Back to School - 2014

Braysen goes back to school tomorrow. He is nowhere near as excited this year as he was last year. Even after school clothes shopping, getting a new haircut, and picking out a new back pack and lunch pail, he still isn't showing much enthusiasm. 

One of my twin mom friends that I met on IG has a little boy who started 2nd grade a few weeks ago, and she posted pictures of a back to school dinner that she does for him every year. So fun, right? The printables she used were so cute! I found them for free here!

He got to choose our dinner for tonight. Pasta and salad? Yes, he is my child. If you know me at all, then his choice of dinner shouldn't surprise you at all. These are pretty much my two favorite foods of all time.

But his favorite part? The cupcakes! I opted for {gasp} a boxed cake mix and canned frosting. Not my style, I know, but my little headband business has really been eating away at my extra time!

Brynlee was thrilled to get part of a cupcake!

 

 

Shaving Cream Painting

This week we used shaving cream to paint. This was a fun one! I was quite certain that the girls would try to eat the shaving cream/paint mixture. With me being outnumbered 3:1, chances were good they would consume it, so they sat out for this activity.

All we needed was shaving cream, paper, paint, a fork, and a flat surface. We used a cutting board, but you could also use a cookie sheet.

Braysen sprayed the shaving cream all over the board.

And then spread it all around.

The girls weren't very happy that they were missing craft time today.

I squeezed some blobs of paint out onto the shaving cream and Braysen used a plastic fork to swirl it around.

Next we pressed the paper down over the shaving cream.

The girls finally gave up and decided to play.

 Clean up time!

Foam Dough

Foam dough was fun, but really messy!

We needed shaving cream, corn starch, and a plastic tub.

 Remember when I said messy? I had this stuff all over my kitchen! Next time we will probably do this one outside.

And of course, any type of dough becomes a jump for his motorcycles.

I'm really glad he likes to use the vacuum. It makes cleaning up these messy activities a breeze. :)

A Little 4th of July Craftin'!

Today we started our 4th of July crafts.  This is the first real project that the girls got to participate in. They loved it!

We started by painting some plastic spatulas. The original plan was to use wooden spatulas, but I couldn't find any with holes in them, and the holes are necessary for what these will become!

They started off doing a great job with painting their spatulas.

Then Berlyn moved on to do a little feet painting.

And then some finger painting.

Busted girlfriend!

The hair on these babes! Seriously?

We left them outside so they could dry.

I'll update tomorrow after we finish up!

Valentine Bird Seed Ornaments

Today we made some bird seed ornaments as part of our Valentine crafts. These take a few days to dry out, so we made them a few days in advance and we will hang them up outside on Valentine's Day. 

Valentine Bird Seed Ornaments

-twine (I couldn't find any around here, so I used some string we had)

-valentine cookie cutters

-2 packets Knox gelatin

-1/2 c. water

-1 1/2 c. birdseed

Dissolve packets of gelatin into water, bring to simmer until dissolved. I let it cool a bit because Braysen would be stirring it together.

Pour into a bowl and mix in birdseed. It would have been a lot faster (and less messy!) for me to measure out the birdseed myself, but then we'd miss out on talking about measurements and fractions.

Fill the cookie cutters halfway and pack down the seed mixture. Lay tied twine and the fill the rest of the cookie cutter with birdseed mixture and again pack down.

I popped mine in the freezer for about an hour so I could easily remove them from the molds. Now they are sitting out to dry out and we will hang them outside on Friday!!

And this is what the ladies did. :) Next year they'll be big enough for some Valentine fun, but for now it's best that we wait until they're napping for craft time.

Birthday Party Planning

We're doing two separate birthday parties for the kids this year. I've received a bit of flack for it, but the truth of the matter is, this has been a rough year for Braysen, and that's putting it mildly. Not only is it tough for a kid his age to adjust when a new baby comes home, but he had two, and they cried nonstop for the first few months of their lives until their reflux was under control. I have so many painful memories of holding, bouncing, and shussing both babies at the same time, only to have Braysen crying right in front of me because he wanted to be held too. Those were the days that all 4 of us would cry.

We want to have a party for the girls' first birthday (mostly for us once we actually survived this first year). His birthday is only two days after theirs, and after everything that has happened this past year, I cannot imagine having a party for them and not Braysen. I do realize that having one party for all three would save my sanity and wallet (and save family members from having to attend two parties), but we really would rather let him have his own day and not have to share that day with his sisters. At least for this year. 

We're keeping the parties super small this year. Braysen's party will be just family and the babies' will have a small guest list of family and friends. 

This was the first year Braysen made it clear about what he wanted his party theme to be. We've done pirates, bugs, and robots. This year he wants Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was no surprise at all.

For the babies I was not going to do a theme, I originally was just going to go with a mint, pink, and gold color scheme, but eventually settled on an ice cream party. 

10 months

It's been AGES since I did a monthly update for the girls (MONTHS really, but who's counting?). I took the monthly photos, just never got around to posting them. Boo.

10 months

Both babies are crawling. EVERYWHERE! They've learned their way around the house. I can no longer keep them in the living room to play. They want in the play room. I would like to blame it on the fact that Braysen is in there playing, but they wander in there even when he is napping. When they do decide to play in the living room, they enjoy cruising the furniture. They no longer enjoy spending time in the walked or jumperoo, they want to be free so they can explore!

They will no longer eat their puréed food, and want chunks of food only. I had quite a bit of baby food prepped in the freezer that I ended up tossing because they refused to eat the purees anymore.

Both babies have their two bottom teeth. 

The girls love love LOVE their brother. They follow him around the house. They love to hold his hand in the car (on most days) and it is the sweetest thing EVER to look in the back seat and see all 3 of my little loves with their hands linked together.

Neither baby seems to care for sippy cups, but love their straw cups. Braysen was the exact same way. 

Brynlee

Brynlee continues to be feisty. She's my little "grabby" girl and wants everything within arm's reach. It is so funny to watch her eat because she grabs the biggest handful of food she can and just shovels it into her mouth. Sometimes she will do this with both hands at the same time! I have to separate their high chairs at mealtimes because she will grab food off of Berlyn's tray.

She has also mastered the "duck face".

She loves to eat broccoli, pears, peas, bananas, avocado, scrambled egg yolks, cheese, chicken, toast, and pretty much anything else you put in front of her.

Brynlee has mastered using her straw cup.

She seems to really be excelling with her fine motor skills.

She has also finally mastered crawling on her hands and knees. She was doing an army type crawl (we've been calling her "Scooter") up until this last month. 

Brynlee loves to smile and giggle and is super ticklish!

Berlyn

Berlyn is a very sensitive babe. She continues to be startled by loud noises and gets anxious when she's in an unfamiliar place. She is so happy to see familiar faces though. If you walk into the room she will give you a huge grin and race toward you. She is a super fast crawler! She mastered hands-and-knees crawling from the get-go and has been on the move ever since!

Berlyn loves to be held. I can count at least 20-25 times each day that she will crawl up to me and want to be picked up.

Berlyn is still practicing with her straw cup.

 She seems to really be excelling with her gross motor skills.

She loves to eat peas, bananas, pears, and avocado. While she prefers chunks of food, she doesn't really like to feed herself. She will eat a few handfuls and then look at me and wait for me to feed her the rest.



Onto the pictures for this month. I have nothing to say but OMIGOSH PICTURES ARE SO HARD RIGHT NOW! I used to stress to try to get great shots of both babies, but I've stopped doing that. This is our everyday life right now. This is 10 months.

 

 

 

And since I haven't posted monthly pics since {ahem} 5 months, here they are: