Happy Valentine's Day

We spent the better part of the weekend preparing for Valentine's Day. Sad, right? Let me explain. I signed up to bring the treat bags for Warner's preschool party, so first we made a trip to the dollar store to purchase items for the bags. It was actually a great trip, with no whining or tears (imagine that). We left with pencils, erasers, stickers, heart boxes, and candy for the bags.

Filling the bags took a while between fighting over who got to fill each bag and asking a few hundred times to eat the candy. Thankfully we had extra candy when it was all said and done, so the kids were happy.Then, we made valentine's for the kids' friends at school. I found the valentine idea online - each heart had a glow stick through it and read "you make my heart glow". Maren helped by adding stickers to each valentine. She was pretty proud of herself.
Warner signed his name on each valentine (16 in all), which took forever. The poor kid is a complete perfectionist, so whenever he'd mess up his name, he'd throw a fit. It took about 20 cards to produce the perfect 16 for his classmates. Oh how I hope he outgrows these OCD tendencies. But seeing how crazy Kevin and I are, I'm afraid there's little hope.
For all of the tears that were shed, they did turn out well, don't you think? Happy Valentine's Day!

"All me stuff"

We may or may not have a slight hoarding problem surfacing here.

Date

When I think about the days Warner is in preschool and Maren is not, I often romanticize about the things Maren and I will do together. You know, just Mommy and Maren time. The reality however is errands need to be run, the house needs to be cleaned, and other obligations need to be met. So, the amount of quality Mommy and Maren time we actually get is far less than I would like.

Last week I decided to be intentional about our time together and took Maren on a date after we dropped Warner off at school. We went to Starbucks and she got to pick out whatever her heart desired. Her choice was a pink doughnut and chocolate milk. My treat was a grande black Pike Place roast. I brought a bag full of books, crayons, and coloring books for us, so we sat at Starbucks reading and coloring for over an hour. I had a blast.And I'm pretty sure Maren did, too.

Winter? What winter?

I'm still amazed at how warm this winter has been. Amazed but certainly not disappointed. I'll take 60 degree days all winter long, it's just weird for Cincinnati. This week we went to the Zoo and the park with only light jackets on. Craziness I tell you.The Zoo in the winter is really great. There's hardly anyone there so there's always a table available for lunch and no crowds around the animals. The only bummer is the train is closed until March. Surprisingly, this hasn't upset my kids. We spent over three hours at the Zoo on Tuesday and I'm pretty sure we saw every animal there.Since it's still a bit wet and muddy, I take the kids to one of two parks near us that have rubber turf instead of grass or mulch. The kids refer to this place as the "pirate ship park" because they have a plastic boat at one end of the play area.Warner is thrilled to go coat-less in this weather. He has used the word hate to describe his feelings toward coats of all kinds - his fleece, his winter coat - it doesn't matter which one. He dislikes them all. Here's to hoping Spring is around the corner, and with it, more coat-free fun.

Shapes

So, Maren doesn't know all of her shapes. This was brought to my attention by her preschool teacher a few weeks ago, and of course, I feel like a bad parent because of it. I saw this idea of making shapes out of marshmallows and toothpicks on Pinterest recently, and decided to try it with the kids. You know that tricky parent thing - disguising learning as play.
Maren needed a lot of assistance making the actual shapes, but enjoyed the process. Warner actually figured most of it out himself after a few tries.
I'd like to say that after this little exercise Maren knows all of her shapes. She does not. But, it was a fun activity and hopefully something stuck for her. Clearly I am not cut out to be a home school mom!

Rainy Day

It's incredibly icky out today. I actually drove to Kroger earlier, waited in the parking lot for the pouring rain to subside so we could stay somewhat dry, then gave up after 10 minutes and drove home. True story. So, what do we do with no food and no end in sight to the rain? Watch Cars 2, of course.

Warner absolutely must watch the movie with all of the cars characters close by.

Maren on the other hand prefers to watch through the lens of her Mr. Potato Head glasses.

Whatever works. I'm just looking for whatever works.

Who needs snow?

It's been awfully mild lately. I keep telling Kevin I have this feeling we aren't going to have any substantial snowfall this winter (like I'm a meteorologist or something).
A few days ago we were playing outside and two of the neighbor girls came over with their sleds. With no snow. I love children's imaginations because for the next 20 minutes they went "sledding" down our hill - well, more "scooted" themselves at a slow pace. If I pulled the kids myself they could get a bit more speed going. I think Warner and Maren enjoyed it just as much as if there had actually been snow. Which is good in case my no-snow prediction is correct this winter.

