Christmas Craft #2: Gingerbread House!

I've never made real gingerbread, so we totally cheated here and bought the kit, but I wanted Em to be able to decorate it more than anything, and didn't care that much about doing everything from scratch (we'll have plenty of time for that as she gets older).

She wasn't interested in the candies, but loved the icing, and kept accidentally sticking her finger in it so she could try it--then she'd say "I just want to taste it!"  She was too funny.  I did most of the icing work, but she stuck all the candies in place.  It made for a very fun Sunday afternoon, and we each ate a little piece before bed.

Saturday of Christmas Fun!

I saw The Singing Christmas Tree for Kids advertised several weeks ago and decided to get tickets for us for Saturday.  The show was at 11:00 AM and only an hour long, so we thought it would be perfect for Em's attention span.  She was so excited to put her tights on this morning!

I love it when she dresses like a girly girl, but she usually doesn't, just because it doesn't fit with her typical day of rolling down hills and playing in sand at school.  She's usually in pants and a comfortable shirt, so I love the opportunities to get her all dressed up.

 

The seat was a little low for her, so she ended up in Daddy's lap for most of the show.

All the kids got a jingle bell on the way in, and there was never a shortage of jingling all through the show--it was really cool.  She was completely engaged the whole time, and sang along to some of her favorites like Jingle Bells, Rudolph and Frosty.

That afternoon, we headed to Blakeney for Santa and Friends.  We had dinner outside (we thought it was warmer than it was, but there were heaters on the patio!) and then headed over to get in line for Santa.  Em took a minute to visit with these reindeer, and hung out on Daddy's shoulders, which is one of her favorite places--she's realized how much better she can see from up there!

 There were lots of people, kids and dogs, so she was entertained while we waited. 

 She got very excited when Santa and Mrs. Claus arrived!

Unlike last year, she wasn't shy in the least when her turn came--she walked right up to Santa and held out her arms so he could pick her up.

She has been telling Elfie (her Elf on the Shelf) that she wanted a tiger and a balloon for more than a week now, and sure enough, she stuck to her guns and that's what she told Santa she wanted.  Daddy was leaning in here to make sure he heard :).

After her turn with Santa, she saw Frosty,

and we waited in line for about an hour and a half to ride the horse drawn carriage.  Mick and I would have given up about 20 minutes in, but Em really wanted to wait, so we did.

We took turns holding our place in line while one of us roamed around with Em--we had hot chocolate, made an ornament and saw Mickey Mouse along the way!

 It was a fun night, but we were glad to get in the car and head home!

 

 



Another Birthday for Emily

Mick and I have both had birthdays in the past couple of months, and we've learned that anytime there's a birthday, it turns into Emily's.  She gets so excited and asks if we'll share our birthday (meaning the cake, of course) with her.  I had a meeting that kept me at work late on Mick's birthday, but I had gotten him an ice cream cake ahead of time, and it was a nice after dinner snack for all of us!

Christmas Craftt #1: Salt Dough Ornaments

I've always loved arts and crafts, and I'm thrilled and thankful that Em seems to be picking up that love too.  We've been making things together for pretty much every holiday, but Christmas definitely seems like a great excuse to get into something new every weekend.

I found recipes on Pinterest for salt dough ornaments, and another kind made with baking soda, corn starch and water that are much smoother than salt dough (next year, we'll probably just go with these since the paint goes on much nicer).  We started to make cinnamon dough too, but were so overwhelmed with ornaments after our two batches that I decided to stop.

We kneaded, rolled and cut the shapes on Saturday afternoon, and I baked them and cooled them that night.  Since they have to bake for so long, I thought we could turn it into a two-day project.  We had everything from reindeer, trees and Santa to snowmen, gingerbread men and snowflakes.

Em wasted no time the next morning getting into the decorating.  Before we realized, it was already lunch time and we were elbow deep in paint, glitter, rhinestones and google eyes.  It was great!

Here are a few of her masterpieces.  Thank goodness for washable paint and glue.

Holly Jolly

I forgot to include that we went to pick out our Christmas tree on Saturday before Aunt Julie left to go back to Boston--we tried Lowe's and they were sold out, but we found a good one at Home Depot, and Em found a little miniature one that she really liked too, so we got that one for the hallway upstairs. We went to dinner and had Japanese food, and discovered that Em is better with chopsticks than we are!

She did pretty equal amounts of playing and eating.

We got the lights on the tree that night, but it took a few days to get it decorated.

One of Em's teachers told me on Wednesday that she told the class she had a Christmas tree, but it didn't have any ornaments.  I decided that was my cue to get moving and get it done.

