Library, Sleeping Beauty and roller skating

I so appreciate public libraries.  It has been really fun to attend the library programs here in Charlottesville.  We are on our second round of weekly story times (they are registration required not drop ins) and are always looking for more fun programs.  Last Saturday we headed out to the Library in Crozet for their Mitten program.  We have done quite a few "the Mitten" activities at home and had a great time enjoying the ones the library put together.  Crozet is about 25 minutes away from "central" Charlottesville and a potential place for us to move as there are more affordable houses there.  Their library is really nice which helped me feel more open to moving there. (It just seems inconvenient to me, and gets us farther from DC which I really don't want to do) They had a really fun program with lots of stories and snow themed activities.  Jared and Lydia had a great time. 

 SNOW

 Jared is approximately 10 mittens tall. 

 Wax paper ice skating.  

This was super fun.  It was nice because all the parents got involved pulling their kids around so you really felt like you were at an ice skating rink. We got to some pretty decent speeds. It was Jared's favorite activity.

 Using magnets to get bells through the "Snow"

Princess Aurora and Prince Phillip:  This is the pinkest dress up outfit Lydia has so it is now the Princess Aurora dress.  A superman cape works nicely for Prince Phillip's cape. 

For last Friday's family movie night Lydia picked Sleeping Beauty.  Every day now she tells us she is Princess Aurora and then asks each of us who we are from the movie.  I always pick a fairy Mark is King Stefan (Aurora's dad after all) and Jared is King Hubert or Prince Phillip. I love watching Jared and Lydia play.  Dancing is currently one of their favorite activities. (seen above courtesy of Sleeping beauty)  They really are great friends right now which is so nice.  After their classes Sunday whoever I pick up first is always super excited to go pick up the other kid and give them a great big hug. I love that they are so excited to see and play with each other.  Whether it is Pirates, Fairies or Nerf guns they have a great time together.  Makes me so happy. 

Saturday night Mark and I went roller skating (also in Crozet so it has 2 things going for it).  I absolutely love roller skating!  Love it!  I used to sweep my parents drive way each day after school then put on my skates and skate around for as long as I could.  I still love it and was so excited to go.  Mark actually really does not like roller skating so it was very nice of him to go with me for our date night.  I think it has to do with how tall he is.  We went to a little community center and I had a blast.  I wish it was a bigger place but it was so great to go skate. We were just a little out of place.  It is on the far side of Crozet so it is definitely a "locals" hang out. Somewhere they all go each Saturday night.  It was no Cal-Skate but plenty fun. It only took me a few laps to remember how much I love it and to get my confidence back.  I can't wait to go again!

 He had taken his skates off to go get the camera for me. We asked one of the teenagers there to take our picture.  They were happy to oblige.

Happy Birthday Lydia!

Sweet silly Lydia turned 3 yesterday! We had fun celebrating starting with balloons in her room and presents. We then headed over to **Spudnuts for donuts.  Lydia requested donuts for her birthday breakfast and when I asked if she wanted to go out to eat them or have them at home she said out.  I had been meaning to go to the shop for awhile so it worked out great. 

We tried chocolate and cinnamon.  I like the cinnamon best Jared and Lydia preferred the chocolate and did wish for some sprinkles but were happy nonetheless. 

I worked on Lydia's birthday cake while she and Jared napped and then I let them watch 2 Jake and the Neverland Pirate shows which they loved. Back in June (when we were talking about Disneyland a lot) Lydia had decided she wanted a Daisy and Minine Mouse Cake.  I really thought she would change her mind as we don't really watch those shows much and don't have a lot of (or any really) Minnie Mouse toys but she held firm. Last week she did say she wanted a Tinkerbell cake for like a day then changed her mind so Minnie it was. It was fun to make and not too hard (a common theme for any cake I make).  About half way though I got the great idea to use crushed Oreos for the mouse shape part. I really didn't want to use black frosting so was really excited when I thought of the Oreos. We had to run out to the store to get some Oreos but it worked out. (We actually went out during the 30 minutes of very light snow we got yesterday which was really nice. I love falling snow.)  The cake turned out great and Lydia was happy. She told me next year she is going to have a Hello Kitty cake. Also a fairly random choice as all she has are her Hello Kitty Slippers which she just got for Christmas and she has never seen the show (is there one?) We will see if she holds out again. 

