Name That Tune...

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VERY Busy Birthday Week

I have had the best birthday week! I LOVE birthdays! I believe that they are the one truly unique and special day to celebrate yourself and the very unique and special person that you are! When March rolls around I usually start driving Brad crazy with the "It's my birthday month" talk, but this year it took me a while to get excited. Maybe it is old age or maybe it is the fact that now I seem to get more excited about Braden's birthday. I don't know...Anyway my birthday week rolled around and it was fabulous! I have not cooked dinner since last Sunday! WOW! Here are some of the highlights....

• Sunday- nap with Braden after church then my parents cooked birthday dinner and my mom made my favorite coconut cake. My Granny and grandfather ate with us and brought my favorite fruit salad! YUM!


• Monday- my brother took me to eat at Frontera! DELICIOUS! Plus I love hanging out with my brother!


• Tuesday- my Granny's birthday (Happy 7? birthday Granny!)


• Wednesday- dinner at Pacho's with Brad and Braden


• Thursday (my actual birthday)- my dad made me muffins and put a candle in one and sang Happy Birthday when I dropped Braden off on my way to work. Ms. Creal (my para) had my classroom decorated, made me a carrot cake the day before, had balloons and daisies in a red pot for me and helped my students make me a class book about why they love me. And her son brought lunch to the school for us. One of my student's parents brought me a coconut cake and a coconut pie and Krysti made her FAMOUS gooey chocolate cake for me and my class to eat. It's the only chocolate cake I like! AWESOME! Then my amazing husband got off work early and we went to eat dinner at Milano's with my wonderful family and my precious son was FABULOUS at dinner!


• Friday- I started feeling yucky...Brad picked up Chick-fil-A and I went to bed early


• Saturday- still felt yucky... Braden actually slept in until 8:30! WOO HOO!Brad's parents came and spent the afternoon and we had a nice dinner at Red Lobster and once again Braden was AWESOME while we were eating (Does anyone else see why I am avoiding the 2nd child? We finally made it to a point where we can eat dinner out and enjoy ourselves! :)


• Sunday- Braden sleeps in until 8:15! We met my parents in Madison to watch my brother and his dog Buck in his Field Trial test. We ate at Pizza Hut and I have gone 8 straight days without cooking! I felt better this morning, but now I feel yucky again!

Tomorrow reality begins again....my birthday week is over and I will be cooking Hamburger Helper for dinner tomorrow night!

A few pics from the week!

Napping with Braden on Sunday (he had the flu)

My Granny with my mom, Aunt Joy and Aunt Bea

My sweet boy today at the Field Trial test for Buck

Oh My Diamond....

.....these are the words that Braden sings to the song "Oh My Darling, Clementine".

Here are some of the other things that he is saying now:

• He stands in front of the pantry door and says, "let's see". Hmmm...I wonder who does that!




• Hold a finger= hold my hand




• Mommy com'ere= Mommy come here




• Avey= Avery and it is usually in context of "Avey stop"




• Holdle= hold & cuddle combined




• What'cha doin'= we hear this all the time




• His new one is "mommy get up"..like I ever have a chance to sit down around him!




• He is making lots of sentences like"Daddy play blocks with me".




• He speaks mostly in third person which I figured out is my fault since I refer to him in third person..Braden's shoes, Braden's backpack....I have seen the error of my ways! :)




• He sings most of the words to his favorite songs...Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, Oh My Darling, etc.

St. Patrick's Day Project

This past week while I was looking for ideas to use with my class I came across this cute project that I thought I could try with Braden at home. I knew that it would be too easy for my class at this point in the year and too hard for Braden because it involved cutting pieces of green paper and I am NOT giving my just turned 2 year old scissors, but with a few modifications it was a success!

Materials:

Shamrock pattern, green construction paper, q-tips, glue

Here are the directions:

1. Draw or print a shamrock template (I drew my own- 3 hearts and a stem)

2. Cut out shamrock- if you have older children they can do all of the cutting for this project

3. Cut out small pieces of green construction paper

4. Use shamrocks to smear on the glue (I tinted my glue with green food coloring so that it would be easier for Braden to know where he had already applied the glue)

5. Place green construction paper on shamrock and allow to dry!

Braden had so much fun smearing the glue with the q-tips and putting the construction paper on the shamrock. This was his first time using glue and he did a great job!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Moonpie Designs Giveaway

If you like awesome custom made bibs, burp cloths, and aprons check out Moonpie Designs for an awesome giveaway! Make sure you tell Stephanie that I sent you!

