Where do I begin...???

Well Vivian had a carnival at her preschool tonight (Thurs).  They had pizza and tons of goodies at the bake sale.  Hit the jackpot with 2 bags of puppy chow from the bake sale that I managed to devour almost by myself. We also got to visit her classroom and chat with her teacher, Ms. Joy.  Well mom already knows her teacher and has seen her classroom but it was nice for dad to see where she goes to school. 

Vivian saw a few kids from her class, Mallory, Kate and Simon along with Lana and Janae (the neighbor girls). She played several of the games and got her face painted.  Her favorite game was the fishing game.  I volunteered Dan to work one of the games from 6 to 6:30...not thinking that I would have to man both kids.  After about 10 mins of trying to help Vivian with games, take pictures and keep Henry in one place I went to the car and got Henry's monkey backpack with a tail.  This way I could hang onto him but he still felt like he had some independence.  I swore I would never be one of those moms that put my kid on a leash.....kinda think I need to read that book "I Was a Great Parent Before I Had Kids"  Once again...never say never. So sorry of the pictures below aren't that great I was doing some serious multi tasking! 

The kids were playing out in the cul de sac this afternoon (Vivian, Janae, Haley and Henry).  The 3 girls would run and hid and Henry would eventually get closer to where they were and the girls would run and scream "Here comes baby Henry run!!"  So kind of playing hide and seek except Henry had no idea.  I felt sorta bad for him cause it would take him so long to catch up to them and then they would take off...but on the other hand it was pretty comical.  Henry eventually lost interest and went over to Jack's house to sit on his porch. 

We got new drapes so I included a couple pictures.  It turned out to be quite a task to get them up.  Severatrips to the store, multiple kinds of rods and hooks, but I finally think we are set. 

Vivian has soccer tomorrow and that's about it for Friday. Saturday morning we are heading to Weston, MO for the annual Applefestival and parade.  Sure those will be my next pictures. 

Fire Safety at Preschool

Vivian had a visit from the fire department at school today.  She told me that she sat in the fire truck and wasn't even scared.  Once we got home she demonstrated in the grass how to "Stop, Drop and Roll"

Henry hasn't been going to sleep very well at night for us and didn't nap well for me today.  So I threw the kids in the car and drove around for an hour while he slept.  As I was buckling the kids into the car Vivian  said to me "mom if you fall down the stairs I call 9-1-1."  I asked her what she would say when they answered and she didn't know so we need to work on that...at least knowing her address.  So I think it's safe to say that she's learned alot at preschool during her fire safety week.

I bought some pumpkin lights and ghosts for the trees today and wanted Dan to put them up tonight while was at dinner with a friend.  Well jokes on me cause the ghosts were the size of napkins and only 4 of the 6 pumpkin lights worked.  It looks like we got tee-peed and didn't get all the toilet paper out of one tree.  And the lights are going back cause I would need at least 24+ to light up the front of our sidewalk. Bummer.

I went to the Disney store at the mall tonight with my friend and bought a Jessie and Woody doll for Vivian and Henry.  They are about a foot and 1/2 tall and we were going to put Vivian's in bed with her so when she woke up at night or tomorrow am she would see it....but Dan and I can never wait for surprises.  Vivian came downstairs asking for a snack and instead we sent her up with her Jessie doll.  She was grinning from ear to ear. 

Tomorrow night Vivian has dance and then Thursday she has a carnival at her preschool so hopefully I will have pictures form that to post later in the week. 

Thurs, Friday and Whew! The weekend!

So Thursday afternoon the neighbor had all the little neighbor girls over for a tea party in their fancy princess dresses.  See pictures below (L to R Vivian, Janae, Haley).  Friday afternoon Vivian had Janae over and we made sugar cookies (see picture). Friday night Dan and I had tickets to "So You Think You Can Dance" live tour.  The seats weren't bad and the show was really good.  It was fun to see the people in real life and see them perform some of my favorite numbers from the show.  Dan said it was surprisingly entertaining.  (see pictures).

Saturday morning Dan took the kids to they gym to workout and I met Jenn, Avery and Jenn's mom at the Overland Park Fall Festival.  It was a perfect day for it!  Great food! Tons of booths with hand made crafts, clothes, etc.  Somehow the only thing I came home with was a jar of VERY hot salsa for Dan.  Vivian got her haircut on Saturday afternoon, just a trim, she has school pictures next week. (see pictures).

I bought new drapes for the Family Room and spent the rest of the weekend running around so that I could find the rods and hooks I wanted for them....and I'm still not done.  Vivian ran around with me for a little while on Sunday and in the car she wanted me to fold a piece of paper.  So I rolled it up and she said "mom I'd prefer you use tape"  Oh so you'd PREFER that I use tape....well ok then.  Such a vocabulary for 3 1/2.

