Spring break!

This past week was my spring break, and I took Killian on vacation with me. We had ALOT of fun! I ordered a new little ice cream maker for us. It makes just enough for ice cream for the 2 of us in about 10 minuets. GREAT :)
So... this week we went to two story times- one at the library and one at Barnes and Noble. We played outside:

 With bubbles... and bikes!

 We had a picnic inside....

 We did lots of art work... bug stamps and painting

 It was a messy art day!

 We played Pillow Island.. where Killian had to step on pillows instead of the floor. :)

 I did some sewing... I sewed these sandwich bags for Killian's lunch bags.

 My sis got me two reusable sandwich bags for my bday, and I love them. Killian uses them quite often, but I thought maybe he'd like some of his own.

 We played with his coffee set,

 And he tried on his flipper for swimming :)

 We had a playdate... Killian LOVES babies.

 We went to the Fond du Lac children's museum...

 On Saturday we went to Bubolz Nature Center pancake breakfast with a maple syrup demo and played in a one-room school house.

We went to the Tundra Lodge on Saturday. OH MY GOODNESS. Killian has SUCH a blast. WE went down the water slide about 20 times. I was EXHAUSTED at the end of the 2.5 hours that we played there.

Our vacation was quiet and eventful. It was wonderful having alot of bonding time with Killian again. With my crazy school schedule, we both needed it. In addition, being with me made him back into a SWEET, KIND, well behaved child. (let's just say that his father's LACK OF discipline doesn't work well for our son). I loved the moments when we were just sitting next to each other, and Killian would kiss me and say "I love you mama". Awww.......... This week has really helped bring us together again. :)

And now I've got to get ready for a crazy-whirlwind-week of school and tag-team parenting with Killian's dad. Can we just put this past week on a time-loop and play it over and over again?

Problem Solution: Recipe Organization

Time for another Problem and Solution Post!!

Problem: I read through magazines, and find recipes that I love, so I cut them out, and then........
Well I tried putting them into a journal, but it was hard to organize, so I'd never bother looking through it. So the recipes laid around not being used.

Solution: It was pretty easy, but did take a little bit of time. I found a box for recipes.. a nice wooden box that I had laying around. Then glued/taped the recipes to individual index cards, and organized them by category (ie dinner, desert, breakfast, etc.) I then typed up a word document with the names of the recipes:

Breakfast:
Perfect pancakes
Eggs in a nest
......

I pasted each of the categories with the names on index cards too. AND I organized it. Very simple, but effective. So now if I'm looking for a new recipe for dinner, I grab the dinner card and see if any of the names look good. :) I'm finally using the recipes I've grabbed from magazines as well as making some new things (I always get stuck in ruts with my cooking).

St. Patty's Day and Caterpillars

 

Alright! I didn't get these posted when I said I would. Life is so busy and exhausting!!! But here they are!!! When I picked up Killian from his grandma's on St. Patrick's Day, we came home to a gold coin hunt. I hid chocolate gold coins all over my house as well as a green race car. Killian wasn't sure how to hunt for them, but he got the hang of it. :) The picture above is of him with his st. patrick's day balloon (A HUGE hit with him, not so much with the dogs who are terrified of balloons).

This picture is of him with his gold coins clutched in his hands :)

He found his green race car. Have I mentioned that he loves hotwheels now? UGH, when did that happen? Anyways.. after the hunt, we went to my mom's for a St. Patty's day party! We had corned beef, cabbage, and green chocolate covered strawberries!! Killian helped down at the barn and then played in the sand with his diggers before I dragged him home. On friday, our caterpillars came! I got Killian a butterfly garden kit a month ago, and waited to order the caterpillars until it was warmer. Well, this child LOVES them. He looks at them all the time, and tells me the WHOLE story about how they're going to grow big, hang from their heads, build a cocoon and become beautiful butterflies.

 

Of course, Stella had to see if she can eat them. 

So what have we been up to? Besides school and work, we've enjoyed the outside and our pool. This past weekend I've started spring cleaning the house, reorganizing and finally putting the final touches on decorations (we're only going on our 3rd year of living here). I'm hoping to teach 2 classes on Saturdays (if I get a few more students signed up), which would be GREAT. Hopefully it all works out. 

I'm on spring break, and I took my vacation with Killian this week, so we get 7 whole days of uninterrupted LOVE and PLAY time. :) We are relaxing, hitting up story times, movies at the library, monkey joes, building for kids, play dates, hopefully a trip to get raw milk, and just enjoying each other. Of course i have a MASSIVE to-do list (I teach a whole unit of Science next week and are in Kindergarten 40+ hours next week, so I'm trying to get that finished up). But I decided to do all my to-do stuff while Killian naps and sleeps. I want to enjoy my time with him. :)

Photo update

Alright... it's been too long again. Why do I let it go this long? I don't know! But the quickest way to update is photos :) AND I promise to take some photos of tomorrow's st. patrick's day fun and upload it tomorrow night.

