chores

After my moms group meeting last night, where we talked about rules, resposibility, and behavior of preschoolers, I decided it was time to get serious with the chores. We sat down as a family and made a huge list of chores everyone thought needed to be done and could be done by all. Then I had some old Pottery Barn catalogs and had the kids cut out some pictures that represented some of the different chores we had selected....with PB's beautiful pictures to inspire us to do our best cleaning! So they cut, cut, cut, and then I glued the ones we could use on poster board, putting velcro behind them to stick to their chore list.

The resulting chores are these:
for Isabela:
make her bed
wash the toilet
wipe the sink
put away toys/books (throughout the house)



for Joaquin:
make his bed
set the table
put dirty clothes away (throughout the house...and yes, they are throughout the house!)
clean the mirrors

These ended up being the ones chosen because they were the only ones we could find pictures for.
So I thought we'd start tonight. After dinner, I said we'd have dessert after they had rinsed and put all the dirty dishes away. (I know it's not on the list, but what a great incentive to get them to joyfully do it!) Joaquin rinsed and Isabela put them in the dishwasher. I could barely get Joaquin to stop washing! Then they ate dessert and ran to their charts to do what was on them....they did every single item! I expected to start with just one tonite, but they wouldn't stop! Oh, the novelty of a new list! My kids love those!
I was so proud of how great a job they did, and also kicking myself for waiting so long to make these charts! We'll see if the fun lasts past a couple of days.

My next goal is to make a tooth brushing chart. It is going to be a big smile for each of them, with velcro dots along the top and bottom for a total of 14 teeth. If they forget to brush in the morning or night, they will have to stick a brown tooth on the smile, and if they remember to brush, they will stick a white tooth on. I'm hoping it will be a good visual on how important it is to remember to brush!

big belly

I thought some of you might like to see baby number three!!

watercolors!

We did this cool watercolor project today that I got off of the art blog. First you color something on the page with a white crayon, and then you paint over it with watercolors, and the picture magically appears!


Joaquin is holding up a treasure map I drew for him.


Isabela asked for a unicorn. They also painted their names which were fun to see appear.

yee haw!

Here are my two little cowkids to go along with the cowboy themed baby shower my friend Kim threw me this weekend...(that's the baby's room theme.) It was a lot of fun and she is a great theme decorator...I even got some ideas for the baby's room. One of my favorite gifts was the prayer jar...she had decorated a mason jar and all my friends had written a prayer for the new baby and filled it up. Isabela even wrote her own to add to the jar, after looking through all the others. The kids were so excited when I came home with all those baby things...but you know Joaquin had to say something funny...when I came in the door, he asked, "Did you bring the baby's shower home?" We have been really blessed with this baby to have received everything we could need...from the crib to clothes to car seats to diapers!

And yesterday, I had a doctor's appointment...the baby is right in position and I'm one centimeter!! She said she didn't think that meant he would come tomorrow, but that we are right on track.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Thank you, thank you to our wonderful church that offered free babysitting for parents this year!! This is the first Valentine's Day we actually went out, and the first date we'd been on in years! We dropped the kids off around 5pm....they were very excited to get to stay up late at church and even thought they might be sleeping there....I think Joaquin was remembering the CARITAS cots. We left with a general plan of eating out and going to a movie...but with no reservations at any restaurant. We stopped by Bonefish Grill to see about the wait...which was 70-80 minutes!! So we left there and made a few suggestions as we were driving, then Uno's Pizzaria popped in our heads. We hadn't eaten there in years either....CiCi's has been our eat out pizza place lately. So we went to Uno's which had no wait and they led us to this back room where no one was sitting....I asked the guy, "Are they going to know we're back here?" And he said, "Yes, I'm going to be your waiter." It ended up being one of the best meals we've had out! There was only one other family in that room the whole time, so it was very private, and the food was delicious and the perfect amount. The waiter was great, too!
Then we left there and drove to the movies. The plan was to see Slumdog Millionaire (not a very romantic title) and our back up was Gran Torino with Clint Eastwood. The line for the movies was super long, almost around the building. We were cutting it close for Slumdog, and when we finally got up to buy our tickets, it was sold out. So we early for Gran Torino and got to sit in the theater and talk for about 20 minutes! Wow! I was worried a bunch of rowdy teenagers were going to be in there and ruin it...but there were none! As we were waiting, a bunch of rowdy 50 somethings walked in!...but they settled down before the movie started. The movie was great and we both enjoyed it.
The kids were still awake at 9:30pm when we picked them up...that is the latest they've ever stayed up...and they both said they had a lot of fun, they even got to eat pizza there! What a wonderful idea for the church to think of and thank you to all those who gave up their Valentine's Day for us!

a nature lesson

This is a fun little nature lesson we've learned this winter: Sometimes it's hard to tell if a tree is dead or alive in winter because they have no leaves. A little trick we learned is to snap off a tiny branch on the tree...if it bends and won't break off easily, the tree is alive, and you can even see green on the inside when it breaks open. If it snaps right off and has no green, the tree (or sometimes just that particular branch) is dead. I know it's not kind to the trees to break off their branches, but we decided the science lesson was worth the pain to the tree. Plus the dead ones don't really care.


This one is bending in his hand.


See the green inside? It's alive!




This one snapped right off! It's dead.

Isabela has fun waiting for the bus, by testing the little bushes and trees around the driveway....I guess that's one of the benefits of being picked up right at your house.

raising spiderman

My heart has gotten used to scenes like this....I look away for one moment, and the next he's up in the air clinging to the edge of something saying "Look, Mom!" This time when I saw him, I told him to wait right there... I wanted to get the camera. So he did! And then I asked him to do it again, so I could see a step by step. How does he think of these things?

hospital tour

We've been to the hospital twice in the last week, so we're getting used to the routine! The first time, the kids attended a big sibling class to learn a little more about becoming a big brother and sister. They were both excited to see the one little baby that was in the nursery. Then last night the whole family went for a walk through of the labor floor then the recovery floor. We were the only ones who had brought their kids with them, and they put on a good show for everyone. Most were probably thinking, 'my kid will never act like that!' Ha! The tour guide asked the kids how old they were...Joaquin said "four", Isabela said "five", then she asked how old the baby will be and Joaquin said, "three"... Everyone laughed and Isabela corrected him, saying, "Noooooo, he'll be one!" It was pretty funny.

a winter picnic

"Never be within doors, when you can rightly be without." --Charlotte Mason


We had a beautiful day on Saturday! We finally got a chance to use our picnic table...there is nothing better than a warm day in winter...no bugs, no bees!



We also discovered our reflections on the table which made for some cool pictures.

we're getting excited!

The big day's getting closer! Yesterday, my coworkers surprised me with a basket full of much needed baby items!! When I brought them home, the kids started pretending their animals were babies, and they put diapers on them and dressed them, and even put them to bed. It was so cute, and I know they are going to be great helpers pretty soon!

finally!!

So yesterday we finally had our first real snow!! It was a great surprise because just the day before we had been running around outside with no coats in 65 degree weather! The kids got up by 7am and went straight outside to play until around 8am...I know snow doesn't last around here...so that would be their only chance to play in it! School officials made a good call by not canceling school...most of it was gone by 10:30 am, but I still had to check the news twice to make sure. "They" were calling for more snow last night, but that didn't happen. Hopefully we'll get a little more so they can go sledding this winter!