Potty Training Take 2

My second attempt to potty train Reese turned out to be an epic fail. I tried a Potty Party with Aidan, loosely based on the Dr. Phil Method (a suggestion by my friend Erin). The Potty Party did not work as planned with Aidan and I spent the next 6 months doing a lot of laundry. I figured it was a waste of time with Reese so I thought I would be able to lure her with Disney Princess paraphernalia and because we tried it before, and everyone tells me girls are easier, I thought it would be a piece of cake. 

WRONG! She went only 4 times during our "Training Day" and by the next day I was so paranoid taking her out in underwear that I took her to the bathroom every 20 minutes, but she wouldn't go! The later it got in our journey out the more nervous I got and the more convinced I was that the next time would be it and she would just "get it." She never got it. We pulled into the driveway and I knew I should take her right to the loo, but instead I let her walk in the house by herself and I gathered the groceries. The second I walked in the house, there she was standing there with wet pants.

I later got a phone call that we were accepted to participate in a 3-day diaper study that paid handsomely. I decided to put the training on hold and hoped that the torture of the study would convince her that the potty is the way to go.

Gold Medal Ribbon

Our friend Abe is really into the Olympics, so his mom (and my friend) Jenn, hosted an Olympics themed playgroup. She DVR'd the opening ceremonies and we watched them during the party as background noise.

 

When Jenn suggested the party, my creative juices started to flow and I figured out what I could do with all of my leftover Hanukkah candy! I glue ribbons to the gold covered chocolates, and voila, gold medals!

 

Abe won as many medals as Michael Phelps did at the 2008 Summer Olympics!

Aidan is so proud of his accomplishments at the Winter 2010 Olympics. He decided that he wants to be a bobsledder.

  

For our art project we each made the Olympic Rings Logo.

Abe, Carson, Reese & Aidan posing in front our finished artwork.

Go TEAM USA!

Will you be my Valentine? part 2

Have I expressed to you how much I love Valentine's Day? We've been doing fun little activities leading up to Valentine's Day and Aidan keeps asking each day if today is Valentine's Day, and finally IT IS VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Pappy & Mimi gave them balloons, which after a few days of trying to keep from floating to the top of the vaulted ceilings, we released them (I'll post more about our balloon launches later.)


Pappy & Mimi also gave them these Whitman Samplers. Reese's response... "Oooh, MY candy!"

Reese got Belle (aka Beauty & The Beast) from Daryl and I.

We gave Aidan a few cars from Cars The Movie and this 100 piece Spiderman puzzle. He literally gave it the "thumbs up" and said "check out my awesome puzzle!"

It was a great day and Daryl and I even went out on a date. We are really trying to watch our budget, so we tried to think of a place that would be inexpensive but still good. Joking, we suggested Olive Garden. It seemed like the perfect date in high school and since we didn't know each other in high school, so this little joke turned out to be our Valentine's Day dinner. As we were in the car heading to OG, we started having second thoughts, but a huge snow storm was brewing and as we were driving in the thick flakes, we finally came the conclusion that we were okay with driving the 0.93 miles to OG instead of spending the rest of the night trying to drive back home. Please remember that there is only 1 snow plow in all of St. Louis, so the roads would not be clear when we were ready to come back home.

One thing that I will never understand about Olive Garden is why the long wait to get in? It's not really that good. It's not really that cheap, it is actually quite expensive. I'm just a little person, I can't consume enough "unlimited soup, salad, and breadsticks" to really get my money's worth. Everyone talks about how delicious those breadsticks are. Are we all really standing in line for 45 minutes for breadsticks? Can't someone post the recipe to that on the internet just like those $250.00 cookies from Neiman Marcus and shut this whole thing down. I don't want to put OG out of business, I would just like to get a mediocre dinner there from time to time and not have to be handed that little pager when I walk in the door.

Don't get me wrong, I love the Olive Garden, I also love McDonald's, but why the 45-60 minute wait at OG? I've been dining at OG for over 15 years. Every once in a while I just have to have it. When I was pregnant with Aidan, I used to go by myself to the OG in Time Square and eat at the bar (I didn't have to share my breadsticks or the croutons). I fell in love with the Stuffed Shells at first bite, until they took them off the menu in the late 1990's and then I switched to 4 Cheese Ravioli. I've been eating the 4 Cheese Ravioli since then, but for our Valentine's Day Dinner, I thought I should step out of my comfort zone and order something different. I ordered Manicotti. I know, I'm a risk taker.

WILL you marry me?

I frequently joke with my girlfriends that have sons & daughters that are close in age to Aidan and Reese that they will get married some day. My friend Holly took it to the next level. This is the Valentine her son Will sent to us.

Reese said YES! The future Mrs. Will Davis, ladies and gentleman. When your first offer is a good one, you have to accept it, even if you are only two years old.

To Noah Stark, Ollie Geheb and Jude Rappaport, you'll have to submit a better offer, besides being so handsome, Will has an apartment in Brooklyn, NY. Your friend, Reese.

Will you be my Valentine? part 1

What happens when an event planner is unemployed? She goes overboard planning a Valentine's Day themed playgroup.

I made these t-shirts for Aidan and Reese.

I also made these mailboxes for the kids to deliver their valentines to their friends.

Here's all the mailboxes set up and ready for the party. Our original guest list included 16 kids and 8 adults. Due to illness and inclement weather, our guest list was drastically reduced. I was a little disappointed and secretly relieved as I wasn't sure how I would seat that many people comfortably.

