Watercolor Initials

I hosted yet another crafty playdate at our local park. The boys and I love this set-up and are not looking forward to the cold weather that will be arriving soon. It's so stress-free to entertain moms and preschoolers at the park as opposed to my house.

Before starting the craft, the kids ran around on the playground. This was the first time Ian and Nathan had been to this particular park. Virginia Beach has so many neighborhood parks!


Ian always jumps right in and has to try out every part of the playground.


Nathan is a bit slower to explore. There was a little bit of water on this frog, so Nathan opted to just pet it and not ride it this particular morning.


For the watercolor initials craft, I cut up lots of strips of contact paper from the Dollar Store. Each mom then taped the contact paper strips to the watercolor paper to form each child's first initial. We then let the kids paint to their little heart's content.


Both boys enjoy painting, but Nathan definitely displays more patience when crafting.


Once the paint had dried completely, I just peeled off the contact paper to reveal their pretty artwork. This was such a simple craft and you could cut any shape out of contact paper to make seasonal art projects with the kids too! Don't be surprised if you see more of these over the next few months.

First Day of School

Today was Ian's first day of preschool. He has been looking forward to this for months! I am pretty sure that it lived up to his expectations. When I asked him what he enjoyed most today at school he proclaimed, "being the caboose!" with enthusiasm. I guess he was "the caboose" in line today to and from the playground. I thought that he would surely choose lunch as his favorite part of the day.


It is pretty shocking how much Ian looks like me on my first day of preschool (am I right Mom & Dad?). I think our expressions are almost identical. He was very excited to show off his new backpack.


He is all ready to go! He absolutely could not wait to run to the van and head off to his first day of school. In fact, when we arrived at his classroom he attempted to charge into the room without even pausing to say goodbye to me. This didn't surprise me a bit.


Nathan was a bit lonely at times without Ian today. He was quite confused when I arrived home without Ian (I left Ryan home with Nathan for Ian's big day). I asked him why he was sitting at the window and he said, "I am waiting for Ian to come home." So cute...and so quiet. I actually forgot to feed Nathan lunch on time today and this is something that Ian NEVER would have allowed to happen. That kid is always begging for food and asking me what time it is. I'm going to have to set two alarms--one reminding me to feed Nathan and a second to remind me to pick Ian up from school.


Together again! Nathan was waiting at the window when we pulled into the driveway and he ran outside to give Ian a big hug. They continued to give "squeezy hugs" once we were inside. This lasted about 3 minutes and then the bickering resumed.

More Playdate Fun

The weather has been particularly mild this summer...or at least that's how it seems to this Virginia Beach newbie. We have not had to cancel a single outdoor playdate due to excessive heat this season (we won't mention how many have been rained out). The boys and I have kept very busy with all of our crafty park playdates and hope that this will continue through October.

We met up with our playgroup at Princess Anne Park to make craft stick flowers. Such a simple craft and the kids loved it!


Who knew that all I needed to keep Ian in his seat was a plate full of tacky glue and some craft sticks? Trust me, had I known this sooner, our house would already be full of craft stick creations!


Ian made 2 or 3 flowers this day. Had I not dragged him away from the table to go play, he surely would have used up all of our friend's supplies.


Nathan was under the impression that he had created a pinwheel, not a stationary flower. He is trying to blow on the flower to make it spin.

Usborne Children's Books

I just wanted to share with all of you that I have signed on as an Usborne Books consultant. Before you think I'm crazy for taking on another business, let me tell you that I am doing this strictly for the discount. What makes this better is that I'm sharing this discount with all of my family and friends. Shh, don't tell on me.

I absolutely adore children's books, especially quality books that don't talk down to my kids. I speak to them like they are adults (as much as possible) and appreciate books that do the same. I have found that Usborne meets this requirement. They also have tons of those search and find books that Nathan absolutely adores and I am all about buying anything that keeps the boys still and quiet.

So, if you are in need of some children's books, I will be placing orders on the 20th of every month. Let me know if you ever need anything. Also, if you visit my website you can enter to win $50 in free books!

Muffin Tin Monday

Today I hosted a Muffin Tin Monday playdate for my Meetup playgroup. I chose a rainbow theme--we made rainbow cupcakes and everyone brought a color specific snack. So much fun!


I had to steal someone else's photo so that I could be in one of the pictures. Each child mixed the batter to correspond with their chosen color and they took turns filling the muffin tins.


Since my two muffin tins were in the oven full of yummy, colorful cupcakes, I had to come up with an alternative container for the boys' fun snacks. Thank goodness I have a HUGE stash of silicone baking cups.


Ian loved all of his colorful treats!


Here's Nathan happily showing off his rainbow cupcake. I had frosting available, but none of us moms chose to frost our kid's cupcakes. Surprise, surprise!


Doesn't that just look so adorable!!!

Big Boy!

This past weekend we decided to finally force Nathan to grow up just a little bit. We took him away from his crib. I'm pretty convinced that he would have happily stayed in his crib through kindergarten. This crazy boy of ours never once attempted to climb in or out of his crib. Ever. Ian was climbing out before he was 18 months old!

We purchased a bunk bed set from Flexa about a year ago for the boys. Ian needed a twin bed and we just figured it made sense to buy a bunk bed set since ultimately they would end up sharing a room. We attempted to move them into a joint room at that time, but they were more interested in goofing off than sleeping. Ian quickly returned to his original room.

We think that they *might* be mature enough to begin sharing a room again. Nathan sleeps so peacefully and Ian likes to get up at the crack of dawn, so I remain unconvinced that this is a good idea. Nevertheless, we set Nathan's new bed up in what is expected to be the boys' shared bedroom. We haven't bothered to paint or replace the baseboard so just ignore the background in these pictures.




Nathan loves his new bed! I had to wake him up for breakfast the first two mornings in his new bed. I think he would have stayed there all day if I had let him (love him!). Today when he woke up he actually stayed in his bed and called for me. How adorable! I'm not going to break the news to him that he can get out of bed on his own and come find me.

Water Play

We have been very busy trying to play outside as much as possible. At times, the heat and humidity is too much for us, but for the most part the weather has been rather pleasant. We've explored some new parks in the area, but more than anything the boys love to play in the water. I love it because I can water the front lawn, read a magazine and the boys are entertained at the same time!


Nathan clearly enjoys this funky little sprinkler that I picked up at Target.


As usual, here the boys are trying to torture each other. No one was yelling at this point.


Nathan was too chicken to ever attempt the water slide. He had fun playing in the built-in sprinkler, but absolutely would not slide down the thing.


Ian tried to slide down a few times, but he preferred just hanging out in the water that pooled at the end of the slide. They can be such strange kids.


All done!