Easter 2012

It has been so fun looking at all of your blog posts about Easter. 

There is nothing cuter than excited kiddos all dressed up! 

Thanks for sharing!! 

Our Easter was a weekend long celebration!

Friday Night

We went to my parents' house for dinner, an egg hunt, and dessert.

Reagan loved being with his cousins.

Saturday 

We went to Nick's Mom and Step-Dad's house for an egg hunt, playing, and dinner.

There is always so much to explore in their backyard! He loves it.

Sunday

We had a visit from the Easter Bunny, went to church, and then spent the day at my parents' house. I was feeling pretty crummy all day- so thank goodness for family who let me veg out and do nothing! 

(Ps- How cute! It was Baby Charlotte's first Easter!)

13 week Pregnancy Survey

I thought I would jump on the blog-bandwagon and start filling these out periodically for the twins' pregnancy. Hope you enjoy! 

How far along are you?13 1/2 weeks

Total weight gain: I'm down 11 pounds.

 Talk about morning all-day sickness.

How big are the babies? : They weigh nearly an ounce and

 are the size of a medium shrimp.

Maternity clothes: Depends on the day really.  

In the photos above (taken today) I am just in a regular maxi dress.

 It is pretty funny to look at pictures from Reagan's pregnancy.

 I didn't have a bump like this with him until about 6 months.

 I'm so much bigger now!

Stretch marks?: Not yet. I didn't get any until the last week of

pregnancy with Reagan. But I'm sure they will come sooner this time around.

Sleep: I'm still exhausted a lot of the time.

I go to bed right after Reagan goes to bed and sleep pretty much

 throughout the night. Give or take a few bathroom breaks!

Best moment this week: Easter celebrations.

I love seeing things through Reagan's 3 year-old eyes.

Children are amazing!

Movement: Not too sure. I thought I felt some "butterfly"

type movement but it seems too early.

Food cravings: I've been eating salads and apples daily.

 Otherwise I pretty much can't stand the thought of food.

Food aversions: Breakfast is my enemy.

Labor signs: No way Jose

Belly button in or out: In.

What I miss:  Iced tea and soda.

What I'm looking forward to: Getting Reagan's big-boy room all set up, feeling movement, and finishing up the school year.

Ps- Not sure I posted these on the blog- these are from the babies 12 week ultrasound!

Bear Week in First Grade

This week our anthology story was "Fishing Bears".

It's always one of the kids (and the teacher's) favorite nonfiction stories and it makes for great extension activities.  Here is what we were up to:

(1)

During writing we researched various kinds of bears and made bear bubble maps and tree maps.  They then turned their thinking maps into bear reports.  They turned out really great! 

(2)

We read "Going on a Bear Hunt" and re-told the story using a bear story map.

I forgot to take pictures- so here is the link from last year :

2011 Bear Week

(3)

We ended the week with Teddy Bear Day.

We did "bear math" 

We sorted our bears.

By size

 And color

And we ended the day with a teddy bear picnic.

There are so many great activities to do with bears! Unfortunately there isn't enough time in the day! 

We are getting closer and closer to our big end of the year tests and our science/theme time is limited! 

Yes. This happened today.

Yep. After lunch I notice Table 3 passing around "chapstick". 

I walk over and immediately tell them how gross it is to share these kinds of items, etc.

I look down and read

 "Fleshlight. The #1 Selling Sex Toy for Men".

What the heck?

I grab it before they read it and stick it on my desk.... 

to shield their young eyes.... errr.. show my friends later. 

One of the little boys told me his mom gave it to him.

Lord have mercy.

Reagan's 3rd Birthday Party

Yesterday was Reagan's 3rd birthday party.

I had decided earlier this year that the kids were getting old enough to need some structure to their parties, so I planned on having it at our city's railroad park. And boy, was I glad that I did.  

Considering my first trimester was spent sick or sleeping, there wasn't a lot of party-planning going on over here.  Luckily the railroad staff does most of it! I was able to bring in a few of my own decorations/touches to make it more personalized but I didn't work months on it like I had on previous Reagan parties! Phew. We had 17 kids and 21 adults in all.

I ordered the invites from Anna Jayne Prints off Etsy.

I didn't want a cheesy (no offense) Thomas the Train party.... Reagan isn't really into Thomas.  He just likes trains so I didn't want to go overboard! So I thought this was a perfect combo.

My little Train Conductor

 This was pretty much my only decoration table.

I made the banner, ordered the sign, and got bandannas for all the kids.

 I printed off a copy of the invitation and photos from his invitation photo shoot to be framed.

 I ordered these train lollipops to be made from SweetCrescendos off Etsy.

 My sister made cupcakes and used matching liners I ordered from Clementine Parties and Shop Lemon Drops off Etsy.

The inside portion of the party was inside of a train car.  The kids sat at a long table that I covered with table clothes and paper goods from Party City.

The party was broken into 3 half hour portions.

The first half hour was for games.

 First was "Red Light / Green Light".

Reagan loved calling out the orders.

 Next was the parachute.

 And last was "Tug -O-War".

It was so cute!

The second half hour was for cake and ice cream.

The third half hour was for rides.

 Walking to the train.

 Ladies man.

 Friends on the train.

They let Reagan sit in the conductor's seat and he was so excited!

Ready to ride!

Next everyone got to ride the "Merry-go-round".

 "Yee-haw"

At the end, all the kids went back to the party train to get their balloons, lollipops, and other belongings. 

And guess who cleaned up? Not me!

We loaded up our cars and we were outta there! :)

We went home and Reagan opened up his presents.

It was a great 3rd birthday party!