Heart-shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with wheat & white bread. This one was for Abe R. I always use wheat bread, but Abe dined at our house a few weeks ago and refused my wheat bread because it looked weird and had nuts in it. In my defense Abe, that was an off week and typically my wheat bread does not have nuts in it, because I do not like nuts either. I didn't want to chance it, so Evie & I made a few sandwiches with white bread, just in case. (a huge thank you to Evie for coming a few minutes early to help me set up!)

The sweets. L to R... M & M's, Frosted Sugar Cookies, Chocolate covered pretzels, and Cake Pops. Evie calls Cake Pops 'the devil.' I have to agree with her. They are delicious and because they are only a bit or two each, you think, "what's one more?" You can keep them in the freezer and they don't get frozen solid, so it is easy to grab just one more after glancing at them when you grabbing ice from the freezer.

Before eating the cookies and cake pops, we needed to eat our lunch.

Carson hid under the dining room table playing "Hide & Seek."

We took out every toy. Once again, the Batcave was the favorite. Whomever had their hands on it acted like it was homeplate and they wouldn't take their hands off of it until the ref called "safe!"

Jude. I love this shirt. You can almost see the "Mom" tattoo on his bicep through his shirt.

Now onto making Valentines.

Abe used too much glitter and his card wasn't dry when they were ready to leave, so we had to bring it to him a few days later.

Owen was concentrating pretty hard on his Valentine.

Reese put foam hearts everywhere. Two minutes later she dumped the entire bucket of foam hearts on the floor and dumped a box of sequins on the floor to finish the job.

Reese in her Valentine's Day T-shirt. Who wouldn't want to be her Valentine?
I was so exhausted after all of our guests left, I took a nap with the kids. This happens once in blue moon.

3rd Time's a Charm

We saw The Princess and The Frog again. Yes, this was our third time seeing it. It comes out on DVD on March 16th and we (I mean "I") can't wait! We have the soundtrack and my kids seemed to know way too much about the movie and the music. About 10 minutes into the movie, my friend Jenn leaned over to me and asked me if I had seen it before. Who me? Yes, twice before.

I did make an amazing discovery this evening, the Keller movie theater. Actually, I cannot take credit for it, my brilliant friend Jenn recommended it. Movie tickets are $4.00 after 6pm and children under age 3 are free. The movies that play there are a few months old, but for less than half the price of a regular ticket, I can wait. For less than $10 I got 1 movie ticket, a large popcorn, and a medium soda. Genius!

It's a Messenger Bag, Not a Purse

The theme at Storytime this week was of course, Valentine's Day. We have been obsessed with Valentine's Day because I've been preparing for our playgroup's Valentine's Day lunch by making cookies, decorating the house and stocking up on conversation heart candies. Aidan asks everyday if today is Valentine's Day. We were so excited to read stories about Valentine's Day and make Valentine holders.

This is Aidan's Valentine holder. I told him it was a messenger bag. It's not exactly a Jack Spade, but whatever. It's made out of yarn, construction paper and a glue stick, so it has the life expectancy of about 1 day.

I made this Valentine's Day tutu for Reese. I've become even more crafty with my kids' clothes since I've been home with them. I'm like Maria from The Sound of Music, without the vow of silence.

Are you ready for some football?

We were invited to a Superbowl party at our friends the Walton's house. They are Colts fans, we are Saints fans. I think we all know how that turned out.

I must warn all of our friends, if you invite the Gourleys to your house for a major sport event, your team will lose, sorry, that's just how it is. I don't think we will get many more invitations.

Yes, Aidan is wearing goggles. He told me he needed to wear them because all superheroes wear these.

My potluck contribution - fruit platter in a football shaped dish. I do not believe in fruit salad because I don't like when the fruit mingles together - too many juices and it changes the flavor. Plus I'm allergic to pineapples and I do not like honeydew melon and both are always in fruit salad (they are just filler fruit and we all know it - so please stop using them). Everyone must have loved my presentation because...

Aforementioned fruit platter 1.5 hours later.

Official food to represent the Indianapolis Colts

We also had jambalaya and I brought cake pops and these chocolate covered pretzels in Mardi Gras colors. I love New Orleans and had to represent. I also brought our Mardi Gras beads, which my kids refused to wear, but all the other kids loved them. Just to be clear, I purchased the beads at Michaels Craft Store, I did not "earn" them, thank you.



Reese loved playing with all of their toys including their dollhouse. She had a big night - she successfully used the potty. It was a shock to all of us. Aidan even told her how proud he was of her. We will start potty training boot camp next week.

Happy Birthday Max

Our friend Max is 4! We met Max and his parents, Andrea and Jason at Robert's Music Together two years ago. I'm so glad we've gotten to know them over the past two years and we were thrilled to help Max celebrate his 4th birthday!

Max's party was at the Creation Station at the Transportation Museum. We had never been there and I cannot wait to go back! It is must visit!

Aidan loved to dress like a pirate and climb around on the pirate ship. He kept saying "Arrg matey!"

Bins and bins of train tracks and trains!

If there is a train table, my children will find it. My next project will be constructing our train table and using a nail gun to nail the tracks down. The one at our house always looks like Godzilla just hit it. I'm scared of commitment, so this is why I haven't done it yet.

More dress up... an astronaut. He told me he will get in a rocket ship and blast off to the moon.

Reese loved the little village

I love these signs

Reese loved the post office.

Getting read for cake.

Yum! Cake! Notice that this piece is larger than Reese's hand. It was too much for her and I had to help her taste it.