Meltdown

Meltdowns happen and rather than let it bother me I just take a photo instead because after all it's usually over something ridiculous.  This time Andrew was not a fan of having his photo taken during a meltdown.  Can you blame him?  

Homebrewing

Thomas has wanted to brew his own beer for a while now and recently he brewed his first batch but the only picture taken was of the beer in a glass.  This time I took a few photos during the process.  I don't know much about the process but here he is stirring the grains.

Beats me what's going on here...looks like he's filtering something but who knows.  Anyways I'm really proud of him for learning how to do it and it's amazing but the last batch he brewed came out really good.  I admit I was hesitant to try it at first (I'm not much into taste testing new things) but after I did I really liked it.  This time he's trying a pale ale and even made cider as well.  I'm sure they'll both be great!

Wild West Day

We enjoyed another great Wild West Day at Julia's preschool with her best friend Grace.  First up was the hayride before the line got long. The day started off a little chilly but it warmed up quickly.

The last time Julia's preschool had an activity with the big slide I had to climb up it a ton with Andrew but this time he did it all by himself.  He had such a great time too!

One of the activities was galloping around on a horse.  Everything was super cute...the kids would do an activity and then earn a coin. Then they could bring their coins to the trading post and trade their coins for a little prize.  Such fun for the kids!

Julia and Grace wanted to wait in line to get their faces painted and of course they picked the same thing.

Back to the slide for more fun!

The three of them climbing the ladder.

Julia having fun! We stayed until they closed the slide and watched them take it down which made Andrew quite upset.  I tried getting a photo of him but it didn't work out.  Lucky for him he'll get to participate in these fun activities next year since he'll be going to school at Cumming First Baptist Church Preschool which is hard to believe.

Andrew Coloring

This is the first time where Andrew actually tried to stay in the lines while coloring.  Thomas drew an ice cream truck and Andrew really paid attention to coloring in the popsicles on the truck.  We still need to work on how to hold a crayon properly but we'll get there.  It was so cute to see him concentrating.

My Birthday

I love how Julia, Andrew and Daddy all worked together to make the dessert for my birthday.  They asked what I wanted and this year my request was a chocolate truffle.  Brownies, pudding, cool whip, and strawberries...super yummy!  I probably only make this once a year, if that, but it's such a delicious dessert.

Julia and Andrew were so excited to help make the dessert and even more excited to eat it tomorrow for my birthday.

Thomas had a night meeting on my birthday but it was nice since it was a really short one and he was home a little after 6:00.  That's when we got to do the 'surprise party' Julia planned with balloons, streamers and poppers along with presents and dessert.  So thankful for my sweet family.

Julia's Music Class

We were so excited to attend one of Julia's music classes at school and Daddy even surprised her by coming as well.  At the beginning of class they sang 'Let it Go' since all the kids love the movie Frozen and the song.  It was cute to see them all singing it.

Andrew even joined in once they sang the Tooty Ta song.  So funny!  Hopefully he'll be happy and ready to go to school there next year when he starts since he's been at the school for different activities with Julia.

Julia and Andrew having fun doing the motions for the Tooty Ta song.

Play date for Andrew

It was so great to get Andrew together with two friends who both happen to have the same name...Jude. The boys played so great together and the Mommy's had fun catching up.  Looking forward to more play dates with the two Jude's again soon.

Learning Time with Andrew

I'm trying to make more of a conscious effort to teach Andrew his ABC's and do something with that letter each day for 5 days so he can really learn them.  He's not learning them as quickly as Julia did but all kids are different so I know he'll learn them when he's ready.  He definitely had a good time painting letter B so I'll have to get some more fun activities planned for him.

We talked about big 'B' and little 'b' and the sound it made and I told him some words that start with B while he was painting.  I was impressed with how well my little lefty did at staying inside the lines even though later he told me it was letter A.  Gotta start somewhere, right?

Frozen Birthday Party

One of the girls from Julia's ballet class, McKinzley, had a Frozen theme birthday party at the ice skating ring.  Julia has never ice skated before but she was excited to try it out...actually none of the girls ice skated before so it was a first for everyone and I must say they all did great!  I wasn't quite sure how Julia would do but I was quite impressed.  She was able to walk alone in the ice skates and I wasn't even sure she would be able to do that with some of her trouble with balancing.  The girls pictured above McKinzley, Peyton (I think...a twin and it's so hard to tell them apart), Jaiden, Reagan, Kyla, Presley (the other twin), Julia and Arden.  Everyone needed to hold an adults hand while on the ice and it was always easier if they had two adults to hold onto so we had a long line of us all holding hands with the kids between us.  Thomas was out of town for the weekend so thankfully a friend watched Andrew for me because I didn't know how I would manage two kids who had never skated before on my own.

So proud of Julia for trying hard!  She was still smiling and this was at the end of our time on the ice.  Such a fun party!