Kelsey's New Bike

Kelsey's birthday was on a Friday, and we didn't get to open presents until pretty much bed time.  So, there was very little bit riding.  But the next day was Saturday, and there was plenty of time for little Miss Thing to get her bike riding on.

 There was a little bit of instruction.

 And a little bit of riding.  (PS- I love Kaitlyn in the background)

 And a little bit of getting used to it.  

 All in all, she did ok.  She doesn't super love it yet, but that will take time, so I am ok with that.

Cute little non baby.

Done, the Ceremony

After presents, it was jammies, teeth brushing, and bed.  But first, we had to throw away that pesky pacifier!  I had the kids line up so we could all give Kelsey our support.

 Then I told her to give it one last suck.

 And say cheese!

 Then she threw it away.  And she did it so fast, that I missed the actual event.

 Yay big girl Kelsey!!!

 High Five!

And then we went to bed where she asked for her nigh night....  Sometimes, 3 year olds don't get it.  There were some tears, and lots of cuddles, and I had to go into her room 3 times.  After about 2.5 hours, it was time for hubby and I to go to bed, and it had been about 45 min since the last time I had been in her room.  I thought "Well, that wasn't so bad.  Maybe she is gonna get the hang of this."  But when I went in to check on her before bed, like I always do, I discovered she is a stinker!!!  She had climbed on her dresser up to the top shelf that I didn't think she could reach, and found one of the spares I kept up there, but neglected to throw away!!!  So, she totally cheated on her first night!!!  I took it away from her in her sleep, and ended up going into her room about 3 more times that night.  The next night it only took 2 times, and the next night, while it took her quite a while to fall asleep, she slept through the night.  All by herself.  It took her about a week to stop asking for it, and to not require mommy to come into the room several times.  But she did it.  And I am so proud!

Kelsey's Presents

Kelsey has hand-me-down everything.  And for a 3 year old, that just means more toys!  But it also means she really doesn't need anything.  Because she has most things.  She has a hand me down tricycle too, but hubby and I thought that for her birthday, we would get Kelsey her own bike!!!  Even though she is our fourth, we thought about trying out these new fangled balance bike thingys.

 The theory is that there are no pedals to get in the way, so the child kinda walks with it, and learns to balance, so they basically skip the training wheels stage.

 And it is so dang cute!  Because it is tiny, and anything tiny is cute. 

 She rode it around the inside of the house a little bit.

 And here she is telling us it is "bo-ken".  As far as I can tell, she realized it didn't have any pedals and thought it was broken.  Clever girl.

 Then it was onto a present from Nana and Pop.

 Legos!!!

It was a very merry bur-bay!

Happy Bur-bay Kelsey!

I have four children, the oldest being 10 years old.  And while my children have eaten store bought cakes, and Kaitlyn has had a few bought for her, I have never bought a store bought birthday cake for any of my children.  However, I went a head a bit the bullet for Kelsey.  Must be because she is my favorite. ;)

What had happened was, I started about 2 weeks early prepping Kelsey for loosing her "nigh night" (pacifier).  In our house, it is tradition to loose the pacifier at 3 years old.  Because they are big enough they don't need it anymore.  We have a big ceremony where they drop it in the trashcan, and then BOOM!  Done!  So, I started putting Kelsey to bed saying " When it is your birthday in a few days, you will be a big girl, right?  And big girls don't need nigh nights anymore, right?"  And she would answer "My bur-bay?!?!  My bur-bay kitty cake!"  Every time.  For almost two weeks.  Apparently she had seen it when we made a quick grocery run, and decided she wanted it.  I was busy that week, and she already knew exactly what she wanted, so....  Kelsey got a store bought kitty cat cake.

 I think she is happy :)

 Such concentration!

 Happy Birthday my Baby!!!

 She blew out the candles all by herself.  And even picked the candles she wanted on the cake.  Hence the reason why they don't match. :)

 But she is three.  And that is ok.

*Sniff sniff*  My baby is growing up!

Kari's Piggy Bank

Kari, as the oldest, is the only one who gets allowance as of right now.  That may change in the future, but for now, that is the way it goes.  Because she has an income, we have spoke just a little bit about budgets.  Saving, spending, tithing, etc.  I gave her a piggy bank that I had as a girl that was made of cardboard and had 3 sections: Tithing, Savings and Spending.  But, being her daddy's girl, that wasn't quite enough.  She has other things she wants to save for, and apparently cardboard is not good enough.  Enter Daddy.

The design and measurements are all her own.

And there is even some options for additional customization options later.

She and Daddy had a lot of fun working on this together, and it was great they had some quality time together.

Ready for nails and glue!

After the glue had dried, she was ready to paint!  She had to mark out the divisions (as she has 6 separate fund abilities).

And then it was paint, paint, paint!

Unfortunately, she has our genes in her through and through.  She didn't get to completely finish painting in one day, and it has been sitting there ever since.  To be fair, she also has another project she is working on, but....  I suppose we will get to that later too!

Happy Valentines Day to Me!

