Babysitting!

At the end of September, Tony and I offered (read: told) to watch Wyatt while Kat and Garrett went to a wedding. What a great time we had!!!

So it's been a while....

Back in May, Emma had her final performance with her string class. It was at the mall, center court, and she did fabulously!!! She cried when she had to hand her rental viola back in, and we assured her she would be able to continue in the summer camp and the fall!! :)

First Relay!!

We attended our first Relay for Life of the season last weekend!! Fire Up Chips!! :)

I'm an Aunt!

We are all quite smitten with Mr. Wyatt George Mason! Born February 23, 11:44am, 8lb 4oz, 20.5" long!!

Smartie Pants...

My mom and dad gave Emma a subscription to American Girl magazine for Christmas. She just got a new issue in the mail last week...here's what she's been doing the last 45 minutes...

Not-so-Happy Valentine's Day

Bradler and I have been feverishly working on his Valentine's for school for a few weeks now. He LOVES LOVES LOVES play dough and I found a very cool idea on Pinterest for Valentine's for little kids that fit perfectly.

In 1981, my grandma (Snookie) gave my mom a book called "Feed Me, I'm Yours". In it is a fabulous recipe for homemade play dough! I printed the recipe on a card, Bradlee signed his name on the bottom (all 24 of them!!), we glued them to cardstock, punched a hole, and tied a little bag of homemade play dough and a heart cookie cutter to it! They turned out so well and Bradlee was SO proud of all the help he provided with this project!!!

Unfortunately, both kids were home sick for Valentine's Day (as was I)!! Tony took his Valentines to school so his friends could still have them, but he didn't get to share the fun with them! :( Oh well...I'm still glad we did it! It does set the standard pretty high for next year, though!!!

Blanket Forts

This is, by far, the top "game" at our house these days...forts, tents, blankets, cushions, pillows, sheets...you name it...EVERYWHERE. :)

First Reconciliation

My baby made her First Reconciliation last night! Emma's been studying and learning about this sacrament since September, also in preparation for First Communion, which will be in May! She was a little nervous, but Uncle Paul (left, her Godfather) was there for support (and was put to work!) and she said Fr. Tom (right, our priest at St. John Vianney) was "awesome"! I'm very proud of her for making this step in her faith!!

Birthday Party fun!

On Saturday, Bradlee went to a birthday party for his friend, Theodora. Bradlee has a lisp, so when he says her name, it's "Feodora"! (So darn cute!) He had a great time playing at the Flint Children's Museum!!

Thief...

He keeps stealing my blanket whenever I get up! Good thing he's so cute! :)

I think it's safe to say...

....I have my kids brainwashed! :) Poor Tony, he's alone in his U of M world! :)

Merry Christmas!!

We had a great Christmas!!!

Little Monster...

If there's one thing I can count on Bradlee for, it's a smile, and usually a laugh (once he's not looking at me anymore).

For example, at Emma's birthday party, which we had at a local high school swimming pool, he found this hat and goggles in the "toy bin" they have for the swim classes. Of course he was wearing his trusty floaty, and the noodle just added to the fun!!

Last month, Emma, Bradlee and I were driving home from school. In the car, Emma and I were talking about how she wanted to see "The Nutcracker" again this year (she last saw it two years ago). While Emma was talking and talking about it, I could hear Bradlee sighing and trying to get a word in. Finally I said, "What's the matter, Bradlee? Do you want to see it too?" "YES." He said. I said, "Well, honey, I just don't know if you're big enough to go see a big show like that yet." He cuts me off and says, "I KNEW you were going to say that!" I thought about it for a second and said, "You know what, Bradlee? Let's try it. You go see movies, why not a show?!" Excited doesn't even BEGIN to describe him for the next 2 weeks until we went! Asked my mom to come in case he didn't last and I had to leave with him, but he was a perfect audience member! We had prepped him, telling him there was no talking, only music. We also told him he would know some of the songs from listening to Mommy's iPod and watching some of the shows on Disney Channel. Once the lights went down, he was mesmerized! I leaned over to point out Clara, the main character, to him. He looked at me with a deadpan face and whispered, "Shhhh....no talking." :) He's been walking around humming selections from "The Nutcracker" ever since.