 I bought Killian some window crayons... they are a big hit! He loves drawing on the window, spraying the window with window cleaner, and wiping it away. :)

 Killian's been doing alot of chores around the house to help me out.. here he is helping me dry the dishes.

 Killian got really into the sensory table this week. He asked me to pull it out two times, fill it with dirt, and play with his bob the builder toys.

 We made window paints with cornstarch and liquid baby soap (luckily I still have alot of baby soap from Killian's baboy shower!!)

 We also made OObleck.. Killian was obsessed with it :)

 We got out the baseball tee. Killian's gotten SOO much better lately.

 We put down the bed rail and got rid of all of Killian's sippy cups. We practiced how to sit up and drink water instead of laying down and drinking like he used to with the sippys. He's been doing pretty good the last few nights.

 We've been riding bikes ALOT. Killian's gotten very good on his tricycle. I'm trying to get him to ride his bigger bike, but he gets mad about the brakes.

 Killian received a bag from my Great Aunt and Uncle in the mail from Australia. He was SOO excited and put his money in it. He calls it his "money bag".

 We took a spring walk with his "treasure bag".

My favorite photo from the day :)

Problem and Solution: Clothes organization

I'm a bargain shopper. I love end-of-the-season clearance shopping and second-hand store shopping. I almost NEVER buy Killian clothes at full price. I just can't- not how fast kids out grow their clothes, and Killian doesn't even outgrow his all that fast. He definitely gets a good 6-9 months out of each size. Sometimes he gets 2 seasons out of the same set of clothing (such as coats). But still, I like to get a good deal. SO, every season I find that I have bought too many pants and shirts. It happens. I always forget what I already have and keep buying them at good prices. Then I get frustrated when I feel that he's not getting enough wear out of each outfit. So...

Problem: I tend to pick the same shirts and pants for Killian to wear, and neglect the other stuff. Which upsets me since I bought them.

Solution: The solution is 2-fold. 1. For the items in his dresser (PJS and pants). I can fold them up in stacks of 2's. Then, I use the pants from left to right, top to bottom. When I wash pants, I put them in the dresser on the farthest right hand side. So that way they get used in order. So if his dresser is full, I'll use the top pants on the far left first, then the bottom on the far left. Then I push everything over leaving a space on the far right and continue using the pants on the left. As I wash them, I put the on the right. That way I'm not using the same pants over and over. I do the same for his PJ's, though I let him pick them out. I simply put the washed pjs on the bottom of stacks so he can't see them, and he'll pick the top PJS.
2. For clothes that get hung in the closet (shirts, sweaters). I just came up with this solution. I was going to do something similar to the pants, work from left to right. However, I like to have his clothes hung by category- long sleeve tee's, sweaters, button up shirts, sweater vests/ vests, and finally t-shirts (summer items are all on the right hand side of the closet and during the summer, winter clothes get moved over). SO, if I wanted them hung by category, but still  know which ones have been worn most frequently, I'd have to be doing 5 small left-right organizations and that was just too much. SO, my new solution: different colored hangers. I have both blue and white hangers, but just grabbed them as I needed. NOW, I have all his shirts/sweaters/etc. on blue hangers. As they are used and washed, they get put on white hangers. Then, I'll know to use the blue hangers first. Once all shirts are on white hangers, then I'll start putting them on blue again. It's working great. Of course since he has more sweaters than long sleeve tee's, those get used more often. However it is forcing me to put him in his button-up shirts more often as well.

SO, that's my solution. Left-right usage in drawers and different colored hangers in the closet. Of course, at some point I'll have to come up with a system to stop over-buying. I've thought of making a print-out of all the items I have in storage, but I can't very well bring that along with me shopping. Any suggestions?

Too busy

This semester is WAYY toooo busy! I have no time for anything :( And that includes updating this blog with our weekly activities!

So what have we done in the past 2 weeks? Well, we've played at the mom and pop place, colored on windows with window crayons, played with playdough, went for pizza, played at Gammie's house with Gigi and Gammie, had dinner with Gammie and Gampa, played at Monkey Joes and Building for Kids, got LOTS of new toys and.... last but definitely not least, got into a car accident. Killian wasn't with me, though to hear his side of the story that is a bad thing. He was extremely disappointed that he didn't get to sit in the police car. However, he did inform me that he'd go ahead and get his tools and fix my "little green car" :) He also asked me if I could break my car again so he could ride in a police car. Haha. My little one truly doesn't understand the way the world works. So yes, on top of everything else this semester has given me, I now will be 600$ dollars less rich (good bye wisconsin dells vacation in 2 weeks), and I will probably be looking for new car insurance in 6 months.

SO....................... since I'm ridiculously busy, I'll leave with just a few photos and promise to write more next week- including another problem/solution post, though I'm not sure what it'll be on:

 Killian's going through a lovely un-decisive stage.. so one day he couldn't decide which stool he wanted, so he used them both.

 Coloring with window crayons. He loves spraying the window with window cleaner and wiping it off almost as much as he loves coloring.

He was a big help Sunday morning with chores... here he is helping dry dishes after I washed them... while wearing his rain boots.