Last week Dan came home, think it was Thursday night and the kids were eating dinner.  Usually they go running to the door to greet him.  He came inside and they were sitting at the table and were being pretty quiet. Dan said why is everyone so quiet...then he noticed that mom had tied them to the chair with dishtowels and they weren't very happy.  They constantly get up from the table and don't sit and eat so after telling them both 3 times to sit down I brought out the towel.  Now with Vivian I only have to threaten the towel, but sad to say Henry got tied to the chair on Sunday.

Vivian can still be a bit of a bully to Henry so when she does something to him (ie. hit him, take a toy from him, etc) Dan always says "do you want me to do that to you?"  Well Sunday night in the bath Henry pulled Vivian's hair and she said "do you want me to do that to you?" and pulled his hair.  Then after bath Henry hit her and she said "do you want me to do that to you?" Neither of us could scold her cause we were laughing...Dan more so than me.  Oh, so fun to have everything you say to you kids to come back and bite you in the ass.  :-)

Vivian has learned to climb our small tree out front. (see pictures) Thanks to the older neighbor kids and our cul de sac parties. 

Have a good week!

Ahhh the weekend is over....

Friday night we had an impromptu cul de sac pizza party with the neighbors. Vivian has learned how to skip and was riding her bike and skipping all over the place. The kids had a great time and had no trouble falling asleep that night.  Saturday afternoon we had a birthday party to go to.  Mike and Mindy's little girl, Lily, turned one.  They had a jump house set up in back so the kids spent most of the time playing in that.  It was hot and muggy and they were sweating up a storm.  The birthday girl fell asleep during the party so our 2 hour bday party turned into 3 hours. I made Lily some of those cute tops that I've made for Vivian - pictures below. We came home and threw the kiddos in the bath and off to bed...once again no trouble falling asleep.

Every year in April and October my sinuses act up like clock work.  They seem to have started a little early this year since I've had a sore throat, swollen glands and sinus headache all weekend.  I love spring and fall except for my sinus issues.  I had a sinus infection last Oct and this past April so they told me to take allegery meds.  So now I take allergy meds and I'm not sure it's helping at all. Considering seeing an Allergist and a ENT dr to see what can be done with my sinuses.  So mom's a little under the weather.

Sunday morning I attended my first Jazzercise class.  Yes, Jazzercise.  My 2 neighbors go and keep asking me to go so I went.  I always thought Jazzercise was for 40 year old moms....hmmm....wait....guess I'm almost in that category! :-)  It was actually harder than I thought and I am sure I will be sore tomorrow. 

Dan stayed up late on Saturday night to watch the Iowa game and was pretty bummed by their loss, since he didn't get to bed until almost 2 am.  I was in bed before 10 since I was feeling pretty yucky from my sinuses. Sunday was typical laundry and grocery store.  Dan and I got some new drapes for the living room - anxious to get them up to see what they look like!

Side note: Henry has learned to lay down in the bath tub like Vivian and he thinks it's pretty cool.  Vivian loves to be outside and can hardly get up to Jack's house fast enough when she see's him outside on the porch.  She asked me tonight if Jack was her best friend.  I told her she could ask him. :-)

TGI Almost Friday!!

Well let's see what we did this week.  Vivian had dance and had some friends over to play on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon.  We were eating dinner on Thursday night and Vivian didn't want to eat so Dad said he was going to eat her mashed potatos.  He took a bite of her potatos and she got upset and said "no I want them, don't ever do that again!" Then she said "You know better than that dad"  I of course looked at Dan and said "yeah dad, you know better than that!"  Dan had to turn away from laughing!  She's a such a smart cookie. :-)

We played in the cul de sac with the neighbors before dinner on Thursday and Vivian is doing great on her Skuut bike (pronounced scoot).  It's a bike that helps them learn balance so they can just bypass training wheels. Her cousin Paige has one but is now on a big girl bike and never had to use training wheels and she's not even 4!!!  Vivian can ride down the cul de sac while picking up her feet so she's just balancing on the wheels!! Henry of course tries the scooters but mostly has mom pushing him around the cul de sac on the scooter.  Or he just pulls the wagon around the circle. 

