Children's Museum Again! Plus sewing class tonight!

I am working on my photography skills and I love trying to catch faces in mirrors!

My favorite newsman!

Building a snowman since we are currently in Minnesota's 6th warmest winter ever and the snow has been a no show almost!

Water works!

Me and Levi!

Great shot of Levi!

My friend Natalie who takes me to all the coolest places!

My friend Charity who got me hooked on the Children's Museum!

Driving the bus home!

So it was a fun day today! We went to the museum, came home and took a nap together, and I am getting ready for sewing class! Fun thin I observed today: I think Levi's favorite color is green. It used to be blue or red, but he has been consistently asking for the green bowl, the green sppon, and almost always picks green!

Photo shoot

I had a friend take me to a salon to get my makeup and hair done. They were doing free head shots, they did my makeup and hair, and they gave you pictures for free! Plus they had some yummy treats from Edible Arrangements. Here is the shot of me and the shot of me and my friend.

The coolest part about these pictures is the fact that I am wearing my friend's shirt. That's right. i didn't understand that head shot didn't mean just my head, and wore this horrible Wendy's teeshirt. My friend Farien literally took the shirt off her back to let me wear it, and then we took a picture together. I am still in her shirt, and she pulled her jacket on. What an awesome friend right?

Exercising!!

I have finally started exercising again. Levi is being my buddy to help me stick with it. Here we are doing shoulder rotations.

Our lunges.....

Our stretches...

And this was the last stretch he did before he decided toys were more fun than exercising and let me go it alone. :) It was cute while it lasted!

Children's Museum Yesterday

I swear we should save ourselves the money of being Museum members and just follow construction crews around. Levi would be just as happy!
One thing I love about the children's museum is how detailed they are about making everything safe and child friendly. For example, the steps are small, with hand rails for children and adults, and not steep, so if a tumble should occur, you would only tumble 2-3 stairs.

Here Levi is making the lockers a highlight of his trip. This is where my camera died.

The funny thing about our trip yesterday is that I tried to convince my friend Natalie to come with me. She wasn't too keen on the idea because it wasn't a designated " No large group" day. I told her - No schools are going to go on a field trip in January! It will be fine. I saw 6 school buses that day. It was CRAZY!!!! I will be sticking to No large group days from now on.

After we got home, Levi took his nap and we made bread. He loved measuring out the salt and the yeast!

Our crazy day!

Levi and I had fun all day long! First we woke up and went to the first ECFE class of the semester. For me, that means learning to be a better parent, and listening to other people talk about their children (which makes me very happy for my own!). For Levi, that means one LONG playdate with 10 other kids. After ECFE, we went home for lunch and nap. After a nap, we watched a little Thomas the Train, and then took my neighbor lady shopping. When we got home, we played for a little while, then Daddy came home! As you can see by the picture above, there is never a dull moment after Daddy comes home.

For dinner, I made a totally unhealthy but delicious buffalo chicken sandwich with fries, and then Patrick and I did the teetering pile of dishes. We read a few books to Levi, then it was time for Miles to come over and Patrick to head off to Scouts!
Levi and Miles only had about 45 minutes to play before I made them get ready for bed, but they made it count! My front room is a wreck! Hahahaha Nooooooooo it was not messy before. Why would you even ask such a ridiculous question? My house is always spotless silly.
The two little men went off to the bath tub where they played with water colors ( yes, the water is Orange) and when they got out they were tired! Straight to bed with no fussing or crying. The end of a busy day? Not quite! I am going to Applebees with some friends at 9. Like I said, it was one fun day!

Library!

Our library is really cool because it has a fire engine for little kids to read in. Levi always grabs books and heads straight over. He will literally just sit in it and read with me as long as I will go.

He is also really good about helping me to check out my books.

After we went to the library today, I dropped Levi off at a friend's house to take a nap while I picked some people up from the airport. He didn't sleep as long as he should have, probably because the toys at her house and her son are just too cool!!

My son is going to be a railroad engineer someday I think.

Construction Digger with a Snow Plow

Today Levi saw one of the most magical sights of his life. A real live construction digger with a snowplow attached was on OUR street. Of course we raced to the window and watched it.
This is his face when the digger was out of view.
Here's where he told me to make it come back.
Here's his yelling at the digger to come back when I told him that the digger wouldn't listen to me.

I don't know if I mentioned, but Levi is in love with trucks, construction vehicles of all kinds, and garbage trucks.

Please rub off!

I hope I am not the only parent who has the missionaries over with the secret goal of making my child think that it is fun, cool, and NATURAL to be a missionary. I hope Levi grows up with such a strong testimony of the truth of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints that going on a mission is something he desires and can't wait to do. I hope that I can be a good teacher of the gospel and be a good example of living a Christ centered life that my son feels the spirit and knows it's truth for himself. The missionaries are such a joy to be around, I hope my son feels the difference in our house when they are here!

My Little Mess Maker

Levi is in a messy stage. Right now he loves to dump out his buckets of toys. He is also getting really good at conversations. He knows all of his letter ( most of the time) and some numbers. He can count to 9 like this 1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9. Tricky 3! He used to skip 4 too, so we are making progress. He knows 1-6 in books, and we are learning how to read the words STOP, red, and green. He is starting to copy mommy and daddy A LOT and has ordered me into time out several times. I always gladly go to time out since it means isolation! :)

Patrick was on a Boy Scout camping trip so Levi and I were alone a lot this weekend. We are starting to play hide and seek games and have tickle wars, so it's been pretty fun!

Cold,Cold Day

Today is what a Minnesota January day typically feels like. It is -5 degrees right now, and it's the warmest part of the day. One of my facebook friends called it a " Hurts to breathe" kind of day. Levi and I knew it was going to be cold today, so I decided to get all of my running around done yesterday so today we could stay home. Here is Levi watching Thomas the Train, his absolute FAVORITE show of all time.

Crystal Community PreSchool Play

Our day started off to a trip to the grocery store for Double Coupon Day. Today we got Halls cough drops and Heluva Cheese Dip free, and got 6 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios cereal, 2 boxes of Fiber One chewy bars, 4 pounds of ground chicken, and cottage cheese for about $10.
Then we headed off to the Crystal Community Center for PreSchool Play! Levi immediately headed for the room full of cars, trucks, scooters, push cars, and we got on any car or truck that was unoccupied.
I tried to teach Levi how to push on the pedals, but his legs are a little to short to pull it off just yet.
He LOVED the fire truck!
He even got to ride Slimy and was enthralled at how Slimy's head moved up and down as you push him along.
Lasy but certainly not least, he got to ride a TRACTOR. Who knew I would regret leaving Iowa?
We went back into the room with toys and Levi took a turn bouncing in the big bouncer.
Then we played with cars, and more cars, and trucks.
Levi loved the toddler teeter totter, and even held hands with his first girl! I don't know if I am ready for all of this yet!

Then we built lots of stuff with big blocks and laughed when we knocked it over!
We went on a toddler roller coaster, but I forgot to take pictures of that. We crawled in some tunnels, and then it was time to go home for lunch. Now all that's left to do is clean and play the rest of the day!

Busy day at the Children's Museum...

Levi loves playing the instruments at the musuem!

Hanging out by the Chica Chica Boom Boom tree

Playing memory and failing miserably at it for the first time!

Putting Peter Rabbit to bed!

Walking in the Snow..Crunch, crunch!

FACE PAINTING!

His masterpiece!

Driving the bus!
cleaning at the Restaurant...Wish he'd transfer that skill to our house!
petting the snake...
running on top of the ant hill!
climbing through tunnels

Levi got to play in the water at the Our world exhibit
Finally, time for lunch and going home!