Creative Pretzels

Alexis LOVES play dates. Last Saturday Mijia came over to play and the end of the play date turned into silly snack time.

Allowance

Almost a year ago we started allowance with the girls and while we are not always consistent with it, it has finally turned into a great teaching tool. Just before Christmas we were finally able to get Alexis to understand that if you save your money you can get some pretty neat stuff and not just junk from the school store. Alexis first big purchase was her own set of roller blades on Black Friday. She had been saving for these for a little over a month at that point and thought she had another month to go when I got to teach her the lesson of waiting for the right sale. Black Friday was the day. The roller blades where half the original price! Her next big purchase was just a couple weeks ago when she bought a cake decorating set on clearance at Wal-mart. Ariana also saved up so she could buy a new my little pony set. The cashier was very impressed with them and expressed that she wished her 19 year old son would learn what they have already at 4 and 6. It is so nice being able to tell the girls when they want things that they can have it if they decide its worth saving up for.

Alexis reading the directions

Mixing the cake

Rolling, cutting and covering the little cake in fondant

Cutting chocolate fondant to decorate the cake

The finished product!

Happy little baker!

She Sat on Me?

Alexis: "DADDY, Ariana SAT ON ME!" (very upset voice)
Daddy: "ok"
Mommy: laughing uncontrollably

Ariana's Joke

Ariana likes to try and tell jokes. They never make sense. Then on Friday without even knowing she was doing it told a really funny one:

Driving home from school we couldn't turn down one of the roads in our neighborhood because a large truck with a trailer was completely blocking the road. On a bike ride a few hours later with Justin Ariana was trying to explain the situation to him about how a big truck was blocking the road so we couldn't use it.
Justin: "Was it a moving truck?"
Ariana: "No it wasn't moving! That's the PROBLEM!"

A Good Day

Today was a good day. Today I feel like I was a good mom and I was able to take care of myself too. We all ate breakfast together and than we all went to my dance class together. After dance we went to the park for lunch and playtime. Once we got back home from the park it was time for home made popsicles and a movie. It was such a nice day I decided we couldn't stay inside for too long so off on a mini bike/roller blade ride around the neighborhood a couple times before I had to teach piano lessons. Even with 2 hours of piano lessons today for me, Alexis and Ariana decided to take out games to play and I got to listen to their laughs of delight while I taught and they played go fish, jenga and little pet shop the board game upstairs. I loved hearing them take the time to play nicely together and for soo long without a TV being involved. I thought for sure they were playing with some of my piano students but realised quickly that it was only them upstairs playing everyone else was in the backyard. After piano we finished the movie we had started earlier and than had spaghetti dinner. Dinner did end up being finished in the car while we drove to the gym but the girls thought that was silly. After the gym we all had fun bath time. Alexis did melt down by the end but overall I feel like today I had a good balance in my life. It also makes me wish that tomorrow was another holiday.

What 4 year olds do when you say goodnight and close the door

Last night I did a movie night with George (my brother) and Catrina (his wife). I got the girls to bed on time, for once, and the grown ups had a fun eating buffalo wild wings and watching Inception. Well Ariana was having her own little party upstairs. Instead of sleeping she was building herself a fort. Very fun but I hope she got enough sleep last night. : )

Sorry the picture is tiny, its from my new phone that I LOVE but am still figuring out how to work.

Cupcake Party

For dessert on Family dinner night Alexis made lots of mini cupcakes. We had a lot left over so I told her she could have a little cupcake snack time after school and invite some friends over in the neighborhood. I'm not always such a nice Mom but it was fun to be considered so for a day. A lot of neighbor friends couldn't come but Taylor and Mathew could.

We all had a blast and I got to chase them all around and put frosting on everyone's nose. : )