Coloring Easter Eggs

So I decided that Katie was old enough to try coloring Easter Eggs. That became our "Art Project" on Tuesday nite and we had a blast coloring them..... After every egg came out of the dye, Katie would utter this gleeful laugh.....

She was very insistant in helping from start to finish so she was a little rough on the eggs and needless to say Mommy and Daddy will be eating alot of hard boiled eggs this week....

So we started with 10 eggs that went into the pot. She wanted to help, I showed her how to gently put the eggs in, she dropped them in....

So 8 eggs came out suitable for dying - we dyed 8 eggs and then the kit we had, had stickers.

After decorating with stickers and letting eggs roll off the table we ended up with 6 eggs for our Easter Centerpiece.... Not to bad for a first time!!!!!

Sorry....

I have been such a slacker in other parts of my life lately.. I have pics of the girls I need to send out and I know I owe a couple people thank -you notes..... They are coming I promise!

Easter Egg Hunt

So this past Saturday we went on our Easter egg hunt at the daycare or what I like to callthe big candy free for all. It literally is this small squared off area that they throw a ton of candy, some little toys and a couple Easter eggs that have prizes in them....

I was curious to see how this would work out- last year we went was our first one. Katie was so funny, she would pick up a piece of candy one by one and bring it back to me grinning ear to ear over it. This year was no different. She still did pieces one by one. So delicate and dainty with
it....

As this was Sarahs first year doing this - I was curious to see how she would act. Yeah, she lived up to my nickname of bulldozer. She just kept going round and round the area picking up handfuls of candy and when she could get no more would return to Jim and I to place in her basket. Apparently she likes tootsie rolls because that is the majority of candy she went for....

I have to say- My mommy competitveness comes out during these things. I was workingwith Katie and would say - Katie- do want Tootsie pops- there is one over there- go get it and this little brat- umm I mean little boy would go running over and grab it.. But afterwards I was talking to another mother of a little girl in Katies age group and we could not get over how many parents go in the area with their kids and scoop the stuff up for their kid. It only seems to be Katies age group though-as this happened last year.....

The girls also had the opportunity to meet the Easter bunny. Katie did really good and eventually sat on his lap where as Sarah was a NO GO..... So she sat on Jims lap next to the bunny and that was as close as she was getting

So much for binkie weaning

Well, it looks like we wont be weaning Sarah off the bink any time soon. We got taken aside last week by the daycare director. She is having a real problem with agression and biting. Anytime a child has a toy she wants or try to take a toy from her, she lets out her warrior cry and then goes in for the kill.

The daycare is working with us and asked us to bring several things in to help combat it. The one thing that seems to be working though- is her binkie- if she has that in, she does not try to go after the other child.... I dont know if this will work long term, but Jim and I are hoping it gets through this stage. Then once we get her through the biting we can work on weaning the binkie....

Horton Hears a Who

So the previews from Horton have been bombarding us through many of the shows we watch and every time Katie saw the preview she kept saying, I wanna go see that Moobie! So we decided that we would give it a try and take her to her first real movie theater.....

All in all - it did not go too badly. In fact for her first movie- I think she did rather well. We did have a panic moment when she tried to climb up in the movie chair and it almost ate her since she is so tiny that her weight did not really keep the seat down.... But she loooooooved the snacks she got to have, as soon as we purchased her popcorn, sour patch kids (her choosing), she was going - Can I have my snack? Can I have my snack.... Seriously- we spent more on snacks then we did on movie tickets.....

Even though the movie was only an hour and half- she started to get a little resless about an hour into it- but after 3 trips to the potty she was good to go again and was a little disappointed when it was over.

She kept asking us on the way home- can we go see that moobie again???

Cute Moment of the Day

So Katie idolizes mommy. This is two fold for me- while on one hand- I love that she loves me so much that she wants to be like me on the other hand- it can be very frustrating and irritating when she imitates me on everything- including disaplining Sarah. She loves to stand next to me and repeat what I am saying to Sarah..... Which gets her in trouble....

