Category Archives: Toys & Games
Like brother, like sister: Saturn!
May 13, 2011:
Preparing for the behemoth.
I told Owen he should start with the easier set so he did his Minecraft set in preparation for the 2700+ piece behemoth (The Sea Cow).
And then he wanted me to send this picture to Mason, the friend that introduced him to Minecraft! So I posted it on Facebook. 🙂
Katie playing with her new stuff.
Sofia/Barbie Supergirl
Flying around the house.
Watching a movie in her new sleeping bag…with her old backpack, of course.
Putting all her new princesses in her new dollhouse.
You’ll notice two of the princesses are “wearing Crocs” — she hung the Croc keychain on their heads. 🙂
Christmas Day
My new Michigan State tee from Grannie and Papa (since I don’t have one that fits anymore)!
Our Princess Sofia!
“I have an amulet!”
Anna/Sofia lining up all her princesses in her dollhouse.
Maggie loving her squeaky lobster!
Christmas Morning!
Santa was here!
“It says Barbie Dreamhouse!” (Every time she sees Barbie she thinks it says Barbie Dreamhouse since that’s a show she watches on Netflix.
Santa knew Katie liked Sofia the First and brought her a crown (and amulet and gown, which you will see later)!
“It’s a tutu!!! With a Michigan State helmet!!!”
“Look at all the new princesses!”
“Anna! Now I have Anna and Elsa!”
Grannie knew she liked Sofia, too!
As he was starting to open it, “Look! Two dice!” And then was amazed to see ALL the dice!
She does this with every piece of clothing. 🙂
Opening a family gift from Santa!
Done at at 8am on the dot! (But then we realized we hadn’t done stockings!)
Maggie REALLY enjoying a bully stick from her stocking!
A cutie amidst the mess.
Candyland!
They each won one!
We split a Lego set.
It was on sale at the Lego store so I told Owen we’d split the cost. He hasn’t built something big in awhile so he was excited!
A little bouncing.
The place where the kids have swim lessons (and Owen had his summer activity camp) had an Open House today so people could swim and bounce for free to test it out. The kids have been asking to bounce, so we thought it would be a fun thing today. Owen loved it, but Katie was pretty much a mess. There were A TON of kids there (including a lot of rambunctious and NOT well-behaved ones which made everything worse) and she had a fit on every bounce house because there were “too many people” — except it was mostly her fault because unless she was the only one on the ladder, she would stop wherever she was and then as the kids would try to get past her and she’d get upset (and if she’d just have kept going up the ladder, they would have gone up behind her and things would have been just fine). So…we didn’t stay quite as long as we anticipated.
Katie’s afternoon challenge
She’s done a handful of letters at a time but never the whole set…but she’s very good at it so I dumped them all out and left her to it.
She did quite well until a little more than halfway through when she started whining that it was useless and she couldn’t do it. I didn’t want to help her too much, but I arranged them a bit and tried to put wrong letters in wrong pieces which got her interested again (to tell me I was wrong).
Finished!
Putting them away!
I promised her we’d go see the train.
We have seen the train at Wegman’s twice—the last time being months and months ago. Yet she remembers. We were out running errands today and she was being really good so I told her we’d stop and see the train. She literally started running through the aisles as soon as she saw it!
Typical Lego mini-build
Start—5:20pm
Finish—5:23pm
“Let me get a picture.”
“Owen, look at me.”
“Look at me!”
“Look at me!”
“OWEN! Right here! Look at me!” 🙂
Walking and watching
Katie loves to bounce in the bounce house…except she wants you to watch her. 🙂 So whenever I walk on the treadmill, she bounces. She’s actually a riot to watch—with jumps and kicks and tossing big soft things around. Tonight she had to run and get her bear so they could jump together.
Afterward, heading upstairs:
Me: Katie, you did awesome in there!
Katie: I know, I had awesome kicks!
My little puzzle girl
We were at the library and I was looking for books for Owen while Katie was looking at toddler books. I came back a few minutes later to this:
She had found the puzzles and decided to do it right there! 🙂
Dollar store finds
We found a lot of Dollar Store toys while cleaning out the apartment, so brought some of them over for the kids (some are being saved for the future). Owen was excited about these wrist-pull copters, which he had to wait to play with for a few days because the weather was rainy.
Defeated.
Owen fought a lengthy battle…but in the end he was defeated. 🙂
My protector!
Protecting me from zombies, minotaurs, and poop-ball-throwing purple dragons. 🙂
Kids in a car at the mall
Katie desperately wanted to ride in one of the cars at the mall. Since she was a good girl while we were shopping, we let her (them).
Of course, as soon as it started, she couldn’t have cared less. 🙂
Her first pout of the day. Then bubbles.
