"Mom! Look what I made!!"

Paul came upstairs this morning and said "Mom! Look what I made!! I made a sword with my Trio blocks" I can't get over how creative this kid is. He did this all on his own. He amazes me everyday. I'm thankful that I'm his mom.

Finally...

Finally it's getting nice enough to spend time outside. Paul and Addie played outside for almost an hour and a half this morning. They came in to eat lunch and so Addie could take her nap. As soon as she woke up from her nap she said "Mama, I go play outside!" I told her she needed to ask Pauly if he'd go outside with her. At that time Amelia had just gotten home from school too and headed out to the backyard with them. I'm very thankful for our large fenced in backyard! I checked on them every two minutes and they had a great time playing out there! Stella stayed inside with me along with my daycare baby, but I had pulled out our old double stroller to take pictures so I could sell it and I set Stella in it and she looked so cute I had to take a picture!

Trying out her trike on the patio

We removed one of his training wheels last night and probably in a few more weeks we can remove the other one!

Happy Birthday Amelia Jayne!

Happy 6th Birthday Amelia Jayne! We love you! We didn't have a formal birthday party this year for Amelia because we are going to Duluth with Mary and Ron on Mother's day weekend as part of her birthday gift. We started giving the two older kids a choice of a party or going to Duluth for their birthdays. In the fall Paul chose to go on a trip, and that's what we've done for the last two years with my mom and Tim and probably will continue to do that in the future as it's one of Paul's most favorite places to visit. So this spring we gave Amelia the same option and she wanted to go to Duluth too. We've been wanting to find a time to make it to Duluth with Kevin's mom and Ron and finally will have that chance.

Tonight we had just a small little dinner at our house for Amelia. I made beef roast, mashed potatoes, steamed carrots, corn and homemade bread. For dessert we had chocolate cupcakes with homemade buttercream frosting and vanilla ice cream and cotton candy ice cream (Amelia's choice!). She seemed to enjoy her evening and was quite beat when Kevin put her to bed!

Amelia bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning while getting ready for the bus!

Walking out to the bus!

Blowing out her candle on her birthday cupcakes!

Wearing her crown from school!

Amelia with her "Uncle" Jeff...she wanted to make sure we told her Godfather Jeff to come for dinner!

Opening her gifts

Amelia received a whole stack of cards in the mail today, she had a great time opening her gifts after dinner and cupcakes. I can't believe she is six already!

We love you Amelia Jayne!! Happy birthday baby girl!

Birthday Celebration

Today we celebrated Amelia's birthday with Grandma Mary and Papa Ron and Great-Great Aunt Alice. We went to Amelia's favorite restaurant...Olive Garden for lunch and then back to Grandma and Papa's for cake, ice cream and presents. She had a great pre-birthday celebration and is excited to celebrate her birthday tomorrow! Can't believe she'll be SIX!! Make it stop. She can't grow up yet!

Paul and Addie at Olive Garden

Birthday Girl was excited for lunch!

Opening gifts at Grandma and Papa's

Amelia and great-great aunt Alice with the tiara and earrings Alice brought her to wear for her birthday celebration!

Addie was so sleepy waiting for birthday cake!

Blowing out her candles!

Baby Stella was wide-eyed for the party!

Time to hit the hay and be ready to celebrate all over again! Amelia picked out Tootsie pops for her b-day treat at school tomorrow!

Move over Richard Simmons...

Tonight after all the kids had baths and their pj's on, we played a little Just Dance 2 on Wii. The kids love playing the game and Addie likes to "play" too, she insisted on wearing my Zumba belt for my Zumba Fitness Wii game. It's a little large on her so we have to wrap it around twice to get it to fit. And she insisted on wearing this vest over her pj's. I had been going through clothes earlier today and she found it in one of my piles.

Rainy day fun...

We are tired of winter at our house, ready for some nice dry grass to play on. And all of the rain we got yesterday didn't help, between that and the melting snow, we ended up with water in the basement which is where the playroom is located so I haven't been letting them play down stairs because they'll just play in the water instead of with their toys and actually part of the carpet in their play area got wet, so we're drying that all out too. A few weeks ago I found these cute little canvases at Michael's in their dollar bins and picked a few up as I thought they'd be great for daycare, turns out Paul and Addie loved painting them, even though Paul wiped his off because it wasn't how he wanted it to look, so he now has a blank canvas to paint over again. But it kept them busy for a half hour or so. I'm going to have to pick up a few more the next time I go to Michael's.

Future Picasso?

Mr Serious. That's a tattoo on his cheek from St Patty's day...not dirt!

Stella's new room

Stella's room was the last part of our room swapping we did a couple weeks ago, we finally got it all in order so now I have pictures to share. Her new room is the girls former "new bedroom" which was formerly our guest room and office. So now it is Stella's room and a daycare nap room. That's why there are two cribs in there! Yes, we do own 3 cribs...crazy I know! We had purchased the white one just for daycare. So once Addie is done with her crib it'll go in our guest room.

Looking in from the door

Still from the door

Looking from by Stella's crib

From the wall between the daycare crib and changing table

I like this configuration and it is seeming to work well so far!

Car seat information...

