Our great families!

We are so lucky to have the families we do.  They're always there to help out!  After a recent Wishlist post, my mom informed me she got Gavin a magnifying glass and Jackie sent us some money to spend of craft stuff.  Now both sides of the family are collecting things for Tot School and Jackie just ordered the laminator for us!  Gavin's so lucky.  :)  We love you guys!

Coming soon...

Tot School!

I've been following the blog 1+1+1=1 for a while just to get ideas for Gavin but I decided to take it a step further and start our own 'Tot School' here.  I've been thinking a lot about when to start Gavin in preschool, and I've also been trying to think of the best way to handle his behavior when Gracie's here.  I've decided to give this a shot so that it provides more direction and more structure on the days Gracie's here.  The past week or so has been filled with lots of organizing on my part - my ideas, the supplies, the closet....  And I'm going to get started next week!  For now I think I'm going to try it 3 days a week - twice with Gracie, and one day of just us. 

Here are some pictures of the newly organized closet:

I still have to get some trays to use.  I'm going to look at the dollar store this week for some cheap cookie sheets and see how those will work.  The 'big' purchase I need to get for 'Tot School' is a laminator so that we can reuse all the tools I make.  The creator of the blog mentioned earlier recommends this one:  Laminator.  I have a few parties on the schedule for September so I'm hoping to use some of the money I make to purchase that.  I'm looking forward to starting this and seeing how things go.  I think we're both (Gavin and myself) ready for it!  Tot School, here we come!

Sweet Summer Corn!

The boy loves corn!  I'm so glad we finally bought corn holders so he can eat it straight off the cob like we do. 

Craft Time with Mommy

More crafts!!!  I've been putting Gavin up in his high chair with something to do while I prepare dinner if it's something I don't necessarily want him helping out with.  Thursday, I was making homemade pizza dough and it's a messy process as it is...didn't want him contributing to that mess!  So, up in the chair he went and I went to the closet to find something for him to do. 

I'm not totally sure where this idea came from.  I had just added an empty tissue box to our closet of crafts, and this popped into my head.  I added a bunch of different textural items to the tissue box.  Then, I cut out the middle of a small paper plate.  Together, we added a lot of glue to the paper plate and Gavin got to work!

He got to put his hand into the box and pick out different items.  Then, he positioned them where he wanted them to go on the paper plate.

Craft time with Gavin is usually very quick.  He doesn't spend a lot of time coloring, painting, etc.  But, he loved this and it took a lot of time.  I got a good 25-30 minutes of prep time in the kitchen while he glued.  It dried overnight, and then we added a picture to it and Daddy got to take it to work!  So cute!

Dora's Birthday!

Though I may not be a fan of Dora, Gavin is....so when I saw Dora's Birthday Adventure on tv, I was nice to enough to DVR it for him.  It was on around bedtime so I didn't let him watch it that night, plus I knew we didn't have anything big planned for the next day so I decided to make a day out of it.

We headed to Walmart for a few groceries and picked up some cake mix and frosting.  Then it was home to start baking.  Gavin loves cooking with me!

Of course, when we're doing any cooking, he wants to taste it....I'm always nervous of the uncooked egg in the batter, but he really wanted some.  So, I scraped off half of the batter and let him lick a little off one beater. 

Checking out our work....

While Gavin napped, the cupcakes cooled and I added the frosting.  Once he woke up,

I let him do the sprinkles.

I don't know why it's so hard to get him to smile for me on command.  I get great candid smiling shots, but if I say, 'Look at mommy and smile,' I get goofy shots. 

Our finished cupcakes!

Time to enjoy the show and the cupcakes!

And, as usual, there's Shirley, waiting for any crumbs!  She's gotten really bad about begging for food at the table since Gracie's been coming and would give her food.  I have to try harder and remember to put her outside or in the bedroom when there's food around.  She's been stealing food off the blue table recently...