a few days late, but HAPPY BIRTHDAY BLAKE!

My baby is now 4! I can't believe how fast he is growing and how much I love him!  Blake is a quirky kid who always makes me laugh, he loves reading books....

 He enjoys dressing up, hats, shoes and of course his dragon or shark costume.  Blake likes music, and enjoys dancing to HIS songs.

 Blake loves crafts but he doesn't often draw, this is a T-rex he made that i love!

 Again with the dress up. 

 Blake LOVES dinosaurs!  I have bought zoo passes the last few years and Blake loves going.  We always have to go through the dino exhibit, although i don't know how much he actually sees of it.  He's always so excited about it that he runs through it so fast.  Blake is sitting beside me as i type, informing me that this is a trycertops with 3 horns. (i can't spell dino names..) he also knows t-rex and anklyosaurs.

 Halloween crafts!

 Blake currently does not like getting his photo taken.  If you looked through my camera you might think i had a favorite, but i don't! Kayla is just always so willing to get her picture taken and Blake is NOT.

Blake loves his Daddy, and spends alot of time helping him, in the garage, and outside.

 Again with the dress up!  Blake loves puzzles, i think he is very skilled for his age.  Blake can do 50 piece puzzles with no assistance at all.  He has done a 150 piece puzzle with very little help as well. 

 Every once in a while Blake decides he wants his picture taken, he poses and then wants to see it right away.

 Again with the posing.

I can't figure out how to rotate this picture, but it was SO cute, Blake was reading Koda a book.  Blake loves books before bed but now has started reading a couple too (instead of me reading them all).

Blake wanted lightening mcqueen cupcakes for his birthday.

Blake is very loveable with his mommy and daddy, (he is fairly selective about giving out hugs and kisses to other people).  Every night before bed Blake needs a hug, kiss and a big noses. And of course he needs a big hug and kiss from Daddy before he leaves to work. He always asks me to put my arm around him while we sit on the couch and read books.  And has now started asking for a hug, kiss and noses before school.  He also asks me to sing little bunny foo foo before bed too, he picks one of his bedtime stuffies that i use to bounce around and then bop on his head which he thinks is hilarious!
Blake is in school again this year, we have tried a new preschool and he seems happy there.  He seems to really like teacher Anna.  Blake now has his friend Bella in his class, their teacher says the 2 are inseperable.  Friends are very important to Blake, he still talks about Beth often and loves the day home boys coming and often asks for them on the weekend, although he plays so much rougher with boys they still play pretty well together.
Blake is growing and learning, he is starting to learn his letters, he knows what letter everyone in the day homes name starts with.  This morning he was practising making letters out of his cheerios on the table.
Blake can be very theatrical when he plays, and he is SO loud!  His dinosaurs and bad guys roar and talk in deep voices.  I love sitting and listening when he is playing with his toys.  I've noticed his toys usually have good manners; 'oh thank you, oh it's no problem your welcome.' 'hi, how are you, my name is buzz.'
I think Blake is a pretty amazing kid, he always makes me laugh, and my heart felts every night when he says 'good night mom, i love you!'  Or when he says 'mom, i need a hug and a kiss'.  I am excited to see him grow and change but i also want to stay right where we are for a while longer. 

Happy Birthday my 4 year old! (yes 4, he may have told some people, including his teachers, that he is 5, apparently he wants to start kindergarten and he was told he needed to be 5.....)

Snow! Day home

For a week in November our theme was snow!
We read several snow books-discovered a book called 'making grizzle grow' which was a big hit!
For the first few days of snow week there was no snow, so i filled the water table with cotton balls and mitts. 

later we used the cotton balls for a snow college.  When it did snow I put real snow in the water table.

we made snowflake orniments, I used the glue gun and put dots of glue where the boys instructed me to and they placed the popsicle sticks, then they used this fancy textured snow paint to decorate.

the kids made their paper snowmen melt.
a few activities planned we weren't able to do because of the lack of snow, we did do some melting and freezing experiments with snow and ice.  And i tried to have the boys make paper cut out snowflakes, they did enjoy cutting but there was just a pile of little bits of paper in the end. 

thank you!

