip of sister pics ever!

Christmas 2011

This year we were lucky enough to have Grandma and Grandpa come to Colorado to spend the holiday with us! The girls were so happy about it and they loved all the attention.
Grandma crafted with them:

Christmas Eve gift opening. It was always a tradition in my family to open one gift on Christmas Eve and it was always pajamas.

Modeling the new jammies:

Santa doesn't need ALL the cookies we made for him, right??

Christmas morning:

One of Caroline's gifts from Santa was a Belle dress-up:

Maggie got a new leotard for gymnastics:

I'm kicking myself for being so lazy with the camera this year. I had a very laid back and relaxing holiday and because of that I kind of forgot to document things! And, to make matters worse, the few picture I did take were with my cell phone so the quality is low.

Christmas really was great! We ate well, relaxed a ton, the kids entertained us, etc. I even got a hands on lesson from my mother-in-law on her bread making.

New Years was uneventful--young kids can really put a damper on your desire to celebrate anything after about 9pm. We went to bed early like any other day. As much as I enjoy the festivities and fun associated with the holiday season I also really love starting new goals, getting back to a family rhythm, and focusing on the clean year ahead. Here's to 2012!

Merry Christmas 2011

My Birthday

This year I turned....well, let's just say I got (what felt like) A LOT older! My good friend, AJ, put together a little celebration at her house for me. It was absolutely perfect in every way. The food was fabulous. Her house was already fully decorated into a winter wonderland. And the company was awesome--I lovey LOVE my friends.

Unfortunately I spent the entire night before my lovely, perfect party in the bathroom vomiting. Awesome. I was fine by morning but so very weak. I didn't document the celebration with even one photo. I'm so bummed about that. My birthday has never been my favorite day to celebrate. I usually try to ignore it completely. But the one year a friend does something amazing for me and I don't even get a pic to remember makes me very, very sad. So this is my tiny little way of documenting one fabulous birthday celebration. Thank you AJ for throwing me such an amazing shin-dig and thanks to all of my lovely friends who attended!! I appreciate it more than you know.

Black Friday 2011

I love how we spend our Black Fridays. It's such a peaceful family day.

I made the girls some pj's. I really wanted them to be a Christmas eve gift but trying to sew up two sets of jammies in private would have been near impossible. So they got them early. They are darling if I do say so myself!