Buildin' "Thorts"

First lap!

Peeking!

 We had a lazy day last Sunday.  It was raining and we couldn't play outside.  Matt was working on my car so the girls and I were on lockdown and couldn't go anywhere to play.  We needed something fun to do sooooo why not build "thorts!"  Grace has always called it a "thort" instead of a fort and I can't quite get myself to correct her.  It's too cute and one of those things I'm holding onto since she seems to be growing at the speed of light.
I have to admit that a good fort IS a lot of fun!  We added some glow sticks, had snacks, and played in there for what felt like hours before Pete decided he needed to lay on one of the blankets and our "thort" came tumbling down!
Oh well.  Thorts are fun while they last!

Our "thort"

XOXOXO!!!

Getting started!

 Valentine's Day is a holiday that I've never made a big fuss about.......until I had the girls that is!  And this year Grace was ALL about it!  Have I mentioned that holidays are SO much fun because of those two, little boogers?!?!
I wanted to help Grace make handmade valentines this year.  She loves all things crafty so why not.  When I told her she would get to paint her hands, it was a no-brainer.  I had her reeled in immediately.  AND she got to put bedazzle them with as many stickers as she wanted.  DUH!  Ok, now I'm even excited!
She loved the hand painting and Anna even got in on the action with a little project that we haven't gotten quite finished yet.

Signing her valentines!

Adding some stickers!

 Tuesdays are our crazy days around here since Grace has preschool, I usually run 500 errands and try to get the house as clean as possible, pick her up from school, run a few more errands, take Grace to dance, and end up home around 7:00pm with some gourmet Chick-fil-et for dinner.  So needless to say since Valentine's Day fell on a Tuesday, I couldn't do any fun, themed dinners but I did manage to shape our orange rolls into hearts for breakfast!
Grace was beaming with excitement as we pulled up to school for her Valentine's Day party!  We were in charge of bringing a dessert and opted for heart-shaped red velvet cheesecake brownies annnnnd, yes, I ate half the pan before we left for the party.  If you saw that recipe on Pinterest, go ahead and get it pinned.  It received two thumbs up from this lady!!

AK got her own sticker page too!

Grace was smiling from ear to ear when I picked her up and she immediately started showing me all her valentines!  The girls got to dive into their goodies after school and they were on a sugar high for the next 3 hours!  WHOA!!
Matt came home with a stuffed animal for each of the girls and some goodies for his lovely wife.  Valentine's Day to some people might mean a nice, fancy dinner, champagne, roses, blah, blah, blah.  For Matt, it meant coming home to a wife in sweat pants, a kleenex stuffed up her nose due to the constant-never-ending nasal drip, Nyquil as my evening "cocktail", and a tremendous amount of snoring due to my blocked nasal passages.  Ahhhhhh love is in the air!!  HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!

Red velvet cheesecake brownies!

Valentine's Day breakfast:  heart-shaped orange rolls!

SOOOO excited for her party!

Finished product!!

Finished product!

Valentine's Day goodies!

Sugar Overload!

CHEESE!!

I Wish I Was One of THOSE Moms......

who lets her kids play with whatever they want and in whatever they want.  You know, the kind that doesn't mind the messes that all this "fun stuff" (like finger paint) seems to come with.  But, I'm here to admit, that I'm SOOOO not that kind of mom!  Oh, I want to be and I even buy all goods for these activities.  RELAX I try to tell myself!!  But old habits die hard I guess.
I am getting a little better though.  Playdough used to take me over the edge when the colors got mixed.  Sad, I know.  Now, I think it's kind of (I should probably emphasize KIND OF) fun to mix the colors and see what new color you get.  I used to avoid sand pits at all costs.  Now, I don't bat an eye when they both want to dive into our neighbor's sand box.......as long as we dump their shoes, socks, panties, etc. before they come back into the house.  WAHAHAHA!!  Ok, even I'M not that bad!!  I stop right after the shoes....and maybe the socks.
Needless to say when I saw this idea for "mess free finger painting," I nearly peed down my leg!  Yes, it involves REAL paint AND the girls loved it!!  Put whatever colors of paint you have on hand in a baggie (in different areas of the baggie), tape the baggie shut (if you have a Houdini child like I do, you can only be saying DUH!!!), and tape it to whatever you want with painters tape so it can be easily removed.  GENIUS, I tell ya'!!  I used red, blue, and yellow paint since I knew Grace would like seeing the different colors she could make.  When she made purple (her favorite color), she was thrilled!!  Anna liked seeing her handprints and thought it would be a good idea to try and taste it a time or two!
We tried this early last week and, while the baggies have moved from place to place, they're still up and sticking......to something.  Great idea!  AND no messes!!  WAHOO!!        

Water Bead Madness

The girls and I were first introduced to water beads a couple months ago at Mom and Dad's house.  Mom has some out for a decoration around Christmas and the girls didn't want to take their hands off them.  I also saw them again on www.playathomemom.com and, as luck would have it, we needed something fun to do indoors since the bug had invaded our house.
You can buy them at any craft store or Walmart in the floral area.  There's every color under the sun to choose from and we.......well got almost ALL of them.  :)  Why not??  They're $2 for a pack and they last a while so the girls can play with them over and over again.
I let the girls pick two colors each to start off and here is where I should've stopped.  The 4 bowls of water were enough fun for them.  They played and splashed around for a good 20min before we actually put the water beads in the bowls!  It takes 4-6 hours (depending on how big you want them) for the beads to plump up.  We put them in the water right after breakfast with a promise of playing with them right after naps.
Once they had soaked up most of the water, I let the girls scoop them up and I threw them all in the bathtub.  FYI - these do leave a bit of color behind so you might want to either scoop them out of the water yourself or put a towel under your bowls.  Anna LOVED scooping them into another container, dumping them out, and watching them bounce all over the place!  Grace was content keeping her two colors in her own container and picking up every one she dropped!  WAHAHAHA!!  No surprises there!
The girls have played with them 3 different times now and the newness doesn't seem to be wearing off.  They'll be a blast when it warms up outside too.  Plastic swimming pool + water beads + 2 girls who need to get out some energy = SCORE for Mommy!!  AND, if you love sand as much as I do (NOT!), put them in your sandbox as a substitute!!  Still fun BUT less mess!  WAHOO!!