March Family Activities

This month I got to pick our Family Activities and I have to say they were pretty unique ones:

For our Family Date Day I chose to go to the Dreamscapes Museum at the South Town mall. I had heard they had lots of things for different ages and Cara is so creative so I thought the kids would love all the creative things on display. I was nervous at first because the art was very different and I thought it might scare the kids. BUT then we got to the interactive parts and the kids started to get into it. There was the front portion of an airplane at one part and that was SO cool for them to play in. They had lots of things to touch. Only a couple things scared Lucy, but Cara and Gwen had so much fun with everything.

There was a ball pit area that they all loved. We were even able to take Pierce out of the stroller to play for a bit. They had a ball pit big enough for adults even...now that I think about it I kind of wish I had gotten into it haha. I also loved the mirror parts. Everything in it was made from recycled materials and it was SO cool to see how they were repurposed.

After we spent about an hour there, I decided to treat us to McDonald's. I had previously decided not to do a family dinner when doing activities because I didn't always have the right amount budgeted for both, but I was able to get a Groupon for the Dreamscapes exhibit and we hadn't been to the newest McDonald's by us and it had a play place so I figured it would be a good cheap option. It was nice because I could choose so many things for us to eat and it didn't break the bank. The girls had SO much fun playing, it was almost hard to separate them from the play place to eat and go home haha.

For our cheaper option we went to the Safe Kid's Fair at the Expo Center. I had heard this had a lot of fun things for kids so I was pretty excited to go. Well we went today and I'm realizing it is more for low income families. There weren't very many vendors, there weren't very many safety things. There was a place for them to practice riding bikes and scooters with helmets that the kids liked, there was a place they could dress up as a firefighter and look at a real fire truck and they had a real school bus they could walk through (not to mention almost every vendor had free candy or pencils which made them all excited). We found some vendors that had crafts or activity books so that was good. But almost everything mentioned WIC or told us they offered services for low income families. So I'd say overall it was more disappointing for me. I don't think I'd do that one again. Good thing it was free haha.

I think we had lot of fun this month and I'm grateful for all the things we have to do and take our kids to have fun at and learn new things. While they might not be the most exciting things all the time, we get to try new things and that's what is important.

St. Patrick's Day 2023

I don't normally post about this holiday because I've never known how to make it fun before. However, I feel only really celebrating one or two holidays a year just isn't as much fun. Why not do something to celebrate every holiday? Or at least ones that mean something to us. 

So on that note, St. Patrick's Day this year was SO much fun! Since I knew it would be falling on a Friday, which is family movie night, and I knew the kids would rather see a movie than pretty much anything else, I decided to make it a week long celebration

Before we get to celebrations, I have to talk about decorations. I love finding new decorations for the holidays and I really found some good ones for this month. Lots of shamrocks added, some green flowers, and some cute sign to add to our shelves. I also still have our gold coins and welcome sign for the door that are still so cute. I love these little touches throughout our house!

Now onto the week:

Every Monday we do a STEM activity, so this week we decided on a Magic Milk experiment. This one didn't go as well as I had hoped, but I figured it would be a decent rainbow theme. Luckily, the kids had fun with it and making the water turn brown with all the colorings haha.

Tuesdays we do a craft, so I decided to do a leprechaun plate mask. This one was my favorite craft we've done so far and they turned out SO well. I knew it would be a little advanced for Lucy so I had her do a rainbow with some Fruit Loops. I printed out a couple extra sheets of the rainbow template for Cara and Gwen in case they wanted to do it too and they ended up wanting to. They mostly did it to eat the cereal at the end, but whatever, it was a good one for them.

Wednesdays we do a game, well this week I decided to do a St. Patrick's themed scavenger hunt. We even got them some gold coins for the end. This one I kind of screwed up, I didn't hide the cards as well as I had hoped and Gwen almost spoiled the end in the middle of it and I kind of yelled at her to not (not in a mean way, just more a loud "NO! Don't go there!" kind of way haha), but other than those hiccups the girls seemed to love it.

