And loves Harry Potter… Leviosah!
Category Archives: Playing
Stacking and crashing
Costco Couch Crazy Hair
This is what happens when Katie has to get out of the cart to sit on the floor model couches at Costco because Owen is also doing it…and she rolls around and gets all static-y.
Double Decker Couch
I let Owen put together the Lego set I got for me… 🙂
Katie in the snow!
As soon as we got back from the bus stop, Katie wanted to go play in the snow. So I got out her new snow pants, bundled her up, and let her go! And man was she cute!
She loved brushing the snow off the car!
And then she laid down and did a snow angel all by herself! I didn’t prompt her in any way and I have no idea where she saw this!
She had no idea it was an angel—she liked “making rainbows!”
Then I got out the sled and took her on a few slides down the sidewalk and then the street—and WOW did she love that! (So our hilly street is good for one thing!) Of course it was exhausting for me hauling her back up the hill, but we did it about 5-6 times because she loved it so much. 🙂
Coming inside—100% adorable:
Look what Katie brought home from the playground!
Two hours of jumping!
So we made it to the trampoline park today for our two hours of jumping. And we learned two hours is too much—but one hour isn’t enough, of course.
Here’s a montage of Katie (we had to stay in the Under 46″ section while daddy and Owen were out in the big arena) and then Katie and Owen (he needs some practice at the hoops!).
In the dodgeball court:
Watching Owen:
Katie put her baby down for a nap.
I guess a Zappos box is as good a place as any. 🙂
Katie loves brushing my hair
Normally I don’t let her because it’s curly and brushing it would be disastrous…but today it was straight so I let her at it.
Magformer hats and a wheel!
Just two of the projects we built today—thanks to the expander set Gramma Jean gave Owen for Christmas we can build bigger things now!
Mall fun…and then no fun.
First we stopped at the Lego store just to see if there was anything on Clearance. Just under $200 later…we left there and headed to the play area. On our way out, we stopped to gather the kids at the building station and a mom complimented us on Katie being polite—she said her son dropped a piece and Katie handed it to him, he said thank you, and she said you’re welcome! She said it was very unexpected from a 2yo. YAY KATIE! 🙂
Then we hit the mall play area. It was complete chaos because most parents are lazy and don’t actually parent their too-old and too-tall and too-aggressive kids and let them RUN WILD while little kids are trying to play in an already-congested area. So we didn’t stay long.
Then Katie wanted a ride. She loved it! (Sidenote: it was 75¢—seriously?!)
And then Owen learned the hard way not to beg for McDonald’s. We were near the food court getting them small treats at the customer service kiosk and he saw McDonald’s and wanted it. Tom and I said we were going to Red Robin instead. He kept asking for McDonald’s and I told him we said no and to stop asking. He asked about three more times…so he lost Red Robin. He was not happy about that (and neither were we!) but hopefully he learned his lesson. On the way home he asked about four times if we were going to Red Robin for dinner. Nope, not for lunch, not for dinner, not at all today. (Apparently he didn’t learn his lesson about repeatedly asking for things.)
So it was a mostly good day. 🙂
Watching from as close as she’s allowed!
Katie didn’t follow the rules earlier so she doesn’t get to play with the new toy. But she’s as close as she can legally get.
Trader Joe’s, fish, pizza, escalators, and bouncing!
Tom wanted to go to a fish store to see what they had—and of course the kids wanted to go…so we all went! On the way there, we saw a Trader Joe’s (which we hadn’t been to here yet) so we stopped to pick up a few things. I tried to get Owen to push the kid-sized cart and he was having NONE of it and turned into a grouch. Fine. So then we hit the fish store and the kids loved that but then it was almost lunch time so I searched Yelp for something close by…and we ended up at a really yummy pizza place at the Springfield Mall! Well, then since we were at the mall, we decided to check it out (we hadn’t been there yet, either). And that’s when Owen discovered the escalators. Well, he had been on them before but this time he LOVED them. And he’s old enough now that he will go on them without us…which he did. A few times. 🙂
Katie wasn’t too sure and held daddy’s hand pretty tight.
This was Owen’s third and fourth trip around the escalators. Like mother, like son…I remember doing the same thing with my cousins Lisa and Lori (though at a little bit older age) at the Saginaw Mall! 🙂
And then as we were headed to a store I wanted to briefly look in…we ran across a bouncy place. YES. IN THE MALL. So in we went…and let the kids run wild for 30 minutes! (Contrary to what you see in the pictures, there were a bunch of other kids there!)
As a last special thing…on our way out, we stopped to get frozen yogurt!
Two Darth Vaders
New matching Christmas jammies!