I got this in my e-mail inbox this morning from one of the local daycare licensors and I thought I'd share it on our blog as I think it contains some valuable information....

Kids safest in rear-facing car seats until age 2

Updated: 03/21/2011 2:35 AM KSTP.com
(AP) CHICAGO - Children should ride in rear-facing car seats longer, until they are 2 years old instead of 1, according to updated advice from a medical group and a federal agency.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued separate but consistent new recommendations Monday.
Both organizations say older children who’ve outgrown front-facing car seats should ride in booster seats until the lap-shoulder belt fits them. Booster seats help position adult seat belts properly on children’s smaller frames. Children usually can graduate from a booster seat when their height reaches 4 feet 9 inches.
Children younger than 13 should ride in the back seat, the guidelines from both groups say.
The advice may seem extreme to some parents, who may imagine trouble convincing older elementary school kids _ as old as 12 _ to use booster seats.
But it’s based on evidence from crashes. For older children, poorly fitting seat belts can cause abdominal and spine injuries in a crash.
One-year-olds are five times less likely to be injured in a crash if they are in a rear-facing car seat than a forward-facing seat, according to a 2007 analysis of five years of U.S. crash data.
Put another way, an estimated 1,000 children injured in forward-facing seats over 15 years might not have been hurt if they had been in a car seat facing the back, said Dr. Dennis Durbin, lead author of the recommendations and a pediatric emergency physician at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
Toddlers have relatively large heads and small necks. In a front-facing car seat, the force of a crash can jerk the child’s head causing spinal cord injuries.
Car seats have recommended weights printed on them. If a 1-year-old outweighs the recommendation of an infant seat, parents should switch to a different rear-facing car seat that accommodates the heavier weight until they turn 2, the pediatricians group says.
Luckily for parents, most car seat makers have increased the amount of weight the seats can hold. This year, about half of infant rear-facing seats accommodate up to 30 pounds, Durbin said. Ten years ago, rear-facing car seats topped out at children weighing 22 pounds.
"The good news is it’s likely parents currently have a car seat that will accommodate the change," Durbin said.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations appear Monday in the journal Pediatrics.
___
Online:
American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org
NHTSA: http://www.nhtsa.gov
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Also, in case you didn't know. Car seats do have a expiration date of 5 years on them. They can typically be found on the bottom of the seats or underneath the car seat covers. The proper way to dispose of them is to cut their straps before disposing of them so that no one else can pick them out of the trash and reuse a seat. I just found this on a carseat website on how to dispose of the seats:

For curbside trash collection:

• Remove all straps and padding
• Use a permanent marker to label the seat with "Trash - Do not re-use"
• If possible, place the straps and padding into one trash can or bag, and the seat into another. This is to help prevent someone from taking your seat for reuse.

Another suggestion I've read on a parenting message board was to cut the straps, remove the cover and smash it with a sledge hammer. 

Do as you wish with this information. I felt it was important enough to share here.

Oldies but goodies

A few pictures from 2008. I had the disc of pictures in my computer from my last post and thought I'd post a couple of old pictures of the kids. Kind of fun to see how little they once were.

Amelia on her 3rd birthday

Pauly at Amelia's 3rd Birthday Party--about 16 months

Family Fun Day

We had a family fun day today because Amelia didn't have school because they had parent-teacher conferences this week and today was the teacher's comp day. Our friends Ryan and Katie had planned to take their kids to the Mall of America to go to the Sea Life Aquarium and Nickelodeon Universe so they invited us to tag along with them. We had lunch at Red Lobster before we headed to the MOA. We went to the Sea Life Aquarium first,  the kids sure enjoyed it and it was really cool walking through the tunnels and having the fish/sharks/turtles swim right over our heads. Even Stella enjoyed watching them and she was looking all over the place. We took the kids on a few rides and checked out Lego Land before we left. We had a fun day and were beat by time we left the mall.

Addie and Taylor checking out the jelly fish

I thought this shark looked really cool, it was laying across one of the tunnels we went under

Addie and I riding Blue Skidoo

Paul, Addie and Amelia on the big rigs

Amelia and Paul posing with Woody in Lego Land

We discovered today that Amelia LOVES roller coasters. I think Paul would too, but he's still an inch or two too short, so he had to stick to the kiddie rides. Maybe he'll get a little height before summer and we can take them to Valley Fair!

I'm beat, time for bed!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Happy St Patrick's Day  In the past we've always had a party, but that was when we only had two kids! We haven't had a big St Patrick's Day party since 2008. So this year we decided we'd make it a family event and host a St Patrick's Day dinner. I cooked corned beef, potatoes and cabbage, and it turned out really well, especially since it was the first time I've ever made it. We had bought 9 pounds of corned beef and we maybe have a pound left at most. I'm going to have to write down exactly what how much we made and how many we served so I have an idea for next year, because heaven knows I won't remember that!

Our kids gearing up for the party!

Love this!

Getting to be such a big girl!

The kids painting their leprechaun masks

Addie showing off her mask

My shamrock cake...before the frosting

After the frosting...

the cake cut...beautiful shade of green. white cake with Wilton food dye color "Kelly Green" frosting is Wilton's food dye "Leaf Green"