But last nite was cute moment rather then an irriatating one. As we were sitting there last nite - me in the big recliner- her in her kid sized one. I had Sarah on my lap and was giving her her bottle, Katie climbed in to her chair wiht her baby doll and said- Mom - can you put my feet up? (My feet were up in the big recliner). I leaned over and pulled her foot thing out of the bottom of her recliner and went is that good.. She looked at me and Said- "No Mom, I said my feet up not my Knees!". I thought I was gonna die laughing. Where does this stuff come from. So I proceeded to pull her foot stool thing out more and finally got her exactly like mommy where she then proceeded to put her feet up and fed her baby and got her to sleep while I did the same with Sarah....

Time Out

So maybe Time out is working too good for us.... Let me backtrack and explain that Sarah is very addicted to her binky and we are trying to wean her away from it except for sleeping.... So this morning I found an extra binky in her room and as we tend to always be loosing binkies I put it on the banister so I could take it downstairs and clean it and put it back in the rotation for use. Well miss Sarah wanted that binkie in the worst way..... She cried and stomped her feet and cried some more and was having quite the temper tantrum. I kept saying to her Sarah- no you do not need your binkie. I then moved on into my room to get dressed and to get KAtie dressed as well. With that I can here the binkie moving-(it has a little handle thing that moves and jangles against the other piece) and Sarahs crying stopped.

So I step out into the hallway and I see Katie and I see Sarah with her binkie in her mouth. I look at KAtie and say who gave her that binkie? She say I did - she was crying mommy. I said I know Katie - but I told her she could not have it- did you hear me say that? She shakes her head yes and with that goes down to the end of the hallway. I look at her and said why are you runing away from me? Jim who was watching from the bathroom door goes- dont you realize where she is? And he looks at Katie and says yes Katie- 1 minute time out. She put herself in timeout! Too cute. After she got out she came over to me and said I am sorry Mommy that I gave Sarah her binkie boo- why did you not want her to have it? So I then sat down and explained that we are trying to prepare Sarah for the binkie fairy that is going to come and take her binkies like she did for Katie and give them to the new babies....

How About them Apples?

So I have found the secret to my kids happiness. Apples in any shape or form.... Both girls love apple slices when we get Happy Meals as I am sure many a drive thru attendent can assure you that Katie screams APPLE SLICES as I am trying to order.....

And they love applesauce. This past weekend I got a quart of homemade applesauce from our local independent butcher/deli and we had it as a side dish last nite.... Welll Jim and I had it as a side- both girls ate so much of it I think it really could be considered their main meal..... Katie sat there last nite and said oh mommy Applesauce is my favorite. Then she paused and added And pizza..... She had 2 bowls of applesauce to go with her ham steak and noodles.

Sarah kept going meh meh meh and pointing to the bowl. She devoured 3 bowls of applesauce and I am not sure if she would have gone for more except I started to clear the table....

Sesame St Live!

So every year Sesame Street comes to town. We toyed with the idea of taking Katie last year but felt she might have been too young. Then we felt like big heels when everyone in her daycare class went except her.

Fastforward to this year and the day the tickets went on sale- I was ready and sitting at my pc to get the best seats available. Scored some great seats and had to laugh- where once I would wait for concert tickets to go onsale I am now waiting for SSL to go on sale. But it paid off and we went last nite.

I was worried about taking Sarah- I thought she might be too small yet and be bored. I should not have worried. She was glued to watching them. She would bounce on my knee to all the songs and when it would end she would clap her hands and go YAY!!!!!

I seriously cant go over how good both girls were and how much they enjoyed it. The look on their faces when the room got dark and the spotlights started to go and then the music started and then BERT came out- it was priceless....

Now the cynical part of me cant believe what a $$ this has become for Sesame St. There was an intermission and they were selling Elmo balloons- at $8 a pop!!! While we did not buy those overprices suckers we did end up getting the girls a bunch of overprices SS stuff. Hey- this is their first show- so we caved.....