Yesterday, and into the night, I had a pretty severe migraine. I was in bed all day. Bradlee decided he needed to sleep with me until Tony came to bed, so he could keep an eye on me. So we let him. He was all cuddled in when he decided he had to go to the bathroom...he got up, went in, and I heard him call for Tony, saying he had an accident (i.e., missed the toilet because he forgot to turn the light on). Tony got him into clean PJ's and he climbed back into bed with me. He said, "Mama, you know that red Muppet? What's his name? The red Muppet who plays the drums?" "Animal?" I answered. "Yeah, Animal. He's on my jammies now." I smiled and said, "You know what, Bradlee? You are really good at making me smile." "Yeah," he replied, "and skipping. I'm good at skipping, too..."  <3>

Amazing munchkin...

A few weeks ago, we were watching "Mary Poppins" on TV.

When it got to *that part* of the movie, I dared Emma to sound spell (aka, "sound it out!") *that word*!! :)

I think she did extremely well! :)

It's been a while!!

Wow...I can't believe how long it's been on here...lots has happened!

At the beginning of the month, we had left the house to see Tony's parents. It was about 6:45 at night...about 15 minutes later, I received a text on my phone that our alarm system on our house had been set off. A minute later, Tony got a call from the alarm company asking if we were safe. Someone had kicked in our back door. Fortunately, we also have cameras with the alarm system, and no one came in and nothing is missing. We had the kids stay at Tony's parents' house and we dealt with our house. Thankfully my parents don't live too far away, so my dad came over to help, too. The police department in the city of Flint is on limited resources, so after waiting 2 hours for someone to show up, Tony called 9-1-1 again and had them on the phone while he and my dad entered and checked the the house. All clear. The men boarded up the back door. We are definitely looking into moving!!!

One thing that concerned me was how the kids would feel when they saw the door boarded up and heard what happened. They shouldn't feel scared to be in their own home! So when they got home (it was early in the day, since they didn't have school on Election Day), I told Tony to have them get their markers and decorate the door!  They went to town! I really think it helped both them and us feel a bit better!!

We have a brand new door now, and we thanked the alarm company over and over again. We are confident that is what scared the would-be intruders away!!! Now we venture into the real estate market!!!

Acorn-y Day!

It was a great day to stay inside! Quite chilly out, so I decided to do some projects with the kids. I cannot take credit for these projects...both of them were done by two separate friends during the same week...ironically, they were both acorn-related!

Bradlee LOVES acorns. He gathers them whenever he finds them! My dad, who has an oak tree in his backyard, taught both kids to put the acorn caps on their fingers and then draw faces on the pads of their fingers to make finger puppets!!! Here are our projects today:

Jeweled Acorns (from Kate, Lauren, Annie and Caroline)!!

First, color the inside of the acorn caps with markers:



Be patient while Mommy squirts Elmer's glue into the caps, then smile for a picture! 

Now we wait....for.....the.....glue......to.......dry....... (we also put glitter in some of the caps!)



Edible Acorns (from Monique, Samantha and Sophia)!!

Emma and Bradlee unwrapped the Hershey Kisses (milk chocolate and almond) while Mommy used frosting to "attach" them to the Mini Nilla Wafers!



Emma and Mommy used melted chocolate to "attach" the butterscotch chips to the tops of the Nilla Wafers to look like the "stems"!  

Don't they look like acorns??? 

To finish the day, the kids and I watched the Detroit Symphony Orchestra's live webcast of their concert tonight. It was called "Cirque de la Symphonie". It was live music provided by the orchestra with members of Cirque du Solei performing acts with it! We heard a ton of music, some of it, the kids recognized!!! :)

To the Zoo!!

