My Outift Rocks!

Simon at times loves to try to put clothes on by himself. For instance the alligator shoes - the one pair of shoes he can pretty much do by himself. So they are often a popular choice around the house. Then the camo jammies - he put those on all by himself too. From the back he looked like a superhero when he would run through the house! Hey, whatever floats your boat, kid!

Happy Birthday to Me!

How am I 32 already?! Didn't I just graduate from college three years ago?! I guess not so much.

We were down visiting my sister's family in Philadelphia the day before my birthday so it was decided to have a little celebration for me since my entire family ended up being together for the evening. We had some yummo Papa John's pizza and delicious ice cream cake (two of my fave things)! Simon sure enjoyed the sweet treats too. And my nieces and nephew made these awesome birthday signs for me!

Sensory Bins are Fun and Messy!

As a mom sometimes I find myself making it through the week and when Friday evening rolls around and Chris gets home from work I exhale because I made it to the weekend! The weekend where Chris is usually around to give me a break here and there and where Simon loves to follow his dad around.

One Saturday morning Chris was "doing some good deeds" for some people in our church and I had to come up with something new to do with Simon. Solution popcorn seed sensory bin! It was a hit! And quite a mess now and then! But hey, everything can be a mess with little kids! Finding joy in the little things is what it's all about!

Toddler Activities

I've been trying to find new and fun things to do with Simon to stay ahead of his learning curve! One thing I found was to make colored ice cubes and then put two primary colors in different baggies and watch them melt to make a secondary color. Initially he loved the colored ice cubes but as they started to melt he lost interest until the ice cubes were really small. Then he liked pushing them around in the bags. I still have a rainbow of ice cubes in my freezer to try this activity again OR we'll put one in the bathtub here and there!

Uh oh.

Guess it was bound to happen sometime! Coffee grounds on the floor! Funny thing was the container was sealed and the little stinker peeled the foil off and still made a "big mess" as he says! He proceeded to 'clean up the mess' by taking a tissue and his hands and spreading the mess even farther across the floor while I was in the process of getting a broom and dust pan!

Ironically Chris and I don't even drink coffee :) We have it on hand as we host small group at our house twice a month!!! (Don't worry small group friends - we threw these grounds away instead of putting them back in the container!)

Home Improvements: Part 3 The Curtains

Six months ago (but who's counting?!) we decided to paint an accent wall in our family room. I have a blue kitchen which I am very fond of so since the kitchen opens up to the FR we chose the accent wall to be a shade of blue darker then the kitchen. Personally I think it is one of the best decisions we made to make our FR pop a little more. Anyway, this meant I had to find new accent pillows, art for the wall and a new valence. The first two were not too hard. Finding a valence, however, was not as easy. Wouldn't you know one night at every man's dream store, Lowe's, I found a panel curtain on clearance. BINGO! My mother is a genius as she suggested a panel and that she would magically transform (aka sew) it to a valence for me. Better late than never we have a beautiful valence in our FR that really completes the room. AND she made one for my garden window in the kitchen! Thanks mom!

PS - Isn't that monkey hanging on the door creepy?! But it makes my little man laugh so it stays!!

Home Improvements: Part 2 The Living Room

We're gaining a baby and losing our home office! A trade I'll take anyday but losing an entire room of an office required some creativity. For Christmas I got a new secretary desk which we put in our living room. I love this piece of furniture! It has helped me get organized and I love that it is close to my kitchen rather than upstairs. Now I don't have to run upstairs to get a stamp or envelope or to pay my bills or use a printer. Isn't it pretty?!

We also purchased a new bookshelf from everyone's favorite Swedish mega store. Also a great addition to the living room that we have a bazillion kids books, crafts, our own books, games, etc. And it's just going to continue to get worse over the years, right?! Love, love, love the new home organization and furniture pieces in my living room!

Home Improvements: Part 1 The Laundry Room

The above picture is our laundry room as it has been for the past 3 years. It was painted a lovely faux beige color with a beautiful border around the top! We have a door to our laundry room which is usually closed so the laundry room paint job was not a high priority on the project list. We finally made it to that part of the list!

No more faux paint. No more tacky, I mean beautiful border. My laundry room is now a beautiful blue which is the same blue as our accent wall in the family room (which is next to our laundry room). I LOVE IT! It looks so pretty with all of our white cabinetry and white hooks which I picked up on sale at La Target. My laundry room is so organized and fresh and clean (for a little while anyway)! AND I love the organizer on the back of the door. It's great for hats, gloves, little man's shoes and other random things that usually end up on the top of my dryer!

Hubby did compliment me in that the dryer lint trap was very clean when he was moving the dryer around and cleaning up in the laundry room! :) Stay tuned for Parts 2 and 3 of Home Improvements!!

Poor, Sad, Sick Little Boy

When Simon woke up from his nap with a fever and just wanted to snuggle and lay on the couch for 3 days in a row I knew something was up. My energetic, non-stop little boy had strept throat! You feel so badly for your kids when they're so sick but it's also nice to cuddle and enjoy the "down time" with them.

The antibiotics are doing their job well and little man is almost back to "normal."

Oh, and this is big boy's new "green pillow" that he loves! This is the first transition to the toddler bed which we will do at the end of the month. Transition one is a huge success - he loves his pillow!

Happy Fasnacht Day!

Faithful blog readers: I am so sorry to have kept you waiting! I have a bit of catching up to do!
We will start with our Fasnacht Day celebration. For those of you who have never heard of this, it is a Pennsylvania Dutch thing (the area of PA that we live in!) and also celebrated in a part of Switzerland. It is celebrated the day before Lent when fasnachts were made as a way to empty the pantry of lard, sugar, fat and butter which were traditionally fasted from during Lent. Sounds pretty gross, right?! I must say I don't ever remember eating a TRUE fasnacht but they're pretty much like a doughnut and every grocery store in our area sells them for this special day and plenty of churches make them as fundraisers.

I cheated and bought "real" yummy, delicious, super sweet doughnuts for us to enjoy at breakfast. I think this was actually Simon's first doughnut. He enjoyed the creamy filling and that's about it! I didn't give up anything for Lent mainly because I have zero to none will power when it comes to sweets. And to be frank I'm pregnant, who wants to give up sweets?! I keep thinking one of these years I will try to give up something. I'll just keep thinking on that for now! Did you give anything up for Lent?!