How to dine like a proper young lady

Today's Tot School lesson was how to dine like a proper young lady....

She makes me laugh :-P THen this morning I also tried teaching her how to hop on one foot....she is a natural LOL

Quick funny story...today we were at the mall and Raya was playing with the train table at one store. When it was time to go she told me "no", so I did the old parent standby and said "fine, mama's going to leave without you...bye!" and I started walking. Other women were watching this happen and I fully expected Raya to come running, afraid of being left behind. Instead I hear a little voice shout "Ok Mama....see you later!!"  hahahaha....everyone listening just chuckled and I said "guess that backfired, didn't it!" :-P

Lastly, some cute one's of Brielle from today

The return of Tot School--Fall Wreaths

Today was Monday, which means watching Sawyer and Harper (Raya's favorite day of the week :-)  ....and today Tot School made a comeback (I plan to start up again in full force at the new house) with a little festively fall activity that I found on Pinterest--Fall Wreaths!

This activity was very easy and very fun---kept the kids entertained for over an hour! First I prepared for the activity by cutting the "wreaths" out of cardstock and attaching a string to hang them. Next I loaded the babies in the stroller and Sawyer and Raya walked with us carrying their own ziplock baggies --to store their fall treasures! We picked some of the flowers and plants from neighbors' yards, and gathered the acorns and pinecones etc. off the ground. Sawyer kept exclaiming "Look shawna! That leaf is beautiful!" and then he'd go get it for his baggie haha. Raya tagged along....although she was the first one to start gathering a variety of nuts off the ground lol. After a good 30 minute walk gathering all of our goodies we went back home and laid everything out on the table. Then the kids took turns telling me where to squeeze the glue so that they could place their items on the wreath. I just used good old Elmers glue and it held everything fine....you just have to use big globs of it :-) In the pics the glue is still wet, but it did dry clear for the most part. Sawyer was extremely proud of his masterpiece and Raya's is now hanging on my mom's front door!

Then we also did painting and playdough today. My mom has a cookie monster playdough toy so Sawyer loves feeding cookie monster his creations and then watching him "poop" them out the back LOL.

Harper did manage to find a couple little playdough crumbs and eat them before I could stop her!

After naps today we did lots of playing outside. Brielle would crawl off in one direction, Harper would run off in the other, and I ran back and forth trying to contain them!!! :-)

Sawyer and Raya played sidewalk chalk and Sawyer kept saying "move over here Raya! Harper can't get us up this big hill...we will be safe!" .....and then 5 seconds later Harper would run right over to them and try to take their chalk and then Raya would squeal and try to hide the chalk haha.

Brielle wasn't motivated enough to crawl all the way over to the chalk hoarders, so instead she crawled around the driveway looking for leaves to eat.

Then everyone decided it was fun to run down the big hill! I kept trying to stop Harper but she insisted on going too. She took a few tumbles but got right back up again! Brielle did her best to crawl after :-)

If you're wondering why Brielle looks so somber today, and unlike her smiley self, it's because for some reason she refused to nap today and by this afternoon was absolutely EXHAUSTED. Poor thing.

So now that I'm watching my niece and nephew regularly I'm learning a lot of new things about them. Today I thought I'd share what I've learned about Miss Harper.

No, seriously. She eats more than I do. ....and in half the time :-P

To end, the kids (especially Sawyer) still love playing in the rice. Awhile ago I discovered that the dog gate/fence fits around it perfectly to keep the babies out....so now it looks like I cage the kids in there haha. Unfortunately Raya knows how to get out! hehe

**And in case you haven't seen me say this in the comments of previous posts, I do appologize if it seems like I'm ignoring other blogs/bloggers and not commenting, etc. For some reason I am not allowed to comment on blogs unless they have the "anonymous" option for commenting...and even when they do for some reason lately I've still had trouble commenting from time to time. Sorry about that! I still do love comments here on my blog though :-) And if you aren't following me yet, please do!

Oh, lastly I want to do 2 shout outs. First, it's Down Syndrome Awareness month right now and my blogger friend Joeylee has a little brother with Down Syndrome so she did a wonderful post that you should definitely check out! http://kayleeandkeirasmommy.blogspot.com/2011/10/lets-raise-awareness.html

And also another blogger friend of mine is doing a "Thirty One" giveaway (I hadn't heard of it either, so check it out if your curious--I'll leave you suspenseful :-)  ....so definitely check out her blog here and enter to win! She has a little girl the same age as Brielle with the most awesome red hair --just adorable! http://mrsmommykattre.blogspot.com/2011/10/giveaway-2-thirty-one-large-utility.html

Happy Monday!

