Birthday Girl

Saturday my sweet Aubrey girl turned three! She has so much personality wrapped up in her tiny little self. She is absolutely precious and so loving. She will sit snuggled in your lap and suck her thumb as long as you will let her and she loves it when she wakes up before anyone else and can come and crawl in next to you in bed. Her Sunday school teachers and MDO teachers absolutely love her and think she is the sweetest thing ever. Her MDO teacher calls her "a little peach". She loves Ashlyn to pieces and wants to be with her constantly. She loves helping me wake her up for school. She will sit on her bed and rub her hair, scratch her back, and kiss her head. She also loves to twirl my hair and rub Phillip's back. She is such a little love bug!

On the flip side Aubrey is very hard headed and very stubborn and wants her way. She knows what she wants or doesn't and won't budge. I love this quality God has instilled in her but good gracious it makes my blood boil at times! I am learning daily how to direct this God given quality in her. I want to encourage this characteristic in her, but she needs to learn how to direct this strong personality in a healthy, respectful, and appropriate manner. Boy howdy, teaching a two year old to be respectful and appropriate causes many many tears, fits, and feet stomping.

Aubrey is also very social! She loves people and loves attention from others around her. She wants to know what everyone's name is and loves to chat with people at the grocery store. She doesn't get upset when she is left somewhere new (like Grandparents church nursery or new MDO class room). She enjoys being somewhere new with new people to meet. She loves going up to Ashlyn's school when I volunteer because the office staff and Ashlyn's classmates just eat her up.

She is still very tiny for her age. She has her well child check up in a couple weeks but I can already guarantee she won't be on the charts for her weight and just may squeak onto the charts on height. I don't mind having petite little girls, it just means I can carry and snuggle them longer. ;)


For Aubrey's birthday this year. We wanted to just spend the day together as a family celebrating Aubrey. Aubrey's only request for her birthday was that she have chocolate! Such a girl!

For breakfast I made biscuits and chocolate gravy. Yum!

Don't worry, if you get chocolate on your elbow just lick it off!

 

After breakfast we went to the zoo. They have a petting area with goats, pigs, lama's, kangaroos, monkeys, and several other animals. 

Most all of my pictures are of her backside running after an animal while the poor thing is in retreat mode. Those poor animals have a rough life! Ha!

 

I just love this sweet girl!

The girls got to ride the horses while we were there. Which ended up being Aubrey's favorite part.

 

Sweet sisters!

 

Happy as can be. Walking on the hay bales with her little treasure, a large feather.

After lunch out and a much needed nap we had cupcakes! 

So proud of her three candles. She loved being sung to!

 Even though her only request for her birthday was chocolate, we couldn't not spoil her just a bit with a couple gifts!

Thanks Pawpaw and Nana for the dress up clothes, shoes, and a year of High Five magazines. (For anyone looking for unique kid gifts, High Five and Highlights magazines make great gifts! Ashlyn loves them and now Aubrey will enjoy the High Fives while Ashlyn will move up to the Highlights.)

Thank you Grandpa and Grandma for the game, coloring book, card, and money. Although just the singing card probably would have made her just as happy. :) 

What's for lunch?

Last year I saw one of the greatest ideas on my favorite food blog, Mel's Kitchen Cafe. She shared how she kept a list of her boy's favorite lunch items so when it was time to pack school lunches it took the brain work out of the task. At the time the girls were only in MDO once a week so I could pack the same lunch every Thursday and they wouldn't care but I knew the idea would come in handy this year. So before school started last month I hung a dry erase/ magnetic board in my pantry. I divided her lunch into four categories, main, fruit, veggie, and snack. Most of the things on the list I keep on hand so all I have to do is take a peak at the list for ideas.

There is also room on the board to hang the school lunch menu. Ashlyn doesn't seem too interested in the cafeteria lunch, which is fine, a home packed lunch is much cheaper. But, if she starts wanting to buy lunch every once in a while I can hang the menu on the board.  


I picked up a couple of these Rubbermaid lunch containers at Target and they are great. Ziploc also makes a divided lunch container but they are bigger and harder to pack if you add a thermos and another plastic container.

I like to use cupcake liners to divide foods that would otherwise smush all together. The foil lined ones are great because they don't get soggy and start to break down. Walmart has them in both the foil/zip top bag isle and the baking isle.

I also bought two different thermos'.
One like this for her drink. Much cheaper than a juice box or Capri Sun. Also, I water down their juice a ton (we're talking flavored water ratio) so I like to be able to control her juice intake.

And this one I can use for hot foods. I sent left over chicken and dumplings two weeks ago and she fussed that it was too hot. So, it really does keep the food hot!

