It's Beginning to Look Like Christmas

We decided not to go to Pittsburgh's Light up Night on Friday night due to traffic, crowds and the cold.  The girls went to bed early that night anyway, so it worked out for the best. Since we missed it, Saturday night we went to a local light up night for Lily to meet Frosty the Snowman.  That was our main objective!

The weather had warmed up a little bit Saturday. We were happy about that! As we were walking from the car, the fireworks started which made for a nice kick off! The kids were excited to see them and as we got closer, we could hear that there was Christmas music playing along while the fireworks were going off.

When the fireworks ended, the crowd headed into the area where Santa would be. We headed over towards the outdoor Christmas tree to take a couple pictures and to look for Andrew's friend, Jake. We found Jake pretty quickly for the crowd size! 

While we were hanging out there, I spotted Frosty coming out of the library.  We made our way over to him. Lily was so excited! 

 Violet did pretty good with Rudolph!

 And of course, Andrew had to be with The Grinch! hahaha

We lucked out catching them all quickly!  After our photo ops, we headed into the library to make some crafts. Andrew requested we skip the Frozen karaoke though.  First up was a picture of a Santa hat. Lily was excited to glue a "snowball" {cotton ball} on the top. She also loves to write her name, so she made sure that was on there even though she started to high on the hat and ran out of room at first. :)

Next, was a Christmas tree card that she got to glue the pieces to make the tree. Although it won't look like this exactly when Oma gets it in the mail because the old lady "helper" didn't think Lily had enough glue, so she "fixed" it.  Here's a lesson lady...it's better when it's "imperfect" done by the child. While we were at this station, we ran into another of Andrew's friends' dad and little sister.  It's been awhile since we've seen them and it was nice to catch up.  Andrew and Jimmy have been friends since we moved here when Andrew was in 2nd grade and although they haven't gone to school together since 4th grade, they've remained friends since.

Not to avoid all things Frozen, the next station had Frozen coloring pages and Lily was pretty happy to be there for quite some time! She colored the snowflake, but we convinced her to take Olaf and Anna home with us, so we could go find her a balloon!

We left the library and headed over to the middle school where the other activities were being held and got in line for the balloons. We grabbed a cookie while we waited. 

The girls both got flowers and Andrew got a sword! When the clown tried to hand Violet her balloon, she wanted no part of him. She looked at me with a pretty scared look and turned her head! She happily took the balloon from me though. :)

Our final activity was cookie decorating.  Lily loves sprinkles so this was a great activity for her! She made Andrew one first and then did one for herself.  She wanted to do one for Violet too, but Violet was still working on her first little cookie. I think Lily just wanted to use more sprinkles!

I'm never one to miss a photo opportunity that is presented to me, so despite this little penguin being too narrow for anyone's face ever, we took it. 

We decided to skip Santa and wait for Daddy to go with us, plus Lily was sure that The Grinch was Santa anyway.  She keeps calling The Grinch, "The Arch".  Not sure why, but that's what she thinks his name is. 

So, lastly we headed to finally take the picture in front of the tree before going home.  We had a fun night and I'm glad that even though I often drag my teenager out with us for things like this, he still enjoys himself. 

This was the best I got.

Oooooh too bad Violet didn't look my direction...

 And well, these last few...this is what picture taking often looks like with this crew.

My Kids Have Fun with FruitShoot

The end of summer vacation for my oldest and my stepdaughter arrived much quicker than we expected. Lots of feelings accompany the ending of summer and the beginning of school.  Memories have been made, excitement builds for a new school year along with sadness at the closing of another passing season. So the last day of summer, we set out for a creative way to spend some of the day!

Having a 14 year old, a 10 year old, a newly turned 4 year old, and a 10 month old baby can sometimes have challenges in creating an activity that involves them all and that they all enjoy.  I mean let's face it...that's a huge age range!

The big kids were given the task to work together with Lily to come up with an activity using the FruitShoot bottles and a ball.  I didn't give them anymore direction than those two things.

I heard some discussion about using hockey sticks, Lily shouted that she wanted to "play bowling" {she's really into bowling lately}, and a few "that won't work, but we should try."

A little bit later, I heard the front door open and off they went to practice.  Soon they called me to come and video their activity.

We set up in the front yard and brought the baby out in the exersaucer so she would stay in one place. The kids told me she'd be the audience and could clap for them.  Way to go, kids--involving Violet too! Watch our short video here:

Fruit Shoot is currently celebrating imaginative activities with a really special competition called ‘Have a Ball Stunt Hunt.’

Competition details: The 'Have a Ball Stunt Hunt' competition is a great demonstration of Fruit Shoot’s commitment to imaginative play and has a reward that is priceless. Here’s how it works:

1. Click here to visit the contest homepage to upload a video of your own kids showing off their best tricks, stunts, and super-cool abilities with a Fruit Shoot bottle and any ball. To qualify, please make sure your video is under 30 seconds.

2. Share your video with friends and family and encourage them to vote for your video.

3. Every week, we’ll chose a winning video, give it the full-on Hollywood special effects treatment, and release it on our contest homepage for the world to see!

