High Five for Friday!

This past week's highlights:

1) An extra long holiday weekend! We had loads of quality time with family and friends.

2) Celebrating my birthday! The kids surprised me by decorating the house while I was at work on Tuesday (with some help from Nanny Kelly). By the way, Brayden has no pants and no diaper on in this picture. Why do little boys always want to be naked?





3) Practicing getting tucked in with our big kid bedding on the couch. Cassidy loves hers! Brayden has a harder time accepting change.



 
4) The sun is back! It was a cold holiday weekend, but summer is now here! I am absolutely loving the fact that it's still light out at 8:30 pm. And the kids enjoy spending time outside on their tricycles and running around.

5) My kids are becoming little people! They talk in full sentences ("I'm going to have grapes, Mommy"), they are finally getting more hair, Brayden LOVES baseball, Cassidy loves accessories (handbags, jewelry, etc.). They are growing up! Freeze time now please!

I was watching Cassidy eat breakfast this morning and just paused to take in how big the kids are becoming. She is sitting in a big person chair, eating real cereal and milk with a spoon, hair in pig tails, Hello Kitty necklace and UCSB T shirt on. Later she added red sneakers to this outfit. Did I mention she has her own unique sense of fashion?

Big Kid Bedding

The big kid beds have arrived. We haven't assembled them yet because we are putting off the transition as long as possible. But, I know it will only be a matter of weeks from now. To help us get prepared, I took the kids shopping last weekend and let them pick out their big kid bedding. Somehow (maybe with some coaxing by mama), they picked out matching bedding! Perfect!

For my little surfer dude and dudette:

High Five for Friday

It's MY Friday today, so I am posting this a day early. High Five for Thursday/ Friday!

1. Cassidy is getting over her fear of our cat, Spike. Her fear started a few weeks ago when the cat got a "boo-boo" (a boo-boo that cost $1,000 to fix), had stitches down his whole leg and a cone on his head. She would not go near him. She screamed every time he walked in the same room. Now she just tells herself, "It's okay, it's okay" when she sees him, and, "kitty-cat won't touch you."

2. Brayden progressing with the potty training. He went pee-pee on the big toilet at My Gym! We're not pushing it at all, but Nanny Kelly likes training the kids, which is a-ok with me!

3. Playing with our new tunnel!

4. Playing with our new Lightning McQueen sprinkler beach ball in the backyard.

5. The Nordstrom half-yearly sale! (Oh wait, that's mama's highlight of the week).

We're getting ready for a weekend of cherry-picking with cousins Ari and Kami and BBQs with good friends and neighbors! Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Denial

My kids can't be old enough for big kid beds. No, they just can't.

But they have escaped their cribs more than once. So, it's time....

Two big kid beds are being delivered to our house on Saturday. Oh my! I am not ready for what's in store for us.....bed-time battles, kids showing up in my room in the middle of the night and getting out of their room whenever they feel like it. Please think happy bed-time thoughts for us!

Potty time

Nanny Kelly got BOTH kids to go on the potty today!

Spring family photo shoot

I wanted to do another family photo shoot for the kids' 2 year milestone. We booked one of our favorite photographers, Christina Straw Photography, and headed out to our favorite park. It was a HOT day, but the kids were troopers. Daddy was suffering from terrible allergies, but was a trooper too. Brayden started to get a little grumpy towards the end, but I still think we were able to get some really cute pictures! My hat goes off to photographers who take on the challenge of shooting toddlers. They really are so unpredictable. Our new technique is to bribe the kids with jelly beans for each pose -- you can even tell in some pictures that B is chewing on the jelly beans. Here are a few of my favorite shots:

Make-up Junkie

As if my own addiction to make-up wasn't enough, I've now created a monster. Cassidy LOVES putting on make-up. She will sit with me while I am getting ready for the day, pull all my make-up products out of the drawer and insist it's "Cassie's turn!" to apply each product after I'm done with it. I gave her one light pink MAC eyeshadow and an old brush that satisfied her for a while. She opens the eyeshadow, takes her brush and wipes the shadow all over her face.

She has now moved on to all other products. She especially loves concealer, the eyebrow pencil and cheek highlighter.

Here is my little make-up junkie applying some of Nana's eyeshadows (to her cheek).