Friday Funnies - Fun in March!

I wanted to get a quick funnies post in tonight!  Kids are so sick of staying indoors but I have hi hopes for this weekend!

One of Megan's presents at her party was a big inflatable water play zone.  She was so ready for spring and being stuck inside that she begged for me to open it up for her to see.  Even if we just put it up inside.  I told her that Daddy would get mad but she told me we could "just hide it from him"!

Here is John having a little snow fight with the kids on our deck.  Don't worry - no one was injured and he just threw handfuls of snow!

 

 

This was completely Owen's idea one night at bedtime.  He extra went into Megan's room to get the barbie car.  And if you look closely, he is cuddled up with a baby doll too!

Trying to enjoy a family movie afternoon!

Megan was taking a bath Wednesday night while I put Owen to bed.  I came upstairs to find she had emptied an entire sample-size container of shampoo into the bath tub... Eeek!  And sometimes she likes to drink the bathwater.  This time it didn't really taste too good!!  She said she had to clean out her insides.

And then tonight.... Owen and I were going to play a game in the basement.  I told him to bring over a little table for the game and he started to follow my orders.  But then, Megan thought that she had to help too...  We get so frustrated when she does that.  But what does John say?  "Megan, you don't have to work... Let Owen do it!"

Have a great weekend, everyone!!

Megan's Pirate Birthday Party!

I had so much fun planning Megan's pirate birthday party!  Let's step back a bit and first learn how this theme came to be.  Just a couple days before her Cinderella party last year Megan declared that she wanted a pinata.  I told her she had to wait until she turned four and that was fine with her.  The week later when we went to Target the first pinata she saw was a pirate hat.  And she just saw it by chance - it's not like we were even on the market for a pinata that day.  Well, the pirate pinata idea stuck.  And it stuck for an entire year!  I tried to get her to change the idea to something a little more girly but I'm glad she stuck her ground.... This was a super fun theme - even for a girl!

Once we determined the menu the whole party fell into place.  We had cannonball (meatball) boats, seaweed toppers (lettuce), deep blue sea (jello), veggie-paddles, cowabunga crab dip with Polly's crackers (Ritz) and peg legs (pretzel rods), gold nuggets (cheese cubes, and finally a beautiful chest of jewels (fruit salad)!

 

The cake was chocolate with a chocolate buttercream frosting.  The surprise, though, was a layer of rum buttercream frosting between the two chocolate cake layers!  I dressed up the cake to look like a treasure chest and even added a lid!  It turned out great!  Oh, and we even added some mock-sushi to either side of the cake.  (Looks like sushi but it's just Rice Crispy bars wrapped in fruit roll ups.)

I love that our families got so into the theme.  Fun hats, fake teeth and a good "arrgghhh" made for a fun time!  John ordered himself a pirate costume and luckily we convinced Megan to be a pirate princess and wear something she already had in her dress-up bin.  Owen's costume is borrowed from a friend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also to go with the theme I arranged a scavenger hunt for Megan and Alexa.  I wrote clues that brought them all over the house with the final clue leading them to the shower where the found a box of treasure. (I just wrapped up a bunch of snacks - nothing too major.)

Megan got so many thoughtful presents!  Thank you!

Cake Time!!  Megan was literally asking when she could put the candles in the cake from the moment she woke up that morning.  It was finally time!

 

 

And wouldn't you know.... Ironically, we almost forgot to do the pinata.  Guests were about to leave when John realized we had one more thing to do.  This pinata was a bugger to crack open.  All the kids swung with the broom and we finally had to get a baseball bat out.  What a super fun party - a lot of work but so much fun!

Megan Turns Four!!

John and I are now proud parents of a beautiful, funny, energetic and fiery four year old!  Four years is hurting a lot more than three did.  Where is the time going?  John had been telling me for a couple weeks before Megan's birthday that I should send in a cute picture of Megan into WCCO, just like I had done for Owen's baptism.  I put it off and lost track of it until the Tuesday before her birthday.  I submitted one of her pirate hat pictures late that night and Wednesday afternoon I got an email that Megan would be on the 6:00 news that evening!!!  Megan was put "on the spot" by Chris Shaffer and she did fabulous.  We recorded it for her but you can also watch the whole weather segment by clicking HERE.

