This Is....How It Is

This is the chair I've been wanting to make a slipcover for.

This is the awesome fabric I found at Jo-Ann's for a great deal.

This is my computer balanced on an old spittoon, with my E-book directions on how to make a slipcover - the book is called, "the lazy girl's guide to making slipcovers."

This is Eli playing with his legion of potato heads, that mommy was hoping he would play with while she worked, when in reality he played with them for about 3 minutes.

This is Eli being much more interested in what mommy was doing with that material and sharp pins and a pair of sharp scissors.

This is mommy taking a self portrait of mommy and Eli, having a juice box break, while mommy realizes with a sigh, this slipcover thing is not going to happen right now.....

Birthday Party Pictures

I think overall, Eli's birthday party was a success. I went back and forth on party ideas, how many kids to invite, where to have it, all of that. I really wanted to just have friends play in a park, but was worried about the heat, with temperatures hitting over 100. Last year we just did a family party, but now that Eli has had several playdates consistently with little friends, I really wanted to do a "friend" party. I also really wanted to keep it SIMPLE. It was just for a TWO year old. We finally settled on having water play in our backyard, with cupcakes. Then I fretted about the time, because morning is best for most toddlers' demeanors, but if I had it 10 to noon, would I need to feed them lunch? Decided lunch was ok, and would get a tray of chicken nuggets from Chic Fil A. Who doesn't like chick fil a nuggets?! As the weeks went on, suddenly we had a drop in temperature (into the 90's, whoo!) but also had some breeze. Soooooo, I changed the party location to the neat park across the street from our house (what I wanted to do originally anyway!). We had seven friends come, which I know is a lot for a 2 year old. But, being at the park, it didn't seem overwhelming as everyone was running around playing. I think the overwhelmed/overstimulated part came when we all gathered and sang Happy Birthday, because that's when E put his head down on the table and cried! All in all though, it worked out just fine and I think all the kids had fun.

We were able to snag the little covered pavilion at the park (it's on a first come, first serve basis). Covered one table with the blue table cloth, attached some balloons, and used the other table for the food and presents. Here E is smiling sitting next to his best buddy, Brandon. It is so cute how they love each other! Brandon is about 8 months older than Eli.

Doug with the balloons.

I was thankful my shutter happy friend Lindsay was able to come early and help out - she took this picture of my mom and me. It was also great having Grandma at the party!

We actually tried an organized game of Red Light-Green Light, with Doug holding up a red paper or green paper and the kids running and/or stopping. They were really good at the running part, not so much the stopping! It was really funny watching them. They were loving it.

I made cupcakes the day before - these are NOT them. Mine looked really sad! And, I didn't know the secret of putting the icing in a ziplock, cutting a hole, and using it to get the big fluffy icing look. I ditched those and bought some at Target. The racing flags though, those were my idea. I cut pieces of our racing check duct tape and taped them to toothpicks to keep with our "cars" theme. Even though I wasn't going to have a theme because I was keeping it simple. But I did let myself get suckered into Disney marketing and bought a Cars balloon and Cars paper plates. But that's all!

See Eli on the left, putting his head down while everyone was singing?? I've heard that's pretty common for toddlers! It's not a party till the birthday boy cries!

He wasn't so sure about his cupcake either.....

Later that day, after nap, we were able to reveal his Train Table! Doug spent quite a bit of time, figuring out how we could use most of the train track pieces. He loved it!

The next day, we had family over for family birthday time. Grandma got Eli this nifty water table. E has really been into playing with water lately. His other grandparents, Pa and Meme, came into town too. We had the Tuckers over and the Fossens too.

Eli was more into opening presents on this day, I think he was getting the gist of this present thing. He cried again when he was center of attention while we sang, but not for long. This time, he did try to blow out his candle. Doug made him a red velvet cake from scratch!

