Guess Who's Coming Tonight!

Millie wiggled that tooth right out!  She is quite proud and excited and loved calling her friends and family to share the news

A Year of Dates

Now that the kids are getting older and we are officially out-numbered by them, it is harder to give them all dedicated one-on-one time.  So, in an effort to make sure they still get that and to establish that spending time with mom and dad is fun now when they are young (so they hopefully still think so when they are older!), we have instituted a year of dates.  Scott and I each picked out an activity to do with each of the girls each month.  We printed off "date" cards, sealed them up and plan on delivering them to the girls at the beginning of each month and then scheduling our dates. Of course, I did not have all of this together in time for a January date, so it's really 11 months of dates.  Eh.  Good enough :). Now we just have to figure out a way to get a monthly date for Scott and me on the calendar!

Tonight was Millie's first date with Scott -- "game night with snacks for dinner."   She was really excited to put it on her calendar and to plan the games she wanted to play.  Teddy and I took Merrill to dance class so they could have an uninterrupted evening of fun.  I'd say it was a success by the smiles on Millie's face when we got home -- and the cookies sitting on the counter :).  I'll let Scott give the formal review of the night.

Thanks! I wasn't sure what to do for the snacks part of this date.  I figured popcorn and then maybe baking something would work. And yeah, that definitely worked.  We were able to scrape together the ingredients to make some Snickerdoodles.  This is my Grandma Reithel's cookie recipe (one of the cookies she brought to every family function...). I like the Molasses Crinkles the best, but this one is a little quicker so we went to work.  Millie did a great job helping - she has really come a long way in being able to focus and help.  She helped mix, measure, make the balls, and then dip them in cinnamon and sugar.  She was really excited to make them (and um, eat them).

We made the popcorn while the cookies were baking so I didn't get any pictures of that, but we made it on the stove.  Popcorn is ALWAYS exciting!

We gathered up our snacks and headed to the basement for game time.  Her first choice was "Snakes and Ladders" which I think is exactly the same as Chutes and Ladders.  I have this multi-game set that has chess, checkers, and other games and Millie loves to pull it out and try the games.  (Unfortunately I don't know how to play half of them - I need to find some instructions).  I won both games, much to Millie's chagrin, but she was a good sport about it.

Next, we played Disney Princess Yahtzee.  I love regular Yahtzee and this version is just trying to get matches of the Princesses with 5 dice.  I suggested this since no else was home and Millie could shake the can as loud as she wanted.  When I did, Millie said, "Daddy.  That is just what I was going to say."  She won this time, by one point!

 We paused for some silly pictures...

Last we played a game called "Princess," which is a cooperative game where the players work together to reach a goal, in this case to keep the princess from being captured in the castle.  I suggested this one as well since it had been awhile since we played it.  At this point, Millie started to get a little silly (such as "rolling" the dice across the room) but we got through the game right as the rest of the family was getting home - and we won!

We had a really great date night.  Millie really thrives on one-on-one time and it was a nice way to break up the week.  I was really impressed with how well Millie has mastered these games and remembered all of the rules of the games, even though we hadn't played some in a while. Date nights with the kids was really a fantastic idea that Shannon had.  I think we are as excited as the girls are about the various activities - they are just so much fun to hang out with! 

Getting Out to Play

We took full advantage of the beautiful weather yesterday and went out to play in the afternoon.  I can't say I don't enjoy these 60 degree days in February, but I can't say that they don't also give me more than a moment's pause to wonder just what effect we are having on the environment and if these days are a result of that.  If my kids grow up to live in St. Louis, will their children ever even experience snow?  But, no need to debate the fate of the environment or the presence/absence of man-made global warming here.  We'll just focus on the happy smiles and dirty hands for now.

 

Merrill in her happy place

Teddy just didn't know where to look!  So much to watch as the girls ran around!

striking poses

Millie in her happy place

getting in a workout -- Teddy was working on his push-ups, the girls were working on their soccer skills

And then there was the mud... check out the shoes

and the hands...

I simultaneously love and hate this hobby of Millie's.  I love her free spirit and her joy of nature, I love the (huge) smile on her face, I love that she is not afraid to get messy (REALLY messy) or work hard and sweat a bit.  I am not as fond of the messes.  I try really hard to appreciate all of those things and to not sweat the mess ('cause really, it's nothing a little time in the tub can't cure).  I'm learning to smile, give a little sigh, shake my head and just roll with it. 

