home made play doh

Very exciting news around here, new play doh! We've tried several recipes over the past couple of years and this is the best yet. It's not sticky or too grainy from the salt. And it's a breeze to make.
The recipe can be found here
I added my food coloring while cooking since it didn't matter if I had a huge batch of one color.
Next batch I'm going to try and add some lavender oil so it'll smell yummy!

the belly...

Eh, I debated whether too show these but obviously I'm going ahead. Mainly just because they were done with the self timer/ remote and man that was a lot of work to just keep them to myself.
It was worth it though! Too bad it hasn't been sunny on a weekend so we could have the whole family in them.

Copy Work

I wouldn't say that we're unschoolers since we use a curriculum and have enforced school time(even though we're very relaxed) but I can totally see how it makes sense for some kids. Evie definitely being one of them. Try and force the child to do something and you're pretty much up against a brick wall but just sit back, wait and watch and she'll do it on her own. I found this sitting on the computer desk, I think it's copied from the bottom of the checkbook? Not too shabby since just a couple of weeks ago her letters were completely random sizes( and I mean like 2 inches followed by 1/8 inc sort of random) and we were battling over writing. This aspect of her personality I can handle but I don't know what I'm going to do about her thinking things have to be done perfectly or not at all. She's been very hesitant to read and she told Mom the other day it was because Rosie was better at it. What? Rosie "reads" by making up stories! Poor girl, I feel like she's setting herself up for a difficult life. Maybe it's just a rebellion against my totally non perfectionist self?

It's March!

I'm hopeful next month it's won't be necessary to lean over to view my feet.
If you've been counting down the days with me you might notice I bounced forward by a bit. I had an original due date of April 1st but midway through in the midst of my dozen sonos they changed it to March 26. I'm not sure I believe that since I tend to have such big and long babes but I'm at the point where a weeks difference is a boost to my moral. So even if I think it's a long shot I'm keeping that closer time in my head to make things easier!

Evie's party

Opening up presents, love that tongue sticking out.
Counting all the money in her wallet - 6 of everything!
She loved her music box!
Such style! She insisted we eat outside even though we don't have anywhere for that set up yet. Luckily her Daddy has a redneck streak( I still don't know how that happened - Charleston boy raised all over the world on navy bases?) and thought to pull the extra van seats out of the garage. Yes, we are so classy... Of course this also meant everybody got to listen to me whine about shutting the garage door at the least or moving the chairs to the grass...
Don't you just love her outfit? Poor baby had an ear ache so we insisted she wear a hat and she informed us when she woke up that she had to wear the fancy skirt for the party.
Mmmm, chocolate covered cheesecake!

My babies...

E had a wonderful birthday, despite being sick. Bless her heart, the day actually started with a trip to the Doctor. But we got medicine and she's already looking better! I still can't believe she's 6! We have tons of pictures from her party on Sunday and her actual bday, it'll take me awhile to get through them.
Rosie loves to sleep in my lap like that and snuggle the baby, I so hope her feelings stay the same after the arrival when the reality of just how much she's going to have to share me sets in.

We have a jungle gym!

In our front yard we have a monstrous old magnolia. I mean ginormously huge with the inside perfect for play and climbing. It's just one of those magical trees. The girls had played in it some but not enough in my opinion to fully appreciate what they had. So the other day I forced them into the interior and made them stay until it dawned on them just how cool it was. Finally, they declared "we have a jungle gym"! I wanted to reply "well, duh" but I refrained and now it's a favorite spot. I imagine when the weather warms up a bit that old tree is going to host quite a few tea parties and be home to multiple tents and hammocks, I only wish it was in the fenced inpart of the yard.

Crocheted Baby Mary Janes or what I should call Baby Ridiculousness

How cute are these?
Cute enough for me to buy a pair, receive them in the mail and then run squealing to the computer to order 3 more. After of course sharing them with the big sisters who also thought they were the cutest thing ever. Total silliness considering there are things this baby actually needs. Oh, like a car seat and other such important items.
And to just further tell you how ridiculous a waste of money this was I have to confess some things:

• We are indeed making double house payments right now because our other house hasn't sold...
  
• They probably won't fit. Our kids have gigantic feet, even the sonogram technicians think so :)
• I've done nothing else to get ready for this babe other than dig out diapers and newborn clothes
  
• and umm, I don't actually put shoes on my babies.

Your 3 year old is watching too much tv when...

walking into the kitchen where a tub of oxyclean is sitting next to a bowl of a soaking clothes exclaims "It's the power of clean!"

Biking is just another of those things that proves you're not going to get this child to do anything before she's good and ready. She's just decided that she wants to ride her bike and go really fast and she finally figured out how to use her brakes. So of course this means that she wants to ride really fast down the driveway and then slam on her brakes about two feet away from the garage. We'll have to work on training wheels next.
Oh, and she wants to ride her bike ALL THE TIME right now even when it's freezing. Which is exactly what Meredith is saying. Can you tell? That's amusing to me considering the child would stay in a swimsuit 24/7 even in our basement that's not heated very well.
She'll always smile for candy though! At least what she considers a smile.

Eureka!

After a looong break from school we attempted to start up again after Christmas. Yes, I said attempted. Evie had started this thing where she was acting like she didn't know how to do anything and thinking it was funny. Very, very aggravating and of course it resulted in many battles. So I ordered a new phonics set and got two of everything so Rosie could do work too. We sat down today to try it and I didn't have a smidge of trouble. I guess having your little sister show you up is quite the motivation. It was very nice to have fun this morning instead of battling with her!
And yes, it really is that bright in there. We need curtains up so bad! The problem is that our windows are twelve feet long - that's a lot of curtain!

Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act

This is the law that they've come up with in response to the contaminated toys that were being sold. Remember Barbie and Dora being full of lead and other scary stuff? Honestly, I think this law is scarier so I'm passing along this site where you can read on your own about it and contact the people that control this stuff.

http://sites.google.com/site/handmadetoyalliance/

The law itself is so gooblygarbled that no one seems to be able to exactly agree on the outcome (and it's actually been sent back for modifications) but the the gistfrom what I've read is that everything(yes, please make sure your 10 year old is not chewing on their bike) sold for children under 12 will have to be tested. That sounds wonderful in theory, right? But basically what it comes down to is that only a company like hasboro or walmart will be able to afford the testing and sales of childrens products and that only new products will be legal.
So say goodbye to handcrafted toys or European imports. Say good bye to etsy, ebay, craft fairs and thrift stores and consignment sales and say hello to only being able to purchase from the companies that actually brought us the toys with the lead in the first place. Oh the irony.

Christmas - the condensed version.

Just some random snaps from Christmas. I think we spent most of our time on the beach - we had wonderful weather. We were very blessed this year to spend the whole week in Charleston with my family(including ALL the dogs), Nate's family and Allison's family too. We decorated a beautiful tree and yummy cookies, spent a foggy day sightseeing in downtown, taught Mom and Josh about oyster roasts, took bike rides to the river, played with some awesome marshmallow guns, ran in the ocean and just hung out and ate a lot! We also made a quick unplanned detour to Charlotte on the way home to spend some more time with Aunt Ali and Uncle Wes. It was wonderful to have Nathan off for two whole weeks, it's going to be awful for him to head back to work on Monday!