Thursday, February 28, 2013

Sparky the Fire Dog.....

.....and real live fire fighters, and fire trucks, oh my!

The parenting milestone I never thought I would get to, at least not this fast, taking my Avery on a field trip to the fire station! 


 This is sparky, the fire dog.  After the kids watched a Sesame Street video about fire fighters and fire stations he sang the kids a couple songs.  One was about what to do if you find matches or a lighter, another of course was about STOP, DROP, & ROLL.  Then the kids got to practice it as well.  Avery was a little shy as she always is in new unfamiliar situations, I was proud of her that she still did it.


Here she is getting a little encouragement from her teacher.


And then she did it, STOP, DROP & ROLL!!!


Fire fighter Kyle, showed the kids how they put all their gear on and what they look like in it.  It really helps the kids to see fire fighter Kyle as a regular guy, then in his fire suit, and back to regular Kyle again.  


He also showed the kids his air tank and how they bring there own air to the fires with them.  He also used a Darth Vader reference for what it sounds like when he is breathing in the air from the tank, funny how 90% of the kids have no clue yet who Darth Vader is, makes a Mom feel old.


Then he called out to the kids, how he would if he was looking for you in your house, "Is any body in there?"

The kids shouted back, "I'm over here!"

They did it a few times and by the last time they all were nice and loud.  Of course they talked about fire alarms, and having a fire plan, then the kids got to go out to the fire trucks!


Avery driving the fire truck.


This was the front of the fire truck Avery got to "drive".



All the firemen's gear ready a waiting for them.


Avery climbing into the fire truck with her classmates.


Avery sitting on the front of a fire truck.


Probably my favorite, Avery in a fire hat and coat.



It sure was an exciting day at the fire station.

A real treat for Avery, and now the real treat is for Mom, a tuckered out lil' girl napping with her brother.

How else do you think I'd be able to blog about it the same day. ;)






Monday, February 25, 2013

My lil' Artist

Anyone who knows Avery know she is just like her Mom, she can't get enough of the craft supplies.  We want it all, pink & sparkly, ribbons & stickers, stamps & paper, watercolors & paintbrushes.  When she is older I can see us spending some serious cash-O-la at Hobby Lobby.  So it surprised me the other night when the artist that decided to beautify my house was actually not her.

I didn't realize I had another budding Picasso in our house.  I discovered him doing his work in secret behind one of our living room chairs.  I gave him a lil' talking to in as low and disappointed of a voice as I could muster, because really I wasn't all that mad, but I was trying to still show him it is wrong to color your crayons on Mommy's walls.  (This will clean up way easier then the Vaseline he smeared all over himself and the bathroom one time.) And what did he have to say for himself?

"Ohrrrey"
(Levi talk, Sorry)

Oh, okay Levi.  How can you stay mad at that sweet little face?


Time to bust out the Magic Eraser.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Why do all the work for someone else to enjoy?

The time has come once again, spring cleaning!
Can you really call it spring cleaning in the first week of February?  

Well, that's what I'm calling it I guess.  Early spring cleaning.

I was browsing around on Pintrest the other night and I came across something that really made sense.  Over at Clover Lane she was telling her readers how she does her spring cleaning.  She said she puts herself in the shoes of a buyer.  Acting like she is buying her own house.  She came up with her method when her family was selling their last two houses.  Here is the part that is like slap you in the face, uh duh....

"I learned this: It's super super annoying to have to do all those little things you procrastinated for years, for SOMEONE ELSE! My houses never looked so good as when they were ready to be put on the market. This really annoyed me. And I vowed it would never ever happen again. (I'm just kidding on that last sentence...I'm really not that dramatic about something so trivial.)"

Told you.

I don't think that I can be quite as awesome as she is, but at least she left bread crumbs down the path. 

Her spring cleaning post is pretty darn good, I don't have the kind of time to stretch this out in a master list for a year.  I kinda need to be done by Tuesday, but still awesome motivation, and great tips/ pointers.

Yesterday I started in on my kitchen.  I got these wine glass racks for Christmas from my in-laws (Thanks!) and I was getting ready to make an improvement and get 'em hung up.

Well, of course the place where I was going to hang them didn't work out as I planned so I moved on to plan B, which I am actually much happier with.

Ohh, isn't it so pretty!?!

Originally I was going to put them in the underside of the cupboard they are now above.
I am much happier with this because the wine bottles now have their own place too!  And I keep some oh so valuable cupboard space.  I decided to move my coffee mugs over in that space.  My other cupboard where we usually keep the glasses is overflowing.  So it was nice to free up some space in there as well.


Probably the best part is, that moving the wine glasses up there forced me to clean the top of that cupboard.  It was beyond gross.  I had a lot of vases on top of it and other things all along the top of all the cupboards.  For quite some time now I would look up there and know I needed to clean up there, but who really wants to do that.  NO ONE, only Monica from Friends. ;)  You can't just clean the top of one, so I took everything down and cleaned across them all.  


A serious improvement over decor items that were almost black with dust.
Then as I started to clean all the things that were on top of there, I realized that I hadn't taken down a vase to use since I put them up there.  

When we moved in.

Three & a half years ago.

HERE'S YOUR SIGN!

So I packed them up, all except for one.

They will be off to find a new home.

I also realized what a pain in the rear it was to clean anything that was sitting up there.  So no more of that.  Only my wine glasses (that will get enough use and will not go forgotten about, trust me) and one pretty little pitcher.  I also put sheets of wax paper on the top of each cupboard, 3 1/2 years from now this process will be a whole lot easier. ;)  

Friday, February 1, 2013

Happy Birthday Levi!

Last weekend we celebrated Levi's 2nd, birthday.  Today is his actual birthday so I thought today would be the perfect day to blog about his party.  Well to start with nothing was going right, first Avery was sick, Levi had a cough, and then Avery gave me whatever it was that she had.  At first I didn't know how I was going to pull it off.  But I did, and I think everyone especially Levi had a good time.






First we opened gifts.  Levi is definitely turning into the typical little kid, tearing the paper open and before he even see's whats inside moving onto the next.  But after a few gifts he started rubbing his eyes and it looked like he was gonna fall asleep before he could finish.  It was really too cute.  


After a little play time with his new toys there was a knock at the door.





ELMO!  Elmo heard it was Levi's birthday and stopped in to say Happy Birthday!

Poor Elmo he must have had a rough journey to our house, he looks a little run down. ;)  And I'm afraid it didn't get much better for Elmo, all the kids were afraid of  him!

  
Avery held Elmo at gunpoint to make sure he behaved himself.


Levi watched as big sissy sat with Elmo but he still wasn't convinced.


Nope, baby Marshall wasn't liking Elmo either.

Ian proved to all the little's that it was okay, see Elmo is nice.



Vera even took at turn.


That all just wasn't enough for Levi, he was not happy that Elmo showed up to crash his party.  So we sent Elmo packing, back to Sesame Street for you Elmo.



On to happier things like cake!  Levi got a great view of his cake from Papa.
All he wanted was the toy on top.



Good food, good cake, great friends & family to celebrate our little man's 2nd birthday, what more could you ask for.




I guess a few more licks of frosting when you think no one is watching.


Whew, until next year.....