Later that same day, we went up to the Fossen's house for a birthday dinner for Rachel, as her birthday was the day before Eli's, and the grandparents were in town. Here the cousins are dogpiling on Doug. Eli likes to run around on the trampoline. Notice I did not post any of the pictures of ME jumping on the trampoline. They weren't prettty. Not pretty at all.....

Remember Rachel's name board I made and talked about a couple of posts ago? She loved it, and here she is trying it out on a wall in her bedroom.

And, last but not least, here is Rachel blowing our her candles!

As you can tell, it was a super busy weekend - I'm kind of tired just reading about all that we did -but it was also super fun, and we all enjoyed celebrating Eli, and Rachel!

Special Coffee Routine

This is another one of those sweet scenes I was able to capture last weekend; I'm so glad to have a few pictures, because this is something I would surely forget in a few years (or months!!).

On weekend mornings, Doug will ask Eli if he wants to "help make coffee." When Doug says those words, Eli comes running.

Scoop out the beans....

Pour them in....

Push the buttons!

I wonder if Eli will be a coffee lover like his daddy one day!

The Big TWO

Ladies and gentlemen, we have a big TWO year old on our hands! Little bit turned two last Friday.

For my almost middle-aged memory, it's time to record some of the things that he's doing right now:

-language is starting to explode! says single words all the time, and I'm always amazed when he says something without prompting from mom. He put together four words the other night at dinner (we were having breakfast for dinner): I want biscuit please. Of course it sounded more like, "I unt bi-kit peese," but it was still four words! He does a lot of jargon-ing now too.

-we do counting a lot, but I only hear him say numbers occassionally.

-he's starting to tell me that he has poop. I feel so clueless about toilet training and when we want to really start, but I'm thinking we will be starting sooner than later.

-he loves to imitate - imitates us, and his friends, and sometimes what he sees on t.v. He will imitate people playing tennis on t.v., which is pretty hysterical. He includes the grunting noises as they hit the ball.

-will do pretend play, feeding the stuffed animals or giving them a drink. At his grandparent's house, he was saying, "I want cracker" and then pretending to eat a cracker.

-Doug and Eli have a special night time routine. After Doug puts him in bed, he will lay on the floor and they will whisper to each other. Doug will whisper, I'm going to go now!, and Eli will whisper back, "ok," or "allright." They whisper good night, and love you. It's sooooooo sweet.

-Eli LOVES his trains and cars, and will play with those almost exclusively. Running a close second are the things he can push around the house, like his toy lawn mowers, block bucket, and shopping cart. Playing in water is a tie for second as a favorite activity.

-He is starting to say friend's names and show preferences for playing with friends and being social. He really likes playing with Brandon - they both share the same love of trains!

-Still loves to go for walks outside.

-Understands to help "clean up," and will go put his plate in the sink once he's finished dinner.

-Still likes to snuggle with mommy on the couch.

-Tells us to "sit!" when he wants mommy or daddy to play with him. It's so cute to watch him tug on Doug's shirt and say "sit! Daddy! sit!" when Doug comes home from work.

-I love watching him try to figure things out, such as putting in puzzle pieces, or putting his train tracks together, or figuring out which magnetic end of the trains go together.

-Likes to color with markers, but prefers to watch mommy draw items for him. Doesn't play with playdough that much.

That is all I can think of for now! Since this post was a long writing post, I will put pictures of the birthday party on the next post!

First Day of Pre-School!!!!

I've been talking up school to Eli, trying to help him get prepared to start school today. I have no idea if he really understands the concept of "school" just yet - but I did keep saying his teacher's names, and since he has met them once before, was hoping that was sinking in. Last night I made sure everything had labels on it, and this morning made his lunch. It was fun using his new bag and lunch bag. I kinda feel bad his nap mat is so cheap it doesn't have any kind of foam thingy in it (except it does have an attached pillow), but hopefully it will do for nap time. He seemed a little cranky this morning (he didn't take a nap yesterday, but slept 12 hours last night, so I thought he was going to be ok).....he wasn't really in the mood for pictures.....as you can tell....