I actually had a fairly large number of people, including co-workers, friends and other preschool families, come up to me and say they saw her on the news!  Here is Megan's beaming face after seeing herself on TV!

Since birthdays are very important John and I both took off on the big day to help Megan feel extra special.  Even though the pirate b-day party was the next day we wanted to celebrate the actual day too.  First we had to drop Owen off at Grandma Gennrich's place so we could give Megan undivided attention.  (For weeks Megan had said she wanted to do something with just Mommy and Daddy - if Grandma "could handle Owen".  I think Grandma handled him just fine!)

We first stopped at Great Clips to get Megan's hair trimmed.  Not too much since a recent goal of hers is to grow her hair long like Rapunzel's!  Then we went for lunch at a local bar, Hoppers.  Say "Cheesebuger"!!

Finally, we were off to the fantastic Disney movie, Frozen.  If you haven't seen it yet - do it!  Super cute and Megan also got the DVD for her birthday (it released on March 18th).  She's probably seen it 4 times since the theater and reciting favorite lines and singing some songs!  All in all it was a very nice day to spend with our 4-year old!

On a side note, another year older means another well child checkup at the doctor's office.  Here are Megan's most recent stats:

Height - 40 inches - 54%

Weight - 38 inches - 70%

Body Mass Index - 83% (normal 3-85%)

Everything looked great.  Passed hearing, eyesight was 20/30 and they determined she also has a big noggin.  At least that's what the doctor said when I told her Megan can dress herself for the most part except for shirts.  The doctor asked if she had a hard time getting her head through the hole!  

So far being four has been fun.  Megan just passed another level of swimming lessons and will try ballet for a sample class in June!  Her favorite color has not changed from purple to yellow (I guess because she either got bored with it or because of the age change.)  She's becoming a bit more adventurous of an eater and also helping out a lot in the kitchen cracking eggs and learning some knife skills too like cutting mushrooms!  Pre-K 3 is coming to a close and I sure hope she gets to be the special helper one last time before school is out!

Oh Megan - we love you so much now and always.  Have a good year being 4!!

Owen at 22 Months!

My poor Owen.... I can't believe it's been four months since his last update!  Wow, how he's changed since then.  I definitely have no shortage of things to write about now but I do regret not having monthly updates for his memory.  Sorry Buddy, but here it goes... Here's what you're doing at 22 months old!

Owen is such a wonderful little boy.  I can honestly say I couldn't ask for a better son - I never knew a little boy would be so much fun.  But... he is just starting to get his terrible two's and will throw fits when he doesn't get his way.  Not cool since he is almost stronger than Mommy when I'm trying to change clothes or get in a car seat or high chair.  However, those times are much outweighed by how lovey and cuddly he is the rest of the day.

My favorite is bedtime.  Not because then he's out of our hair... ok, that may be partly why... but I love our cuddle time.  First, Owen LOVES to brush his teeth and we need to do that every night.  Then we get to cuddle in the rocking chair in his room and read a selection of books with a cup of milk.  Books are something that we enjoy together and lately Owen's really been into Dr. Seuss books (ABC Book, Tooth Book, Apples Up on Top, Mr. Brown Can Moo and Go, Dog, Go are just a few), as well Goldilocks and the Three Bears, construction books, 5 Little Monkeys to name a few.  I am no longer allowed to choose the books as Owen already has his mind made up on which books we will read.  Sometimes I show him about 20 books getting an "uh-uh" answer before getting an "uh-huh!" response.  But after the books are read we turn out the light together, put on the nightlight and take a peek outside.  He lays down in his crib by himself and rarely do I have to let him cry.  Very easy as long as I can please him with the books!  And even through the night he rarely, if ever, wakes up before morning.  Great news since the kids' bedrooms are downstairs!

Owen had always loved food but for a good month or so all we could get him to take in was milk.  Then we had a week of occasional throw-ups and put two and two together and figured out that he must be teething!  Bingo - about two months ago I discovered that his bottom right 2-year molar had erupted.  Now the two year molar areas on his left side, both top and bottom, are pretty translucent so these others are right behind!  Plus, he has bad diaper rash so it's likely just a matter of days before we have a couple more teeth.  More good news is Owen's starting to eat food again!  He has a sweet tooth for Hershey Kisses and fruit snacks but also likes the normal kid stuff.  One night at dinner he was pointing to his rice and corn and then to his spoon to get me to feed him after he inhaled a bunch of chicken breast pieces.  I will gladly feed him if it means he's eating! (Plus, that is a tough thing for a kid to feed himself.)

