PAINT!

For the first time we let Bryce paint like a big kid. He did amazing! He painted a few gift bags, plates and an envelope. It was Jager we should of worried about. The silly mutt walked over, sniffed the art, stepped into the plate of blue paint and made paw prints across the kitchen. Easy enough to clean up, but none-the-less not in the plan. Emerson loved it because she was able to play art teacher to Bryce and I loved it because I now have a super sweet pic of their hands and two finger paintings to go along side!!!

Class of 2025!

Emerson is officially a part of Mentor's Class of 2025 (as to whether that changes to another school's class of 2025 will be determined at a later date!)! We registered her at Bellflower Elementary (top pic is preregister and bottom is post register- note there was no cathartic change from the event). I am actually excited about her attending Bellflower. When you imagine elementary school, most think of a school with long hallways and classroom doors and large windows. Bellflower has none of those things. It is half underground and an open concept school. The walls are limited; mostly cabinets and dividers provide separation. Doors only exist on a few select rooms (such as the bathroom). There is a huge two floor open area when you enter and you are greeted with computer areas- everywhere! The school is slathered in artwork and although you would think that such an open concept building would be noisy... it was so quiet I questioned where all the kids were! When I worked at Mentor (blah) I remember Bellflower for their amazing elementary school musical. It was awesome. Many of the kids I had called it the "hippy school" due to its set-up among other things! Emerson is really excited and so are we... although I wouldn't mind putting it off for another year... or two.

Hats & Crayons...

Dilliards was having a crazy 40% off the lowest price sale and Emerson saw a hat. Absolutely hysterical watching a four year old justify the need for a hat... that looks like this one. She had many a customer laughing: some at her and some at me for buying it. As to the crayons? We are finally trying so of the old school Pinterest posts and crayon recycling has begun. We have yet to melt, because we are on Emerson's time schedule of removing the paper. Hopefully by Easter we will get the first attempt! As to Bryce? He is such a messy little boy I had to include the picture!

Stairs & Rollerskates...

Bryce is a monkey, as most little boys are. One of the first things I taught both the kids, as soon as they could crawl, was how to go up and down stairs. Bryce is now to the point where he wants to walk them up and down, though his height and leg span prevents it. Bryce is also at the point where he must wear shoes all the time. The kid is obsessed. He has wides, but for some reason I thought crocs would work no matter what. I was wrong. His pudgy little feet blew the croc strap off - only one foot. Only one. The other fits perfectly. Blah.

On the flip, Emerson is still a rollerskating queen. She loves it! We went to see The Burning River Roller Girls and she was actually into it for over an hour. Thankfully, we have only had the pleasure of Emerson skating in the house. This summer we will expand to the outdoors at which time I may have a mini heart attack!

Little Chef...

Emerson is obsessed with cooking. She wants her own show. The other day she found an Elmo cook book on the book shelf and insisted we cook it all. With a few changes, Bryce was able to eat most of her creations, although some were not edible to begin with! I am very proud with her drive and slight obsessiveness... she know what she wants!

Complete Randomness

Bryce likes to wear my jacket. He also likes to collect random things in bags and hide them.

We finally threw away the Gingerbread House! Please note the complete random use of leftover candy from 2011.

Bryce and Emerson don't need a bouncy house when they have an ineffective areo bed.

And I would like to apologize to Bryce now, for the princess dress. The apology is only for publishing the picture because he was the one who put it on. That kid is really good at getting himself dressed; not so good at picking out the outfit.

FROG

Bryce trying to take a nap in Emerson's bed!


Bryce is obsessed with frogs (and trains, and cars and elmo). He is also obsessed with dressing up. Bring the two together and we have Super Frog!

Cake Pops & Fires...

This begins the random posting!

The Sullivans sent us a sweet cake pop set and we managed to actually make them and not have them fall apart! Emerson loved decorating them!

It has not even been cold enough to really have a fire this year. Since our fireplace heats the house up crazy hell style, we have found only a few times to really be worth it. This night Emerson and Eric had a daddy/ daughter night with a fire and movie. Bryce and I were passed out upstairs!