Shopping With Aubrey

Aubrey and I went on a shopping trip Tuesday. I had a gift card to Ann Taylor Loft (my favorite store) from my birthday. I got an email saying they were having an extra 30% off, so after I picked her up from school we headed over. She picked out this dress for me and I was not sure at first, but I really liked it after I tried it on. The sweetest thing was she made me dance with her in the dressing room. Now, I am not a shoe person at all. I have maybe 10 pairs and I wear them until they are basically falling apart. The salesperson told me that the dress would look really nice with tan shoes, which I did not have. I have a very hard time buying shoes to wear with one outfit. I took inventory of my closet and realized I would have a couple of outfits to wear with them. So today after I helped in Ethan's class and before picking up Aubrey I hit every place in Palm Coast that sells shoes. I ended up with some from Kohl's. I hope this will be the start of many more shopping trips with Aubrey.

Peanut Butter

This post if for Papa. Aubrey was sharing your love for peanut butter crackers yesterday. She is such a big girl now she makes them all by herself. I do not think the rest of us would want to eat the peanut butter from the jar anymore because I think she licked the butter knife more than put the peanut butter on the cracker. She also made a huge mess and had to have a bath. I think she will have her own jar from now on!

Ethan's Bowling Party

On Sunday afternoon we had a bowling party for Ethan with his school friends. He really wanted to have a party. We chose the bowling alley because it was inexpensive and sounded fun. They really did have a good time and I would do it there again. Aubrey never had a nap between church and the party so she was a little crabby and clinging, but okay. Ethan got a bowling pin to take home that all the kids signed. While opening presents one of the boys kept searching through the bag he gave Ethan and triumphantly pulled out a single Starburst. It so sweet how he really wanted Ethan to have it. After the party we went and used some of this gift cards and money he had received. Ethan has such an opinion now of what he wants. He has been wanting a backpack with only one strap because that is what is "cool." He bought one with his money and came out of the store beaming. The birthday festivities are now complete!

We also have a praise to report: Aubrey is potty trained!!!! It just seemed to click overnight and since Friday she has not had any accidents. We are so proud of her. She still sleeps in a diaper, but other than that it is big girl underwear. Every time she uses the potty she just starts beaming and says "I am doing it, I just told you I had to go!" We then have to do the pee pee dance and she puts a sticker on her chart. When the chart is all filled I am going to make her a cake and we will have a Big Girl Party. I wonder how long we will have to continue the pee pee dancing? I do need to give Derek a lot of credit for the potty training. On Friday I went to the church for a couple of hours and he was very faithful with taking her to the potty and really spending a lot of time with it. He seemed to have the magic touch!

Ethan's Birthday

Yesterday was Ethan's 6th birthday. He has been battling a cough and thankfully he was feeling better and able to enjoy his birthday. He woke up to balloons in his room and really liked that. In fact, he asked if I could do that again next year. I made him his favorite breakfast - orange cinnamon rolls and off to school he went. Aubrey and I went in later to take cookies to his class. Ethan has decided recently that he does not care for cake frosting - not sure where that came from. So we decided to be different and took his favorite frosted cookies from Target as a treat instead of cupcakes. The kids loved them. Hard to figure out that he likes the cookie icing though, not that much different to me. Anyway, to try to please my son, I made him a snake cake for his birthday, but with whipped cream for icing. Well, the icing would not color the way it was supposed to so the snake was not very pretty, but he liked it and it tasted fine. We were sorry Nana could not enjoy the snake cake because she HATES snakes. Ethan thinks we should make her one for her birthday this year. On the way home from school he was talking about going shopping with his birthday money he had gotten and buy these shorts he wanted. They were Tony Hawk (a skateboarder) and they had a Tech Deck (mini skateboard) attached to them. He had seen them a couple of weeks back and really wanted them. I told him he could maybe get them for his birthday, so he has been counting down. What he did not know was that I told Aunt Kelly about them and she sent them to him in the mail along with a shirt from Uncle Keith and I had wrapped them up. Ethan was trying to convince me on the way home that he did not just want the shorts for the toy. He said, "I really like the details in the shorts too!" What a funny little guy. He had me laughing so hard. I let him open the present when he got home and he was so excited. We then went out shopping and he bought a remote controlled helicopter that he had seen and also a sleeveless shirt that he picked out. It is so funny that he now has an opinion on his clothes. Ms. Anne came over for dinner and cake and he opened his other presents. I had a shirt designed for him with a VHS tape on it that says Old School. Derek has a shirt with a cassette tape that says Old School and that is Ethan's favorite shirt and he likes to sleep in it. So I thought the VHS was more appropriate for him since he does not even know what a cassette is. We ended out the night with a Nerf gun fight between Ethan and Ms. Anne. I am not sure who had more fun! We had a great day and are so blessed to have Ethan in our lives. He is so sweet and already feels the Lord tugging at his heart. My prayer for him is that he will always keep his sweet spirit about him. He really is a great kid and we love him dearly!