He has such a great memory and knows exactly what he wants and then tries to make sure we understand his request.  He is very persistent, in fact.  I hear lots of "Mama, uh-oh" when he's pointing to things and he will continue until I interpret what he's trying to say.  I love that he wants us to understand him!  I get lots of uh-ohs when things are missing from where they need to be or sometimes if things are out of place.  Owen also knows how to get what he wants.  And another cute thing is when Owen wants us to follow him he will take our hands and lead us exactly where he wants us to go.  Sometimes he will take our hand and actually put it on the thing he wants.  We do a lot of hand holding which is just fine!

Owen's vocabulary broadens each day.  He still isn't putting many, if any, words together in a row but each day it seems like a new word is flying out of his mouth (or maybe it's just the sound effects that he's experimenting with).  Here are some recent words: uh-oh, bye-bye, more, juice, shoes, waffle (wah-wuff), please, thank you, dirt, that, bird, hot, duck, bath, me, I, oooh.  But his vocabulary is by no means limited to this list.  And then for sound effects - he likes to copy whatever sounds his big sister is making, sounds from shows or imitate toys - you know, like the back-up beep on his tractors!  Monkey sounds are also extremely popular.  He uses "oooh" whenever we're making a big deal of something Megan has done or is wearing and he wants to feel equally included.  We have to then acknowledge something of his as pretty too!

Owen is trying to sing as well.  He will sing the chorus of Jesus Loves Me (can say "Bible" and "so"), loves to do the ABC's as well as the Doc McStuffins theme song.  It won't take too long and he'll be doing the songs in entirety!

We are not even close to thinking about potty training Owen but he is really enjoying sitting on the potty.  He tries to pull down his pants and pull his diaper off and then asks me to help him.  I put him on our awesome potty seat on the toilet and he likes to practice wiping front and back.  On February 3rd he actually made pee in the potty.  You can imagine how proud of himself he was!  I was just about to take him off when I noticed a little dribble.  I let him sit a little while longer and all of a sudden it came out!  Way to go!  Owen also likes to zip up his sleepers and take off his coat, hat and mittens when coming in from outside.  Such big boy things!

We cannot go to Target or Mackenthun's anymore without Owen pointing to the Caterpillar equipment and exclaiming, "Papa"!!  What a good memory this kid has and he's only been to Grandpa's shop a handful of times but still relates Papa with heavy machinery!  Owen is a typical little boy and loves trains, tractors, farm stuff - you name it!  He also has a soft side, however, and likes to play with anything in Megan's room.  Maybe because he's always seen that stuff from when he was a baby.  Or maybe it's just because it's his sister's stuff!  Owen definitely knows how to get on Megan's bad side... They are constantly fighting over toys.  One of these days I'm just going to let them go at it and see who wins!  Owen does know that if he sits on little things Megan usually doesn't go after them so I think it's cute he figured that out!

Now for a couple fun pictures!  This first one was taken over a month ago when we were doing Valentine pictures and is one of my favorites!

Owen is crazy about his Grandpas.... even Great Grandpa!

So many differences between my kiddos and this is one of them.  Owen loves these shape toys.  His sister could care less but just goes to show how all kids are different.  We have several different variations of this type of toy and it's something he goes to quite frequently.

 

Stacking things is almost as good as shape toys!

It's hard to tell but Owen is in the process of peeling an orange here.  For awhile he used peeling little oranges as a coping mechanism.  When he got upset he had to peel a halo to relieve some stress.  He didn't often eat them, just liked to peel.

I love this picture!  Is it symbolic that no matter how much they fight Owen will always come out victorious?  We will never know!

And then these pictures came out of the same night of playing.... Owen makes a beautiful princess, don't you think?

My little helper!  He helped me wash all of the air grates last month and enjoyed helping me wash the sliding door track as well!

Owen LOVES being outside... He is actually breaking my heart lately because he keeps saying "bye-bye, bye-bye" and wants to go out so bad!  As soon as we go in he wants to go back out again.  Someone is ready for spring!