On Sunday, we made our annual "back to school" trip to the Detroit Zoo! What a wonderful day! Bradlee had gone to the doctor in the past week, so we decided to switch out his car seat for the booster seat! He was SO excited we let them sit in the "way back" of the van!

It was also quite liberating to walk around the Zoo WITHOUT a stroller, wagon, diaper bag, or having to carry a child! What a milestone!!!!! While I love ny babies, and they will always be my babies, we are enjoying the freedom that comes with them growing up!

After the Zoo...by the way, we are now official members...we had our traditional visit with Snookie and Papa and I'm so ticked I forgot to get pictures of it! We had a wonderful dinner at Buddy's Pizza with them, then headed home.

I do love this tradition...

Open Houses!!

Can I get a HOORAY!?!? It's school time again!! Can you say schedule, schedule, schedule!??! :)

We've had a very exciting week so far with BOTH kids! Both kids had open houses at each of their schools. As you may remember, right now, they got to two different schools because we wanted Bradlee to have the same teachers Emma did.

Bradlee is in Pre-K at Holly Elementary. His Open House was Tuesday evening and he was SO excited! The preschool and pre-k classes moved from one building to their current building 2 years ago (this is their second year in the Holly Elementary building). They moved into basically the same room, with a divider to create two different rooms. Bradlee has been SO excited to go to school on the "other side of the wall"!! :) Mrs. Walters, his teacher, was very happy to see him, and happy to see what a beautiful young lade Emma has turned into! Bradlee gave Mrs. Walters a huge hug and said, "I remember you!!" I think it's going to be a great year! Mrs. Walters asked Bradlee if he would be willing to do the Mystery Box for the first day of school. This is where they have a little box that they put one item in and then the class has to guess what it is! Bradlee was quite excited and has already told us we are going to be doing some practice rounds at home before school starts! Here he is with the Mystery Box!



Miss Emma is, can you believe it, starting 2nd grade at Davisburg Elementary! She is going to do so well, I can already feel it! Her teacher is the former PE teacher, so Emma was VERY excited to hear he was moving back to teaching 2nd grade and even MORE excited to hear he was going to be her teacher! I could tell she was a bit nervous about starting school, which is totally normal, and it didn't make it better that her bestest buddy Allie was going to be in the other 2nd grade class...but once we went to the open house today, she was MUCH better! Two of her friends are in her class and it was all she needed...well, that, and to see her teacher!



I couldn't believe the difference between the 1st grade and 2nd grade classrooms...I don't know if it's also the difference between a male and female teacher, but, WOW! :) I am thrilled with the fact there are TABLES instead of a giant rug for the kids to sit on. Last year we had some issues with a girl in Emma's class writing on other people with the dry erase markers...something that does NOT come out of clothes!

Basically, I'm just really excited for both kids to take the next step in their educational journey!! Hooray for school!!! :)

So proud!

A few weeks ago, my in-laws had a garage sale at their house. We were able to contribute some items to the garage sale and of course, we were there to help out as well!

We got Emma all set up for her lemonade stand...and she told everyone who came that their donation was for the Relay for Life! She really only did the lemonade stand one day, but was still able to make $26!! :)

Birthday Boy!

Last Sunday, the 29th, my baby boy turned 4 years old! He is B-I-G into pirates...so naturally, we had a pirate-themed birthday! Aunt Kat and Uncle Garrett gave Bradlee a card with a treasure map inside...the "X" marked the spot of his present! He was SHOCKED to really find a treasure chest with pirate gold and all kinds of pirate goodies in it! Lots of family and friends were able to celebrate with us....it was a great way to spend Bradlee's birthday!

We went to the doctor for his 4 year physical...he is 2 pounds short of being able to sit in a booster seat in the car! To rectify this, Bradlee has constantly been in the "good eaters" or "clean plate" club!! :)