*Entrants will receive a free bottle of Fruit Shoot when entering the contest. Entrants will also receive a Waboba ball anytime they buy 6 bottles of Fruit Shoot in-store.

*You can shoot your video and enter all on your smartphone!


If you don't enter yourself, be sure to check out all the fun videos already uploaded to the page and of course you can "like" ours while you're their!

Some of our favorite things about Fruit Shoot are: a no-spill cap, it's perfect for children of all ages {you know I've got the age range covered}, and contains no fructose corn syrup, making it a much better option than other flavored drinks.

This fun hydration drink is perfect for energetic, independent kids who desire fun on the go. It contains real fruit juice, natural flavors, no high-fructose corn syrup, and no added sugar.

Fruit Shoot lets moms balance the hydration their kids need with the taste that they love, making hydration fun for kids and easy for moms.

These vibrant fun colored bottles come in tasty flavors of Orange, Apple, Berry Burst and Strawberry/Raspberry.  We got the apple because they all agreed on it!  Lily gives it a big thumbs up! And you know how picky 4 year olds can be. :)

Thank you to FruitShoot for sponsoring this post! My kids' imagination is theirs and endorsing that imagination and loving the product is all my own. 

Easter Party 2013

After the first part of our Easter activity filled day, we headed home for Lily to take a nap before heading over to a friend's house for an Easter party with more friends.  After Crankypants took a good nap, Daddy headed to work, and the rest of us went off to the party.

We, the parents, hung out and chatted while the kids played until it was time to go out for the egg hunt! The dads did a great job putting the eggs out in the yard! The little girls couldn't wait to get out there and lined up at the door ready to go!

Lily was super happy to be looking for eggs again.  Amy, after being with us earlier for the egg hunt, said, "It should be fun to get Lily inside after this." ahahhahahahahahhaha  She was right.  It was just as fun as the morning egg hunt ending...only it didn't last as long.

The toddlers headed out for their part first and then the big kids next.

 

 

Lily and Victoria wanted to look out the window, so what does any typical 2 year old do?? Climb up on the train table, of course and simply make it happen. 

 

 

This is where the bigger boys hung out most of the evening...talking and playing video games.

 

{little} Lily's milkshake brings all the boys to the yard.

 

We also colored Easter eggs. It was helpful to do activities in age groups.

The toddlers pretty much manhandle the eggs and throw them into the dye.

 

 

Victoria waiting her turn with her mama. :)

 

Lily chose pink, green and blue for her colors.  She was happy.

 

We chowed down on some pizza, salad, fruit and cake for supper and these toddler besties enjoyed every bit of it!

 

This is one of my fav pictures...EVER! Amy captured them playing and they both cheeeeeeeeeeeeeeesed for her!

I love these girls!

 

It was a super fun time hanging out with friends and letting the kids play together again. I appreciate these women and their families so very much and I'm so grateful to have them in my life!  What a fun Easter party! Can't wait until next year!  And we'll have a couple more babies in the mix come next Easter...and with any luck, maybe more than a couple! ;)

Stephanie Street aka Sesame Street Live

One of my favorite parts about two years old is the language development. Lily calls Sesame Street "Stephanie Street". Completely enunciated into "Steph-a-nie Street," plain as day.  {I've mentioned Amy and Victoria a lot, but what can I say? We love them!} So when I won tickets to Sesame Street Live earlier this month, it was a perfect mom & daughter double date! 

The girls and probably moreso their moms, were super excited to go!

We'd hit a warm week in January for Pittsburgh so we didn't have to have coats! Why does that matter, you ask?? Well because it's important to see these girls' cutie Elmo outfits they had on, of course! Who doesn't love toddlers in Elmo shirts and red tutus?

We made our way inside and there were tons of "Oh my! Look how cute they are!" as we made our way to find our seats with all our stuff, I kid you not. I will note that no matter how long you've been a parent or how many kids you have, taking an active {read: runs like the wind} toddler and carrying purses, camera bags and diaper bags will make you sweaty. 

We got programs and souvenirs the girls were happy to read and play with as we waited for the show to start! We kept them corralled in between us, but truthfully they didn't need it much. They were only on their feet to dance and to get up to climb on our laps. 

 

 

The dad in front of us kept asking how old Lily and Victoria both were as he listened to them chatter back and forth and also with us. We've got talkative understandable kids. I'm guessing it has nothing to do with who their mothers are haha.

 

Lily was a little apprehensive as the lights went down and the characters began to come out and stayed close to me for a few minutes and then was pretty enamored with the whole show and danced and sang along!

 Victoria was ecstatic from the get go! She was even shouting for the characters to come back when they'd leave the stage. It was so fun to watch our girls enjoying the show!  It was a show about making music and these two girls looooooooooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeee music, so it was perfect!

They enjoyed some snacks after intermission when we headed up for a potty break and diaper change and were definitely excited when the show started back.  Lily loves her some french fries!

We had so much fun and were very lucky to have been able to go! Better yet...to share with our best friends! Making memories.

 

You can read Amy's post about it here!