I read my blog again this morning, and not only did I notice the few bits that really don't make any sense; I realized I forgot one my favorite Kayla things....Thank you mama!

When Kayla first started saying 'thank you' she only said it to me, 'thank you mama'.  Now she says thank you to everyone, all the time. If Kayla is given something she will often say thank you to everyone in the room, 'thank you mama, thank you dada, thank you blake'.  I just think her thank you's are the sweetest thing and they always make me smile.

Oh and another quirk that is like her mommy, as a baby I always did a role call, listing Erin, Daddy, Mommy and Mira, and my mom would tell me where everyone was, Kayla does this too!  Kayla is always asking where the day home boys are (she says all their names very well) she calls for Daddy, Mama, Blake and she wants you to acknowledge her or she will keep repeating your name over and over.  Now that I'm not distracted by a very lame Christmas movie I could write forever about Kayla (when she wants your attention she says 'look! look, mama!)

 Kayla always looks a little worried when she does her cheesy smile.

cupcakes!

Just had to post about these!  They were pretty tasty too! I made these for Blake and Kayla's birthday party (2 kids born in december = only 1 party).  I also made peppermint bark for the treat bags, inspired by my old friend Melissa.

This picture was for my previous post. yes i do have about 4 chins but sadly there are SO few pictures of me and my kids!

Kayla is 2!

My baby girl just turned 2! She opened a baby doll on the morning of her birthday which she has taken to bed every night since.

Enjoying a cupcake on her birthday! 

Kayla has developed quite the personality! She loves to smile for the camera and sings 'cheeeeeeeese!'.  Kayla, is a happy girl, but he definately while make herself heard if she is not getting her way! 

Kayla got a new baby for her birthday from one of her favorite families!  She has been very busy feeding her baby, she has 3 favorites right now that are dragged around everywhere.  Even though she is surrounded by boys toys Kayla has definately shown a preference to the girlie toys.

Kayla loves to read books, especially before bed.  Her favorite book is the toddler version of the paper bag princess.  We read that one every night, she loves the part where the dragon burns the forest, and when he snores.  Kayla is a very cuddly girl, she is always giving out hugs and kisses to almost anyone!  The boys are already after my beauty, Kayla often gets a hug and a kiss from the day home boys before they go home. 

Kayla has a love for shoes, this is why she is missing a tooth!  Yesterday she put on these shoes then stomped laps around the kitchen while laughing like crazy.  Kayla likes to do laps, at the playground, at home, at grandma's, she walks or runs or pushes something around and around.

All dressed up, now time to call some friends!  Kayla has discovered the dress up drawer and makes a good attempt at getting as many pieces of clothing on as she can.

Kayla LOVES santa! We went to see him last night, so today she has been busy calling him on the phone.  The photographer gaves Kayla 5 candy canes after seeing Santa, she had them in her pockets as she ran down the mall aisles.  When the candy canes would slip and hang out she would stop, yell 'mama help!', then start running again as soon as the candy canes were in her pocket the right way.  She also made a very good attempt at eatting all the candy canes.

Kayla is very interested in art.  She loves to color and paint, although she can not be trusted with colors on her own, she colors EVERYTHING!  This week Kayla has been introduced to glue!  For someone who does not often sit still she spent quite a while carefully squeezing glue out then placing little sequins in it.  Kayla may look a lot like her daddy but she is alot like her mommy.  My mom has said on more then one occassion 'she is so you!'

Kayla put this tutu on over her pj's and said 'pretty'.  Not sure why she decided to hike it up like a dress....

Well, what else can be said about Kayla, we love her!  She is a joy to be around, and really I don't know who doesn't love getting a hug from her! (oh wait, i do...Blake).

Just a note to any readers...i proof read AFTER i hit publish, same goes with my emails and any other electronic posts, it's not so effective but i'm sure you can figure out what i'm saying.  Also, while typing this i have been watching a TERRIBLE made for TV Christmas movie, that really doesn't seem to have anything to do with Christmas....