Update on the Girls

Katie went for her 3rd sweat test on Monday and again did not give so much as a drop of sweat. They decided to give up for now on the whole Cystic Fibrosis. Unfortunately we had bad new after that. We had to take her for a follow up x-ray and there is still a spot on her lower left lung. So now we go to a pulmonary dr at Geisinger next Friday for him to look at her lungs and see what is going on. Right now it could be a couple different things. So we wait.

Sarah had a follow up x-ray as well and her came back clear.

Not Nice

So Sarah is starting to talk a bit and while a lot of it is still babby talk. She is starting to say some words clearly. One in particular must get said to her alot because she is starting to repeat it on a semi-regular basis. So much so that she walked around with her baby doll yesterday telling the baby doll- Not Nice.

Sarah is what we call our little bruiser. She is quite the toy bully at home and at school. Jim actually got stopped by one of the teachers in her classroom on Friday. Apparently she has been biting 2-3 times a week. Usually because someone has a toy she wants or someone tried to take a toy from her. They said they can usually tell when it is going to happen because she lets out her warrior cry and then goes in for the kill. They can prevent it sometimes but not always.

I love that she is getting more vocal and developing her personality but at the same time I hate this stage. The frustration over being unable to express herself through speech that leads to biting, hitting, shoving and temper tantrums. Fun times....

Talladega Nites and the Baby Jesus

So we try to be good parents and give Katie and Sarah somewhat of a religious background. We both felt sadly lacking back in december when reading a friends blog and finding out how their son was so excited to celebrate Jesus' birthday. To this point our own kids only knew that Christmas meant Santa....

So we set about teaching Katie about the baby Jesus and how Christmas is his birthday. She caught on really quickly and loves reading her children's bible and a her child's book of Jesus stories.... To the point that she loves to read about Baby Jesus being born. Its cute and kinda funny when she tells you King Herrod- baaaaaddd- he need a time out.....

So what does this have to do with Talladega nites? Jim and I cant help to laugh because she always refers to Jesus as baby Jesus... And for those that saw the movie Talladega nites- Will Farrells character always had to thank the Baby Jesus. So we were like- has she been watching that movie????

Everybody Polka!

So those true Pennsylvanians know that the Polka is a huge thing here. Back in the summer Jim turned on one of the local channels that was broadcasting from a local fair and they had the couples doing the Polka. Katie loved it. She stared fascinated at the screen. Fast forward a few months and Jim puts PBS on and polka is on. Katie and Sarah go nuts dancing around to Polka. So for giggles Jim downloads the Pennsylvania polka to his ipod. Everytime he plays it on the way home from daycare both kids go nuts clapping and dancing in their car seats.

Yeah they are true Pennsylvanians! So everyone polka!!!!!

Soccer Mom?

So my Uncle Mike is probably going to love this post. Yes I drive a mini van and yes I have little kids, but that by no means makes me a (gasp) soccer mom! Its a stereotype I have long since fought against. And one my Uncle loves to tease me about. Even going so far as to slap a soccor car magnet on my trunk when I am not looking. And my cousin and his girlfriend went as so far as to buy Sarah a soccer ball for her birthday.

Here is the thing. Katie is good. Really good. She can already do drills and has great control over the ball. So much so we are asking around about a soccer leage for pre-schoolers. So while I will continue to fight the stereotype - I think I will be that soccer mom before too long!

Sisters - Gotta love it

So this weekend was a rough one for the girls. Poor kiddos- there was a lot of late nites and then full days. So Saturday I convinced Katie to take a nap - 2 hours later she woke up and was a major grump. Nothing would satisfy her highness. So she sat in her chair sideways crying and yelling. I finally gave up an decided to ignore. Sarah on the other I guess got fed up with it - she took her binkie out of her mouth and popped it into Katie's and then started rubbing her back. I have to give the little one credit- it worked- Katie immediately started laughing and her mood instantly changed.....


While they fight a lot- they do have their moments of sweetness. I was holding Sarah as she slept in my arms on Sunday at their Bears house and Katie was playing with her cousins but every so often she would come over and lean in and very gently give Sarah the sweetest little kiss...