Stuff

I haven't posted in a while because I got that blogger message about not having enough storage so I had to figure out what to do.  Anyways here are some of the things we've been up to.

 

Millie is an eater.  She loves baby food. She gets upset when I don't get the food to her fast enough.

 

 Just hanging out.  Owen is such a good big brother.  He is always watching out for Millie- so sweet.

 On Thanksgiving morning we went for a run/ bike ride.  Brooke rode her bike the whole 5 miles and Owen rode his bike for 2 miles.  They did so great and it was fun to be able to do something like that with them.

 We took some pictures at Thanksgiving, unfortunately the battery died right after this picture was taken so I didn't know that glass was totally blocking Millie.  Oh well it was a delicious dinner!

 

Owen's new favorite super hero/ villain to impersonate is Magneto from X-men, kind of funny.

 

 

Brooke has been taking gymnastics with her friend Kaitlyn and loves it.

We went and saw Santa.  Owen asked for a Captain America shield ( I guess the one I made him wasn't cool enough) and Brooke asked for a jewelry maker because she was embarrassed to ask for the Transformers she really wants and decided she would just send Santa a letter asking for Transformers.

 

Brooke has lost her first two teeth ( this picture only shows one missing but she lost another one a few days later).

 We went to the Christmas parade where my kids got more candy than they got trick or treating.  We let them eat it that night but I keep forgetting to get it back down for them to eat.  Did I mention I still have candy from last years Christmas parade that I keep forgetting to throw away?

Back to School

Brooke started 1st grade last week.  She was a bit excited, she woke up at 6 o' clock.  Anyways her teacher is really great and I think it is going to be a great school year for her.

This is her and her friend walking home from the bus after their awesome first day of school.

We had cookies when she got home from school in an attempt to bribe a little information about her day out of her, it didn't work.

Then, today was Owen's first day of pre- school.  He was also very excited.   He was so excited he even let me brush his hair which is unheard of around here. He had a great time and said his favorite part of school was how nice his teachers were.

Isn't that kid the cutest!

Brooke's Birthday Stuff / Things I'd Been Wanting To Try

So for Brooke's birthday this year I decided to take the opportunity to try a few things I'd been wanting to do out.  Luckily Brooke was a pretty good sport about it.

Tie-Dye Cupcakes

We made tie-dye cupcakes to take to school.  They were super easy and fun to make together.  Although I always tend to get a little heavy handed with the food coloring on things like that and the colors looked a little dull when they were baked.  I forgot to take a picture of them at the end, but they were cute- we just did white frosting with sprinkles.

Fondant

I've been wanting to try fondant forever, but it made me nervous and seemed like a big deal.  Brooke picked out a cherry cake from the May issue of Better Homes and Gardens that also had a recipe for a candy clay.  So while I techniquely didn't use fondant I think the candy clay was close.  I decided not to frost the whole cake in the candy clay/fondant because the buttercream was so delicious.  So I just made the flowers and swirls out of it, it was super easy to work with and kind of fun to try something new.  Also don't mind the finger swipes through the cake, I apparently have no control whatsoever over my son.

Brooke loves her new scooter!

Did I mention my little girl is a bookworm.  We had to wait for her to finish her book, so that we could blow out candles and eat cake.

We didn't have a party this year which I thought I might miss, but which I must say was so wonderful.  But we did let Brooke invite two friends over for a little playdate.  They had a lot of fun and Brooke really didn't seem to mind the lack of party.

I'd been wanting to make a fruit bouquet for a while and figured that would be a perfect snack for my little girl that LOVES fruit.  It was really fun and easy to make and Brooke thought it was super fancy! So that was our birthday celebrations, I really like having a reason to try some of the cool ideas out there!

Happy Birthday Brooke!

Happy Birthday Sweetie!


Brooke is such a sweet girl.  I love that her birthday is so close to Mother's Day, because I think it helps me to treasure this sweet little girl that made me a mom, a little bit more.  I am just so grateful I get to be her mom.  Here are a few things I love about her.

1.  She is thoughtful.  She is always thinking about nice things that she can do for people.  For mother's day she gave me a stack of pictures about 3 in. thick that she'd been working on for weeks.

2.  She loves to read. I often find her up, long after bedtime snuggled in her blankets reading.

3.  She is creative.  She is always thinking up new games or writing stories or working on some project or another.

4.  She is funny.  She has a great sense of humor, and she even tolerates her dad's incessant teasing pretty well.

5.  She is a great big sister.  The other night she asked Owen if he wanted her to read stories and tuck him in and he said yes so she went and put him to bed for us.

6.  She is pretty easy going.  For the most part this little girl can deal with things when they don't go her way and still be the happy girl she usually is.

I love you Brookie! Thanks for making me a momma!

Things We've Been Up To

We went to the zoo. It was fun, although I really think I'm going to need a leash for Owen if I ever want to leave my house after the baby (did anyone see that Modern Family?)

Brooke's friend Kaitlyn slept over one night when her parents were out of town.  They surely did enjoy themselves, between dressing up, painting their nails and having ice cream they had quite the night.

Brooke played soccer this spring.  She had a lot of fun.  I think more than anything she really loved interacting with the other girls and being part of a team.

 Every game Brooke tried to get the girls to block the goal with her and kind of thought it was weird that her coach always made them move.  Obviously blockading the goal is a pretty sure fire way to win, right?

We went to a Smokies baseball game. 

Our seats were right above the dugout, and Brooke got a ball after one of the innings.  She was quite excited about that!

This is Diamond one of the Smokies mascots.  He was hanging out by our seats for awhile, and Owen was quite enamored with him.

The fireworks after the game were my favorite part.  I am always impressed with their firework displays they are always so cool.

Buddy Bear came for a visit.  Buddy Bear is Brooke's kindergarten class mascot.  She was so excited to have him come home for an entire weekend and I was so excited that she wrote almost the entire journal entry by herself that I couldn't help but take a picture.  She really loves to write and she is getting so much more confident with spelling and things its so fun to see how much she has learned this year!

Brooke is a Model!

OK, so not really, and kind of not the future we're hoping for,  but my friend Kate did take some pictures of Brooke modeling some dresses for her blog here.  Kate is super talented and kind of amazing, so you should totally check out her blog and see pictures of my cute little girl too.

I Stand Corrected

A few weeks ago I made a clover garland in rainbow colors for St. Patrick's day.  I was excited for Brooke to get home from school so I could show it to her, as she gets as excited as I do for holidays and decorating.  So when she got home I showed her the garland looking forward to her excitement.  She looked at the garland for half a second and then turned to me and said, "Were you trying to do that in rainbow colors?" I responded that I had done it in rainbow colors, to which she replied "Yeah, but you got the order wrong violet comes after blue, you should probably fix that."  So I did.  It's great to have a 5 year old around to catch my mistakes!

Coloring

My kids are really into coloring right now.  The other day they sat at the table coloring for over an hour while I cooked dinner and cleaned up the kitchen.  I hardly even knew what to do with them, its so rare for them to play happily and quietly for such a long time.  I just love it when they are happily engaged in something other than watching t.v.

Spring Time and a Bike Ride

It's Spring! I just love seeing everything coming back to life and all the new flowers.  It makes me so happy! Here are some signs of Spring from our yard. 

Also, it's been a few months since Brooke asked to take her training wheels off, but she just didn't get the hang of it and then this past weekend I came out and there she was going at it on the driveway.  She is doing so great on her bike.  To celebrate, we decided to go on a family bike ride this weekend.  Owen, really didn't want to put his helmet on, but once he did he was off! The kids sure loved riding their bikes and I enjoyed walking along and taking pictures.  Happy Spring!