Eva's afterschool special...

It's been beautiful here the past few days...like 65 degrees. I took the girls out to the park the other day to play. Eventually a couple of boys came, they were around 3 or 4 years old, the started telling the girls, "This is our castle, you can't play here" just stupid kid stuff, I just ignored it and let the girls deal with it however they want...well non-violent hopefully..I think I've at least taught them that.
Eva is pretty sensitive so she decided to have her little 2 year old sister be the muscle. She told Elle to tell them to "GO AWAY" and "NO!" It was pretty funny seeing Elle's little body come up with these full on screams and get into this little boys face...and Eva standing behind her with her arms crossed like, "yeah, that's my sister, what are you going to do about it?!"
The boys didn't back down and eventually Eva's feelings were hurt. I told her "You're six years old, are you really going to let a little 3 year old tell you what you can't play with? This isn't his playground, he can't tell you to leave, go play."
I guess in translation, that meant to Eva to go up to him and push him. It was pretty funny. I laughed out loud...then I told her she doesn't need to push and be mean to get her point across. So she went under the play structure to pout with Elle.
During this the little boys friend left and he was all alone.
I told Eva, go ask him if he wants to play, just because he's mean doesn't mean that you have to be.
Eva said, "He's RUDE why would I play with him?"
Good point.
He eventually went to where the girls were, just standing there and Eva proceeded to tell him this:
(this is word for word...I'm not even joking)
Eva: "Listen kid, I get it, I was three once too and I was always telling people, "you can't play here" and stuff like that, I was clumsy too (Eva translation:mean) and you know what? I got bigger and I want to share now. I want to be nice to people. I'm not three anymore and you don't have to be rude."
(just to clarify, Eva was an angel and still is...she's the easiest kid on earth and completely non-confrontational...she has never been out right mean to any child for no reason)
I couldn't believe she said all of this. I was so proud of her trying to relate and then coming back with her point...is she 50? It was also hilarious to listen to her reason with this stupid little kid.
She's such a good girl. I'm so proud of her and the choices that she's making.

And just to be clear...this little boy is totally rude, he's a brat and none of the moms like him, he's headed down a lonely path to being a bully. I'm pretty sure he'll be on Bully Beatdown in the future.

valentines...

 This was Eva's first official school Valentine's Day/Party. The rules were that the kids had to hand write their names and their classmates names, that's 23 names in all. We had about a week to prepare and I had been searching for fun ideas for Valentine's, I figured they'd be getting a lot of candy so it would be fun to come up with a creative Valentine and useful.

I'm an avid blog follower and one of my very favorites is How Does She... and She had a great Valentine idea that I knew Eva could do and I'd have fun doing too.

 

  I took some silicon heart shaped muffin molds, broke up some of our old crayons and they got a bunch at the dollar store and we melted them in the oven and Hoe Does She... had this great little saying too:

It was very time consuming and I got out of the hardest part of the whole thing (having Eva hand write everything...my mom had both the girls spend the night (thank you mom!) and had Eva write all the kids names and her name!!). It definitely wasn't a cheap project (unless you have a ton of crayons laying around) I probably bought $10 worth of crayons and packaging at the dollar store, plus I had to buy the muffin silicon (which I got on sale at JoAnn's) but it was fun and now I have the silicon for other projects too, the girls loved playing with them and they're fun to create different colors with.


Now onto the Valentines hair. You guys know I love Adopt a 'Do and I did this great Valentine's heart. It's super easy and that's pretty much all I can handle...easy.
Eva of course hasn't changed much and she whined and was upset that I wanted to so her hair, but when we were done, she was thrilled and loved showing all her friends at school.

On her way to school with all her Valentine's and her Valentine's gift for her teacher.

And now onto some exciting news. I got a sewing machine!! It was my late Christmas present...very late but better late than never! My mom got me this AWESOME book for Christmas this year called 

One Yard Wonders it has so many cute projects, that only require ONE yard of fabric.

I've been wanting to make pinafore's for a while now and low and behold there was a pinafore pattern in my new book! So my mom came over and showed me how to work the basics of my new machine and we got started on making Elle a Valentine's pinafore.

I did not take any pics of me actually sewing (sorry...I didn't shower either day and it was pretty nasty) but maybe next time.
Here is my end result, my cute baby in her new pinafore and she loved it...and learned the word pinafore! She wore it for four days straight.

There's my catch up.
Other happenings in our lives:
Elle is potty training...my mom convinced me that I just had to do it, that she was ready (she was/is ready I just hate potty training) so she's been in panties now for 8 days, she's had maybe 4 accidents and she's done amazing. I don't think it has quite clicked yet, but maybe by the end of this week it'll click, here's hoping!

Jeremy has been running a lot lately, he's training to do a half marathon in May. He amazes me, he wants to do something, he plans it out and executes it, it's such a great quality to have, I wish I had it!

Eva has been reading a lot lately, she's really great at it, she's timid but she's finding her confidence and doing so well. She's getting so big, I can't believe that she's 6! She's also currently obsessed with Pokemon (shoot me in the face) and now has her sister saying "Peeka, peeka, peek-a-choo," sometimes my ears bleed.

I've been trying to loose the last of the weight I wanted to loose...it's not easy after taking a break. I'd like to loose two more sizes and it's hard to have will power. Today I'm going to cut out pics of things I want to wear this spring and summer and I'm hoping it motivates me to stick to my diet!


We hope you guys are all doing well! I'll try to update more family stuff! Sorry I've been lacking!

Today's Give Away

Over at Today's Give Away there's a chance to win a blog make over from Lucky Girl Designs and I would LOVE to win it for my new blog enSTYLEpedia!
So I am blogging about it if anyone wants to join in to win!
http://todaysgiveaway.net

I heart purses

I use to collect purses when I was younger, I never used them but I loved them...I had no reason to use them, i was 12.
Anyway, Recessionista is doing another great giveaway, including an entry if you email them a wishlist and they'll email it to your husband!! Bonus. Oh crap, I just remembered Jeremy reads this.
Click HERE for the link.

VOTE

I made another outfit on Sensibly Styled
I'm number 23- I'd love it if you voted for me!
Thanks.

here goes nothing...

I did it. I made a blog. well another blog besides this one. A blog on finding your mom style.
Head on over, tell your friends. Follow me. Give me feedback. Link me to your blog...as I have no button.
thank you, thank you, thanks.
introducing:
enSTYLEpedia