Loves riding her new bike!
Avery is so proud of herself and her new bike. She saved up 1/2 the money to buy this bike. It’s the first time she’s followed through on setting a goal to save and actually saved her money to buy something. She saw this bike and immediately fell in love with it. I think she made a wise choice. It’s very colorful!! She loves riding her new bike.
Sawyer and I spent the most the Valentine’s Day together. We hung out and did Valentine-y stuff all day, even after we picked Avery up. A fun “hearts and kisses day.”
I took Sawyer to his school so he could participate in the Valentine's Day Party. THy decorated heart cookies with pink frosting and sprinkles. He ate every last crumb, he did share one bite with me.
Sawyer put his own Valentines in each of the "mailboxes" his classmates had made. He loved that he was able to fill the mailboxes. He had me read the name on each mailbox before he out his Valentine in it.
Sawyer's Valentines. He picked out the bubbles and the cards. I helped him put it all together. They turned out awesome!
Sawyer took home his Valentine mailbox. He was very excited to go through it. I was pleasantly surprised at how many non-candy Valentines he received. He liked the pencils the best, he used them like drumsticks.
Avery was very excited for this special day. Not sure what she expected was going to happen, but she did have a great day. Avery told me, “it was the best valentine’s day ever.”
In the morning the kids got a little treat from Dan and I- they each got a box of See’s chocolates and a new toothbrush. The gifts were a hit. They each got a new crisp $5 bill from my parents. Avery put hers away since she’s saving to buy a bike. Sawyer kept his to spend at Disneyland.
Avery got an extra special gift from an admirer. Her gift was a Rapunzel Barbie Doll that really sings! She was over the moon when she realized the doll sang. For a while now she’s been asking for a Rapunzel Doll that sings. THe one she originally wanted was a tall one, but this Barbie one sings and lights up!! Her admirer is a friend that we don’t get to see all that often now, since the kids are in school and life it busy. When we make time to hang out, we pick right up where we left off. THe kids get along famously!!
The special Valentine gift.
On Monday Sawyer celebrated a milestone- he is now 3 1/2 years old! It’s silly, but yes, we celebrate 1/2 birthdays. He knew his 1/2 birthday was coming up and he was excited.
The night before his 1/2 birthday I made his bed with these new sheets. He was super surprised and excited when he went up to get ready for bed.
I think the best part for him was celebrating at school with his friends. He talked about singing the birthday song at his school all day. He took cheese (shaped like Mickey Mouse) and Ritz crackers and mini strawberry cupcakes with cream cheese frosting for snack to share with his class.
Since his birthday is in the summer he’ll never be able to bring in a treat to share with his class, so we’ll continue celebrating his 1/2 birthday so he can celebrate with his school friends. Both Dan and my birthdays are in the summer too, so we never got to bring in cupcakes to share with our classes growing up.
In the morning he had another surprise. The Joker House that goes with the Bat Cave he got for Christmas. He did not like that Joker and the Penguin were in the house. First thing he did was knock them down.
I was pleasantly surprised and happy with how Avery handled all the attention and gifts Sawyer received throughout the day. In the past she’s had an “what do I get?” attitude when he gets anything and she doesn’t. She was genially happy and excited for him. SHe’s growing up…
This afternoon we took the kids to “Tinkering Zone” that is sponsored by The Discovery Center. It’s an interactive exhibit that will only be around till next week. I am so glad we decided to go today. It was way better than I expected and well worth the $20 for our family to go. Science is so cool!!
IMO the best part of the exhibit. Avery made her very own whirligig with gears. When you turn the handle the flower grows, then gets shorter again. It was really fun help her make. She wants to enter this in to the Fair in the summer. Good idea!
Sawyer spent a lot of time at this station. He chose what he wanted to use to roll down the ramp. He had a car, a marble and big bouncy ball. He rolled them down the ramp, but it was too slow. So I showed him how to raise the ramp. He loved that! Then he got a small bottle to put at the end of the ramp to knock over. I love that he got the huge popcorn box to catch the stuff he rolled down the ramp.
There was a "Marble Wall" (a peg board with pegs, tubes, funnels and clothespins) to build a marble maze. It was hard to build, but we did have success.
