A trip to the kid's museum

Back in mid-December, we had weekend visitors - Aunt Aimee, Lilly and Lyssa! It was so much fun to have them around for a few days and I hope Aunt Aimee enjoyed her last weekend before heading back to work.

We planned a visit to the children's museum but needed to first power up on some food while Aunt Aimee and Lyssa slept in a bit.

The following photos are actually from the last room we visited - the H20 experience!

We've never been brave enough to take our girls into that room so they had a blast investigating and getting to play in the water.

That room was a hit and surprisingly enough, the girls weren't all that wet at the end. That was good because we had lunch plans at Chick-fil-a!

The farm to market room was a hit for the girls too!

Leah pushed the shopping cart around for along time, loaded up and unloaded the fruit and vegetables. The photo cracks me up because she was on a mission! Pretty sure she rammed into the wall, turned around and headed straight across the room to the other side.

My girls love cash registers and anything that resembles a computer. They spent a lot of time ringing up groceries (and fighting for a spot on the chair!).

The room I was most excited about was the new Vet to You exhibit. Aunt Aimee was right at home and maybe just a little in heaven trying to teach the girls about her job.

Lilly already knew a lot about caring for animals and trying to make them feel better. I think there's a lot of practice at their house, and probably some "real" vetting going on with her animals on the farm.

My girls LOVED the receptionist desk. I think they would have happy sitting their all day, talking on the phone, making appointments, and logging test results in the computer.

They did share the spot with Lilly at first, but Lilly quickly headed over to the x-ray machine and looking for broken bones on the patients.

Leah did eventually preform an exam on a puppy (kitty?).

We stopped by the "Small Wonders" room and Lilly found the slide which she thought was pretty fun!

And, we couldn't miss Jason's favorite room!

Everyone had a turn with the "roller coaster."

Leah had a lot of fun dropping the balls and filling the buckets.

They all spent a lot of time at this "game".

Lesley also got a chance to feed Baby Lyssa a bottle. She asks about feeding Lyssa all the time so we were all glad that she had a turn.

This sweetheart spent a lot of time sleeping. We are thankful that her tummy issues are getting a little better and she continues to sleep for longer stretches. We also caught a few real smiles from her this week - so fun!

The girls also watched some "Wheels on the Bus" during the course of the weekend. My girls don't stay captivated by the TV, but Lesley loves watching short clips and especially "Wheels on the Bus."

We managed to get the girls to eat some dinner before we all headed to a Christmas party of some friends that live in the neighborhood. The adults got to enjoy some tasty snacks and drinks at the party. Once home, the girls headed off to bed, Jason headed back to the party, and Lyssa helped the mommies with a few Christmas projects.

The Story of Jesus' Birth

Lesley was very interested in Jesus this year at Christmas time. I was so, so happy that she couldn't get enough of the story of Jesus' birth.

We read several books (over and over again!) which told the story, each a little different. On many occasions, Lesley wanted to "act" out the story with her little people nativity set which was so fun.

She would place each of the pieces in place as we reached different points of the story. It got a little confusing with the different versions because we don't have the wise men for our set. And, she was not interested in substituting the shepherds, the farmer from her farm set, or Noah from her ark.

We started taking Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the angel to church with us on the weekends and then this morning, on the epiphany of the lord, we talked about the wise men finding Jesus and giving him gifts.

We even searched for the story of Jesus' birth online and found a version that Lesley liked and would watch from start to finish.

We started taking Mary, Joseph, Jesus and the angel to church with us on the weekends and then this morning, on the epiphany of the lord, we talked about the wise men finding Jesus and giving him gifts. I am a little concerned what will happen, and what questions she will have, when the nativity set is gone from the front of the church. I need to start thinking about Easter and how to introduce those biblical stories to her.

I am also so proud of her because on Christmas morning, Grandma Nancy asked her what was special about the day. We ALL thought she would say "Santa is coming!" but instead she said, "it is Jesus' birthday."

A Mouse and a Dog

....are best friends!

I never really packed away all the Halloween costumes that have been floating around the house. Currently they reside in the bottom of Lesley's closet along with her tutu's. I should probably find a tub or something to store them in a little nicer to as to preserve them for future years) Leah found them the other day - she likes to snoop in Lesley's room when we aren't watching, and usually the drawer with all the panties and socks ends up all over the upstairs. But anyway, she wanted to put the dog costume on that Audra sent over this fall.

She is an awfully cute Dalmatian!

Lesley likes the mouse costume even though it is 4-6 inches too short on her. That doesn't seem to bother her too much and it's always the costume she wants to wear.

I'm not sure if Leah decided she didn't want to be the dog any longer, or if Lesley decided for her, but no matter, Lesley started helping Leah undress.

And, eventually Leah became the mouse!

She was a happy camper!