Granny is on The 'Net

My Granny is surfing the Internet! She had my cousin come up and set her computer up which I think is totally cool for my Granny to do! How empowering! So I just want to give a shout out to my Granny for being brave enough to venture into unfamiliar territory! Granny- You're my hero! I love you!

I know my Granny is going to complain about this picture, but I love it!

Bag of Hope

Brad's branch has been helping a non profit business called the AMANDAWE SUPPORT GROUP and the Bag of Hope. Bag of Hope gives South African women with HIV/AIDS the opportunity to create bags that are sold in the US to raise money to provide education, food, and hope to their children and the children of Zulu, South Africa. Check out the link featuring Brad on their site and take a look at their "bags of hope" also. I really like the colorful bags!

http://www.thebagofhope.com/4.html

Snow!!!!

I am glad that it rarely snow likes this in Georgia....

Yesterday we got to take Braden out in the snow to play. Braden tried to make snowballs, catch snowflakes on his tongue and he loved sliding down his slide into the snow. He kept talking about making snow angels. I don't know where he learned about that from, but I didn't really fancy the idea of him laying in the snow! We had so much fun, but it was SO cold. We got almost 6 inches of snow! After about 30 minutes we headed inside because Braden's hand were freezing. I was not prepared for snow this year!

When we got inside I made hot cocoa for Brad and Braden and then I started working on dinner. And then the power went out. Not a big deal if your home is heated by gas, which ours isn't. Not a big deal if you own a flashlight with working batteries, which we don't. Not a big deal if you weren't starting to freak out about your 2 year old freezing to death in the middle of the night, which I was. (I know, I'm a little dramatic). We decided that we would head to my parents house, but Brad wanted to check the roads. Well he couldn't even back the truck out of the driveway because of all the rain that we had gotten for 2 day and the snow mixture was freezing in the driveway and his back 2 tires on his truck were a little worn. My parents offered to come pick us up, but I didn't want them on the roads (my dad is crazy about snow....he loves it and they left the house to drive around anyway). After talking to my brother and my parents, they said it wasn't as bad in Conyers, we decided to pack up my car and give it a try. The roads were bad around our house and HWY 11, but they got better by the time made it out of Covington. We did see LOTS of wreckers and several cars in the ditch. We headed home early this morning so that Brad could get to work and I-20 was shut down right before our exit. The roads were a little icy. I'm glad we didn't stay home in the dark last night.

I got Braden bundled up when we got home and we headed out to play in the snow again. It was starting to melt off the house, but the snow was really hard and not as fun to play in as it was yesterday. I'm really glad that he got to enjoy the snow and maybe when it snows in another 5 years he can make his snow angels!

Consignment Sale Finds

I have not always been a consignment sale shopper. In fact I used to start itching at yard sales, consignment sales, etc. I would walk away scratching.....I don't know...I'm weird like that. Anyways, when Braden was 9 or 10 months old I went with the intent of looking for a Leap Frog learning table and a Leap Frog Walker. Each are about $40 each in the store and I didn't want to pay that much for them both so I went with my friend Lori. I was so excited when I walked out with the learning table for $8 and the walker for $12. They were both in excellent condition and I brought them home and sanitized them really well and he LOVED the table...he wasn't that impressed with the walker (I'm really glad I didn't spend $40 on the walker).

Since then I have worked 2 consignment sales which means that I can get into the preview sale to see the really awesome stuff and I have sold items also. I don't buy a lot of clothes from the sales just because I am super picky about clothes and I always hit sales at the end of the season at Baby GAP and Children's Place and stock up then, but I have gotten A LOT of great toys. Saturday I went to one sale and I came home with roller skates, a parent's bee bop band, 2 tool sets, a school bus (of course..like we don't have enough), a Leap Frog baby Little Touch Library with 4 books and cartridges and an interactive puzzle, a dump truck Easter basket, a little tikes bowling set (still in the box), baby gap short, osh kosh shirt, old navy shirt, and a life preserver suit for the beach and I only spent $70. Oh and a vacuum cleaner, dust buster and mop (dirt devil kid's one) for my classroom. Here are some of my great deals from this sale and past sales.

Leap Frog walker- my first buy!

This is a see saw that I bought- I sanded it, painted it and it was part of Braden's Easter gift.

This is very UGLY table that I sanded and painted for Braden's playroom.

Braden was so excited about the roller skates. I barely got them cleaned before he put them on and took off. The hard hat and suspenders came with one of the tool sets that I bought him.

Ready for the beach! Doesn't he look like a body builder?!