To Buy or To Make? That is the Question

2/13/2011 11:24:00 PM Edit This 4 Comments »
The answer is.....BUY!! The question I asked myself a few weeks ago was "should I buy or make Valentines for Lexie's class?" and I foolishly thought it would be fun to make them this year. Next year no question - it will be a quick trip to the store, I'll write out the kids names and Lexie can sign her name. End of project!  What I thought would be a couple fun hours of crafting turned into two weekends of doing most of them myself and then feeling like monster trying to get Lexie to write all the names. But it started out as fun....
Lexie and I started out by getting in the mood and making some quick valentine cookies with Lexie naturally putting on tons of frosting & sprinkles.
Then Lexie "helped" my by sorting through the rose lollipops we were using on the cards.
Lexie can't have a prop of any kind in her hand without turning it into some kind of dance.
All this was very cute and quite amusing - at first.Then I discovered Lexie has never used scissors with me and hadn't done much work with it at pre-school either. Of course this project involved a LOT of cutting. So I let her practice first and she was VERY proud of her work. Unfortunately she was supposed to be cutting out a heart not a rectangle. So I realized I would be doing ALL of the cutting.
I sent her off to go help Cinderella find her lost shoe then save a few babies lives while I cut out a couple hundred hearts, leaves & flower centers.
Then Cinderella joined me to put a few heart flowers together. I have to say if they (and alright her too) where so darn cute I would have trashed them all and headed over to Walmart.
But they were cute and Lexie worked really hard writing both her name and whomever it was for on each of the leaves.
It was getting late so I gave her lunch and sent her off for a nap as I worked on getting some of them ones for the family prepped. After SHE woke up refreshed I got her a little snack and a costume change was clearly in order then back to work she went. This time on the family's "cards." That's right I wasn't doing just one project no sir - not me!
These were the for GaGa & the aunts and a few friends (it turned out to be very few friends.) They too are very cute and I improvised with the stickers to make them brighter and Lexie had more fun (and to keep her away from the scissors!)
On the first one she wrote the whole inside which said "Let's watch our Love grow GaGa" Love Lexie. This only took about a half an hour so the rest where just signed by my brilliant 4 1/2 year old. But the end results where great too.
We were both pretty done at this point and Lexie was down right silly. So I called it a night on the project for the first weekend.
During the next week we managed to get enough of the flower lollipops and flower pots done to send off to the cousins and family. I have to say they were pretty adorable.
This weekend it was all about getting her class done. Did I mention there are 24 of the little darlings in her class plus she has 6 teachers between class, lunch and daycare? What was I thinking? But the first question of the day was what outfit was right for making these beauties. The Santa tutu was the perfect "fashion" as Lexie calls it.
And not too long into the morning I was told that she HAD to try out the lollipops to make sure they are really really good. Okay - I'm a sucker (yes pun intended) for my girl in a tutu.
Finally the class was done. Lexie thought they should smell like flower but that was going to far in my book. Here they all are plus the hard little worker bee.
 They really did turn out nice but next time (did I actually type that) I'll read the instructions a little better and ask Lexie if she can do some of the special skills needed.
They must be special though because Lexie told me they MADE her dance and sing.
Magic flowers for sure!
Our last project was for the teachers and it was a tube of lotion with cut (there is that ugly word again) outs of Lexie's hands saying "You Deserve A Hand" on it.
 They actually were quick an easy.
We managed to get everything done on Saturday so we could enjoy our Mommy & Lexie Valentine's Day on Sunday. More on that another time.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!


Just Everyday Funny

1/28/2011 11:14:00 PM Edit This 3 Comments »

I asked Lexie to please unload the silverware from the dishwasher. Usually she enjoys "helping" me with this chore but after placing just a few pieces in their proper places she says:

L: Mommy, I can't do this.

M: Of course you can Lexie.

L: I need to go play so you can be Cinderella today and do all the chores.

Nice! At least Cinderella gets the prince at the end of that story (my real prince must have gotten lost along the way) but I did remind her that WE don't have any Cinderellas in our house since we both have chores. She managed to get all the silverware put away AND play. Life is good.

***************************

So I had to make a few rules for Lexie's new trampoline after just the first hour of use:

1- no shoes (especially high heeled princess shoes)
2- no gowns
3- no crowns
4- no dogs - especially the live ones Kit & Kaboodle

Don't you have the same rule for your trampoline?

******************


Lexie and I got into the car to run some errands and this is the conversation we had.

Lexie: Where we are going Mommy?
Mommy : We need to go to the post office, grocery store and my office.
Lexie: Can we go to Mars too?
Mommy: Mars? Umm....sorry Lexie we don't have time to get to Mars before we need to get home to feed the dogs and cook dinner. Besides I don't have a space ship to take us to Mars.
Lexie: We could take the Space Shuttle.
Mommy: I think it's being used right now.
Lexie: We can take the car.
Mommy: Honey, this car doesn't fly.
Lexie: .......I know. We can use reindeer!
Mommy: Lexie we don't have any reindeer either.
Lexie: We can go to the North Pole and ask Santa - very politely - if we can use his.
Mommy: Okay. If we did, how many would we need to make this car fly?
Lexie: All the girl ones.
Mommy: And which ones are girls?
Lexie: Dancer & Prancer, Comet and Vixen too.
Mommy: Alright, how would we get to the North Pole to borrow the girl reindeer from Santa?
Lexie: We can take a train like Frosty did.
Mommy: Frosty tried to buy a ticket but he didn't have any money so he had to sneak on board. We don't sneak.
Lexie: But we have money right? So we can buy the ticket.
Mommy: But honey we still don't have time to make the trip. Why do we want to go to Mars anyway?
Lexie: To visit Martian Mickey.