Thursday we made some Corned Beef sandwiches. I was a little nervous about this since I wasn't sure how those tasted, but figured we could at least try them. I made the corned beef in the crock pot, shredded it up, and then broiled the sandwiches with that, saurkraut, pickles, russian dressing, and some cheese slices for a couple minutes. They turned out SO good! I'm totally wanting to try a real one in a restaurant now that I know they aren't gross at all! I also read our "Night Before St. Patrick's Day" book to the kids.

This morning I put green food coloring in their milk with cereal and made sure everyone wore green (well everyone I was responsible for dressing at least haha) so that we still had some genuine things for the day of.

Anyways, tonight they got to eat their chocolate, gold coins for our movie night. It was Gwen's choice for a movie so not a St. Patrick's movie, but I'm not sure there's really any of those out there. We had a great. St. Patrick's week and while everyone may think I'm crazy for not just doing one day, I had a lot of fun letting it spread out. I hope to make sure to have it be this fun every year....just need to add in learning more about the holiday and why it's celebrated for the kids. Now to prep for Easter haha.

Pierce is ELEVEN Months

                            I am ELEVEN months old!

I like: being held all the time, grabbing our hands for walks, being thrown in the air and caught or turned quickly, if we sit and play with him, bath time, going after the cats.

I dislike: when we put him down with a toy and just walk away, being hungry, not being entertained 100% of the day, and most regular foods (he's particularly picky for an 11 month old haha)

I am now: He's still barely fitting in 18 month clothes, size 4 diapers, and VERY solid. 

A Typical Day looks like: 

 

Wake up around 7:30. Whether he's already awake and chatting or trying to sleep, we get him up at this time.

7:40: He gets a pouch of fruit food

8:00 get a 6 ounce bottle

8:30 - 9:30 wiggle & giggle time. He crawls around, plays with toys, plays with his sisters. Whatever.

9:4 - 11:00 nap time (I think we're getting closer to getting rid of this one, but he needs at least an hour nap right now)

11:00 next 6 oz bottle

11:30 - 12:30 He gets another pouch of fruit and veggie baby food for lunch. Then it's wiggle & giggle / hang out while we clean up time. He usually finishes the pouch quickly so I give him chips or cereal bits to snack on while we eat.

1:00 - 2:30: nap time.

2:30 next 7 oz bottle

3:00 -3:30 play/hang out time. Dad goes to get Cara from school around 3:30 so I'll give him some more snacks on his activity table (might be puffs, might be some cereal, just whatever). Sometimes he'll eat this, but he's starting to skip this more.

3:30 - 5:00 hang out with dad while he works out. Most of the time he hates this because he can't be walking around with us, he has to entertain himself or have his sisters entertain him.

5:30 dinner time, usually another fruit & veggie pouch and then bites of our dinner

6:00 - 7:15 play time, night activity, whatever we're doing. He usually gets cranky around this time

7:15 7 oz bottle (which he gets REALLY antsy about)

7:40 start bedtime. Sundays and Thursdays start with a bath (around 7:30), then it's diaper change, pajamas, a little cuddle/rock while we read to him, and in bed by 8.

This Month: Well he officially gained his top 4 teeth so now he has 6 teeth. He fights getting his teeth brushed because he always wants to take it away to brush them himself, but he mostly chomps on the other end haha.

He has tried to walk more the last month. He will crawl up to me, walk up my legs, grab my hands and start to pull away to get me to walk him all the time haha. Most of the time we can walk around for a couple minutes and he'll be set. Luckily he just needs to walk around holding one of our hands and it's really not so bad. He also started walking around with the walker and he can turn really well so he can do that on his own for a while. 

He still loves hitting toys together and throwing things. He loves loud noisy things. He loves clapping and dancing around with us (or when I dance around). 

Update on last month's goals:

• Walking: he can definitely take a lot of steps and when he walks with our hands he does it so well and balances like he can walk on his own, but he just doesn't do it on his own yet. So soon, though!
  
  
• More foods: he will taste foods, but he doesn't love a lot. He's quite picky surprisingly.
  
  
• Celebrate the Superbowl and Valentine's: We had fun with lots of foods, but he wouldn't eat too much of any of it. We had fun with it at least.
  
  
• Get ready for his 1st birthday: we've got all his party stuff booked and planned out. An "invitation" was sent out to everyone and family pics have been booked and outfits have been bought so I think this is all done. I can't believe he'll be ONE soon!