Last year, if you remember, hubby and I got each other tickets to a show for Valentines day.  It was a really entertaining show, and we really enjoyed the time together!  Since it was my idea last time, I looked into the same kind of thing for this go around too.  But nothing caught my eye, and the ones that did were waaaaaaay too expensive for my taste.  So, I ended up getting hubby an antenna (a bit early) for Valentines Day.  We don't have cable, and I ordered it early enough that hubby could watch the SuperBowl!

His gift to me was also my suggestion.  But, boy, do I love it when things turn out as well as I think they will.  You see, my master bedroom is downstairs in the basement.  I don't super love being away from the kids, but during the summer it is nice because it is colder than the rest of the house.  Problem is, that in the winter, it is also colder than the rest of the house.  That doesn't always bother me.  Except for getting into bed.  Getting into cold sheets always makes me shiver for a few minutes before things warm up.  So, I suggested for Valentines Day that hubby get me a heated mattress pad.

Because it is so big, it has two controllers, so my side and hubby's side can be different temperatures if need be.  And it has an automatic timer for 10 hours.  So far, hubby and I haven't used it overnight.  We just use it to preheat the sheets before we get into bed, and then turn it off.  But let me tell you, getting into a warm bed is pretty much super freaking awesome!!!

The mattress pad is machine washable and can be put in the dryer as well!  Score for me!  You just detach the cord at the bottom and boom!  Done!  This little box CAN be felt a little bit at the bottom of the bed, but most of the time it isn't noticeable.  And getting into a super warm bed is totally worth it!

I haven't had this but for a week, but so far I give it 9 out of 10 stars!  I love getting into a warm bed!  I love that it is machine washable (though I haven't had to do it yet, and the instructions are pretty specific).  And I love that hubby and I can have our own temperatures!  

Now if only I owned a toilet seat warmer....

Kelsey's Letters, Part Two

Then comes the Mod Podge!  First, put down a layer underneath the paper.

 Put the paper on top.

 Then put another layer on top, and spread out and smooth the Mod Podge.

 Then let them dry!

 I recruited hubby to help me hang them up.  I used blue painters tape and tried a few configurations, until we/I found one we liked.  Then it was up to Mr Tape Measure and his friend Bionic Eye Man to make it work.  The spheres had a hole in the middle of each one in the back, so we got big, long nails so they would stick out a little bit, and voila!  Done!

 Ready for their close up!

 Kelsey, with her water gun, seem to like them too :)

I love that they seem to fit into the theme of the room, but hubby says they look like weird, polka dot nipples...   What can I say, he is a stinker!

Kelsey's Letters, Part One

Each of the children have their names in their room, in letters especially crafted for them.  I have shown you Dylan's before, but not the big girls.  Mostly because I finished those before I had a blog :)  But you can see their names over their closet doors in this post.  So I knew that was something that I wanted to put in Kelsey's bedroom.  When looking for inspiration, I again looked at her blanket and the "lolly pop" trees.  When I went to the craft store, I found some half spheres that were perfect!  I used the same colors and paints that I previously used with the clock.  First was to paint the base deep red color.  It took 3 coats.

 Then, I used the same pink color from her walls and some different sized sponge brushy things to put polka dots on them.

 Next was the green.  Aaaaaand then....  Well, I didn't know how to finish.  I think I am a decent copy cat person.  Except for lettering.  I don't particularly like my handwriting, and I couldn't think of a quick, easy way to finish and put the letters on them.  So, they sat.  Yes that is a Christmas tree in the background.  And, no, it is not from 2 months ago.  That is from 14 months ago!!!  They sat for over a year.

 As they sat, staring at me from a much neglected horizontal surface downstairs, I realized that Kelsey's third birthday was coming up, and I kinda wanted to finish decorating her room for her birthday.  So I bit the bullet, and thought really hard.  I brought the bases back up stairs and had to do some touch ups (they had been moved a few times and gotten a few scrapes).  After the paint dried, I covered them all with a coat of Mod Podge.

 Then I surfed my computer a bit.  I went into word and found a font that I liked, blew it up to size and printed it off.  Then, I stalled again for a second.  I needed to figure out how to transfer the letters, since I didn't want them in black.  First, I thought about just using plain white paper, so I traced them...

But I decided I didn't like white, and wanted to go with pink.  So I went to my local craft store and spent a whole $.40 on the perfect sheet of pink paper.  I also went to the grocery store that day.  After unloading everything, I discovered I couldn't find the paper.  I have no idea where it went!  This was almost 3 weeks ago, and I STILL haven't found it.  So, I went downstairs in my craft drawers and found one that would work just fine.

 While hubby has graciously offered to build me a lot box on a few occasions, I haven't ever taken him up on the offer.  So I needed another way to easily see the black letters through the pink paper.  They say necessity is the mother of all invention, and I can see why.  It was a beautiful, sunny day outside, so I used that to my advantage.  I taped the white paper onto my glass screen door first, then I taped the pink paper over the top.  Voila!  Instant light box! 

 The only problem being that I had to rest my arm between letters because all the blood ran out of it :)  But the result was pretty good, if I do say so myself.

 I then borrowed (read: stole) an x-acto blade from my hubby and carefully cut out each letter.  I went back with some scissors around the curvy parts, just to even things out.

To Be Continued...