Life Lately

I figured I better do a photo dump mid way through the month, since we are going on vacation and who knows what will happen with this blog! ;)

One morning I had asked Olivia to get dressed for school.  Logan decided to undress himself, and was so proud that he could do it.... only he was already dressed for the day, and was naked when it was time to walk out the door. whomp whomp

She's always changing up her headbands and adding accessories.  She had just got into her pajamas, added a few special touches, and wanted a picture. :)

She made Boppa sit down and teach her how to cut out a heart.  It is one of her goals, you know! And she forgets nothing.  She was so proud to have accomplished this goal.

Movies are Michael's thing, and he has bonded with Olivia over movies. They are always talking about movies, what is coming out soon, watching previews together... so they had been talking about seeing Zootopia for a little while.  They had a date there earlier this month.

While they were on their date, Logan and I hit up Target.  Not quite as exciting for this guy, but I did buy him an Icee.  And it was just for a few quick items for our last life group meeting, so I tried not to drag the trip out and bore him.  I'm a thoughtful date like that! ;)

He found a necklace in the car, turned it into a headband, and cheesed it up!

Just chilling on a Saturday morning. Milk, check. Accessories, check. Mommy, check. Hand on belly button, check. Cartoons, check. Life is good.

Sometimes on our "stay at home and get things done/laundry day" Mondays', we have to pull out some of the out of reach toys so that mommy can get things done.

We are going through a big magnatile phase over here.  Both kids LOVE them and play with them daily.  We know have two sets, so that they can actually build bigger things (although, they still fight over pieces).  These toys are on the expensive side (or we would have more!), but they are so great because they are open ended and force them to be creative and think outside the box.  They build all sorts of cool designs, but a favorite thing to do is build "the biggest tower".

Usually if I do work out, it is when Logan is napping or not around.  Because, well... he's Logan.  But one day last week I decided to just do it during the morning.  We had just dropped Olivia off at preschool and he had asked to watch a show, so I thought I had some time.  No.  He came in and was very concerned with what I was doing.  Then wouldn't leave the room.  After my workout I laid on the floor, and laid on the floor and tried to mimic me.

We had Muffins for Moms at preschool.  We were assigned to sit by her favorite little friend Tenley.  She made me a handprint craft and filled out a little survey about me.

We had our last MOPS meeting.  I have been so blessed to be back this year.

AND, I met with the new group leaders last week. That was a task that was hanging over my head.  SO I am officially done with MOPS for now.  We will have our steering retreat in June, and then some other planning will take place in August.  Fun, fun!

Proud of his tall tower

On laundry day, both Logan and Olivia took a laundry basket and were pretending it was their car.

One of the girls at my MOPS table does Blue Apron deliveries.  Every once in a while she gets a free trial that she can send to a friend.  She asked me if I wanted it.  I'm not going to pass up free food!  It was fun getting it in the mail!

Everything was labeled, and it came with large, colorful recipe cards.  My friend said they use it as a date night type thing. They cook together and it makes them try new things.  I don't think that would work for us, because if we ate after the kids went to bed, Michael would die first. ;)  It did force us to try new things, though.  Although, one recipe didn't really turn out, and it was a little more involved than I prefer. At least on a work night.  But we got two free meals for our family, so I'm not complaining.   Just passing along the info in case anyone else would be interested in this type of thing...

One bed head and one beauty making banana muffins on a Saturday morning.

Michael took the kids to the park one night, and they got home and in bed a little later than usual.  The next day they both took a really long nap.  We had to wake them for dinner.  Which meant they were up later than usual that night as well.  They snuggled in and watched a movie.  Michael sent me this picture while I was at work. :)

First Friday's

There is a very large Baptist church in our town (if you haven't caught on... there are a LOT of very large churches in Texas!).  The church is really good about doing outreach and opening up their facility for ministry opportunities.  One of the things they do in the preschool department is called "First Friday's".  One the first Friday of the month they open up their little play area for FREE to whoever would like to come.  I've seen it advertised on a local mom's group for months now, but never took advantage.  Finally I told one of my friends from life group about it, and she said "let's go!".

So we checked it out last week.  That is my two kids, plus our friend Landon, plus a few others in the background.

The first thing that popped into my mind was, "this is it?".  But the kids LOVED it, and then as I thought about it, it's just like the climbing stuff that kids play at in mall play areas.  Only way less crowded, cleaner, and with better behaved children. ;)

I'm not sure if you can tell, but the ship is a slide, and then there is also a tunnel underneath it in the back.

There was also a large fish tank, with a platform build for kids to stand up next to it.  Logan really enjoyed that.