I think I remember getting rid of some ornaments last year, thinking we'd replace them.  Our project for this weekend will be replacing them!

I waited until Em was in bed before redistributing the ornaments from where they were all clumped together on the bottom of the tree :).  She had so much fun putting them up!

All the Magic...and Madness!

I've been so wrapped up in work lately that I've gotten completely behind on updating Em's blog.  This month especially is one that we've been so busy, even in our off time, that I've tried to take plenty of pictures and keep notes for myself to make sure I don't forget anything!

Mick and I keep commenting that Em is talking "like a real person" more and more these days...she is independent, imaginative, spirited and fiesty.  She understands everything, picks up on the most subtle details, and has a memory that never takes a break.  She shows so much love and empathy toward others, including her dolls and stuffed animals--she'll take care of them and say she's being a good mommy.  Oddly enough though, they usually all have poopy diapers and sometimes they even have to go to time out (sit in "the chair").  She'll walk around the house (usually in a tutu) with jewelry and a purse with her shopping basket or baby stroller, sometimes even with a notepad, telling us it's her list.

During November, we spent a lot of time talking about the things we were thankful for...Em has a great sense of humor, so she'll go from saying she's "thankful for beans" to saying she's thankful for Mommy, Daddy, Gracie and Bella.

Her teachers asked all the kids in her class what they were having for Thanksgiving dinner, and Em told them we were having "hot dogs on fire and fluffy white popcorn, but not the little pieces because they're yucky."  We had recently eaten grilled hot dogs for lunch over the weekend and Em asked about the black marks, so we told her about the fire that grilled them.  Her new favorite food seems to be popcorn, and we've of course talked about the little hard pieces that she can't eat.  It's really funny to see how she connects things.

She often tells one of us "you're my best friend, and I love you so much."  Mick told her she looked beautiful one day, and she replied "yeah, I do."  She gives great hugs and kisses, but can also challenge us like we never imagined!

Brushing teeth is still our biggest obstacle, and the most frustrating part is that some days she cooperates so easily, and others she fights us like crazy.  She definitely knows the word "no," but what really gets under our skin is when she just ignores us completely when we talk to her, or she'll say "I don't want to."  She has nonstop energy, and we usually feel completely worn out by the end of most weekends.

One of her favorite phrases is "guess what?" even when she doesn't have anything to tell us.  She's a great helper, no matter what we're doing, and she always wants to be in the middle of the action.  Em has strong emotions (which maybe came from her mommy), and laughs or cries easily. She also recovers pretty quickly though, so even if she's actually hurt (and not faking), she is tough and bounces right back.

She's a full-fledged two and a half year old, for sure.  Raising her is the best, most frustrating, most gratifying, most challenging, most rewarding experience we've ever had :).

Exciting Thanksgiving Week



Since Mick and I have been together (about 12 years now), we've always celebrated Thanksgiving with my family and Christmas with his--this week though, we had a special unexpected treat when his parents decided to come up for a visit for a few days. 

 

Saturday morning, our neighborhood had a fall festival with a chili cookoff and a pie contest.  Because of some insane inspiration, I decided to enter both contests--the chili was pretty good, but my chocolate peanut butter pie won second place!  There was a popcorn machine, which was a big hit with Em, and a bounce house, which she decided to skip.

 

Grandma, Papa and Landon arrived late Saturday afternoon, and Em was super excited!

She loves having extra family here because she's the constant center of attention :).

On Sunday, we decided to head up to Concord Mills Mall to get some shopping done--the nice thing about this mall (aside from the outlet stores) is all the extra stuff, like the huge carousel in the middle of the food court

and the bungee jumping!  Em and Landon had to try it out, and what a big girl she was!

She looks like she's in kindergarten or something...where is my little baby going?!  They had a great time bouncing, and there was even a train going around the mall that we caught a ride on. 

I had taken the week off and had some appointments on Monday, and Mick had taken the day off, so Grandma and Papa decided to take Landon and Em to a place called Sports Connection--there's an arcade, bowling alley and bounce houses and they spent a good bit of the day there.  I think they were all thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day.  Mick and I didn't know what to do with ourselves, but went and had lunch and got a few things done.

Mick went back to work on Tuesday, and Aunt Julie got here--she had flown in on Monday and spent the first day with a friend in Charlotte.  I picked her up Tuesday afternoon and she went with me to pick up Emily at school--what a great moment when Em saw her across the playground and ran to her, screaming "AUNT JULIE!" 

We took Em to school on Wednesday for a little shorter day while we had a girls' day out--we had a nice leisurely lunch, manicures and pedicures, and did a little shopping.  It was a really good day that I wish we could repeat much more often!