 Adding the Polka Dots

We enjoyed our cake and did Lydia's birthday interview.  Mark filmed while I asked the questions. She certainly made him feel pretty loved! I did pretty good having the same answers as her in my mind but the Lady and the Tramp thing threw me off. I didn't expect that at all. And I don't know what a boat man is maybe a Pirate or Captain of a boat.  We recently talked to Jared about working for the Coast guard (He wants to be a Pirate) so maybe that is what she was thinking. I love these interviews.

January 23 2015
What is your favorite color? Purple
What is your favorite toy? Fairy House
What is your favorite fruit? Strawberries
What is your favorite movie? Lady and the Tramp
What do you do well? Learning my numbers
What do you like to do with Daddy? Bowling
What makes you happy?  Daddy
What is your favorite scripture story? Captain Moroni
What is your favorite song? Christmas
What is your favorite animal? My monkey, bear and tiger
What is your favorite book? Lady and the Tramp
Who is your best friend? Daddy
Where is your favorite place to go? Park
What is your favorite thine to do outside? Play in bothers hideout
What is your favorite drink? Hot Chocolate
What is your favorite holiday? Valentines
What do you like to do with Mommy? Celebrate my birthday
What is your favorite things for breakfast? Chocolate waffles
What so you want for dinner on your birthday? Meat rolls and Ham and potato soup next year beef stroganoff
What do you want to be when you grow up? Boat man

** A donut shop I never even heard of and it is originally from SLC.  Many people in town here had recommended going so we decided it was time.  It was not what I expected (not in a bad way really just different) they only have 4 flavors (well 4 yeast raised and 4 cake) and you have to pay cash so I was glad I had some on me. The store is not attractive or updated at all (not that I needed it to be) but you feel like you are walking back in time.  The donuts are super light and airy. I think I was most surprised by how few options there were.  It was kind of nice though as I take a long time to decide typically. You could also get a half dozen for 4.50 which is a pretty good price for this town. Jared and Lydia loved it. There was a group of older men eating and drinking their coffees and they all had cute things to say to Lydia and Jared.  It was fun.

Snow Day and Science Club

Mark's school district (and many others) called a snow day on Wednesday.  They had a 2 hour delay Monday because of the possibility of freezing rain and below was the result of their snow day.

In their defense there was snow on the ground. We were happy to have Mark around and Jared and Lydia were thrilled there was any snow on the ground. Jared and Lydia typically like to stay in their pajamas as long as possible but on this morning Jared got himself dressed in record time.  He really wanted to go sledding but once I took him outside (these pictures were at like 7:45 in the morning) to show him that you could still see the dead grass and dirt he believed me that we could not go sledding with the snow we got. We made sure to have hot chocolate with our breakfast and did some fun snow themed activities.

I wasn't going to have Jared do this activity because I thought it was too easy to hold his interest but surprisingly he thought is was super fun and wanted to do it again and again.  Goes to show what I know!  

 These were on the 2 hour delay day.

M & M Snowflakes.

We also used shaving cream and glue to make some snow and painted a snowman with it.  We use this mixture all the time for messy projects but I feel like this is the time Lydia has appreciated it the most so I will out it here. 

 Our local children's museum hosts a Science Club Thursday afternoons.  My friend Laura and I decided we would meet there each week to play and then check out the science club together.  It is one day I am watching Sam so I was a little nervous because I am not used to keeping track of 3 kids but it has been really fun to go.  It is harder of course but we are managing just fine and it is nice to get out of the house and see Laura.  The first week two chemistry students came over from UVA and did elephant paste which is an experiment I have been planning on doing so it was nice they did it for me. They did a nice job explaining and demonstrating. At one point the student used a ballon to blow out a candle and all the kids thought it was amazing.

 He just blew out the candle with the balloon. 

 The safety goggles were a big hit! No surprise there. 

