I heart Valentine's Day!

Today we played at Charlie's house. The girls dipped heart shaped cookie cutters in paint and made beautiful Valentine's heart paintings.

 This girl LOVES paint!

The girls then went on a heart hunt around the house (again, it was too chilly outside). They both ran around and around in search of pink and red heart boxes to place in their baskets. So cute! We had a fun time and finished off our play date with a yummy snack which was a Valentine's cookie decorated by Charlotte herself. Happy Valentine's Day!

Playing with Charlotte

The last few days have been frigid with highs in the 40s. I know that is probably warm for many right now, but the thought of spending any amount of time outside isn't for me. So we made card table houses and forts in the living room. C loves having Bear and me over for a tea party. 

 As I snapped this one she said this "Chaw-it (Charlotte) go to sleep, Mama".  

 I asked her to smile pretty for me and this is what this monkey did...Lol

 We sorted candy conversation hearts by color in this heart muffin tin. She loved eating the blue ones.

 Gluing her H objects with her glue stick. She can identify the letters C and H now. I am so proud of her!

She is pointing to her favorite picture, a horse.

B Man's 1st Shiner

Last night, B Man was doing a running crawl to Charlotte. It was funny until this happened. While chasing her, he slipped and fell on his head which turned out to be his eye. You know it's bad when they suck in their scream and then wail with big crocodile tears. I felt SO bad for him and we cuddled until bedtime. Poor guy. I didn't notice how bad it was until this morning. His eye was all puffy and purple, he wouldn't even let me touch it. It looked a lot like he had purple eyeshadow on. Unfortunately, I don't think this will be the last time he gets a black eye.

Kinda hard to tell in the pictures but it looked like it hurt.

He's a tough guy though!

The Play Factory

A couple of days ago we met up with our friends Heather and Calvin at The Play Factory. Charlotte loves playing with "Cal-win". I think the feelings are mutual because "Cal-win" talks a alot about "Sarr-lett". It is such a sweet friendship!

Sarr-lett and Cal-win

  I was SO surprised to see C going down the slide! Of course, Calvin had to show her first, but seriously she does not go down ANY slides so this was the first time she really enjoyed herself on a slide!

 Look at that smile! Pure JOY.

 Weee! You can see she is a little unsure about the process of getting down. Lol

 She had SO much fun!

 Calvin's turn!

He had a blast too!

Fun FUN morning. Thanks Heather!

My Little Man

 Crawling up to his mama.

 I can't tell you how much I love this little guy... One of the things I completely adore about B Man is all of his cuddles. He is the MOST cuddly little child I know. When I pick him up at the church nursery on Sundays he always bear hugs me and lays his sweet little head right on my shoulder... it is his way of saying I love you. When Brady is crawling around and stops and meets eyes with me he will crawl over and again lay his sweet little head down in my lap. I love you too Brady Boy. When he bonks his head on anything or falls, I will come right over and tend to him and all he wants is his head on my shoulder. I love you too Brady Boy. After crawling around Brady will lean his little body on yours and he will pull himself up and plant one of these sloppy open mouth B Man kisses. It has become a signature move from him. He will then rub his face in yours and your heart can't do anything else but melt.

This little man is my heart. His love is so revealing of his heart and happiness. He is the best little boy I could have ever been blessed with. I sense that he will be an even better man.

I love you Brady boy.

H is for House

We worked on some new baskets and activities today. We are focusing on the letters in Charlotte's name. This week is the letter H. I am pretty excited because I have a few fun ideas in store for her... eek!

 Sorting with pink and blue pony beads

 Which ended up in a tea party! So fun!

 Small spaces with an empty parm cheese container and q-tips

 Which ended up in singing songs! Lol

 Belting out a note... too funny.

 Matching game created for Valentine's day and with Clipart.

 Which ended up with her patting the baby (a picture of cupid) on her shoulder. Lol

 Gluing the roof on her letter H craft.

 H is for House

 Do a dot art. Charlotte loves this and so do I. She worked on a heart and a butterfly with her new dot markers. These markers are great because you can do SO much with them and they aren't a big mess. It's a nice change from crayons, markers, or paint. I can't wait to continue to use them on fun stuff.

 Working on her dots.

Charlotte insisted on taking a picture by herself. This is the first picture she has ever taken! Of course it is of Bear. Haha.

Valentine's fun with friends

Today we had friends, Vicki and her daughter, Charlie, over to play. Vicki and I and the girls have been friends since the girls were born! We met in a breastfeeding support group and have been friends ever since. Vicki is such an awesome mommy. I am so proud to be her friend! The girls always LOVE to play dress up and care for their babies when they are together. Although, what they love BEST is just being together and running around the house like silly gooses! We also did some cute Valentine's arts and crafts.

The girls did Jello Painting for the first time. It was so much fun. We created paste like paint out of strawberry Jello powder and water. When it dries the picture smells like the flavor and even has a bit of sparkle to it. They had a lot of fun! I did too. We discussed the shape of the picture and the color of the paint. I directed Charlotte to paint inside the heart. She did a really good job!

We also made Love Bugs. Okay so us mommies made most of it, but the girls helped glue the caterpillar's head onto to his heart shaped body and we read the letters to their name. I stuck our Love Bug on the fridge and  will discuss the letters in Charlotte's name to her often.

At the end, both girls went to time out... can we say Terrible 2s??? I think so,  oh well... No more yelling "NO", girls.

Learning with FUN

I love how we are learning without really trying. C is soaking up our one on one time. We are having such a good time together. Here is C and her fun activities...

 A cut (I cut) and paste (she glued) letter C printable 

Charlotte created a collage with GREEN magazine pictures, she loves using a glue stick these days!

Today we took advantage of a beautiful day and went outside with sidewalk chalk to draw squares. Charlotte wanted to color inside the squares I made for her, if you look closely you can see all her scribbles. She also practiced jumping in the square, which was more of a leap instead. Lol 

 Working on a drawing

 ...and here is one just for Kyle.

 Play dough fun. We made play dough snakes and shaped them into a capital C and lowercase c. We also stamped Cs with our play dough tools.

Practicing cutting play dough with scissors, she LOVED this!