Halloween lives on at the Carlin house.

An alternate use

We NEVER use our fireplace. I think in the 2 years we have lived in the house, I have turned it on twice. I like the concept of a fire, but it's fake so that takes away some of the "neatness" of that idea. And, with little kids, it doesn't make sense from a safe perspective to have it on while they are around. Afterall, the toys are kept all around it, on both sides.

Living room = toy room at our house.

The other night mama had a creative moment and decided to use the edge of the fireplace for magnets. Lesley liked this idea and lined up the animals and went through naming each animal.

Lesley knows all her animals so that task was not a challenge to her, but she also enjoyed showing Leah the animals and pointing out what each were. I love that Lesley was being the teacher and we could just observe from the side.

By the way, I am pretty certain Jason took these photos. I tend to take photos looking down, whereas he would rather lay on the ground (lazy!) and take photos looking up. I guess it's okay/good to have a different angle from time to time.

The best we could get...pretty perfect!

We didn't get a good photo of both girls together, but I think these shots are pretty perfect!

Then, Leah accidentally got a taste of that candy cane and they were DONE. Neither girl was interested in the camera at that point and we eventually had to remove all the candy canes from the tree so little hands would stop grabbing and climbing to get another taste.

I'm hoping they forget the taste by next Christmas so the candy canes can back to being plain decorations versus C.A.N.D.Y.!.

Outdoor fun brought inside

Big Sister...

...and Little Sister were having a rambunctious night.

So Mommy decided to bring the slide inside and see what type of entertainment that would provide. A lot! Both girls went up and down the slide a million times and we heard more laughter and giggles than we could have imagined.

Taking turns. Kind of. Lesley was a lot quicker than Leah at going up the steps. She was trying hard to be patient though, and we only noticed some nudges a few times.

Then Lesley had the "great idea" to go down the slide on her tummy. Of course, Leah had to follow suit. No photos of Leah though since I decided to put the camera down to catch her at the bottom.

Not sure how much longer this short, little slide will work for these growing girls. But, it sure has provided more than it's share of entertainment.

A Lesson in Sharing

I pulled out the bouncy seat the weekend Aunt Aimee, Lilly, and Lyssa visited. It came in handy when Lyssa needed a safe place to "park." In other words, she needed to be off the floor, out of the playing field of the bigger girls and also moveable so we could transport her from room to room without disturbing her sleep. She also likes to be propped up and perhaps that helped with her sensitive tummy by not laying flat on her back.

After the cousins left, I didn't get the seat put away very quickly and our girls decided it was a great place to lounge.

Only it was pretty hard to take turns and have equal time for relaxation.

Leah thought Lesley's turn was over so was kindly helping her move. Okay, so pulling her hair might not be considered kind.

She is ready to pounce here! Poor Lesley, she's unaware of what is about to strike.

Look at those neck muscles flex! This is serious business to get Big Sister to move it!

Which of course just turns this into a game for Lesley.

This may have been the final straw for Lesley. Pretty sure she got up after this technique was applied by Leah.

Finally, success!

We don't always let the girls "duke" it out, but from time to time we stand back and hope they can learn how to resolve issues between the two of them. I don't want them to become tattle tales so I try hard not to "rescue" one or the other when problems arise. Of course, there are times when we must step in but we always talk about sharing and taking turns if that occurs.

Maybe I need to "invest" in another bouncy seat so they can both have one. This purchase was a $5 garage sale find when I was pregnant with Leah, and like the $5 slide has been worth every penny.

Visit with Santa

As suspected, neither girl was interested in sitting on Santa's lap.

So Mommy was in the picture. And, she happened to be the only one smiling along with good old Bass Pro Santa.

Lesley was SUPER excited to see Santa, but was kicking and screaming when it came to her turn to sit on his lap. As we neared the front of the line, she kept peering around the few in front of us and standing on her tippy toes trying to get a glimpse of the big guy. Then, it was her turn. Yikes! Frantic! "I DO NOT WANT TO SIT ON HIS LAP!"

But, she didn't hesitate to tell Grandma and everyone else that "I saw Santa and sat on his lap....Well, I sat on Mommy's knee next to Santa. But he still gave me a candy cane."

It's okay, I can't get mad at my kiddos for not wanting to sit on a strange man's lap who in all honesty is perhaps a little scary.

Christmas Crafting

Lesley has been a very busy bee crafting and creating holiday things.

#1: Daycare projects

She came home with projects just about every day in December. Like her Fall craft projects, we hung them proudly in the kitchen.

She's really picking up her counting. You can see the one project which included counted trees and gluing them to the sheet in the right box.

I love the projects which involve tracing hands or feet, and then cutting them out. The reindeer with the footprint as the head and hands as the antlers cracks me up. It barely even looks like a reindeer, but she was SO proud of her work.