I was trying to get him to pose in front of this nice water feature by the door. He kept knocking over his nap mat and bag.

They give everyone one of these denim bags to use (instead of backpacks). I ironed on his name and the firetruck and we used duct tape to make it more "manly." So here he is, trying to knock it over too.

Ok, Mom, I am soooo over these pictures.....let's go.

He went right in to the room! No crying!

He just started playing with toys! I am so proud of him.

Here are some other  moms, handing their kids over the half-door. This one mom behind us was telling the teacher about everything in the boy's bag, holding him - she then started walking away, still holding her child, and started laughing because she forgot to give the CHILD to the teacher along with his stuff! There were definitely some kids crying in his room, and I was hoping that wasn't going to upset E. I think once all the parents left and they got going with their day, everything would be fine. Can't wait to pick him up and see how the day went!

Ready, set Go!!

We had fun playing with our friend Bella today. E is loving the whole "ready, set, go!" thing and running. Sooooooo cute!

Well, E is out of focus here because he's in the foreground, but I don't care - I love the expression on his face! Trying to capture running toddlers ain't easy!

".....Go!"

Here I come, Mommy!

Ready for my big hug!

And, a sweet picture of our sweet friend Bella!

Crafty Name Project

My niece turns 11 this week, and is interested in room decor. I thought about decorating wooden letters, hanging each one by a ribbon, for her present - but then decided that might look too nursery/little girl. After browsing around Pinterest, I became inspired for a project!

I bought an artist's canvas (40% off, love a sale), watermelon colored spray paint, three sheets of scrapbook paper, and plain wooden letters. Actually, I think they are made out of that MDF stuff. That sounds like an acronym for cuss words doesn't it.

She has a pink/purple, flower and butterfly theme going on in her room. I liked this paper because it has the flowers, but doesn't over-dose on pink and purple.

I spray painted the letters, and the sides of the canvas. I love how Doug's books from grad school have come in handy as paper weights.

Checking the paint color to the paper - I like it!

I didn't get pictures of the next steps, oops. I lined up the paper on the canvas so the pattern matched, and the entire canvas was covered. Used spray adhesive to glue it down. Then, put a coat of modge podge over the whole thing to seal it. Don't want those paper edges sticking up! I tried a few decorations on the actual letters, but nothing looked right to me; it seemed too little girly. I did think the whole thing needed a little something extra, so I put two pieces of trim (from my scrapbook supplies) on the bottom, using Aileen's tacky glue. Then, hot-glued the letters on, and......

....Here it is! The letters needed to sit "crooked" in order to all fit on the canvas, but I like the look. The flash makes it kinda difficult to see all the detail on the paper behind the name, oops!

Here's a closer look at the two pieces of trim. The top one is little chenille balls, I used that one on my sister's project too! I am very pleased with how it came out and can't wait to give it to her this weekend!

Meet the teacher!

Last week, we were able to go up to Eli's new school and meet his teacher and teaching assistant. We were the only ones in the room - they had kiddos sign up for every 15 minutes, I guess the people who were before us and after us were late or something. Anyway, that was just fine with us! Eli acted kind of shy initially, but once he saw cars on the floor, he immediately sat down and started playing. He did warm up to the teachers, and even went across the room to play with the kitchen set. We were able to go across the hall to the Music and Movement room too and check that out. I am so excited for him to start his Mother's Day Out/Preschool tomorrow! I know he is going to love it (once he gets adjusted!). Here are a few pictures I snapped:

Playing cars with Ms. Susan, the lead teacher.

Hi, Ms. Gabby! Your turn!

His room is small, but there are only 8 kids in his class.

I wish I could be a fly on the wall tomorrow and watch how he does! I know he is really going to enjoy playing with new friends and toys, learning to sit in a circle, etc. Really curious if he's going to nap there...he doesn't nap well other places...we'll see!!!