Christmas 2011

I realize it's January 6th and I'm just now posting about Christmas. Better late than never, right? We celebrated the holiday multiple times so hang with me here. For Christmas Eve, we stayed at our home and went to church in the evening. When we returned, we put the kids in their jammies and had dinner. When I was younger we would have cheese fondue for dinner on Christmas Eve and I loved it. Thinking the kids would also love cheese fondue, I fixed it for us on Christmas Eve. Major fail. They hated it. I'm still not sure what's not to like about bread dipped in cheese. Maybe next year. After dinner the kids opened one present each.After dinner and the gift, the kids chose cookies to leave for Santa. They must have thought Santa would be famished because they loaded his plate with all sorts of sugar - even marshmallows. We also put reindeer food on our front walk, so Santa and the reindeer would have no trouble finding our home.The reindeer food must have worked because Santa made it to our home with plenty of presents.
The kids also bought each other gifts, which was fun. Maren got Warner this Frightening McMean car.Warner got Maren a box of Mickey Mouse books.Later that afternoon, we drove to Somerset to celebrate Christmas with the Platts. The kids couldn't wait to open presents until the next morning, so we opened them that night. By 7pm both kid's eyes were bloodshot and they were about to fall asleep standing up.Warner got Buzz Lightyear from the Whitakers and was thrilled about it. That night the kids all slept in one room together at Nanny and Grandaddy's. Warner thought it was the coolest thing ever. A real sleepover. He has asked to go back and have another sleepover a dozen times since our visit.The following day my parents came to our house for a few days visit. The kids thoroughly enjoyed their visit and my parents' undivided attention. Well, undivided until my dad so graciously began a project at our home - wainscoting in our entry way, stairwell, and upstairs hallway. It was quite a bit of work, but the results are even better than I imagined.It was a wonderful holiday season but to be honest I'm happy for the opportunity to catch my breath after all of the craziness. Welcome, 2012!

Cookies, Cards, and Trains

Tuesday was our cookie making day. I always forget how time consuming decorated sugar cookies are. We made the dough in the morning and since it needs to chill at least two hours we didn't get to cutting/baking/decorating until much later in the afternoon. Trying to explain this need to wait before we could finish the cookies to a 2 and 4 year old was impossible. My mom got the kids this cookie cutter and stamp set from Williams-Sonoma and it is seriously neat. The problem however was when the kids stamped the cookies before baking, they weren't exactly gentle, and the dough got all messed up. I finally gave up on the stamps and we stuck to shapes, then added icing and sprinkles. The kids thoroughly enjoyed themselves (and the cookies) and complained of stomach aches after we were finished. I only let them have one cookie each but I figured out later that they were eating the sprinkles and candy embellishments by the fistful. They didn't eat a very good dinner that night.Yesterday I tried to make a game out of the kids helping me with Christmas cards. It wasn't very successful. The kids put the return address labels anywhere but they top left-hand corner of each card, and eventually Warner started writing his name across the front of a few cards before I stopped the whole production. Today we went to see the holiday train display at the Children's Museum. Along with everyone else in the tri-state area. Apart from the overwhelming crowds, we had a great time.The kids' favorite part was riding the train.I couldn't help but include this picture. They were so tired by the time we left. Ha.The kids had just enough steam left to go to Kevin's office for lunch. They have only been there one other time so it's a novelty and very cool in their eyes. After lunch they delivered the cookies they made earlier this week to Kevin's coworkers. Once all of the Christmas excitement is over, I can only imagine how disappointed the kids will be with the return to our boring lives.

Activities

We're still doing a Christmas-related activity each day this month. To be honest, we've missed a few days, but for the most part we've kept on track. Warner has been all over it. Each morning he'll remind me whose turn it is to put the ornament on the advent calendar, and asks what our activity is for that day. By 5pm if we haven't done our activity, he'll remind me that we need to.Last Wednesday's event was to go caroling. We invited a few other families and went to a local nursing home to sing for the residents. What a rich experience it was. Warner and Maren were a bit shy to begin with, but after a few minutes they were singing and Maren was waving in everyone's room as we walked the halls. We returned to our home after singing for food, hot chocolate, and play time for the kids. It was a wonderful party and I hope to do it again next year. The best part: we had over 15 kids at our home and no one spilled hot chocolate on the carpet. A successful party, indeed.
Sunday's activity was a holiday movie marathon. I was (and still am, unfortunately) under the weather so this activity was a perfect fit for the day. The kids watched some of the movies but quickly got bored and played while the movies were playing. I wish I had that kind of energy. Yesterday's activity was eggnog milkshakes after dinner. We started making these a few years ago and I've decided to make them a holiday tradition. Eggnog and vanilla ice cream. Not too fancy but oh so good. Today we're tackling cookie baking and decorating. All of this holiday stuff has been fun but I'll be ready for a break come January. Whew!