 

Our "New" House!

I'm sure that by now you've all either been told or figured out that we were able to buy a single family house last fall.  The whole process got rolling in September.  We thought we would be stranded in our townhouse for many more years since we owe so much on it.  I had talked with several mortgage companies to either help lower our interest rate or to get a second mortgage.  They wanted to have nothing to do with us so I called the broker that helped us with our refinance 5 years ago.  She is absolutely amazing and prequalified us right away for a decent amount and referred us to a Realtor.  He suggested we look for some place outside of Waconia to get more for our money but we were pretty set on not moving too far.  We were able to look at a few places just a couple days after meeting him over the phone and the first house we looked at is the one we ended up buying!

This house had everything we were looking for in a house: 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, 2 living areas, an oversized garage and a big backyard.  It was just a little disappointing walking through it, however, because everywhere we turned we saw more evidence of how the previous owner had taken zero care of this place.  It was a foreclosure, a teenage party house, and probably a lot of anger here as well.  Just so turns out I have a husband who's been itching for a new place to be able to do some work on!  The house was essentially livable, you just have to look past a few cosmetic items which we will be updating/replacing as finances allow.  There isn't a basement to refinish but in time, we will probably replace most things or touch them in some way.

Here is a picture of John and me with our Wood Duck home right before we closed on November 22nd.  We moved one week later on Black Friday, November 29th!!!  This whole process went so fast and smooth I can't believe it!  We did a little cleaning and painting in between there and everything just fell right into place.  We got all moved before Christmas and settled before all of the spring festivities!

And then for the townhouse, we are renting it out.  We tried to go the Renter's Warehouse route but really had bad experience with them.  It was their "off season" since we were looking for December 1st move-in and they kept asking us to lower our price.  I showed the place to a good half-dozen individuals which was that much more than Renter's Warehouse lined up for us.  We ended up finding our tenant through Craigslist and just used Renter's Warehouse for the lease.  So far everything is working out but we are definitely still involved with the Larkspur place but it is nice to still be engaged.  Our tenant moved in as we were moving out and is loving his space!

What an answer to prayer this has all been.  We are thrilled that we can give our kiddos a space they can stretch their legs in.  Lots of good memories will be created here.  Also a big shout out to our parents and family who helped us move and watch the kiddos.  We couldn't have done it without you guys!!!  Stay tuned for pictures of what we've done inside!

Queen of the Hill

Needless-to-say, this hasn't been a great winter for kids getting outside.  I've only taken the kids outside a handful of times this winter because of all the cold and then just nothing to really do outside.  If we would go to the backyard to play Megan's boots would come off with every step just with how deep it is.  

These first few pictures are from two weeks ago when she and I went outside to play during Owen's nap on a fairly nice day.  A discovered that we could use our inclined driveway and low-trafficked street to our advantage by turning the driveway into a sledding hill!!!  Since there was still snow on the driveway and street it worked just perfectly.  And yes, I looked both ways before pushing her down.  Also some benefits to living in a cul de sac!

There was so much snow and it was just calling Megan's name for her to climb in.

And up she goes.... Queen of the Hill!!!

Then the other side called her to just make one snow angel.... And then another one...

Before Megan knew it, she was being swallowed up by the amount of snow in the front yard.  Both boots had come off and mittens close behind that.  It took a great deal of effort to get her convinced to listen to me.  I had to eventually tie the sled to the shovel and have her climb on to pull her out.  Whew!  That deserved a warm bath and cocoa for sure!

Yesterday it was very nice too.  The snow was melting and sun shining!  The kids are just itching to get outside so we burned a little energy right before lunch.  I still put the now pants on them because of the melting snow but otherwise they would not have needed them!

I never thought I would actually be shoveling snow onto the driveway but I didn't want to ruin the sled and Megan was determined to go sledding.  I put a big pile at the bottom so she wouldn't slide onto the bare street.

Owen only wanted to go down twice but he still had fun!

But I think he enjoyed the shovel more.  I would have liked for him to have his mittens on but they slow his little fingers down and he can't get much accomplished with them on.

 

I had to keep a close eye on Megan... Every time I looked she was face into this pile of snow.  I told her not to eat it and she told me to just not look!