Playing & potty training!

Last week on my day off, Cam played hooky from school & we headed to Legoland to meet my cousins from Chicago.  JoAnne was nice enough to give us extra tickets so it cost us nothing to get in; yay for inexpensive outings!  My mom stayed over & went with us which was a great help because Reese can be pretty clingy & have her two year-old moments!

We'd never been to Legoland before & ended up having a great time.  It's a pretty small park & definitely geared for small children vs. adults, so if you're planning on going, keep that in mind!

Here in Florida, the temps are starting to rise to nasty levels of 90 degrees, so my outside outings will be few & far between from now until September unless a pool is involved.  Gotta love the swampy humidity!

This week we've got kindergarten on the brain since Mike went to an open house at a potential school Cam might be attending this fall.

We're zoned for another school that's totally out of our way & would pull Cam out of the daycare he's been attending since four months old.  We're seriously hoping he'll go to the school closer to our house so he can do wraparound care at his current school/daycare, but the spots are limited so I'm not holding my breath.  We won't know for at least another month, but I'll be keeping my fingers & toes crossed!

This summer I'll focus on getting organized for real school since I'm a little nervous about the transition.  Not only do I want Cam to be ready, but I want to be ready too.  Pre-K is definitely teaching him what he needs to know before starting which is great.  It seems like kids are expected to know a lot more now than when I was a kid!  I've seen the huge amount of homework my nieces have, so that has worried me the most!  Our evenings are such a whirlwind & the kids go to bed so early, but the idea of fitting homework in is a bit daunting.

 

Kyle being sweet with Reese

Today the focus is on potty training!  Reese will be two & a half in a couple of weeks, but I've yet to see her actually go on the potty.  She's happy to sit there, but that's all she does; sit there.  I've had her in undies today for the past two hours, so very soon she'll either pee in the potty or pee in the princess undies!  We shall see; the suspense is killing me!  ;o)

Pantry organization

I've always loathed the wire shelves that most pantries have since things fall through, thin containers tip over..  I tried combating it by putting contact paper straight onto the shelves as you'll see in this post & it worked decently well & actually held up better than I anticipated, but it still wasn't ideal.  I stumbled across an even better solution when I was browsing around the popular blog, I Heart Organizing.  I saw in this post that she placed foam core board covered in contact paper for a solid surface which made such perfect sense.  Sometimes when I see ideas on Pinterest or blogs, I think, how did I not think of that?!

Pantries are one of those things that easily get messy, especially when you have little hands digging around for snacks. 

Anyway, this was what I've been working with & it's not been pretty.  But, all that changed when I asked my dad if he could cut me five sheets of foam core board from his picture framing business & I got to work yesterday morning.

I ordered this pretty Chevron striped contact paper from Amazon & covered the boards with Mike's assistance.

The contact paper comes in two rolls per pack & I ordered two to be safe which was more than enough.

 

Once I finished the foam boards, the rest of the project was a cinch in terms of taking the food out, wiping down the shelves & putting everything back in.  The shelves attached to the pantry door are super helpful in keeping things organized since they hold so much.  I picked that up on clearance at Target for less than ten dollars!

So much better!

 Before & after shots!

I picked up an inexpensive stool from IKEA that I keep in the pantry so the kids can be more independent.  Cameron: Moooom!  I want fruit snacks!!  Me: Okay, use the stool & get it yourself!  Gosh, I'm so mean, aren't I?!

Since I had the extra paper, I decided to re-line the cabinet under the sink.  It was a pretty productive Saturday!

Easter 2014

We hit the road for Sarasota Friday evening to spend the weekend celebrating Easter with my family.  After a stressful drive & a near wreck, we finally arrived & the fun began!

The kids spent plenty of time outside, cruising around on their bikes.  Luckily my parents live in an extremely quite neighborhood so in an hour of playing, one car might pass by.



Reese is becoming quite the pro on her little trike!  

 

The kids were so happy to spend two nights with their cousins.  Cam cried for the first ten minutes of our drive home yesterday saying, but I miss Mikayla!  The two of them are seriously two peas in a pod which I love!

 

We normally color eggs at home, but with the weekday being so rushed, we decided to save it for a fun activity with the cousins.

