Easter Projects

With Easter being a little earlier this year (two weeks after St. Patrick's Day), we are in full-swing preparing for the holiday.  While we have had our Easter decorations out for a little while now, I decided that we needed to do a little project to decorate our bare pantry door; after all, it just seemed so plain after the shamrocks were taken down.

So, the girls and I set to work constructing some Spring chicks (complete with feathers) and some carrots with various, unique tops.  The girls loved all of the extra gluing that this double project involved.

The carrots, just waiting to have their tops added to them:

We used three different colors of green tissue paper so that the girls could get as creative as they wanted with the designs and color.

The chicks, in all of their feathered glory:

(It's amazing just how much craft stuff I can find in my craft section in the basement!)

The finished decorations:

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Today, the girls helped to make "birds' nests" to celebrate the upcoming holiday ... and hopefully, the arrival of Spring sometime soon.

All ready to go:

About 1.5 seconds into this project, it became apparent that the actual construction of the nests was NOT going to be a good job for Sophia.  She has never been one that liked anything dirty on her hands (always asking for a cloth during dinner to keep her hands and mouth clean), and the gooey butterscotch mixture coating her fingers was just too much for her to handle.

It was then that I made the decision to have Samantha design the nests and I put Sophia in charge of the placement of eggs in them.

This was a great compromise and everyone was happy with their own little job.

 

   

After a while, the girls even broke out into song.  They had such a great time!  

   

The final creations not only look wonderful, but they taste wonderful too!  

St. Patrick's Day - 2013

The girls and I spent the holiday together while Steve was off doing his annual celebrating with his friend, Eric.  Before Steve left though, we took a quick family photo of everyone sporting their green ensambles for the day.

(Quite often, we run into complete strangers that will immediately comment on how Samantha is the spitting image of me -- and they are right: she is my little twin.  More and more, Sophia is looking like Steve.  While she has my nose, the shape of her face and her coloring is just like her daddy).

For something special, I took the girls to McDonalds for lunch so that they could get a shamrock shake.  Sophia loved hers of course, but Sam wasn't really feeling like herself right then and simply declined on the shake.  Regardless, they were perfect angels and the group of elderly ladies that we sat next to were absolutely fascinated with my "cute" and well-behaved" little girls.  I smiled with pride.

Yup, this little one is definitely not camera-shy.

Once we got back home from lunch, I promised the girls that we would make a special cake in honor of the holiday.  It was a green key-lime cake with green key-lime frosting.  It was ... divine.

After their naps, we frosted the cake.  And like a good mother, I let the girls finish up the little bit of remaining frosting.  After all, it was a holiday!

Then, we dressed up the cake a little ...

The girls each enjoyed a piece of the heavenly cake after their dinner.  It was definitely a big hit. 

Finally, we concluded our fun-filled day with manicures after their baths.  Each girl got to choose her own nail polish color (I thought that they would choose green, but I was wrong).  Sam chose yellow and Sophia chose "pink," or what she kept referring to as pink.  It was really more of a reddish-orange color, but we're not going to split hairs over it.  After all, she is just learning her colors!

Splashing in the Puddles

It rained quite a bit on Monday, making for a pretty dull and dreary day around here.  So, as soon as we ate dinner and the rain had subsided, we put the girls in their rain gear (boots, coats and umbrellas) and let them splash around in the puddles outside.  We assured them that they could get wet and that afterwards, we would come inside and take warm baths.

Samantha was a natural -- after all, she had quite a bit of practice last year.

Even Sophia needed very little encouragement ...

My little puddle splashers:

After the girls tired from jumping in the puddles, Steve took them, hand-in-hand, for a walk back into the woods.  This is one of their favorite things to do ...

As a side story:  I had gone back into the house to clean up the dinner dishes and I was able to watch my little family out the back window as I stood at the kitchen sink.  They had made it all of about 10 yards into the woods, when all of a sudden, I saw Steve scoop up Sophia and come rushing back toward the house.  I smiled to myself, knowing exactly what was going on.  Sophia needed to pee.

Steve ran into the house with her, all the while pleading with her to "hold it in."  She made it safely to the potty and sure enough, she had to go ... a lot.  Steve was surprised because we made sure both girls used the potty before we went outside, but Sophia had had a lot to drink. 

We praised her for telling Daddy that she needed to go and for practicing self-control.  Her potty-training is now about 90% successful.  She rarely, if ever, has any accidents at night or during naps.  In fact, I am considering not doing a diaper at all for those resting periods.  Going #2 on the potty is becoming more and more frequent (and more natural for her).  We have only had a couple of those accidents in the last two weeks.

Impression 5 and the Pet Store

Last year, we took the kids to Impression 5, a children's science museum in Lansing.  Samantha really enjoyed it then, but Sophia wasn't quite walking yet and was mostly confined to her stroller.  Now that Sophia is older (and mobile), we decided to surprise the girls and take them back there on Saturday morning.  To say that they had a great time would be an understatement.

Something as simple as dominoes was even a big hit.

Steve helped the girls construct an "arch" using these foam blocks.  I was pretty impressed, but then again, I did marry an engineer.

Samantha's all-time favorite exhibit was this bubble that you could build around yourself. 