She wanted to do chalk. Fine, we went out to do chalk. Within two minutes she wanted to do bubbles. But not the bubble machine—she wanted to blow actual bubbles. Well, she just had a bath this morning and I really didn’t want to deal with the mess that is blowing bubbles so I said no. So she stomped off.
She got over it within a few minutes after I told her it was either go inside or do the bubble machine. She picked the bubble machine…and all was well with the world.
And some great action shots!
Potty Training, Day 2
Tom got Katie up this morning and her diaper was dry! He said she really didn’t want to pee in the big potty, but once she sat down she peed and peed! Yay!
8:35 I told Katie she had to pee if she wanted to go to the bus stop with Owen. And she did! She had to take her lunchbox. 🙂
When we got home, she wanted to play outside and do chalk.
She ran in a few times to pee but they were all false alarms. She wanted to ride her bike, so I told her she could after she peed again. So she came in about 20 minutes later saying she had to pee, didn’t pee, but tells me she peed in the grass. Yay…but no. I didn’t see it so no sticker…and no bike ride.
11:40 She’s very good about sitting on the potty without any direction. This trip earned her a new book!
1:00 Katie just peed in the potty and I said I was proud of her. She looked at me, did a curtsy, and said a drawn out thank you. Where do they get this stuff?
She continued to pee in the potty all afternoon—assuming each time she’d get to ride her bike. She finally gave up on asking for her bike but still kept peeing in the potty! She even earned another book!
I had treats set up for every five pees…and she filled the sheet and just kept sticking them on.
And then when we were outside eating dinner, she had to go in and pee. She even emptied it into the toilet herself. 🙂 Then she said she had to pee again and went inside. Owen happened to be inside at the same time and came out singing “Katie’s pooping in the potty!”
Wait. What?
I’d been reminding/asking randomly all day and she just kept saying she didn’t have to go yet. I believed her, but I also kind of thought she’d try to hide. But now she just went on her own? I raced inside and…yep! She pooped in her potty!! WOOHOO!
So daddy took her to get a special treat (a milkshake from Burger King).
Day two is in the books and she did amazing! Let’s hope it continues!
Yes, we have this much time in the morning.
School doesn’t start until 9:20—so we don’t go to the bus stop until 8:40-8:45—which leaves enough time for the bounce house before school.
It only took two days!
Owen’s summer challenges: complete!
Owen just finished his “100 Books in 100 Days” and “200 Pages in 100 Days” Challenges!!
It wasn’t all easy—he fought the workbook pages a bit and got WEEKS behind but caught up at the end when he realized he might not get his surprise. 🙂 Also, to be honest, he really probably only read a total of 60-70 books, but a bunch of them were small chapter books (like 10 pages per chapter, three or four chapters per book) so he got multi-credits for those. And this was his reward!
Helping Katie play Uno
Me and Owen got treats!
To celebrate my weight loss, I went shopping. 🙂 I was hoping to find a pair or two of capris on sale that would last me the rest of this season (and most likely through the spring when I will hopefully need another new size—the way my body apparently fits into pants, I may be wearing these for 3-4 months (if I keep losing at the same rate)). This was me trying on new jeans—and kind of liking how they looked and feeling good! I sent the pic to Tom saying I wasn’t sure—they were a little tight but they were stretchy—and he said GET THEM. Smart man, I know! 🙂
And then we got Owen a future treat at the Lego store (we’re changing his chore chart reward system), and he was giddy about the Minecraft displays. 🙂
All the pics from my day at once.
She always wants to comb my hair but I only let her on days that I wash and condition it.
He said it was costume day so we did this (he can’t get in/out of his costumes by himself).
ABCs while shopping.
This is what she was busy doing while I wasn’t watching. And this is her pout when I tell her she needs to pick them all up.
She tried a ham and cheese (no condiment) sandwich—and actually ate most of it!
I decided to make my all-time favorite garlic toast today because the bread was on sale B1G1 at the store.
“Mama, I want to put the water in please.” Except 98% of it didn’t make it in.
Outdoor lap selfie!
The little stink beat me!!
Charlie’s weird.
Yes, she’s on the table…on the Legos.
Playground again!
Owen didn’t have activity camp this week so we did this instead! They played while I walked around the path for my mile walk!
Today he brought a shield and sword.
Katie likes to be pushed high!
Her same friend was back—this time with a scooter. Katie desperately wanted to use the scooter, but didn’t want to actually move on it. 🙂
If I let them do what they wanted all the time…
…this is what it would look like 24/7.
But I make them do things like this (yes, make—they often give me grief until they’re out there and then they love it):
Another birthday present down…
