Dear Bri and Mac..

R came home from school with an envelope in her backpack. She proudly pulled it out and said she drew a picture of herself to mail to B & M... I told her instead of mailing just a picture, she could mail a letter with it too...

It is hard to read pencil in a picture like this, but it says..

Bear(*Dear) Bri and Mac

I love you!

R

She then helped address the envelope, put a stamp on it and walked it to the mailbox proudly:)

No School For R/Fired Up

R had off of school today for Teacher Convention! Kb & Kg still had school this morning though. R and I dropped them off, met Grandma and 'the coffee ladies' as R calls them(Grandma's friends she has coffee with every Thursday morning), bought our Halloween candy(I waited on purpose so I wouldn't eat it:), and picked up Kb & Kg! We then went on our way for an afternoon of fun...

First we had lunch at one of our favorite places, Kewpees! The kids love sitting on the stools at the counter. Grandma and I love the food and fast service...
We then went to Fired Up to paint pottery! I haven't brought the kids here since R was 3 and Kb & Kg were 1. Then, I had started a Father's Day Gift for dh at a Girls Night Out event and brought them back to finish it. That visit, I felt like the children weren't overly welcome and decided this wasn't a place I would return with them until they were a bit older. Well, today was the day to see how it would go... and...

THEY LOVED IT AND WERE WELL BEHAVED!!! The plan was to have the kids paint some Christmas presents. I painted a present for Grandma at a recent Girls Night Out so I asked her to come with because I knew we wouldn't be painting her anything. On the way in the kids talked about painting a present for Grandma H, Aunts, Uncles....

Once we arrived those thoughts fizzled. The kids got so excited and asked to paint presents for themselves!

Kb painted a turtle! He was so detailed, taking his time painting it green and added some colorful dots to his shell!

Kg chose a unicorn! She was all about color and painted it green, then some blue, some orange and finally some purple. I think Unicorn will come out quite colorful!

R chose a dog that she named Patches! She was so patient painting her dog a light brownish color. She added some other color to his head, feet and gave his eyes their own color too!

I won a Christmas Tree box at a recent Girls Night Out so we also painted that today. I think it will be a cute gift for someone for Christmas...R said she painted it for me.

Kg's Unicorn...

Kb's Turtle...

R's Dog...

R's piece was a lot bigger than Kb & Kg's so they finished a lot sooner. When they started getting impatient I took them down the street to the local toy store, which was great! The woman working there, who I assume was the owner, was fabulous! We walked in and the kids eyes bugged out looking at all the cool toys. The woman told them to go ahead and play. That was all it took for me to lose control of them...one at the easel coloring and painting, the other in the play area with the trucks. It also gave me a few minutes to shop without them even noticing what I was grabbing. I found some fun magnetic shape things(similar to magnatiles, but a lot cheaper) that I bought for them for Christmas!

While Kb, Kg and I were at the toy store, R and Grandma finished up at Fired Up. The woman working, who I also believe is the owner, was very nice and helped R make pupils on Patches eyes and showed her how to make eye brows!

All the kids liked Fired Up! R definately was in her element and loved every second of it. I know what R will be asking to do on her next day off of school;) I'll post pictures next week after we pick up our finished pieces!

Happy Birthday Kb & Kg!!

**These pictures are not ones I took, as if you couldn't tell! I didn't copy the pictures, but instead took a picture of the pictures with my camera to use in this post. That is why there are reflection spots on them. Not sure of copyright laws for such a thing so I wanted to post this first. If you are looking for a local photographer and like the pictures as much as we do, let me know and I will get you the info for the photographer who took these:)**


Happy Birthday Kb & Kg! It is hard to believe you are 4 years old today. I can still remember the day you were born. I went to the doctor's office because I wasn't feeling well and a few hours later you were born. You two are two peas in a pod! You spend a lot of time together, which is usually a good thing. Sometimes you get on each others nerves, but if you go more than a few hours without each other you ask about the other and when they will be back.

You started pre-school this year and are enjoying yourselves. It is your time away from mom and dad, but you still have each other.

Kb...

Kb-our middle child by one minute. You have grown so much this year! When you turned three you were saying only a few words. Turning four, you talk full sentences and carry on conversations. You know your colors, shapes, count objects to 13 and recognize some letters. Some of those were things you knew a long time ago, but couldn't verbalize them until this past year. Your coloring skills have emerged and you are willing to sit for longer periods of time for seat work and crafts! Kb, you like to take things apart and see how everything works. I think you may be an engineer when you grow up, but you also have an interest in payloaders and dumptrucks. You are sweetheart and a loving boy. We love you so much!!

Kg...

Kg-our youngest by one minute. You too have grown so much this year! When you turned three you were a talker, but you have advanced your language skills! You know your colors, shapes, count objects to 25 and recognize some letters. Some of these you knew when you turned three, but you have expanded your knowledge so much this year. You enjoy doing projects, crafts and love to draw pictures, especially of people! Kg, you love animals and are always playing with your animal figurines. I think you may be a veterinarian when you grow up, but have an interest in nail polish and makeup too! You are a girly girl who only wears dresses, but you like to get dirty and play hard. You are so social and such a caring girl. We love you so much!!

