Peppa Pig Pinata

 I have made several tutorials for how I make my pinatas. This year E wanted to do a Peppa Pig theme. I was pretty excited as Peppa is really pretty basic, so I decided to keep things simple and go with a "flat" instead of a 3D version. 

 E just wants to help me with all of my projects. Once I cut out Peppa, she insisted that she needed a face so she set to wok drawing.

 Cardboard rim all taped in place!

And with some tissue paper and some felt this sweet little pig really came to life! She was super simple and I loved adding the felt arms and facial accessories. It worked out great! Now time to get everything else ready!

Manny's First Pedicure

 Nail day is a pretty fun time for E and I. We pick colors, sit and chat and just have some much needed girl time. While we paint Bear usually sorts the polishes and I ask him what the colors are. This time however Bear really wanted to join in on the fun! 

 He picked out blue and green and hopped up on the table with his toes flat and ready and how could I say no! He was so excited! 

For days he would walk around the house with his painted toes and hold them out and say "LOOK!!!" I sure do love this boy!

The Doctor is In!

 One of the kids favorite games right now is to play Dr. E asks all about my symptoms, gives me vaccinations, checks my temperature, listens to the baby and usually pulls some sort of sliver out of my arm or leg. They really enjoy when I wince or whimper. 

 So while I was at my OB appointment I grabbed a couple face masks that they have at the door way. I brought them home for the kids and they were beyond excited! 

Manfred wore his all afternoon and was an excellent patient as E performed surgery on his tummy to get the bugs out. Perhaps they will be like their Aunts and Uncles and go into the medical field.

January Phone Favorites

Oh January! Usually I feel like you just draaaaaaagggg on but this year it flew by. Life was super busy and it was fantastic! Here is a round up of our Phone Favs!

We love living so close to an IKEA. Some days we go just to run through the store and get some ice cream. On this particular trip I was after a few things but after a lot of walking Manny decided his legs were a bit tired. 

Totally worth the walk ;)

We tried a new braid in E's hair. It took both Mama and Daddy to get it done but it turned out pretty cute!

I've been going to the gym in the morning and walking about a mile and a half. Hoping it will help my pelvic pain. 

WE are planning on painting our living room from brown to grey. It feels so surreal picking out paint colors! So grown up! And SOOO much pressure!

Second Trimester bump at 28 weeks! 

Manfred with little plastic stickers on his face. He was pretty proud! Well that wraps up January and our February is looking a bit crazy too!!!! Let the good times ROLL!

Park Day

 The weather in KC finally broke above 40F so we decided to head out to the park for some fresh air! Even thought it was warmer the wind was still pretty nippy. 

 WE have discovered a new to us park that we love! It comes with a track to walk around, merry go round, seesaw, sand pit and some other fun playground equipment. The kids get pretty excited when we come here because it is a bit of a drive. 

We had a fun afternoon out. Looking forward to a few warmer days.

Baby Projects

This month was labeled as my finish up projects month. I have a bin full of half way finished projects, and I really wanted to tie up the loose ends. The best part about this was that meant I got to make a few gifts! 

My SIL Rachel is expecting their first baby, which is a girl! So over the moon excited for them. So I whipped up a diaper clutch. It was already cut out and I just had to stitch it together! AWESOME! 

I use my clutch all the time, so for me this was a must have gift. 

A few months ago I made my friend Hattie a baby blanket for her new little boy. I had quite a bit of scrap fabric left over and decided the make some some quilts with what I had. I LOVE being able to reuse fabric. I had enough fabric to make three blankets (SCORE!). I love how these two turned out! 

Then I decided to put all of my flannel to use. I have SO MUCH OF IT! Honestly it is ridiculous. I'm not entirely sure what I was thinking as I was purchasing the fabric but it had to be used. So I made a few car seat blankets. I saw this idea on Pinterest and thought what a BRILLIANT idea! So 10 car seat blankets later and then another 6 receiving blankets, I used up approximately 3/4 of my stash. It felt so nice to get projects wrapped up but I don't think I'll be making another quilt for quite a while. 

It was great to wrap up a few loose ends, too bad this is only the tip of the iceberg.  So much to do, so little time!

My Little Chef's

 Making cookies with children is one of those romantic ideas you get in your head in your head. You have high expectations and then once you are 1/4 of the way through you are wondering why you ever thought that this would be a good idea in the first place. 

I was feeling extremely patient one Friday morning when the kiddos didn't have school and we didn't have any play dates set up so we decided to embark on a cookie making adventure! Duke was really into it, counting the scoops and trying his hardest not to stick his fingers in the dough.

 E is such a wonderful helper. I am really enjoying this age where she can follow instructions. She measured out all of the flour, leveling the measuring cup off with a knife and counted out the correct number of scoops. 

 I swear we must have washed our hands 200 times!

 Another reason why I love having two step stools!!

It was actually super fun! The kids were great helpers and excellent listeners! I sure do love these mini chef's. What a lucky Mama I am!

Duke's Tea Party

 Duke has always been this strong silent type of kid who loves to play with you but just isn't exactly sure how to do it. He loves to do what you are doing but initiating play is where he struggles. Because of his apraxia and speech delay a lot of the "pretend play" got delayed a bit. He is working on playing and cause and effect things at school and when he ivited me to have "unch" (lunch) with him I was so excited! 

 He started by using the oven mitt to get the pizza out. 

Then he set up the tea set, matching the plates and naming the purple and yellow after Mama's example but did "pink" all on his own. 

He then sat down and poured the tea and shared the pizza! Then he put the pizza back and got out some other foods and we worked on saying those names. He was very interested and had no problem repeating after me with approximations after my example.

Then when he was done he decided to clean up and wash the dishes. And while I know that most of you are reading this and saying, really lady? My kid has been doing that since they were one. I know. But this was huge for Duke and it was such a wonderful reminder to me that I  really need to have more one on one time with my little man!! I am so proud of him and how far he has come in such a short period of time!