Lots of Milestones

So Dan took Vivian to her first Royals baseball game today.  They went with a friend and his almost 3 year old, Paige.  Dad said Vivian did pretty good. There is a huge playground area in the stadium to make it more family friendly so they did spend sometime playing there.  The cool thing is that you can still see the field from the playground, bonus!  She got a certificate that says " The Kansas City Royals Baseball club certify that Vivian Masker as an official royals fan in recognition of your first visit to Kauffman Stadium" the the date.  Cute for her scrap book.  Now I guess Dan will have to take Henry when he's old enough to get one for his scrap book :-)

Dan's bowling league started tonight....it's the longest bowling league in the history of leagues.  I think it goes until April ish.  Every Monday night.

Vivian can write her name in all capital letters.  She was drawing the other day and brought a piece of paper up to me and it had her name on it "VIVIAN" pretty darn good I might add. She's really into sounding out syllables right now and contastanly asking what makes an "S" sound (or any letter) or Barney starts with B.
Henry of course still isn't talking but totally understands what we are saying.  You ask him to throw something away and he does it, get your shoes - he gets them, etc, etc.  The neighbor told him to get his wagon and Henry walked over and got it.  So he knows what we are saying but still not saying much.

We have taken the bottle away from him....I know! Can you believe it!!  He's 31 inches and only ways 22 lbs so I need to fatten the kid up!  He was just filling up on too much milk and not eating. He got new shoes this weekend, size 6 double wides and a new backpack.  Now he won't have to carry around Vivian's pink Dora one.  (pictures below).

I finally finished Vivian's room (pictures below).  I also included a picture from her first full day of preschool (last Thursday).  Have a good week!

Dance class was a hit!!

We started the day off with a trip to Deanna Rose, a petting farm, with a friend of mine and her twins.  The kids fed baby goats, ducks and fish.  Vivian even milked a life size plastic cow!  Vivian went over to Janae's this afternoon while Henry took a nap.  Henry woke up from his nap with a 102.5 fever but so far no other symptoms.  He's fever went down as the night went on but still seemed to have a low fever when we put him down to bed.

Vivian had her first dance class tonight at 6:30.  On the way to class I said "now remember you need to listen to your teacher" and Vivian's response was "I KNOW mom you've told me 5 times already." Well ok then, guess I made my point. :-)  Vivian got to see Molly in class so she was very excited.  Molly was quick to let their teacher and the class know that Vivian was her best friend.  The teacher asked if any of the kids went to this (dance) school and Vivian raised her hand and said "she goes to a new school because she wipes herself."  Bill Cosby was right - kids say the darndest things! The parents got to watch the first class and Vivian was grinning from ear to ear the entire time. They started with their tap shoes and then changed into their ballet shoes.  It was so cute to see her go over to hear dance bag and put her tap shoes in and get her ballet shoes out and put them on....she's getting so big!  She told dad that she LOVES dance. 

I have included some pictures from her first day of preschool (tues) and her dance outfit.  She has her first full day of preschool tomorrow.  At class on Tuesday there were only 3 kids including her so I'm hoping there will be more there tomorrow.  It's much more structured than her Parents Day Out class and there aren't as many kids so it's going to be an adjustment.  Hopefully, she will make some new friends.

Exciting Week!

It's an exciting week in the Masker house this week! Vivian starts preschool and dance this week. Tuesday Vivian goes to school from 9:15 to 10:15 to get aquainted with her teacher and new class.  Then we have our weekly playdate/lunch with the neighbors.  Vivian has dance on Wednesday night from 6:30 to 7:15.  She has a pink leotard and tights and seems to be pretty excited about starting dance...mostly cause she will get to see Molly.  I wasn't thrilled about tying up our evenings with activities already but I really wanted her and Molly to be in the same class and this is just what worked out.  Thursday she has her full day of preschool from 9:15 to 11:30.  Her soccer class has moved to Fridays so she has that at 10 a.m.

Henry and I will be heading to the gym while she is at preschool. Which means that mom will be working out and Henry will be playing with the kids in "Kids Club."  Win/win for everyone! Henry gets to play with kids and climb on all of the play gyms and mom gets to workout!

I have included a couple pictures of my owl cupcakes.  The kids got a hold of a marker outside today that was left outside from the other day and I'm not sure if Vivian drew on Henry or if Henry drew on himself...none the less...the pictures are funny!

On a side note Dan was watching a show the other day where the mom died and Vivian seemed to be visibly upset about it so she asked what was going on.  Dan explained to her that she was old and sick, she died and went to Heaven.  Dan said she seemed pretty concerned about it and her bottom lip was curling up while she watched it.  Then this weekend we were outside and I bent over attempting to touch my toes and I said "urgh I'm getting old" which prompted Vivian to say "mom are you going to get dead?" I said "no honey not anytime soon." Her response was "well you said you were getting old and old people get dead."  Not sure I'm ready to start having those conversations with her. 

Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!