Arnie the Doughnut

This book is HILARIOUS- we love this author... Mickey especially. He can look at her books for hours. We have Open Wide: Tooth School Inside, Do Unto Otters and The Scrambled States of America and after getting Arnie from the library I think we need to ask the Easter Bunny for this one too. I just noticed on Amazon that this author has other books too!

The illustrations remind me of how Mickey illustrates- with great detail and sophisticated humor. Must be why he loves them so much.

This one from the library came with the audio CD which was great because they did all the voices- so funny and cute. And as an added bonus- Arnie is Mickey's favorite kind of doughnut: chocolate icing with rainbow sprinkles. :)

Ice Skating Classic 2012

Well, it was that time of year again... when I have to bundle up and go stand in the cold and snow all afternoon trying not to get killed by 3 million little kids flying around on ice skates. Luckily, the weather wasn't half bad this year again and I managed to live through the experience although I was quite exhausted at the end(must have been all the walking through snow).

Here are the highlights:

first some cute pics of Mary Beth and her BFF Emma...

It took my forever to find Jeffrey in this mass hysteria which is why he isn't in any of the earlier pictures. John was at a workshop and had to miss this for the first time so I was on my own!

Mary Beth decided to race- and without a chair! It was her first year in the Classic so I was so proud of her! She didn't fall once and did really good.

5th place!

(I think she was upset she didn't finish last though because she wanted the pink ribbon!)

Jeffrey had a master plan... to race with a chair for a better chance at the blue ribbon.

And it worked! But there's a story there... he raced against one other kid- a fourth grader who was in the lead the entire time. But then, right at the end, the other kid suddenly fell somehow and Jeffrey skated by and crossed the finish line first. It didn't make any difference to him how it happened- he was so happy that it ended in a blue ribbon for him!

Mickey never wants to race... he isn't big into entering into a competition that he isn't sure he will win. And there is never anything I can say to change his mind. He had fun skating around and drinking cocoa though!

getting ready to leave... Mary Beth flopped down in the snow and declared it was "so hot!"

What a day!

it was a good afternoon

and I discovered Hipstamatic today- a cool picture app on my phone!

Queen of Clean & baking's a dream{with an easy bake oven!}

Today Mary Beth cleaned up a HUGE mess in the play room before the boys even made it down there to help her! So they grabbed a crown and put it on her head and dubbed her "The Queen of Clean." Isn't that cute?

We also broke out the new Easy Bake Oven she got from the Websters for Christmas. She was SO excited to finally try it- we've been waiting for a special non-busy day.

It was just how I remembered mine! Mary Beth made a cake for all of us to share after supper. The boys were a bit taken aback at their serving size- haha!

She can't wait to bake again!

today: teeth & journaling

So today when I picked Mickey up from school at 11:30, he came bouncing down the stairs with a big white thing in his mouth. I was confused as to what it could be. Well, he jumped in the van and announced that he had just pulled his first molar out in the bathroom! I asked when he noticed it was loose and he said this morning- wow! That was fast! Then he realized that he was now tied with Jeffrey so that made it even better.

Then later in the afternoon after we did some Math he went into the bathroom and pulled out another molar and said "There, now I'm ahead of Jeffrey." I began to get nervous that he was going to just keep pulling out all of his teeth... and I guess he did too because he got really worried and told me that was enough for now and could I please make him only soft foods for supper because he didn't know how he was going to manage to eat without any teeth left.

I made mash potatoes. :)

I also wanted to share this new book that arrived from amazon: it's called Rip the Page and it is so great! If you click on the link you can look inside it on amazon. I may get one for myself(it's not just for kids). I knew Mickey would love it because you can doodle in it and rip pages out be creative! He spent a lot of time with it today(when he was busy ripping teeth out of his mouth that is!).

Then I also gave him a new composition book and printed out a list of 75 writing prompts for his age level and glued it to the inside cover. He seems to really enjoy writing if he has some control over the topic- and when he is allowed to illustrate it! I think it's important to follow his passion and keep writing fun for him so that it doesn't turn into something he hates.

His journal writing today was Diary of a Molar. I love it! Notice the canine tooth is barking.

When Mary Beth got home and saw Mickey's writing journal she begged to have one of her own. I happen to have a pink one in my stash so all was right with the world! She worked so hard on it! She loves writing and drawing also- look at that little face! I just want to kiss those cheeks a million times a day! Oh wait, I do.

See her writing prompts? They are for first graders- she wanted it to be just like Mickey's. Naturally!

smart penguin! watch this...

a great birthday present: a fort kit!

I've put this kit together for birthday presents a couple of times now. I think it's so great- I know I would have loved to get this when I was little... who wouldn't?? So when I saw it here, I knew I had to make some up.

This one was for Mary Beth's friend Will who had his birthday party tonight. She was so excited to help me get everything put together. I bought a bunch of plastic clips from IKEA and some inexpensive sheets when we were there a few times ago- keeping this project in mind. I have also used clean sheets from the thrift store washed on my sanitize/steam cycle.

I stamped/labelled some cardstock and then laminated them for the two kinds of clips and the suction cup tag. I just think it was cute that way!

And it gave Mary Beth more things to help with.

The awesome fort tag for the bag was printed from the blog post where I found the whole idea- I laminated that also. I don't know how to make my own yet but someday I hope to learn!

We also included some clothesline, a flashlight, and a doodling book for something cool to do in the fort! Another idea would be to include a cute small lantern instead of the flashlight. They have great ones at Eddie Bauer in different colors.

The party was tons of fun- it was at the YMCA. Lots of great exercise and playing with friends.

And it looked like Will liked his fort kit!