This is Reese's third Easter, but her very first time coloring eggs since she was so little in previous years.  She had so much fun & only broke one egg!

The kids excitedly bounded out of the bedrooms to find that the Easter bunny had left them some pretty awesome baskets!  Reese slept in but was equally excited, especially when she saw that she got Frozen!
 

The Easter bunny sticks to a budget when creating the baskets & the kids usually get one "nicer" item that we would end up getting them anyway.

Like with coloring eggs, this was also Reese's first Easter to participate in the egg hunt.  Last year she was about 18 months old, teething & napping after a mega meltdown, so we hunted while she slept.  Things are so much more fun with her these days!!

The Easter bunny left her this adorable outfit from Target & she loved it.

 

 

 

 

Lauren caught Dempsey sneaking across the golf course during the hunt!

 Reese only collected a handful of eggs, but she was pretty impressed with her findings.

Best of all, this Easter my cousin JoAnne was down with her family & my Aunt Joan from Chicago.  I grew up like a second daughter to my Aunt Joan & a sister to JoAnne, so it's sad that we end up seeing each other only every couple of years.  She now has four kids from 15 months to 13 years old & it was great for all the cousins to catch up!

Reese bonding with Aunt Joan

The kids even braved the freezing cold pool... Reese for about thirty seconds & she was outta there after getting splashed.  What a waste of a swimmy diaper!

 

After school I had to cut off the Easter candy raid since we had yet to eat dinner.  I caught my Reese looking to eat a Reese's egg!

And in other news, my baby (sniff, sniff, sniff) officially has his first loose tooth!  I have no idea why, but I've always dreaded the kids losing their baby teeth.  A) I'm not good with change, B) I feel like the adult teeth take away the baby faces.   I felt the same way when they were getting their baby teeth as infants.  I literally cried like a baby when he showed me the wiggly tooth as both he & Mike looked at me like I was crazy.  I may have had PMS so I was a bit extra weepy!

I'll miss those sweet little baby teeth when they're gone!  :'o(

Anyway, hope you all had a very happy Easter this year!!

420 months old & 29 months old

This weekend was spent celebrating my hubby's birthday with food, friends & fun at our house.

Yesterday was Mike's thirty-fifth birthday, happy birthday, Mike!!  It's hard to believe I've known the guy since we were sixteen years old!!!

Unfortunately, as the celebrations were winding down, this little chicky fell suddenly ill.  When she woke up from her nap with a nearly 103 degree fever, I made the decision to call off work & nurse my girl back to good health today.  She woke up very sad, miserable & feverish this morning, but after the ibuprofen kicked in, she was a new girl, thank goodness!

She loves her pockets!

It's amazing what a teaspoon of medicine can do!  My girl is 29 months old today!!  I haven't done an update on Reese lately, so what has she been up to these days? 

Reese is still a very feisty, strong-willed little girl & she doesn't take anything from anybody!  But she is also incredibly sweet & loving.  When she found out I was feeling sick last week, she came up to me, kissed my arm & said, "I'm so sorry that you're sick, Mommy!"  Her vocabulary is amazing & she speaks in full sentences with no issues.  We have full blown conversations; sometimes I can't understand what she's saying, but eventually I get it.   She wears size 2-4T clothes but the 2T is a bit snug, so at this point, I only buy 4T so we can get more bang for our buck.  She's in size five diapers, has no desire to use the potty whatsoever & I'm just hoping to have her potty trained by 3!  Reese wears size 6-7 shoes & weighs around 32#.  Her favorite foods are waffles with peanut butter & honey, cheese & especially grapes.

Her favorite things in the world are Disney princesses & Minnie Mouse.  As I type this, we're watching her favorite movie, Tangled.  She loves, loves, loves Frozen too & belts out the songs from the movie.  Reese is such a little Mommy & adores taking care of her baby dolls, pushing them around the house in their strollers.  When I vacuum, she pushes her Minnie vacuum around with me.  When I dust, she grabs a baby wipe & cleans along side me too.  She has gotten so much more laid back & I can get the house cleaned & work on other projects when she's home with me... very different from a year ago!  Reese is still an awesome sleeper, takes a 2 hour nap in the afternoon & sleeps 12 hours at night, thank goodness!  She's my little girlfriend & I positively love spending time with her.  I am so lucky to be her mommy!