Thank you Disney for a very entertaining conversation with my 4 year old on the way to the post office. I'll keep you posted on our pending trip to Mars via the north pole.

***********************



I put Lexie to bed at her regular time and after 3 different trips back into her room for itching, too much light & needing to be swaddled (yes just like her new baby twin cousins) she calls out to me yet again. I march into her room to tell her to go to sleep and stop calling me when she says:

"Mommy - I CAN'T sleep because I'm nocturnal."

I was amazed not only by her vocabulary but also by the fact that she used the word correctly and her natural ability to manipulated me into getting what she wants. Oh my brilliant little girl!

TO BE CONTINUED - I'M SURE




A Quick Trip to Texas

1/25/2011 11:01:00 PM Edit This 2 Comments »
You read it right. Lexie and I made a quick trip back to Texas this weekend for the twins Baptism. Nope, we just can't get enough. It was very last minute - literally decided on Thursday night and headed out Friday afternoon to arrive at the house around 8:30 Friday night. Lexie was all for it. She's always up for a visit with her cousins PLUS a chance to wear a princess dress (AKA last years Easter dress which is about 6 inches shorter but still fits!)
Since this was a double baptism of infants it was twice the fun getting them ready (in the bathroom at the church.)
Maddox was perfectly happy getting ready for his big day. Don't you just love those little rolls on his legs and arms?
And here he is looking dapper in his suit. He's looking pretty darn handsome for 5 months old!
While Angie & Mom where getting him dress Lexie, Blake and I were keeping Madison entertained. Or I should say Blake was....
Now that's entertainment!
Next it was Madison's turn to get into her gown.
 She wasn't as sure about the whole thing. I think it had something to do with Blake's singing.
 This was while they were trying to get this long gown buttoned. Who puts buttons on the back of a baby's dress?
But she looked just precious when it was finally on her.
Then Angie decided to be Super Mom and hold both the babies herself. I call her Crazy Mom since Maddox now weighs 20 lbs and Maddie is a petite 18 lbs.

I tried to get a shot of the whole clan but it's hard to get 2 infants as well as a 3, 10 & 12 year old all to look at the camera at the same time.
During the baptism Maddox took a little nap
 but Madison was checking everything out.
They both did great during the actual baptism. I think they both thought it was bath time!
Here are the newly baptised twins!
Angie decided to take these sitting down since her feet, arms and back where killing her.
I even managed to get a picture with my Goddaughter and daughter. What a special moment.
I love this picture of Lexie sitting in God's light.
We all headed to lunch and then said good-bye to Jim's family. Back at the house we tried again to get some good group shots while everyone was still dress. Here's grandma with her gang (minus 4.)
Angie with all of hers.
And me with my special one!
But we weren't finished celebrating. Cody was turning 12 in just 3 days so we decided an early family party was in order.
I couldn't be more proud of the young man Cody is becoming. He's a great older brother, terrific big cousin and all around great guy. I can hardly wait to see what the next 12 years bring for him.
So it was a fast and fun filled weekend and I'm so very glad we had the opportunity to make it. But I think both Lexie and I are ready to keep our feet on the ground. At least for a week or two!

Good-Bye Princess Snowflake

1/15/2011 10:50:00 PM Edit This 3 Comments »
All good things must come to an end and Princess Snowflake's end came pretty quickly. This is what we woke up to.
This was actually better than I expected since it rained buckets all night. Clearly the rest of the snow is gone. Here's Lexie's reaction.
She wasn't sure why everything was so far away from the princess. Including the umbrella which ended up across the street.
It was not a fit night for man nor snow...princess. But Lexie was all for trying to put her back together. 
A carrot here...
some buttons there...
and a couple of arms and she was good as new......kinda.
Lexie insisted that the sign had to go back in (even though it is clearly no longer her birthday!)
Still something was missing. Oh yes, the mouth. The gum drops where just a mushy mess so we used the licorice that were her eyelashes. We just couldn't get her to smile (and who can blame her?) but Lexie was happy enough to finally head off to school with a wave good-bye to Princess Snowflake.
This is who I found when I ran by the house to let the dogs out a few hours later.
A little freaky if you ask me. I considered just knocking the whole thing down but figured the light showers due for the rest of the afternoon would probably do the job. This is what Lexie came home to after school.
Yup - she's headless. But Lexie was not deterred. We moved the "necklace" scarf down and put her face right back on. Or at least tried.
The candy coal eyes gave her fits so she ended up using the "buttons" for eyes instead. Hey whatever works.
Then the crown keep sliding off (I wonder why?) but she managed to get it to stay on long enough for us to head on in the house with me reminding her that more rain was expected and I really didn't think there would be much left of the Princess.
There wasn't.
We Lexie looked out the window and saw what was left she insisted on going out in her jammies. After looking over the pieces and talking about how she's watered the grass and flowers she was ready to say good-bye.
She handled the melting way better than she did 2 years ago with her first snow woman.
Now that was real shock. And she insisted on putting her back together even at this stage. But I got her laughing about it and all was right with her world again.
Oh how my baby is growing up!
And what was I thinking with those hair bows?
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