The Peabody Hotel

We were given a night away last week at the Peabody Hotel in Orlando. They are famous for their ducks that swim in the lobby fountain. They had these cute little duck soaps that the kids loved.
There was also a tv in the bathroom - another big hit.
The kids by the ducks
Each day they have a processional out of the fountain and into the elevator.



We enjoyed some time as a family after a busy Easter week and had fun swimming in the pool.

Ethan was jumping in, but I could never quite capture the right moment.
This was the kiddie pool and Aubrey loved going through the waterfall.
It was about 2 feet if that and Aubrey thought she was really big stuff to jump into the pool. It was more like a little hop.
Ethan always the entertainer, decided he was a duck when we got back home and we had to watch the duck procession.
He even put a little band around his ankle like the ducks had. His attention to detail amazes me!

Rainy Day

This morning was rainy and yucky outside so I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch and to play in the indoor playground.
We then headed over to the library to check out some movies - cheap entertainment!

When Aubrey woke up from her nap we made some cookies - a great rainy day activity. It actually cleared up by then, but still a little windy.
Sampling their goods - only one before dinner:) Check out Aubrey seeing which cookie Ethan will choose. She is really into copying him right now. It drives him crazy! Two days of spring break down! We are having a good time though just hanging out doing whatever we want. Now we are waiting for Derek to come home for dinner. Ethan also gets to stay up and watch American Idol tonight since he does not have school tomorrow - the simple treats in life!

Staining With Ethan

It is Spring Break for the kids from school, so I am trying to do something "fun" each day, but not spend a lot of money. Today we stained a log house that he had built with Derek last Christmas. I guess he has been wanting to do it for some time, so we got some stain and away we went. It ended up not being too messy.
We also went to the beach today, but it was really windy so we did not stay for too long. We sure did enjoy having Daddy home for the day though!

Easter

We had a marathon day at church today. Derek was up at 5:15 AM (he is NOT a morning person) for the Sunrise service. The kids and I made it to the 9:00 service, after a mini photo shoot at home. It was a good thing we got pictures too because Ethan fell during one of the egg hunts and got a big grass stain all down his white shirt. Aubrey wanted to wear gloves this year like a real princess and kept them on for a long time. The kids were at all three services, well I pulled the

m out of the last one because I was not needed in with the children. The good part of being at church for so many services was all the egg hunts. Ethan got one of the special eggs that got him the chocolate cross. He was very excited about it and told everyone he saw.
I worked very hard lately to fit into a dress that I had worn 8 years ago for one of my bridal showers. I made up for the hard work though with all the yummy food I ate over at Dan and Rebekah's house. We made it over there after the last service for a late lunch and had a nice time with friends. We are relaxing now and taking it easy the rest of the day. We had a great service at church. You can check out some pictures of it at http://justlivingthelife.com/?p=34Easter+At+Parkview+-+20092009-04-12+03%3A35%3A34Jay

Easter String

We did the tradition of string this morning that my grandmother used to do when I was a kid. Ethan remembered it from last year and wanted to do it again. They follow their string around the house and find their basket at the end. Ethan was really good at it this year and I made his harder. Aubrey still did not quite get rolling up the string, but enjoyed it with some help from Mom and Dad.









Aubrey found her basket!
This was a cool punch ball that I found that looks like a bunny.

She also got some bunny jewelry

Ethan found his behind the piano.



Washable cups for the sno cones he like to make.
Enjoying their chocolate bunnies...I only let them eat half!
Bruster wanted to get in on the festivities as well.

Aubrey's Square

Easter is a busy week in the church business and we have been spending a lot of time there. Yesterday I was doing some touch up painting in our children's room to make it look pretty for all our guests this weekend. Aubrey was done with preschool, but I was not done with the painting. I had her dvd of songs to entertain her, but I did not want her touch the walls or anything with paint. I came up with idea to make her a square that she had to stay inside. It actually worked! She loved it and did really well with it. The funny thing was every time Pastor Barry came in she was out of it for some reason or another - usually asking for a snack or a drink.
We were back again last night and Aubrey's baby doll needed a square too.
Ethan had a square too, but they were pretty silly last night and they were not very effective, but at least the paint was dry.
I ordered these Human Boppers for the children's ministry and it was hilarious watching the kids play in them.