Merrill is also conflicted, she wants to emulate everything her big sister does, but it is not in her inherent nature to get messy (she's more like her mama).  I give her credit for jumping in and doing things out of her comfort zone in her own way -- and enjoying it.

Some day my house will be clean and neat all the time and I'll be wishing for the muddy shoes and handprints back.  I want to make sure I enjoy them now and not just as a memory in the future.

Teeth

Over the weekend Millie and I completed our preparations for the Tooth Fairy's first visit.  Millie asked to make a tooth pillow (and after seeing some pictures from Pinterest, she had a definite design in mind -- luckily it was easy enough to execute! ) and I thought it would be fun to incorporate a "fairy door" into the experience.  So, below is what we came up with.  All we have to do now is wait for her tooth to fall out!  Actually, I'm really hoping that's all we have to do.  We noticed over the weekend that her grown-up tooth is coming in behind her baby tooth.  It looks like it may completely bypass the baby tooth and therefore not help push the baby tooth out.  Hopefully my assessment of the situation is wrong; I think it would be a real bummer to lose your first tooth by extraction from the dentist rather than having the excitement of it falling out on it's own.  We are headed to the dentist on Monday to see what he says.  Fingers crossed.  In the meantime -- Millie is ready.  She takes her tooth pillow along with her most places, just in case.  She had dance class last night and brought it along and told me her plan.  IF the tooth fell out while she was dancing, she would keep her mouth shut tight and then hurry over to me and give it to me so I could put it in the pillow.  Then she would put the pillow under her pillow (I'm going to try to talk her into hanging it on the bedpost...) and the tooth fairy would take it.  Then we talked about what the tooth fairy might leave in it's place.  She is SO excited to be hitting this milestone.  Me, I'm a little sad to see it come so soon (and also a little more grossed out by the whole thing than I would have thought!). There just is no way to keep them young forever, is there?  *Sigh.*

As I was gathering the materials to make the fairy door my curious little crafter asked me what I was doing.  I said "well, I noticed something about our house, we don't have a fairy door."  Millie's response (in a completely serious, matter of fact tone) "oh, we need a fairy door" -- not even questioning what a fairy door is, or that they even exist :).  After I hung the door I told them that I sprinkled some fairy dust from the garden on it to make it magical and that now fairies can come in and out.  I emphasized that it does not work for children though and that if it is touched by a human, it will lose it's magic and the tooth fairy will not be able to get in.  This was all accepted pretty much as fact and truth.  There were a few questions as to whether I was SURE it was magical and where did I get the dust, but they haven't played with it yet so I think the magic is working.

Fortunately I had some felt lying around to make the tooth pillow to her specifications -- a purple pillow with a pink tooth on it and a purple bow on the tooth :).  Millie stitched the tooth onto the pillow and 3 sides of the pillow herself.  She LOVES it!

That Didn't Last Long ...

It's a good thing Millie got out to play in the snow when she did, because by yesterday afternoon it was 60 degrees out and the snow was gone!  In contrast to Sunday, when we spent the day playing by the fire, yesterday we had the windows open enjoying the fresh air!  Crazy weather ...

This one has nothing to do with the weather, he's just cute :)

A Joyful Mess

This is what it looks like when we spend the whole day in front of the fire.  There were sewing projects, art projects, books, dolls, stuffed animals, gems, jewelry boxes, blankets, pillows,Teddy's toys .... .  Luckily the super-speedy cleaning princesses came at the end of the day and put everything back in its place!

 

 

 

A Snowy Day

I wasn't excepting to see several inches of snow on the ground when I woke up this morning, but there it was!  It was a pleasant surprise.  Since we haven't had much snow the past few winters, it's always nice to see it.  If we lived somewhere where there was snow on the ground all winter long, I probably wouldn't have been so happy.  It was also nice that it came on a weekend day when we had no plans to go anywhere and that the snow primarily fell during the night while we all slept.  Given that we had temperatures in the 70's last Monday, I really didn't think we had much of a chance to see any kind of accumulation any time soon.  Of course, Monday was an anomaly and the rest of the week was quite cold, but still...  I'm sure all the area school children and teachers were disappointed it came on a Sunday and not a Monday, but well, we'll take it when we can get it.

Millie was super excited to see the snow, Merrill was not so impressed.  So, Millie and Scott headed out this morning to play for a bit.  The rest of the day was spent with everyone playing almost exclusively in front of the fireplace.  A cozy, snowy kind of Sunday.  Just perfect.