On Thursday morning, we set out for Brevard to my parents' house (a Grandma and Papa visit for the second time in one week!), and had a huge, delicious Thanksgiving meal.  After we were all stuffed, Mick and Julie and I decided to give Grandma and Papa some Emily time and we went to the movies to see Lincoln.  It's funny, because Mick and I used to go to the movies several times a month before Emily was born, sometimes even seeing more than one movie in a day, but we haven't been to a movie theater since I was pregnant!  It was fun, but we always find ourselves feeling a little lost without our little Em.



Our visit was way too short--we decided to brave some of the Black Friday shopping the day after--Hendersonville is still a pretty small town, so it didn't get too crazy.  We had a nice lunch together and then decided to head home so Em could nap on the way home.  They always have a busy Saturday with Church services, so we knew we wouldn't stay overnight.

 

We had a pretty relaxing weekend--we picked out our Christmas tree and started decorating, and got in the spirit by breaking out Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer!  We also started our Elf on the Shelf for the first time (Mick's mom had given us the book and elf when I was pregnant).  Em named her elf "Elfie" and immediately started telling him all of her dreams and secrets :).  First priority, "a black bear with black paws and black feet."  At least she's specific!

Em and Aunt Julie enjoyed snuggling together and watching some movies while we put lights on the tree.  Emily is more of a clown every time she visits :).

Monday morning, it was time to get back to routines.  We dropped Em off at school, then Julie to the airport and me to work.  It was an unwelcome dose of reality after such a great week!

Thanksgiving Feast and Lunch Box Day!

Em's school planned a Thanksgiving Feast on Thursday, and the kitchen was closed to prepare for it, so they asked the kids to pack lunches.  I've never seen someone so excited to have a lunch box! 

We have to pack peanut free because of allergies, and I knew Em wouldn't eat a sandwich or a normal lunch, so I loaded her up with finger foods--apple sauce, pepperoni, cheese, grapes, strawberries, broccoli, crackers and yogurt.  I ended up taking the raisins and oranges out because it seemed like too much, but her teachers told me she ate almost everything.  They had a class picnic on the "rainbow carpet" and I'm sure it was great fun :).



The parents were invited to the Thanksgiving Feast from 4-6pm that afternoon, so Mick and I both went. Emily was so excited to have us there that she barely ate anything!

Tough to pass up mac & cheese, sweet potatoes and bread though.

Then she needed to show us all the dress up clothes before we could go home--Snow White,

and Cinderella.  Especially beautiful with the polka dot shirt under the dress!

This is the Thanksgiving art her class made--hers turkey is the one on orange paper on the far right.

She's always so proud to show us her artwork!

Good Decision

It's been almost two months now since we made the decision to move Em from Gateway to Rainbow Station, and we're happier every day.  We love the school, her teachers, and all the opportunities to get involved.

 

I've joined the PTA, and volunteered at the book fair and at the fall festival.  We participated in Parents' Night Out, where we dropped Em off at school for a couple of hours one Saturday night and had an adult dinner together.  It's funny, because we hardly knew what to do with ourselves without her!

She loves her friends and teachers, and is learning so much--she knows days of the week, months of the year, and can count into the 20s.  We had our first parent teacher conference this week, which was great--they do developmental evaluations for all the kids, and she confirmed for us that Em is on track or ahead of all the milestones for her age.  She gave us some ideas of the things we can work on with her too--for instance, she can draw a circle and a straight line, but doesn't always hold the crayon or marker at the tip (instead of with her fist or whole hand), which is something they start to work on to prepare the kids for handwriting.

She's becoming more and more spirited with emotions on both ends of the spectrum.  She challenges us more, but loves us more openly too, so it's always an interesting compromise.  She seems to have really blossomed into a little girl, and whether it has anything to do with the change in schools or not, we know we're happy she's there.

Rainbow Station Festival...and a new friend

Today, Em's school held a fall festival and we decided to go--there wasn't much to it, but all of the classes had put together little games for the kids, and Mr. Nigel (who comes in for music on Wednesdays) was there for the music and dancing.  There were baskets from each classroom that were raffled off with some really awesome prizes, but we weren't lucky and didn't win one.

Em still had a fun time though.  She had her face painted,

she raced tricycles with her friends, played on the swings and enjoyed some games in the classrooms.

Later that evening, a couple we're friends with had a concert and fundraiser for the Wounded Warriors Project at their house, and invited us over.  Em was excited to go, because Emma (their daughter) is about a year younger than her, and they like playing together.

 She's still talking about her and wanting to go back to "Miss Heather's house."