So Much change in 3 months

We welcomed our second child, a beautiful baby boy, to our family the day after Valentines Day.  We are so blessed.

 The First Day of Kindergarten for little C, and while she has spent the last 5 years attending daycare/preschool this seemed like a much bigger step.  For one she not right next to my work - I actually get 10 minutes of driving time alone now, each way - it feels weird as of now.  We spent the week before her first day practicing some practical info - teachers name, grade, mom and dad's name etc.  And we decorated her backpack and made rainbow bread.  It's still an adjustment but she is having a blast each day.  We've signed her up for kindergarten soccer, skills practice  but she wants so badly to play a sport at school :)

Her firsat day started out with some tears for both her and I.  She didn't want me to leave, her before/ after care program is new to here and she knows no-one, not the way I would choose to go normally but just how fate worked out.  It is run by great people and on day 2 no tears.  Her first day probably ended before I got to the car - mine lasted the whole way to work and I was prone to tears all day.

No Idea what happened the first day - she chooses to not talk about it.

Decorated backpack

Rainbow bread - the best thing ever :)  and all natural.

1st day lunch -yup I took pictures of everything except her breakfast.

Rock Out!!

Posing with a local police vehicle - her idea.

A Very Active Lazy Family Sunday

The family managed a bunch of chores and errands yesterday plus a little fun.  So we spent Father's Day as a family.
We played Hide & Seek, Lawn Dice - OK I know we don't play by the real rules but this is a fun way to play with numbers.  We also played bocci, and catch and keep away.  Little C and I have worked on some craft time together.  We went out before it got hot and went for a walk out back - beautiful views.
Big c got his father's day card during lunch, a picnic out on the lawn.  I a little bit he will be able to  head out for a ride on the bike. - Lucky Daddy.

Heading out on our walk

Snack/ Drink Stop

Trying to avoid the Tall Grass

The View from Out back - Awesome!

"Come on Guys"

Pancakes with Little C

 This morning we decided to make pancakes and I figured little C had gotten old enough and more importantly that she had been listening enough to be safe around the stove and hot skillet. These are oatmeal pancakes and they are always quick to to whip up.
We use squeeze bottles to be able to draw and write anything (OK almost anything).  This time we also decided to use a color too.  We have these great liquid natural food colors from Chocolate Craft Kits which are perfect for this.

Our electric skillet is old and is loosing it's non-stick properties.  So we were loosing a lot of pancakes and admittedly my patients was getting short.  I had really hoped to let little C flip her own pancakes and everything.  Instead due to stickiness I had to loosen and pick up before she could flip.  Her aim is great though.

Flipping the pancake - and you can see all the sticking too.

We had fun making letters, flowers, little c made a mommy pancake, a sunshine and a dragonfly.  There were also plenty of circles, squares and one star that became a flower.

Letters for everyone, M for Mommy, D for Daddy - little c's got done earlier.

Mommy Pancake, you can see the "white" and purple pancake patter here.

Little C kept us in good spirits despite the sticking and lost pancakes.  The first batch (with the first mommy pancake) was a total loss and lead to a bout of tears, but she perked right up and went back to cooking.  I think this turned out well for a first cooking at the "stove" experience, we will try again later so she has the satisfaction of the whole process.

A Great Adventure

Saturday was a day full of great fun for the whole family, first little C and I made pancakes together which all three of us enjoyed together.  we then gathered snack, drinks any bags so we could head out on our way.

Saturday is the Farmer's Market in Montpelier and this weekend the Montpelier Recreation department also held their annual Touch-A-Truck Event. We parked in the high school lot, where touch a truck would be held, we had originally miss planned our timing and were at the high school an hour early.  This must have been fate because it worked out great, we grabbed out market bags and walked from the HS down to State St. to enjoy the Farmer's Market. it was an easy walk for all of us, even the littlest.
This was our first time going to the Montpelier Farmer's Market - what a treat.  Lots of vendors and entertainment. Our first stop was at a little flea market stand where little C checked out some toys, while big C went to check out info on solar panels.  Soon little C got tired of the toys and wanted to go check out the food :)
We didn't have any agenda or list of things we needed at home, this was more of a fun time visit.  Saw lots of yummy greens and gorgeous rainbow chard.  At little C's request we got some honey sweetened lemonade from McGurran Bee Farm. Refreshing, just sweet enough and neither the lemon or the honey overpowered the other.  Our first food stop was for big C he got a beef and cheese Samosa from Samosaman, they are always yummy, I had a small bite since I wasn't hungry enough for my own.
We enjoyed music while we kept looking, tried a BBQ sauce and an asparagus pesto (YUM).  Found a vendor (Woodbelly Pizza) selling pizza baked on site (this might have been the first portable oven I've seen) Oh it was so good - eggs, bacon, onion and cheese.  Very yummy.   We shared, since we were pacing ourselves adn wanted to check out all there was to offer.
Our last food and drink came from NuttySteph's and Green Mountain Twisters.  A plain pretzel and iced drinking chocolate - both picked by little C as she hadn't been interested in much yet.  They also had a really good looking chocolate cherry pretzel.  I just might be addicted to the drinking chocolate.  Different than chocolate milk, cool, served on ice and not to sweet.  It was perfect.  Both were enjoyed by all of us and was a good end to the food we found at the market.  Even better they are located in Middlesex near the new house.
 On our way out and to our next stop we took some time to watch a young street entertainer.  Very good juggler who has performed with circus smirkus in past years and was raising money for the circus.  He had a great presence about him.

We ended our day at the Touch-A-Truck event where trucks of all sizes come and are open for the kids to explore.  they can climb inside and honk the horns, pretend to drive and in general have a great time.  Much to little C's joy there was a bouncy house, where she was considered one of the big kids :)  she got her face painted and got a balloon pirate sword and scabbard.  The clowns doing the face painting and balloons must have been a family - kids and adults working together and they did a great job with all of the kids.
When asked what her favorite truck was she said the ones with horns - so that would be all of them.

Mohawk!!

Not our first mowhawk.  This is actually day 3 with a mohawk, all at school.  Little c rocks it well.  We've even gotten new hair products to help make a better mohawk.

I've been wanting to do this since she got it cut short, but never pushed the issue.  Last week while playing with water in front of the mirror sh gave herself a mohawk and thought it was hilarious.  She was very pleased with herself.  She jumped on the idea when I asked if she wanted to wear it to school.  Of course I didn't think she would say yes, or think through the offer - I had no clue where any of the hair products were that could help.

Stumbled across some flexible hair wax and hair spray which made a reasonable if floppy mohawk - all in all she liked it.  So we stocked up on a stiffer hair wax and an extreme  hold gel called gorilla snot - the upside is it is natural, the down side if you want to call it that is it feels and looks like it's name.  Seems to be working though.

Little C's room, changing

So this weekend we spent some time updating and decorating little c's bedroom.
First we got her a twinset bed to replace the crib w/o a rail she has been sleeping in.  It was ridiculously too small.  Little c got to pic out any sheetset she wanted  - it was a difficult choice between Mario, Hello Kitty, and Princess sheets.   The final choice was princess, plus we added 2 more coordinating sheet sets.
We also hung her growth chart and put some art up on her door.

Despite a very large amount of excitement on her part this afternoon, she seems not so sure now that its bedtime.  We've decided to give it the week and see what she thinks.

Spent the rest of the weekend relaxing, washing the vehicles and having water fights.