There is also a reindeer with just one antler. The story from daycare was that Lesley cut one hand print, but Jake wanted it to for his project since he only wanted to cut one out so she gave it to him and got started on another one. But, then Aiden decided he didn't want to cut his own so he just took her second one. So...Lesley got busy on a third and fourth one. By the time she finished the third one, she was tired of cutting so her reindeer only ended up with one antler.

#2: Crafting with Mommy

We've also been doing some crafting at night. I had a good idea to make these Christmas wreaths. We could practice our cutting and glueing, and also use glitter. Lesley was super excited to make one for Grandma Nancy and Great-Grandma Holtz.

It was a fun project and kept us occupied one entire evening. We used a paper plate with a "donut hole", two colors of green paper, some red paper for the berries, a glue stick, some yarn to hang the wreath and some red and green glitter.

We ended up making 3 wreaths and Mommy didn't even get to keep one. Plus, I didn't get a photo of the finished project. But, I will tell you that they were pretty cute. Grandma Nancy, Great Grandma Holtz, and Aunt Aimee thought so too! Unfortunately, we didn't have any left to give to Grandma Cheryl by the time we celebrated Christmas at Granny's house.

#3 Decorating Cookies with Daddy

The day we left for Iowa to celebrate Christmas, Daddy stayed home with the girls since the babysitter wanted the day off and Mommy needed to work a half day. They decorated cookies to pass the time (from a prepackaged box Grandma Cheryl gave the girls). Not sure why, but Lesley wanted Mommy in the photo even though I didn't help at all. After taking the photo, I then proceeded to pick every single piece of candy off those cookies and put into a snack baggie so Lesley could take them to Iowa. Yes, it was bribery in order to get her moving and out the door. But, I will say those little fake Skittles came in quite handy over the course of the crazy, hectic holiday weekend. Notice Leah's fingers in the photo, she was also a fan of the candy.

#4 Wrapping gifts

Lesley also helped wrap Lilly's present one night.

The babysitter also told a cute story of wrapping presents at her house. Her 30ish year old son stopped over one afternoon to wrap the gift he had shipped to her house for his wife. Lesley and the other two older kids watched closely as Eric wrapped the first gift, and were very intent on helping when possible. It took 25-30 minutes to get that first package done. Eric set it off to the side and got started on the next gift. After getting started on the second gift, he turned around just as Leah finished unwrapping the first gift. Oops, you can't take your eyes off that girl!

#5 Cleaning up spilled milk and rocking baby dolls (okay, so not crafting projects, but things Leah has contributed to our crafting nights)

I watched her as she dumped Lesley's glass of milk on the floor, so I handed her the rag and said, "go clean it up." She followed instructions and of course didn't think it was punishment at all. Who knew that cleaning up a mess could be so fun!?

Leah is much more into babies than Lesley was at that age. Lesley still isn't all that interested in babies. Leah also loves the rocking chair and every once in a while I'll look over and see her rocking a baby. Pretty cute!

#6 Hobby Lobby holiday projects

I like to go to Hobby Lobby around the holidays to pick up random craft projects for the kids. I wait until things go on sale, often after the holiday, then grab a few things the next year. Last year at Christmas was the first time I had done that so was excited to dig in my (unorganized and messy) crafting tub and pull out a few things I purchased for $0.25.

One of these things was these gift boxes with Charlie Brown stickers and foam appliques. These aren't the most creative or cool projects, but some nights it's awesome to just grab this simple type of activity and let the kids go to work. Even if it only occupies them for 15-20 minutes, I'd say the $0.25 is worth it.

There were 4 boxes total so when we were done, we made banana muffins with the brown bananas in the fruit bowl and dropped one in each box to take to daycare. Sorry Luke, you didn't get a sticker covered box but I doubt you cared much since you are only 7 months old.

#7 Sponge Bob Snowman

Anything that involves paint is fun for Lesley although almost always a little stressful for Mommy. But, we managed to get through this project and I love, love, love the outcome.

She first had to pick her paint colors and spread it out on the paper plate.

Then we squished the Sponge "Bob" snowman onto the paper to try and catch as much paint as we could. This was tricky because the sponge sort of just soaked up the paint which made pressing it on the paper frustrating.

Then, we pressed Sponge "Bob" snowman onto our paper and repeated with a few different colors.

To this day, when she sees this art work, she calls it her Sponge "Bob" snowman painting. I didn't even know that she knew who Sponge "Bob" was, and I guess maybe she doesn't she just heard me call it a sponge and added the Bob part from hearing it at some point.

#8: An ink pad

I picked up these Nativity Scene foam stamps and we had some fun one night making a few scenarios from the story of Jesus's birth.

Lesley wasn't very good at them yet, but it was still to do this project together and talk about the story of Christmas. And, Leah even got in on the project with her scribbles on the one page.