Their first set of matching PJs! Both kids LOVED them—they were both dancing and prancing around.
Now with Santa hats!
Then the playing!
“Where’s Katie?!”
“Here I am!”
Interesting sticker placement.
Gramma Jean got Katie a Disney sticker book and she had zero interest in it when she opened it. However, today she got it out on her own and I saw her doing this: taking out a sticker, slapping it on her chest, taking another sticker, slapping it on her chest… There was a huge stack there!
My prince and princess.
Katie: I’m a princess!
Owen: And I’m a prince! Let’s marry!
And then he leaned over and kissed her and held her hand. 🙂 To his credit, he did say he was her brother so they couldn’t really get married. 🙂
Bouncy Birthday Party
Owen was invited to a birthday party of the twins in his class (the same family that gave Katie her black ballerina outfit a ways back). It was at a bouncy place that had glow-in-the-dark lights. Tom took him because (long story short) I was told Katie couldn’t participate. Tom said when he got there, Owen turned super shy…but quickly got into it and had a BLAST.
And here’s Owen racing up the slide! I made sure he wore a neon shirt so he’d really stand out! And action video!
Here’s the group:
And some of the boys from his class (Xander, Colton, and Manuel).
And then after the party, they stopped at Wendy’s for dinner!
Katie’s new hiding spot
Luckily we were in the room at the time so we knew she was under there…but she has hidden there on her own and caused us some panic. Now we know where to look first. 🙂
Daddy throws the kids around
Katie loves pretending she’s asleep.
Especially when she’s just gotten up. 🙂
A smirk.
Roughhousing with Uncle Rob
Sneaky Sitting Pretty
I was at my computer and I heard Katie busy behind me but I wasn’t paying attention. When I finally turned around, this is what I saw:
Hair Brushing
Grandma got Katie some ponies that come with their own brushes to brush their huge manes and tails. Well, Katie immediately took to brushing her own hair with it…as well as anyone else who would let her. Tonight, she wanted HER hair brushed and I was busy reading with Owen, so Uncle Rob took over. 🙂
And then she wanted to brush his hair which was a bit more difficult. 🙂
Taking turns flying Uncle Rob’s Christmas present.
They tried it in the house first—and it worked a little, but really needed more space. 🙂
Christmas with Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob!
We celebrated Christmas this morning because Owen was home from school…due to ongoing constipation issues (he had been heavily medicated but NOTHING was happening and I hadn’t wanted to send him to school just in case).
She LOVED her princess tutu, crown, and wand! After about 10 minutes, we were all tired of the wand because it lit up AND made noise! (The crown lights up, too, but thankfully doesn’t make noise!)
Uncle Rob helped Owen with the Legos after Owen got stuck and I tried and gave up. 🙂
CHUCK E. CHEESE!!
Owen has wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese for quite some time now. Neither Tom nor I wanted to go because the food really sucks and it’s just a money pit. So, we told Owen that he could go when Uncle Rob came down (that way it would be seen as a super special treat and he wouldn’t ask us to go all the time). He was actually very good about being patient—it’s probably been over a year that we’ve been telling him this.
So when we learned that Grandma Marsha and Uncle Rob were going to be here this week, Owen knew what was going to happen! And boy was he exited!
Me: So who’s all going to Chuck E. Cheese?
Owen: Me and Uncle Rob.
Me: Just you and Uncle Rob? Not daddy?
Owen: No! Daddy, too. But not Grandma or you or Katie. Just the three boys!
The plan was to take separate cars to see Santa and then the boys would go to the restaurant and the girls would go home. I figure why get Katie excited about it when she really didn’t care to start with. I did, however, make Tom promise to take pictures. 🙂
These are the two pics Tom texted me.
I really really hoped he had taken more than that…and he had! 🙂 I saw these when he got home.
His $45 “prize”—a Dory fish from Finding Nemo.
Yes, they spent about $45 total on food, drinks, and games…and he only got a trinket worth about 49¢. It was a great lesson…we asked him if he’d rather have the little fish or a big Lego set. He obviously choose the Lego set. He was surprised that he could have had something so big instead of something so small. We said it was okay to go and play games and have fun, but it was really expensive so that’s why it was a super special treat that we didn’t do very often. He said from now on he’d rather have the Legos. 🙂
Lesson with dry ice
I ordered something frozen from QVC. It arrived with some dry ice remaining so we showed the kids what happens when you put it in water.
Katie wants more ball!
We were watching Owen’s last AfterSchool athletics program and they were playing dodgeball. Of course Katie wanted to run and play with them but she couldn’t. However, she could grab balls that came over by us…