There are actually two sides.  One side is for babies and toddlers, and then the other side is for the bigger kids.  We were on the bigger side at first, but most of the people left after the first hour.  So the kids tried out  the little kids side after all of the babies had left.

The baby side also had two walls with these types of things on them.

 And they actually encourage you to bring a snack.  Which is nice, since a lot of play places don't want you to bring in food and drinks.

Both of the kids enjoyed it.  It was easy for me to watch them, because there wasn't really anywhere for them to go.  It was a good two hours out of the house, we got to see friends, and it was FREE.  We will be back!

The church also has a fun little music camp for preschoolers during the summer that I'm thinking of signing Olivia up for.  It's reasonably priced, which is also nice. I love that there are so many church activity options for us around here.

Potty Training... What?

Logan has been casually interested in the potty for a little while now.  He'll sit on it here and there, and every once in a while he would actually pee in it.  He's so funny.  He'll say, "here it comes!".  So mentally I was preparing myself to give the three day method a try sometime this summer.  That would put him at 2 1/2.  That is when Olivia was trained.  But I've always heard boys are harder, so I just figured if it didn't go well we would put it off until he was closer to 3.  

Until last week, when Logan decided himself that he wanted to be trained.  On Wednesday afternoon, when I was changing his diaper, he insisted that he go potty on the potty before I put the diaper back on.  So I let him, and he went!  A little while later, he asked to go again, so we went to the potty and he went again!

Thursday morning he was doing the same thing, so I kept putting him on, and he kept going!

Of course the mini M&M's were helpful in motivating him.

So I decided at trip to the store to get underwear was needed.  He chose Mickey and Thomas.

(I love this picture, because it's a genuine smile instead of a "cheeeeese"!)

He was so proud, that he had to carry the underwear in to pick Olivia up from preschool!

We didn't do much with it over the weekend, because we were out and about.

But after his second diaper change on Monday morning, he was back to asking to go potty.

He went TWELVE TIMES on Monday with NO accident.

(Although, he was in a diaper for nap time.)

So far, I've just been letting him lead.  We are about to be in the car for days, and then be away from home for weeks, so this isn't really ideal timing.  Which is why I haven't gone "official" on it.  But I'm hoping that when we return home, we can get this boy potty trained quickly!

The only problem.... he HATES how the underwear feel.  Boy problems, I guess?!?!  I had to bribe him with this popsicle to get him to put the underwear on.  He throws fits, points to his little parts and says, "I don't like it!".  I've been told by some mommy friends that Old Navy and Gap have softer underwear for boys, as well as boxer briefs that some prefer.  So after we get back and start to do this for real, we may have to look into that.

Fingers crossed that he is as easy to train as Olivia was, and that once he's got it we have no accidents!!  Can I get that lucky twice?

Disco Dancing

Somewhere along the way I heard about this kid's disco night at a club in Dallas.  I "liked" the page on Facebook, followed along with events, and told a few people about it.  Well, one of our friends from life group wanted to go, so we put a plan into action.

The kids dancing takes place every other Friday night.  It's a $5 cover charge for kids and parents are free.

I'm not going to lie--it wasn't in the best of neighborhoods!  It was a little sketchy, so I was glad to have Michael with us.

It goes from 6 til 9.  There is a kids deejay, food trucks, a concession stand, and an actual cash bar for adults who are wanting to drink.

Of course the light up floor was a hit with the kids.

You can tell by that kid in the background, that some of these guys are old pros.  He had lights on his shoes, special light up glasses, a balloon that actually had a light in it!

There are lounge areas with seating on one side, and then like platform type seating on the other side. There were 3 birthday parties going on at the same time. Each with their own little seating area.

and of course there were 2 disco balls!

We got there right when it opened, because we knew Logan wouldn't make it all night.

Unfortunately, because of bad weather, our friends couldn't make it. :(

Cheeeeese!

Dancing under the disco ball

Logan decided to bust out some break dancing moves?!? :)

Cutie!

We have lots of dance parties at home, so we thought the kids would just love it.

They did--but they really just wanted us to be right there dancing right along with them!

Once the dance floor got busy/crowded, Logan got a little more overwhelmed and just wanted to be held.  He and I spent some time out on the back patio area.

We decided to call in quits around 7:30.  We got the kids some shaved ice from the truck (which was a favorite for both of them), and then make the 45 drive home.

Overall it was fun, and we probably will do it again, but not for a while.  1) because it's inconvenient to get there.  Traffic on a Friday night into Dallas took us an hour. 2) I have to ask off work to go. 3) Logan probably needs to be a tad older/less clingy. and 4) it would definitely be better with friends.  It's a neat concept though.  I just wish it was closer.

So that was our Friday night.  Clubbing with the kiddos!