Sawyer thought it was great that he had the control to start and stop the motor from spinning with a simple connection.
Playing with air. There was a table full of materials (cups, crepe paper, coffee filters, pipe cleaners.... and tape to make it all stick together) for the kids (& adults) to make contraptions to see how they'd float, sink or flip through the air with the fan forcing air on them. It was a good experiment. At first Avery's was to heavy, so she took some parts off, then hers floated right out of the top. She caught it and started again.
Avery played the virtual harp. It was too big to play the right way but still very fun.
After all that science, we went to dinner. Yes, this is a picture of a picture that was already blurry.
We went to a friends house to decorate Valentine cookies. The kids had a fun time- lots of sprinkles!! They each decorated 2 cookies. Avery ate both of hers and Sawyer brought half of a heart home.
Valentine cookies are scrumptious!
messy and yummy
Avery tried out for the District Talent Show a few weeks ago. It was all her- she picked the song (Here Comes the Sun) and practiced on her own. I asked a friend to help her with the arrangement of the verses. She did a good job during the audition. She was confident, loud enough and really did do a good job. There was a judge who played the piano. She took Avery to the piano, they practiced for a bit- the judge on the piano and Avery singing along. It was nice to listen to. I was proud of her and she had fun. It was a good audition.
We got the letter in the mail that she wasn’t chosen to participate in the talent show this year. I was disappointed, but it’s understandable. While we were there we saw 8 acts audition, one kid on the piano, 2 bands, the other 5 were singers. Not sure how many people tried out, but I’d bet there were a lot of singers. She was heartbroken, sad and mad. She just couldn’t understand why she wasn’t chosen to sing in the talent show. I was sad for her. I reminded her that she had a great audition and the show couldn’t have too many singers performing. They had to pick only a few kids to sing in the show. I also reminded her that there’s still the school talent show that will be in May. She’s already planning what she’s going to sing.
Sawyer found an orange spider ring the other day. He was very excited to put on the “halloween spider.” He then said to me, “take me to Halloween, mom, please.” I told hime I couldn’t take him to Halloween, it just happens during the year, like Valentine’s Day is coming up- we had just bought bubbles for the kids in his class for Valentine’s Day. He wasn’t happy with my answer, he kept begin me to take him to Halloween. Silly boy.
He’s been doing this for a while; I’ll call him a monkey while giving him a piggy back ride and he tells me, “I not a monkey, I a kid!” He loves pretending to be a baby or a kitty cat or a monster, but when he’s finished he’ll tell me, “all done now, not a —, I a kid now!” I guess he loves being a kid!
Avery’s update is easy, she has pretty much ceased whining! FOr the last month I’ve been working in the Kids Church with the 2nd & 3rd graders. All the grade level kids cover the same info and concept, just in different ways, so I was able to talk to Avery more about the lessons during the week. I focused on whining and communicating- huffing and puffing, groaning… It worked! She’s doing way better and life is much more pleasant for all of us.
I have been reading “Little House in the Big Woods” to Avery. We are really enjoying it. I was telling her that the stories in the book are autobiographical, the stories are about Laura and written by Laura. She asked how she could remember the stories, there are so many. Laura kept a diary. That peaked her interest. She’s been talking about keeping a diary or a journal for a while now, no time like the present.
This is the diary I bought for Avery. I thought one that she could decorate would be good, she loved it and got right to work.
Working on her first entry.
Showing off her new "gorgeous" diary.
When I was a little girl I kept a diary too. My parents still have them in the basement. I’ll have to dig them out the next time we are there. It’ll be fun to look through them with my daughter.
Sawyer got a new bike for Christmas. It’s a bike with no pedals, he uses his feet to make the bike go. It helps him with balance so it’s easy to transition to a bicycle- not training wheels. We didn’t take it to Boise so he got it on NYE Day.
What is this? A new bike!! He kept asking if it was his bike.
Figuring out how this new bike works.
He loves his new bike!! He rides up and down the street, from the street to the sidewalk swerving from side to side.
He asks to ride his bike just about every morning and every afternoon. He loves riding his bike. He’ll transition to a two wheel bike soon…