She kept going back, time and time again, to do it herself.

Sophia spent some time in the "music" room, cranking out some tunes on the piano.

While Samantha was still pre-occupied in the bubble area ...

... Sophia and I spent some time doing some coloring.

(She's pretty good at holding pencils).

Then Samantha joined back up with us to work as a team with Sophia.  Together, they did their own interpretation of a "life cycle."

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After we left the science museum, we had one more surprise for the girls -- we took them to a local pet store and let them see a variety of animals (fish, birds, guinea pigs, snakes, lizards, etc).

They were fascinated!

Frosty Lives Again

We got some new snow last week (it even resulted in a snow day for Samantha), so the girls were anxious to get outside and build a snowman.  It turns out that the snow was PERFECT packing snow, and within no time, Frosty was constructed.

And now, a week later ... Frosty still resides in our front yard!

Birthday Week

Last week was a big birthday week in our household.  The end of Februray will always be this way, as Steve's birthday is on the 25th, Sophia's is on the 26th and mine is on the 27th.  Yes, three -- right in a row.  This means that there are a lot of celebrations and a lot of cake.  I think that it is safe to say that while I do enjoy a nice cake, it will be a while before I am anxious to enjoy one.

We celebrated Sophia's birthday the weekend before with family and friends.  On Steve's birthday, we put up some decorations, made sure that we called him to sing 'happy birthday,' prepared a birthday dinner, opened presents and enjoyed angel food cake with strawberries.  (Steve is not a big fan of frosting -- or desserts, in general -- so I always try to make something a little less sweet for him for his birthday).

Wrapping presents for their daddy:

Steve's favorite holiday is St. Patrick's Day, so we made special birthday tags for him with shamrocks on them.  Sam wrote on the tags herself.

And, of course, there were lots of stickers used to decorate his cards!

Steve and his girls:

Samantha was interested in all aspects of the celebration; Sophia was more interested in two things: opening the presents and blowing out the candles on the cake.

Sam's present to her daddy combined his two loves -- camoflauge and St. Patrick's Day.  Needless to day, Steve was pretty excited about his new ball cap.

Sophia picked out some new house slippers for Steve.  His other pair were getting very worn out, and it bothered Sophia tremendously whenever he would wear them with holes on the sides.

The girls both helped blow out the candles on the cake.  This is something that they LOVE to do, and we are more than happy to oblige.

The happiness on their faces is apparent.

Savoring the flavor:

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With me teaching two nights a week (including on my birthday), we had to squeeze in my celebration after dance class one night.  My mom brought us a cake and the girls helped me to open my gifts.  (You'll even notice that Steve made a small change to the sign in the background).

More candles!

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The following weekend, we had two more celebrations, one with Steve's family and another with some friends of ours that we unable to attend Sophia's birthday party.  Steve's sister made a cake for us and the girls were more than delighted to blow out candles ... again!

We feel so blessed to have some many family and friends to celebrate our special days with us.  While it makes for a very busy (but fun and exciting) end of the month, we wouldn't trade it for anything! 

Sophia's 2-Year Old Check-Up

I took Sophia on Thursday (two days after her birthday) for her 2-year old check-up at the doctor's office.  She was so calm and relaxed there and let the doctor complete her full exam while sitting on my lap the whole time.  I was so proud of her!

She officially weighs 26 lbs now, which puts her in the 40th percentile for weight.  While she had a large birth weight (8 lbs. 4 oz.) initially, she has always been on the petite side and has continued to follow the same growth curve.  She has a very healthy appetite; there is very little that she won't eat.  She loves milk and that remains her primary beverage of choice.  I just switched her over this week from organic whole milk to organic reduced fat milk.  Now that she is two years old, she doesn't need the extra fat in the milk as much for brain development.

Sophia is 33.5" tall, which also puts her in the 40th percentile for height.  She has grown a little over an inch in the last three months.

Within the last month or so, Sophia has really increased her vocabulary and is now stringing more and more words together in a row.  We are hearing more phrases from her rather than just individual words.  And, she is working very hard to pronounce her words clearly enough for us to understand exactly what she is saying.  Before long, she will be talking in paragraphs!

Sophia is about 75% potty-trained!  She wear "real" panties during the day, only wearing a diaper during naps and bedtime.  We rarely have an accident during the day and after most of her naps and bedtime, she still manages to wake up dry!  The only thing that is holding her back from being 100% potty-trained is "going #2."  If I can get her to go on the potty during the day, she does well.  Sometimes it happens during naptime though ... and she wakes up pretty upset about it.  Frankly, I am so pleased with the progress (considering she JUST turned two) and know that she will be completely potty-trained by the time our new little one arrives in less than three months!

Also, as if right on cue, Sophia started cutting her "two-year old molars."  One of them is completely through, and another one has started breaking through the surface.  These molars have been really difficult for her -- increased irritability, lots of crying (sometimes during the night) and a high fever.  I know that this phase will pass, but it breaks my heart to see her so miserable.

But how adorable is this picture?

Sophia is absolutely smitten with her new stuffed monkey from Great-Aunt Kathy.  She received him along with a balloon and her own special flower arrangement.  She has slept with him and taken him everywhere with her ever since ... It's so priceless.