Kb & Kg-it is amazing four years have passed since your birth. I wish I could freeze time and keep you this age a little longer. We are looking forward to enjoying your year of being 4!

Celebrating Kb & Kg's Birthdays

Kb and Kg are 4 today!! They celebrated in school...

They go to a wonderful preschool that still allows real birthday treats to be eaten at school during snack time!! What a great thing to be able to send brownies(their treat of choice) to school with them!

On Sunday we had a Cars/Princess Party with family to celebrate...

Kb and Kg each had their own cake. A marble w/custard Cars cake for Kb and a chocolate w/chocolate mousse Princes cake for Kg....

We sang Happy Birthday(video is included in this post:)

Love the new haircut Auntie!

B is a good playmate!

Kb loves M!

The rain even stopped for a little outside fun!

Thank you to all of our family that came to celebrate with us, we had a blast!!

Kg said...

"Ho Ho Ho, I'm Papa"....
Not sure where Santa comes in while wearing Papa's glasses, but it was cute;)

Yard Clean Up

We had yard clean up here this week! It is long overdue and I am glad it is finally done(well, almost done...a little more to tidy up still). The kids helped me clean up the broken sandbox toys(which reminds me, I need to pick up all the broken toys I tossed over the fence in the neighbors yard so the kids wouldn't keep playing with them...oops). The sandbox looks like a sandbox again and not a home of broken toys... Kb was busy 'cooking' in the playhouse so Kg decided to use the 'rock wall stove' to make some lunch for Izzy. Izzy really is a good sport...

On a side note Kb & Kg also learned that Izzy can't go up the swingset ladder and yes she could break a leg going down the slide. I wish I had a picture, but I was to busy stopping them. Picture Kg on the ground pushing Izzy up, Kb on top reaching down to grab Izzy's collar to help her up. Izzy in the middle of the ladder going along with all of this! Where is R when I need her to reason with them as to why "this isn't appropriate or safe for Izzy". I can hear her saying those exact words to her brother and sister. Now you can understand why the broken toys are in the neighbors yard and how I somehow forgot about them!

Halloween Eye Spy Bottles

I saw this idea and wanted to do it with the kids. I thought it would be more fun if other kids could join us so a group got together at a park to day to play and create! Thanks for joining us, it was nice to see everyone!! R was at school:( , but we took apart Kb & Kg's bottles to make three instead of two! I underestimated how much rice/black beans would be needed. I definately needed another bag of black beans(I had three) and a small box of rice(I had a large size one).

Farmer's Market

The Farmer's Market is coming to an end for the season. We have had a lot of wonderful visits!
We've danced to the local musicians playing, ate hot dogs on pretzel buns, purchased some pumpkins, vegetables, fruit and more... and we made sure to get some more Honey Butter this week because we ran out(thakfully she sells at a local store so we won't have to go through the winter without any-the kids would flip out!)...

Thank you for a great Farmer's Market this season!!

Happy Birthday Little Giraffe

We have been in birthday preparation her for weeks. The kids know that Kb & Kg have a birthday right before Halloween. If you ask them when their birthday is they will tell you October 27!!! Well, to prepare we sang happy birthday to 'Little Giraffe' the other day. Yes, Little Giraffe has a birthday tiara and a plate with a cake(technically a pancake, but they wanted it to be a cake this day). the pot holder is her napkin. Kb is on the side singing away along with Kg. The things we do to amuse our children.

Thank You Hanna Andersson!!!

Thank you Hanna Andersson and your fabulous customer service department! We all know Hanna Andersson has adorable clothes that are of excellent quality. We also know their sizes are wonderful and are sized to last two seasons. I didn't know until today that I love their customer service too! I ordered winter coats for the kids a couple weeks ago. R's coat was a size too big so I ordered a smaller size and it arrived today. I opened the box, looked at the coat, set it down and was holding up another shirt I ordered to see if it looked like the right size for R. I then went to pick up the coat and it was hot. I somehow bumped the burner and turned it on. The coat was melted...I hadn't even opened the package yet!!! I freaked. Dh had reservations about spending that much on coats for three kids, then add a fourth coat to replace the one I ruined! I called Hanna Andersson to see if they had a coat available to ship and to see how fast they could send it to replace my error. The woman on the phone was so nice and could tell I was on edge and so I told her what I did. She put me on hold and said her manager said to, "toss the coat in the garbage, they were sending me a new one at no cost"!!!!! I couldn't believe it, I was so excited and more in love with H.A. than I already was before this! I told her I couldn't just throw it away, I had to send it so they could see I am a complete a$$ and not making this up. Seriously, who does this happen to?! Now the coat is melted shut so I can't even try it on R to see if it fits. Again, Thank You Hanna Andersson for the exchange!!

Now I am off to clean the coat off the stove...