Valentine Hearts

This week was Valentine's Day. I hope you all felt the love! I was so prepared this year. After our family being sick for most of January, I wanted to be sure to do some fun things with the boys in February for Valentine's Day. So, we baked sugar cookies and decorated them - the boys helped with everything! They loved watching me roll out the dough, then being able to take their cookie cutters and cut the dough into hearts and little animal shapes. We waited until Atlas was napping to do the decorating (because I just knew how that could go!) Otto loved mixing the icing and sampling the red and pink Mike and Ikes we got to decorate the tops. He decorated the big ones we made for the grandparents and Pappy (Andy), and a few small hearts, then decided he was done.

Another other crafty thing we did for Valentine's were these beautiful hearts! They were so simple. I got the idea from here and it was perfect for both boys to do. They ripped tissue paper, then used paint brushes to glue them to wax paper with Kid's Mod Podge. Atlas especially loved the gluing part! Otto helped me cut out some of the hearts (then announcing that he was done), and I strung them into a banner for the window. It looks so pretty in our window! Definitely a project we may have to add to next year!

 

The boys and I also made some Valentine playdough. I tried to brew some tea to make it smell nice, but it really didn't work, so I added some almond extract... and then some more, and then some more... but it just didn't take! I guess the salt smell is just too powerful. I've seen blog posts by others on how they fragranced their playdough, so I'll have to try again. Or maybe it doesn't work as well with herbal tea? Not sure.

Happy Valentine's!

December 2012 Highlights | Photos

 A recap of the Court family highlights in December 2012:

 

Atlas & Mama out in the cold at the Santa Claus Parade.

 Otto "out cold" after the Santa Clause Parade! (Yes, he can sleep pretty much anywhere!)

 

Atlas having some fun at our gym day. (We took cars and bikes and the jumping tent over to the gym and a tonne of kids came to play)

 All the handmade Christmas presents this year. (there were a few more, but I didn't get pictures!) - An apron for my sister, various goodies and treats for students, neighbors, and friends, green bag for a friend, leg-warmers for a friend, and a clutch bag for a friend. I love hand-made Christmas!

 Otto and I visited "Christmas at the Hive" at a local honey farm. We were very excited to go on the hay ride, but when we got there, were disappointed to find that the horse was sick! There wasn't a lot to do, but we had fun just the two of us.

 Atlas just being adorable!

The bottom picture was taken at a friend's cookie decorating party. They boys had a blast. There were cookies and punch and balloons! What more could a little boy ask for?!

They had a great party where Great-Gramma lives. The boys loved the live music. They danced and had treats and were so happy!

 I made the boys Dino Tails, which are so much fun! Unfortunately, Atlas is the only one who will put it on (Otto still refuses! Maybe we should get a friend - or cousin - he thinks is really cool to wear one and then maybe he'll put one on!) Atlas and Gramma had fun wearing them on Christmas Day and chasing each other around.

 Family Christmas time just isn't the same without the games! Atlas and Otto even tried their hand! We played Tile Rummy, Bunko, lots of Quidler and Phase 10, and Monopoly Deal.

Whew! What a great December! This year, I really focused on our Christmas Activity Advent calendar, where we would try to do a Christmas activity each day. Some days it was just to watch a new movie or read a Christmas book, but it made our December so busy and so much fun! I even made a "December Daily" album where I documented the day-by-day of our December. 

And now it's Happy New Year to all of you, and may your 2013 be all you make it to be!

Otto and Paisley On Bikes | Digital LO

Paper: DDE(Digital Design Essentials); Font(O, P): Sahlin Studio; Word art (loving): Paislee Press; Date stamp: Katie Pertiet

I'm on a Scrapbook/Crafting retreat this weekend and I've got lots of "business" to do (aka NOT scrapbooking), but I just HAD to do some scrapping! So here's the first page of the weekend.

Edited: This was the ONLY page I did this weekend! But I think it is my favorite Digital Scrapbook LO to date. It is so simple and minimalist. I love it. Still learning the ropes, but I feel I'm getting better all the time.

Critical Stage of Development... Who knew?!

 The other day, a friend and I were discussing some critical stages of development in our children. He mentioned how they have discovered that their son had missed some stages of development in his young life, and they are now trying to implement learning those stages now that he is older. One of these stages is crawling. I don't even know the half of what good crawling can be for left brain right brain development and on and on. Then my friend started to talk about how some mothers would cringe to find out that throwing their children high in the air (like some Dads do) is actually a very important stage of development as well. And I thought....

 

I think we've got that one covered.

 

In fact, I believe the boys are pretty darn brilliant in this area.

  

No worries here.

{excuse the messy bedroom. can you tell these pictures weren't planned?!}

Loving these two together. And wishing often that P's family lived closer so we could DO this more often! Otto and his cousin are only two months apart in age, and they have such fun when they get together. We miss you!

Monday, Monday

 We flew a kite tonight. The wind was perfect and the boys were mesmerized.

This morning, the ground was too wet for my outdoor fitness class, so I pushed up my sleeves and got some housework done. After Atlas woke up from his nap, we had a late lunch of smoothies, which are a hit around here, that's for sure!

Atlas is upset that I won't let him play with his straw, getting smoothie all over my nice clean floor. I'm a mean Mama that way, I guess.

Typical Goings-On