Thursday, February 26, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Today I am most thankful for preschool. Yes, preschool. It really is a sanity saver. I get 5 hours a week of peace and quiet (usually) while Maggie is away and Maya is sleeping. And today I am also thankful for my neighbor Paula, who is on pick-up duty, because as you can see below, we are having a snowstorm and packing Maya to and from the car is really a pain in the neck when the snow is coming down and it is blowing all over the place. : )

Today is an extra special day for the Magster. On Tuesday she received the coveted "color bag". One kid is chosen each week to take the bag home and they are to bring it back the next school day filled with 5 items of the specific color the bag contains. Maggie's color was red which was actually a bit of a challenge for us. We don't have a lot of red stuff in the house. Anyway, she was overjoyed with receiving the bag and it pretty much hasn't left her side since Tuesday afternoon. She's had it packed and unpacked multiple times, with the first being less than 5 minutes after we got home from school on Tuesday. This morning I came downstairs to find her sitting alone in the living room holding the bag next to her! So we managed to scrounge up 5 red things, 1. Hippy the red hippo 2. red crab that hangs on the frig 3. red block 4. red heart 5. red plastic heart that some Valentine candy came in. She also had a red wooden pepperoni that goes on a wooden pizza set we have, but that made 6 and they were only supposed to bring 5, so the pepperoni had to stay behind. : )

If they get the color bag, it is their special day. They get to sit in the special chair up in the front during circle time and show everyone their colored goodies. They also get to be the line leader. Fun, fun, fun!

Here she is with Miss Wall showing off the red block.

This is her class, the Pooh Bears. As you can see, Daniel isn't paying attention!

After the person shares the color bag, they each bring their name tags up to Miss Wall and say "Good afternoon Miss Wall". She is the collector of the name tags today too.
Maya and I stayed just a few minutes to watch her presentation. All the kids are so cute. There are definitely a couple chatty girls and the little boy in the orange shirt in the picture above is completely clueless about everything. It is funny to see the range of behavior and personalities!

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Monday, February 23, 2009

For fun...

In the lives of the Kelly kids, leotards are necessities of life. They wear them EVERY day at some point, usually at multiple points, and we have now progressed from performing single skills, to full blown routines on beam and floor. This includes Maya and it is REALLY cute!!! I wish I knew how to get a video up on here. Anyway... here they are, sporting their leotards and actually being nice to each other, for the moment anyway!



Maya is crazy. She has no fear. She KNOWS that we don't jump or do bouncy on the couch, so of course, this is what I came downstairs to find her doing the other day. Nice.

Maggie's having a growth spurt I think, and I've noticed that all her leotards are starting to ride up her butt, so being the wonderful mother that I am, put my sewing skills to work and made her a couple new ones. Then of course, Miss Maya had to have some too. Pretty cute huh?

This is what I came downstairs to a little bit ago. Is there a 4 year old in that diaper box???

Why yes, there surely is!

Fun times with a box. What could be better?

This is my latest invention. Maggie is suddenly 4 going on 14. We have plenty of sassing, telling mom and dad "no!" and other not so pleasant things. She also likes to baby talk and generally speak jibberish. I CAN NOT STAND IT!!!! So, I made this lovely chart and we're gonna nip this in the bud before I have to check in to the looney bin. : ) This is the "Good Talk, Bad Talk" chart. She has to put stars in the "bad" section for sassing, being rude, baby talking, etc., and gets to put stars in the "good" section for being polite with words, asking for things nicely, and speaking in English. (a novel concept I know). I still have to make up the rewards and consequences, but she doesn't really seem to care and it seems to be working so far!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Monday, February 16, 2009

Valentines Day

Valentines Day was low key this year. Aaron was out of town so it was just us girls. He had given them each a Valentine stuffed animal - this year it was an elephant - on Friday night before he left. So on Saturday we woke up and had breakfast, Maggie's favorite, Rolling up Pancakes (Swedish Pancakes, aka. big pancakes) and fruit. Then mommy brought out a Snow White card and a bucket each filled with a few goodies. They thought they were in heaven!




Wanna lick???

Later in the day, I went out to get the mail and what was in there??? A LOT of cards and a box of Valentines goodies from Grandma and Grandpa. Maggie of course was all over the box as you can see. : )

A little out of order, but here is one of the Valentine buckets of goodies.

Look what I got!!!

On Friday, we had a little Valentine party with the Cove kids. We had lunch which consisted of heart shaped PB&J, fruit and fun, layered, red rainbow jello.
After lunch we decorated heart cookies with frosting and sprinkles. What could be better?

Really worked up a thirst after those yummy cookies! (Notice the bright orange cups from Halloween! : P ) - oh, and no party is complete without one of the participants being in a leotard!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Thankful Thursday

Since there are a lot of people out there doing things like "Not Me Monday" or "Wordless Wednesday", neither of which I got around to, I thought I would institute "Thankful Thursday". This is my own creation, so don't make fun!!!

This Thursday I am very thankful for special days such as Valentines Day. Crafts are easy to come by and the kids LOVE doing holiday stuff, especially when they involves glitter and frosting & sprinkles (seperate projects of course!). I have had multiple kids to watch this week, so crafts and organized projects were a must to keep the bickering, tattling and fighting to a minimum. Here's a few...

We made these Valentine hats on Wednesday when I had a full house (Lily was also there but refused to get in the picture.)

The kids each decorated their headband with stickers and markers.

Then we added the curly antenaes with sparkly hearts on the ends.

Maggie's filling out her name on all 20 valentines she took to school today to pass out. It was a lot of writing for her. Tinkerbell got hooked up with a chocolate heart and they were ready to go!

Maya "helping".

Concentration...

Here we made some cookie suckers for the "Cove" kids. I did the frosting, Maggie did the sprinkles. I think they turned out really cute. We packaged them up in a clear baggie with a pink ribbon and will pass them out on Saturday.

Maggie putting the finishing touch, the sprinkles, on the cookie suckers.
Aaron's flying out to Seattle tomorrow and for some that read this, there will be Valentines in tow. We love all of you and wish we could give them to you ourselves...Happy Valentines Day!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Bouncy class

Here we are at bouncy class, Maya's at least. The pictures are kind of blurry, since Aaron took them from behind glass, but you get the gist. Bouncy class is definitely the highlight of her week!

Rolls down the "cheese" mat.

Yeah, she's supposed to be going THROUGH the tunnel, not over it.

Stretching on our tummies. Of course, she's looking around at the big girls...she's not really into the stretching part!

Pike stretch.

Butterfly stretch with mommy.