'Tis the Season

We're in full-blown Christmas mode at the Platt home these days. Each year I look forward to Christmas even more than the last, hoping that as the kids grow up they will "get" Christmas more and enjoy the season with us. We have an advent calendar that my mom actually made and Meredith and I used as kids. I'm so fond of sentimental things like that. Anyway, for each day in December, the kids take turns putting an ornament on the advent Christmas tree. With each ornament I have added an activity that we complete that day. Sometimes it's big, sometimes it's small - like this day where the kids colored Christmas pictures.Other activities have included driving around to see Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate (this picture was taken before our trip), writing letters to Santa, going to the Festival of Lights at the Zoo, buying gifts for a family in need, doing a Christmas craft, reading Christmas books before bed, etc. Here is Warner with one of his Christmas coloring pages. If you look closely you can see he's written his name on the bottom. He's so proud of that (I am too). Speaking of Warner, here's a funny story. At the Zoo last week, we visited the nativity scene they had. It was a large nativity - not life sized, but big, especially compared to our nativity at home. Warner stood there and stared at it for quite a while, then said "wow, baby Jesus is really growing up!"
Maren really loves wearing her reindeer antlers. And taking ornaments off the tree to carry around. It's been fun enjoying family time together and special activities each day to celebrate Christmas. If only I were a good mother and planned activities for my kids every day of the year. Perhaps that will be my new year's resolution?

Family Fun

I love Family Fun magazine. I've been a subscriber for years, but as the kids get older I'm finding the activities are more age-appropriate. A few nights ago we had these for dinner:
... thanks to Kevin working late (= I was not cooking) and the idea from this month's magazine.
The kids even ate the celery part of the earmuffs. And they don't like celery.I also got the idea for these Q-tip snowflakes from the magazine. I realized after we got started it was not best suited for 2 year olds, but Maren did really well. The article suggested using tacky glue and glitter, but glitter glue was as wild as I was willing to go. Can you imagine Maren and glitter? In my kitchen? No thank you.After I helped Maren finish her snowflake, she continued making art with Q-tips and glitter glue. I probably should have started with this - she was just as excited about it as she was the snowflakes.
It's important to me to keep little hands and minds busy but I'm not creative enough to come up with everything myself. Thanks to magazines like Family Fun and now Pinterest (oh my, how I love Pinterest! You can follow me here) I have plenty of ideas up my sleeve to keep us occupied this winter.

Two

Maren has been spending a lot of time in this corner of our house lately. The time out corner. And unfortunately the time out process is not proving to be a very effective form of discipline for our spirited two year old. I'm fresh out of ideas on how to make this little girl behave.A few days ago the kids were screaming at each other and generally driving me crazy and it was only 10am. Thinking a change of scenery and a nice workout for Mommy would benefit us all, we packed up and headed to the Y. After 45 minutes of Arc Trainer therapy for Momma I went to pick up the kids a refreshed woman. I was determined to be patient and loving and the perfect mother. Not 60 seconds later Maren was screaming "NO! I NOT!" as I chased her around trying to put her coat on her.

And that was it. All of my determination from 60 seconds earlier was gone. Patience, love, and perfection? Nowhere to be found.

Another favorite Maren phrase: "Mommy, I really mad at you". Really? Really. And she's two. I can only imagine what drama the teenage years will bring.

Thankfully our diva is also one of the most loving, caring, and sweet little people I've ever met. This morning I brought her into bed with me after listening to "Mommy, I done beeeeeping!", hoping to get a few more minutes of rest before Warner woke up. As we sat there, she rubbed my hair, looked me straight in the eyes, and said "I wuf you, Mamma".

I'm thankful for those moments. Because without them, I'm quite certain I would go crazy.

Thankful.

We celebrated Thanksgiving in two parts this year. Part one took place Thursday in Muncie. We began the day at my Aunt Kathy's house making turkey cookies with the kids.
Kathy made these cookies with Warner either last year or the year before. I don't remember which. But Warner has not forgotten about the cookies. He has talked about these cookies and Aunt Kathy ever since. He has randomly asked if we can go to Kathy's house to make turkey cookies (throughout the year), and even this past summer when she came to the lake he asked if she would bring the items to make the cookies.So, making them again was a huge treat for my little man. He was quite good at them, I might add. After a bit of direction, he was able to put them together himself.Emme participated in the cookie assembly as well. I think between my two children alone 6 cookies and at least 4 Reese's cups were eaten. So you can imagine how little they ate a few hours later at our actual Thanksgiving dinner. This was taken right before Maren started eating whipped cream directly from the can. What can I say, we're a classy family.Saturday we hosted Kevin's parents and his sister's family at our home. I enjoyed every minute playing house and even used all of our good stuff - formal china, table linens, and my Grandma Holbert's silver. The silver looked extra beautiful thanks to my husband, who polished it all the night before. The kids enjoyed the time with their cousins and spent most of the afternoon outside, thanks to unseasonably warm (and dry) weather.At preschool the kids were asked what they are thankful for. Maren said she is thankful for Warner, Mommy, and Daddy. Warner's list was a little different: broccoli, his friend Drew, and his toy owl. I am thankful for too many things to name, but family is certainly at the top of my list.