The Letter Y

After Eleanor was born we took a break from doing letter of the week activities.  I think the boys missed doing it because when I told them we were going to do the letter Y they ran over to the board and started saying "big Y, little Y, what begins with Y?".  It was a rewarding moment as a mom.  More times than not I feel like my kids don't listen or they could care less about what I've planned for them.  So to have them be excited and engaged was huge.  We did lots of activities throughout the week but unfortunately I didn't take pictures.  It's hard keeping the boys on task, soothing or feeding Eleanor, and taking pictures.  The only activity I got pictures of was yogurt painting.  I put food coloring in vanilla yogurt and let them loose.  Spencer loved spelling his name over and over again.  And, Olliebug loved licking the yogurt.  After about 30 minutes I put them in the shower to clean up. We'll definitely be doing this again:)

Eleanor's Growing Up

 Here's Eleanor snoozing on the couch at a month old.  She isn't the best sleeper at night so if she falls asleep we leave her where she's at even if it's in a weird spot.

 During the day the safest spot for her is on the kitchen counter in the bouncer.  I've tried to put her other places but Ollie always finds her and wakes her up.  

 Pretty soon she is going to be sitting up on her own.  She does really well with holding her own head up.  She loves to be propped up on the couch instead of flat.  

 Nice and clean after a bath

 snoozing in the bouncer again

She's two months old in this photos and not very happy about something.  She's still rather sensitive to things around her.  At her doctors appointment she weighed in at 10 lbs and was in the 23rd percentile.  Neither of our boys ever made it onto the charts.  It's crazy that she's bigger than both our boys were. 

Aunt Amber and cousin Andrew visit

My sister, Amber, and her son, Andrew, came to visit for a weekend.  They wanted to meet Eleanor, celebrate Spencer's birthday, and see extended family.  They got to do all three even though the weather was horrible.  For some reason my sister brings the gloomy Seattle weather with her every time she visits.  Here are some photos from the weekend.

 The boys got to watch a movie together.  

 Andrew adored Eleanor and wanted to hold her all the time.  It was so fun to listen to him say her name.  His little tongue would stick out while he would say it.  He will definitely be her little protector as they grow up.

 Ollie got this firetruck for his birthday and not only does he love to play with it he loves to ride on it. 

 Andrew was lucky enough to get a ride.  Ollie doesn't do that just for anyone.

 The boys played really well together all weekend.  Ollie was the only one that would occasionally get too rough.  He's just a boy who plays hard.  This summer is going to be fun for them.  

 Eleanor with Aunt Amber.  Eleanor was spoiled all weekend by Amber.  I don't think my sister ever put her down.  If she did and Eleanor made a sound she was right there to pick her up and make her happy.  

 Andrew giving Eleanor kisses.

Andrew so badly wanted Eleanor to like her binky.  I think he liked the way it felt on his finger when she would suck on it.  

Spencer's Super Why 4th Birthday

Spencer has been in love with the PBS show Super Why for awhile now.  If you have little kids you've probably heard about the show.  If you haven't it's a show about 4 friends (Wyatt, Alpha Pig, Princess Pea, Rolling Red) who live in storybrook and solve problems by reading books.  Each character has a super power.  Spencer's favorite character is Wyatt because he's blue - go figure!

Super Why isn't the most popular so I knew I'd have to create everything on my own.  PBS had a few printables but other than that I created everything from scratch.  Hanging from the ceiling I created red question marks to look like the Y writer.  I also cut out some of the characters and hung them.  For the banner I used printed paper that represented each character.  I ordered balloons and hung them around.  I kept it pretty simple in the decoration department.  

When the kids arrived they got a personalized cape (I made them from adult size t-shirts and sewed their initial on it) with a Y writer (a question mark cut out from red card stock and glued to a red pen).  Once everyone arrived we let them know that we had lost the cake.  To solve the problem we had to do activities to find letters to add to the reader board.  The first game was pin the Y writer on Wyatt.  The few kids that got the closest got letters.  Then we played musical spots.  When the music stopped we had the kids look under their pad and if there was a letter they added it to the board.  The last game we did was spell your name with stickers.  Once they were done they got a letter to add to the board.  It was fun to watch the kids and see their excitement with each activity.  

They solved the puzzle and found the cake (actually cupcakes).  Long story short I started decorating the cake around 11 pm the night before.  It started out fine and then the cake started to fall apart.  Instead of starting over I decided to buy cupcakes from the store and put little toppers on them.  I had other projects to finish and a baby to feed so I couldn't be concerned about a cake:)  To be honest, I don't think the kids cared at all.  

After cupcakes and ice cream the kids headed outside for some piñata fun.  Everyone got a turn before Spencer cracked it open.  

The last activity was opening gifts.  Spencer loved all his gifts and wanted to play with them right away.  Usually I send home party favors however; for this party I decided the capes and Y writers would be sufficient enough.  

Spencer loved his party and is already talking about his next birthday party.  So I guess I did something right:)  Happy 4th Birthday Spenceman.  

Instead of bringing candy or cupcakes to school for his birthday I created the little treat bag.  It included 4 Super Why stickers, bubbles, and one piece of candy.  I thought they turned out pretty cute. 

Happy Easter

The boys woke up Easter morning excited to find what the Easter Bunny had left them.  After looking through their own baskets they brought Eleanor hers.  She was still sleeping but they didn't want her missing out.  They were bummed that we had to wait until after church to look for eggs.  You'd think after 2 egg hunts the day before they would be bored of them but they weren't.  Spencer said church took forever to get over but once it did we rushed home and started egg hunt #3.  So I have a confession to make.  I debated whether I should share this or not but, what the heck, who cares!  Our kids are still young enough that they didn't even notice that we used the candy they had gotten the day before for their third egg hunt.  Why not save some money, right?  After the egg hunt we thought we could squeeze in a family photo but you'll notice Oliver didn't feel the same way.  Maybe next year!  Then we had to load in the car and take Oma to the airport.  We were sad to see her go but she needed to get back to work and I needed to figure out what life with 3 kids would be like.  We're glad she got to celebrate Easter with us though.  

Egg Hunt #2

Our ward had a breakfast and egg hunt at the same time as the city of Orem's egg hunt.  So we skipped breakfast with our ward and made it in time for the egg hunt.  The only photo we took was while the kids were waiting in line.  They were excited to search for more eggs and candy.  Once again Spencer only found blue eggs.  He's dedicated to his favorite color!

Egg Hunt #1

We love the city of Orem's Easter egg hunt.  We haven't won any of the "big" prizes yet but there's always next year!  The boys have a blast picking up candy (only blue for Spencer) and a few eggs in the open field.  It's funny to watch other parents with their kids.  Parents aren't allowed to touch the eggs but you find them holding the kids hand or guiding the kids hand to an egg in a forceful manner.  It's probably those parents that get the "big" prize.  Anyway, Spencer gets to move to the stadium field next year.  We'll start preparing him now - ha!