Garden lights

One night I decided to take the kids to lights at the gardens. It was great because it's free and it's only a few minutes away. Lilly loves seeing all the lights and as a bonus on this night, Santa was making a special visit and the sugar plum fairy dogs put on a show. We spent an hour and a half braving the cold and got to bed a little late, but the smile on Lilly's face was well worth it. It was a little to chilly for Kyle to be out of his stroller for pictures and I didn't quite have enough hand to juggle both kids and a camera, so most of the pictures I took are of Lilly but Kyle was there too!

Keeping busy

Art projects, art class, playgroups, and baking are just a few of the things we have done this month to keep us busy and active. I have found that the age and stage that Lilly is at right now she needs a lot of structure and activity which has posed its challenges with an extra kiddo. Talk about juggling. I thought that I was starting to get into a nice groove with the 2 kids, but then when I started adding more things to my plate, I realized that the groove is ever evolving. I have learned to plan and prepare a little better and have taken the motto "always be prepared" to a whole new level.

We have tried to take advantage of some of the recreation programs that are offered here, like a Christmas themed and art/cooking class. It was fun, but I am glad we didn't have to pay but 4 dollars for it because it was slightly disappointing from a mother's perspective. I have also tried to created some art projects at home for Lilly. Learning from my experiences, with these, they are best prepared the night before so that Lilly is given the instructions and has structure to the project and that way she seems to enjoy them. Two of our projects this month were a countdown to Santa and building a snowman. We also baked some cookies together for a church event, which Lilly loves to bake so was a huge hit. And as always we had our playgroup each week, although this month we tried to change them up and make them a little extra special. One week we did a little pajama movie party, another week we decorated gingerbread houses and had a little gift exchange and another week we made ornaments.It was a busy month filled with lots of little day activities, but it was a great way to pass the time, since it has been to chilly to play outdoors. I think January will be a fun month too!

Redecorating

Lilly decided that our entry way needed a new look. This is what she came up with.

Family pictures

Back in November we went to have family pictures taken. We had never had any before and I had a great coupon for no sitting fees. We just had to pay for the printout of the pictures we wanted. There were a ton of great ones and I wish we would have gotten more, but for now these are the 2 we chose. They turned out pretty good and I am so happy everyone is looking at the camera with their best smiles. That seems to be hard to get when mom stops all the fun to pose for a family picture. I think we will do more professional family pictures in our future as it is way less work for mom.

Letters

Within the last few months or so Lilly has become interested in letters and in writing. I have always tried to "teach on the go", meaning I spell out loud as I write or try to point out different letters so we can begin recognizing and connecting, but I didn't really think that it would show payoff for a while. In the picture is a card to Grandma for her birthday. I asked Lilly like always if she wanted to add something to it and she said yes she would like to write her name. So together we wrote her name and after we had written it she said "no mama I do it myself" and so I let her do it. I could hear her repeating the letters as she wrote each one (just like we do when we write together) and when she showed me the card there sure enough was her name written almost completely legibly (with an extra y, she got a little excited). At the bottom of the card are a bunch of straight lines and those are all of our names. She was on a roll and just didn't want to stop but hasn't really learned those letters yet. I thought it might have been a fluke but sure enough a few days later she wrote her name on a random piece of paper, so she must write with purpose. Yay for learning!

Of course she's no super writer and it may just be a mother and father's love that causes us to see through the scribbles and see the letters, but regardless we are so proud!

Candy and costumes

What is the meaning behind Halloween? I found myself pondering this when trying to explain the holiday to Lilly this year. So the best description I could come up with for a 2 year old is that it is a fun day where you get to dress up in a special costume, spend time with friends, and eat lots of candy. With that Lilly was all about Halloween. This year I wanted to get creative with their costumes making them a pair; like milk and cookies, a football player and cheerleader, or the princess and the frog. But I just didn't have it in me to buy a big elaborate costume or put a ton of effort into Kyle's since he would be in a carseat for most of the time. I do have something up my sleeve for next year though. But like always though I did put something together for each of them. Lilly was a princess and Kyle a skeleton aka Mr. Bones. We didn't trick or treat on Halloween and we didn't go to the treatsylvania like last year, but we did go to the carnival at church and we went trick or treating in old town on the Friday before. Lilly got plenty of candy and had a great time. She loved the carnival especially where she got to play games, go through mazes, be in a parade, get her face painted and trunk or treated.

Lots to do and see

While in Washington we wanted to see as much as we could. We crammed so much into our trip we were busy everyday we were there. The kids got to go on their first ferry ride, visit Fort Casey, go to a few beaches, drive to Deception Pass, visit the Fremont Troll in Seattle, see the Ballard locks, amd of course go to Fred Meyer. It was a lot of going, but so worth it. Lilly loved the beaches and loved spending time with her cousins. She played until she crashed every day we were there. And it helped that Grandma and Grandpa have a great play room for all of the kids, Lilly was in heaven. Leaving to come home was harder than when we left 2 years ago. I think mostly because now that Lilly is older family means something more to her. She asks to see pictures of cousins or grandma and grandpa or aunts and uncles frequently and every now and again she asks to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. We took a ton of pictures but combined with the previous post and this one you will get a good idea of all the places we went.