I was pretty picky about Ashlyn's lunch box. The one she carried to MDO was a little hard to stuff everything in so I knew I didn't want one that small again since she would be carrying a bigger thermos and Rubbermaid lunch container. I ended up getting one from Lands End that is the perfect size. Plus they have their "Guaranteed to Last" policy! And it was only about $8 more than I would have paid for one from walmart or target.

I have also found that packing lunches in the evening works best for us. I make the girls a hot breakfast each morning plus Phillip takes a breakfast on the go with coffee and a packed lunch, so all those things add up to a bit of time. If all I have to do is grab the prepped lunches and put them in their lunch bags it makes the morning craziness run smoother.

So far, this is what works for us. Do you have any lunch tips to share? Any fun food ideas to keep lunch from getting boring?

Just life...

 *Phillip and I went on a date the weekend of his birthday. The girls went to their best buddies house, Makenna and Brynlee. I'm not sure if us parents or the girls enjoy our date night swaps more!

*Ashlyn got to plan and cook a dinner for our family. She chose to cook lemon shrimp, cous cous, and roasted squash. That's my girl!
She was so proud and loved every minute of it!

*We always laugh about how expensive dates our girls will be when they grow up. Their favorites are always the most expensive. Shrimp, salmon, fish, avocado, steak, and fresh cherries. What about beans and rice???

*I thought life with one kiddo in school would be much slower. Good gracious was I wrong! I feel so much busier now than before. Up and out of bed at 5:40, half way get myself ready, get everyone up and fed, lunch boxes stuffed (I prepare them the night before), out the door at 7:05, back home and get Aubrey dressed and myself finished, do some chores or errands, play time with Aubrey, lunch, naps, pick up Ashlyn, snacks, homework, play time, dinner, clean up, prep lunches, family time, pick up, baths, bed... then repeat. :)

*I have also learned homework stinks, even in kindergarten. Aubrey thinks it's awesome though. She insists on doing homework too so she sits at the bar next to Ashlyn and colors in her number and letter workbook.

 *I love unexpected "leg hugs". I think they are the sweetest thing ever!

*Ashlyn caught her first bug from school. She had the stomach bug Saturday. It had been going around her class. No.Fun. Although can I just say it's sooo much better once they can "lose it" in a bowl and not all over everything!! I just hope it doesn't spread around the family!!
Aubrey kept wanting to play with Ashlyn and I told her to "give her some space" and Aubrey leans in close and asks "kiss her face?". Ahh no, get back!

*Phillip and Aubrey planted a peach tree Saturday afternoon. Phillip gave her a little hand garden tool to use but it was sub par. She needed her pink shovel. Silly daddy, pink tools make you look cuter while working!

*And no, she wasn't playing in the sprinkler while working in the yard. Our swim suits are just part of our home wardrobe. It's either swim suits, dress up clothes, or shirts and undies. :)

*Ashlyn put pigtails in Aubrey's hair. She sat as still as can be and let her do it. I may start recruiting Ashlyn to do pigtail duty. Aubrey always hollers the whole time I put them in. They never stay in long either, she always twists and pulls at her hair while sucking her thumb. There's not much you can do to manage that crazy head of hair she has!

*Ashlyn absolutely loves school! She has had a couple little fears she has had to face head on but it has been very good for her. She is like a sponge and soaks in everything. I'm always surprised at how much little minds can retain.

Pretty School

A week and a half ago was Aubrey's first day of Mother's Day Out. She has been asking to go to school since Ashlyn started kindergarten.
She thinks she is as big as Ashlyn and should be able to do everything she does. This drives Ashlyn bonkers! When we are out and about we often get asked "how old are you?" (the girls, not me :) ) and when the person hears Ashlyn is five the next question is "are you going to kindergarten?". Aubrey is very chatty and wants to talk to everyone at the store so she quickly offers up her answers. And she always tells people she is five and is going to kindergarten too. Ashlyn finally set Aubrey straight and told her she is NOT going to kindergarten and that she was going to pre-school. So not Aubrey calls MDO pre-school, only when she says it it sounds like "pretty school". Oh Boy!
Let it be known I didn't start getting gray hair until I started raising this little gal! ;) She is a mess and a half!!
Aubrey got a new big girl "pack-pack" and she is so proud of it! She got to carry it for the first time when we went up to volunteer in Ashlyn's class. She literally pranced across the parking lot and modeled it for the office ladies. I'm sure she thought she was big enough to be in kindergarten. 

Here is the big girl on her first day! She insisted on standing with her back to me so I could get a picture of her "pack-pack".

I had to beg, coax, and bribe her to get her to turn around so I could see her face!

She walked right into her room and went straight for the baby dolls. She was so involved in playing I had to call her name three times to get her attention so I could tell her bye.
She had a great day and her teachers always tell me how sweet and precious she is!