 This week a museum volunteer led the club and she talked about gas, liquids and solids then had them melt ice with salt and paint with frozen colored water.  They all had a great time. I am excited to see what they come up with each week. It is fun to go play at the museum to get out of the house but having the science club makes it even more interesting.

Watching the salt melt the ice.

One week in

One week is already gone of the new year!  It's strange to me how when I am "living" my days, just doing what needs to be done and having some fun the day can last forever but then I sit down and realize that a whole week has gone by.  I so love the saying I saw online awhile ago, "The days are long but the years are short" So true! We just finished reading about the Title of Liberty in our family scripture reading.  Jared loved it.  He is so fun right now when it comes to scripture reading. We read them each night after we eat dinner.  Lately, we sit down to eat dinner and he says "I want scriptures now!" He really does look forward to the stories and talking bout them with Mark. He is always telling us how much he loves reading the scriptures! I do not recall ever being that excited (I wish I was) to read them.  I hope it is a "gift" he will always have (and tell him so) It would bless his life so much. Mark was in charge of Home Evening this week and decided to follow the Title of Liberty theme so we had Jared re-tell the story and act out what Moroni did. Then we made a Title of Liberty and Jared and Lydia acted out being Moroni while riding their horse (Mark). They loved it.  Any FHE where you get to ride a horse is a winner.

 Jared went back to preschool this week and was happy to be there. We had his friend Mallory over for a play date last week which was fun. It was nice to let them play together outside of preschool and to get to know her mom more. Yesterday we went out to Chick Fil A for lunch.  We went to the Dollar Store to get some supplies and let Jared spend some of his birthday money and Chick Fil A happens to be across the street.  It has been quite cold here the past few days so Jared and Lydia were happy to eat out and get to play at the playground.  I was happy because they still had their Peppermint Chocolate Chip Milkshakes which I dream about year round. They are their lunch and I enjoyed my shake then they played for a good while.  There were only 2 other kids there and they left about 20 minutes in so we had it to ourselves for the last 15 minutes or so.  I read some conference talks and enjoyed hearing them play. I am really loving how much fun Jared and Lydia are having together lately.  They are such good friends and it is so nice.

Such happy kids!

 It was fun to see Lydia doing so well. She was really hesitant when she first would play on these jungle gyms. I am always really nervous to let kids start climbing up these type of playgrounds.  I worry that they will get stuck and then I will have to go rescue them which I am more than willing to do but some are certainly easier to rescue kids in than others! It also is a place where they can decide to really not listen to you when it is time to leave and you have few options on how to get them to listen!  I can only think of one time Lydia was really naughty about that.  Glad we have moved passed that. It was a fun outing.

As I mentioned it really has been cold here.  Not compared to say Alaska or even Colorado where we came from but for here freezing! My "local" friend Laura said this was pretty abnormal.  We got up today and it was just 7 degrees.  Yesterday it was really windy which is the worst!  Since it has been so cold but there is no snow we decided to make our own, which is why we went to the dollar store. I found this easy recipe online for play snow.  Its 3 cups baking soda and 1/2 cup white conditioner (I guess you could use colored if you wanted but we were going for the snow look).  The texture was great and Jared and Lydia loved it. We haven't done nearly as many sensory activities here as we did in Colorado so it had been awhile since we did some.  We got out our counting bears so they could "Play" in the snow and then got some play-doh lids so the bears could go sledding.  We built caves or dens as Jared calls them so they could hibernate.  It was a lot of fun. Jared payed with it for an hour!

 Mixing our snow.  Lydia just plunged her hands in where as you can see Jared just poking one finger in. I always find it interesting how they approach things. 

 Eventually he realized how fun it was. 

To continue with our snow theme we had snowmen for breakfast (and healthy fresh green smoothies...) I had to run to the store yesterday because I forgot chips to go with our Taco Soup and happened to pass the bakery section. I saw some powdered donuts and decided they would be the perfect breakfast for such a cold day. Jared and Lydia were really surprised.  Jared kept asking what we were having for breakfast and because I would't answer (since I wanted to surprise them) he figured it was hot chocolate which would have been great for a cold day like today but we needed something healthy too. It was a fun way to start the day!