Bye Bye Crib, Hello Big Girl Bed!

Today was a big day in our family--Kate moved to her big girl bed!  It's a bit overdue, but we finally made it.

 Kate had one last play time in her crib.

 She LOVED her new bed immediately.  Every time I'd turn around, she'd be playing on it or pretending to sleep.  Around naptime, she just climbed in and said, "Leave the door open?"  She slept soundly through her nap and sat quietly in her bed until we called her.  

She's feeling like quite the big girl tonight.   And she looks like a big girl in her new bed!

Valentine's Day

The kids got baskets for Valentine's Day.

 Kate's basket had candy jewelry in it--two things she loves combined into one.

Later they made Valentine's Day cards for Nate.  There was an overabundance of glitter that I regretted for days following.

Gappy Smile

Grant has lost 2 more teeth recently...this makes 4 total.  He's looking more like a big kid with his missing teeth!

Kate insisted on having her picture taken showing HER teeth.  I don't think she really understood what was happening.

Binoculars

Grant got some binoculars for his unbirthday gift.  Kate thinks they are fascinating.  Her new favorite thing to do is watch TV using binoculars.  It doesn't matter how close to or far from the TV she is, the binoculars come out.

Hmmm...

I still find Grant like this from time to time.  He used to sleep like this when he was a baby, but it's funny to me that he still ends up in this position.  

Sleepover Fun

We let Kate sleep in Grant's room for the first time.  It was an interesting night.  They laughed, squealed, giggled, and talked and had just a great time.  I ran upstairs to check on them at one point and this is what I found: Kate in her Pack-n-Play reading a magazine while Grant was mischievously dangling his toy snake over the side of his bed to touch her head.  

At 10:00, I told them it was time to settle down and try to go to sleep.  By 11:30, Grant was asleep but Kate was still playing, talking, and looking at her magazine.  I'm not quite ready for another sleepover...even though they keep begging to do it again.  Maybe in the summer when I can sleep in.

Pals

These two are best buds.  This is how they chose to watch their movie.

"Geocaching"

Have you heard of geocaching?  There are apps for your phone that you can download that guide you via GPS to locations where other people have left either some sort of treasure or a log for you to sign your name.  It's like a treasure hunt.  We decided to try it as a family and went out a couple of weeks ago.  Grant was very excited to find treasure.  Well, we are notoriously BAD at geocaching.  We can't seem to find anything.  The first attempt ended badly, with a hot, sweaty, complaining boy.  But we liked the idea of geocaching as a way to get the kids excited about being outside and getting some exercise together as a family.  So Nate and I decided that we needed to tweak it a bit.  Nate went to the store and bought some tiny little toys in little plastic containers that we could "find" together.  We'd get out our phone and pretend to be guided to a particular spot then the kids would search around and discover the toys.  Grant LOVED it this time, and the next morning he ran downstairs, fully dressed and begging to go out to find more treasure.

 Kate was the only one brave enough to grab the treasure next to the sprinkler.

 After a bit of treasure hunting, we played at the playground.  Kate wouldn't play because she wanted to hold her "treasures".  

 I finally convinced her that I would hold her treasures so she could play for a few minutes, but she ended up getting stuck on the climbing toy and needed lots of hugs from Daddy.

The mascot for Grant's school (CAVA) is a bear.  They have a stuffed bear called Cava Bear that students get to take home for one week at a time.  They are supposed to take Cava Bear with them to do an activity and take a picture.  Then they write about what they did and present it to the class. This was Grant's contribution.

1st Annual Unbirthday Celebration

We decided to start a new tradition in our family: an unbirthday celebration.  Grant was thrilled with the idea and suggested that we have a tea party (which is only natural since that's how they celebrated the unbirthday in Alice in Wonderland).

 Kate had just woken up from a very short nap and was quiet, groggy, and a bit grumpy...until the cake came out.  Then she was suddenly hungry and all smiles.  Hmmm...

We had our tea party, listened to songs from Alice in Wonderland, opened gifts, had cake, and later watched the movie together.  It was such a fun time and we look forward to celebrating it again next year!

Pretend City

Last week we got to go to Pretend City with Jill and Lili.  After a wild goose chase around Irvine, we finally found it.  It was such a fun day!

Lili working at the grocery store 

Grant and Kate working the bakery department at the store 

Jill was checking out with her items--Lili added some mayo to her basket. 

 Kate found the little cars and had the best time driving around town.

 Grant found a tow truck--a new addition since the last time we were there.

 Clearly, my kids thought driving around was the most fun.  That's exactly what I would've wanted to do when I was little.

 Grant picked some apples

 Kate checked out the baby chicks

 Grant worked in the kitchen of the Italian restaurant.  We waited a long time for our food only to realize our waiter had left the building and went on to find other things to do.  Needless to say, he didn't earn a tip.

 Grant lifted some weights at the fire station

 Jill worked on Lili's teeth at the dentist's office.  Here she's saying, "Now I open up your jaw."  So if Lili is a little leery of dentists from now on, this may be why.  :-)

It was really hard to get a picture where both Lili and Kate were looking at the camera at the same time.  This was as close as I could get. 

On the way home, Kate said "Fun day!"  I asked her what her favorite thing was and she said, "Auntie Jill...fun with me...cookies."  She adores Auntie Jill and eating...put them together and you have the perfect day.