Houston, we have paint!

Today we took a trip to Menards and $200 later we have lots of paint for the new house, some misc. supplies, AND a new green shag rug for the girls' bedroom!  hehe. Lee hates the rug, I love it. Guess who wins? :-) Plus it was on sale for $19.

Brielle approves :-) If you look ^^^^^^ the rug exactly matches the darker/brighter green in the bedding. Plus it's super soft!

In other news, guess who was STANDING in her bed today after nap? Brielle!!! I was shocked when I went downstairs to get her and she was peaking her little head over the edge of the pack n play....she's soooo active anymore!

She hasn't stood up again yet tonight, but she keeps pulling up to her knees.

Today I bought Raya some paint, because she's been asking for her paints which are packed away. She had so much fun and painted about 5 masterpieces.

Lastly, tonight Raya put on my mom's shoes and pranced around LOL

^^^She seems to be sliming down lately, especially her legs don't you think?

I pinned me something good

Today Lee's mom visited. It was a nice day and my mom cooked an awesome lunch :-) I didn't take any pictures though and frankly I don't have enough free brain space to compose a decent blog post right now, because all of my brain space is taken up with thoughts of our new house (can I get a yippee?! :-) ....so here are some random "pins" from Pinterest that I thought I'd share. If you want to check them out in more detail then be sure to check me out on Pinterest yourself....a link to my boards is on the right hand side of my blog.

First, I'm going to try a recipe for homemade icecream with Raya....5 minutes in a ziploc bag with minimal supplies--right up my alley :-)

I think on a Monday when I'm watching Sawyer and Harper we will go on a "hike" at our new house and collect things to make fall wreaths like this:

I saw this handprint art and thought it'd be cool to somehow get handprints/ trace hands of all the people who come to our house regularly (family, friends, daycare kids, etc.) and make some sort of handprint art using everyone's handprints in the playroom. A collage or something...

I think I might make Raya a doorway puppet curtain like this for Xmas

I don't wear much jewlery, but I love this idea of painting cutlery trays and hanging them up to use as storage

Brielle's 1 year pictures will be in January, in the winter obviously. I"m toying with the idea of trying outdoor winter photos....if we have enough snow to be pretty. I want the photographer to come out to our new house and do them there...inside the house and out. I've been looking for ideas of winter photos and think something like this would be adorable

And I'm currently kidding myself into thinking that for Brielle's 1 year photos we can attempt a sister picture and have better luck than we did the last time we tried (Brielle's 3 month)....Yeah, what am I thinking? haha. Any chance my two will cooperate and do a picture like this one? :-P

It's a ways off yet (no I'm not pregnant) but I'm considering doing maternity photos next time. My next pregancy will be my last and I've never done professional maternity pictures before. If I'm being honest maternity photos kinda weird me out. I guess I don't picture myself hanging pictures of my belly all around the house to display, and I find the naked belly or half naked husband hugging and kissing a naked belly etc. a little creepy LOL. No offense if you like those :-P BUT, the thought of my last pregnancy makes me a little sad/sentimental and I think maybe it'd be a fun way to remember/enjoy my last time being pregnant. I think doing maternity photos (fully clothed...no naked bellies) would be a neat thing to do just once....I'd like them to be like family photos where I just happen to be pregnant....so not just pictures of me :-) Anyways, I think a photo like this is very sweet and right up my alley for what I'm thinking--when the time comes

What else? Oh, Brielle's birthday party? Here's a little taste of what I have planned ;-)

Wanna laugh at me? Yeah, I've already tossed a few ideas around for Raya's 3rd birthday too haha. I'm thinking something along these lines---a little cowgirl party anyone? :-)

Let's end with some fun holiday "pins"....feeling Halloweeny yet? I told Lee he's going to drill me some pumpkins this year :-P

Speaking of Halloween, I had planned to make the girls' costumes. I was going to have Raya be Winnie the Pooh and Brielle be Piglet.....but those require me to make a lot of stuff and I"m just not sure I"ll have time! My backup plan is to buy store bought costumes, and if I end up doing that I think I might have Raya be Baby Bop and Brielle be Barney. Raya is soooooo obsessed with Baby Bop.

How about Thanksgiving? I found some pumpkin pie playdough to try making :-)

And what about Christmas, the most wonderful time of the year? I lovin' the idea of a clothespin wreath to hold christmas cards

And I want to start the Elf on the Shelf tradition with Raya this year too :-)

Oh, and one last picture....do these twin girls not have the CUTEST little hair cuts?! I wish I was brave enough to do something like that for Raya haha...I wonder how much those cuts have to be styled, b/c those girls look sassy cool! :-)