Friday, October 23, 2015

#oholive

It's been months since I've done an Olive update and I wanted to document all the sweet, adorable, silly things she's up to these days.  I keep a running list on my phone of things that happen and then eventually blog about them.  I'm going to share my favorite milestones, moments and pictures from the last few months.

Oh Olive:

Goodnight, Moon = the first book Olive memorized the words to and read aloud to us, it's also the first book that she's every declared "my favorite book!"

What are you hungry for today?  I'm hungry for my paci!

There's an adjective explosion going on with her vocabulary lately: stinky, be-ewww-tif-ful, wonderful, hot, spicy, so essssss-iting and cool
She has a strong opinion about what color straw we are using and will go get us a different one if she disapproves.

Olive was bugging both cats one afternoon.  They ran away from her so she chased after them yelling, "Family come back!!!"

We were eating dinner at one of Kevin's co-worker's house.  She put out appetizers for everyone and Olive eagerly grabbed a seaweed wrapped something or another.  She shoved it into her mouth, chewed, spit it into my hand and shouted GROSS!  I just laughed because it looked gross to me, too.

Hold on one sec is her response when we ask her to do something.

She grabbed my face one night as I was rocking her to sleep and said, "Mama, you are pecial to me."  She was so seriously and it definitely teared up.

She counts 1-14 sometime the right way and sometimes the silly way and down from 5 to 1

My parents have a old dog named Maxx.  He's a grumpy old man, but Olive loves him.  She always says, "Maxxi so funny!"  The other day she said, "I miss Maxxi,  He pecial to me."

She shouts I lub you!  Be safe! to Kevin as he walks to his car every morning.

Olive points out stop signs, green lights and funny things we see as we drive down the road.

She has tea parties, pretends to bake and loves to pretend cook with me.

The highlight of her day is when daddy gets home and acts silly with her.

Loves to ride in the basket of the shopping cart and not up top.

She loves to talk to people when we are out and about.

You watch football with us.  You say ouch when people get tackled, yell TOUCHDOWN, shake your pom poms and get excited when they play fun music during the game.

Favorite foods: carrots, cucumbers, hummus, sharp cheddar cheese, crackers, goldfish, popcorn, pretzel sticks, ketchup, pizza, black olives, chips and salsa, mexican food, candy, vanilla ice cream, lemonade and lemon water.

Naughty Moments:
swirled her dum dum around in the toilet water and licked it
dusted our entire kitchen with the powdered sugar shaker
threw a 30 minute fit in the grocery store parking lot over her shoes
sneaks up any stairs that aren't gated off

Favorite phrases:
chetch up = ketchup
cumbers = cucumbers
pecial = special
sit by chew = sit by you
wesh you = bless you
Nice frow mama (frow = throw) anytime I toss something
oopsey daisy = anytime she drops something
macky cheese = mac & cheese
thank you much = thank you very much
whatcha do'in? = what are you doing?
not good = what she says to anything she doesn't like

Favorite pictures:















 Two is such a fun age!!

Happy Friday!!


Happy Friday to you!  Hope you had a wonderful week.  We enjoyed a nice week at my house complete with delicious pumpkin pancakes!  The best parts were...

1. I'm 15 weeks along with baby #2 and the baby is the size of an orange this week.  I love pointing out the food item to Olive each week and telling her how big our baby is.  She always hugs, kisses and snuggles the food.  She'll say, "Oh it's so cute mama!"  I can't wait to see this big sister in action next Spring.

2. I just finished reading Hands Free Life by Rachel Macy Stafford and it was AMAZING!  Probably the best book I've read in years.  There were so many take away points and I took notes on most pages throughout the whole book.  It definitely made me reevaluate my boundaries and priorities.  Check back next week for more details and reasons why you must read it!!

 3. I ordered this pumpkin shirt for Olive to wear for Fall this year and it's so cute in person!  I found it on Oh Sweet Sprouts via instagram and they have an etsy shop.  Everything they make is adorable.  It takes a few weeks for things to arrive so make sure to plan ahead when you're ordering.  I love that it's a pumpkin and not a jack-o-lantern so she can wear it through Thanksgiving.  I also ordered a 4T so she'd be able to wear it for several Falls.  My best tip for buying adorable holiday clothes is to size up so you get an extra year out of an outfit.  We did that with Olive's Christmas dress, a monogrammed Valentine's dress and this pumpkin shirt.  It's also great to stock up after the holiday when things go on clearance for the following year.

4. I just discovered the best TIGHTS in the history of tights.  They are Assets Red Hot Label Spanx and I found them for around $20 at Kohls.  The are thick, solid black, comfy and give you a little tuck/shape.  I sized up so there would be room for my growing baby bump.  I have already worn them several times and I know I'll be wearing them all Fall & Winter.

5. My husband had to work late to attend a new faculty reception this week and he rushed home afterwards to his girls.  He surprised us with his and hers sundaes.  I love chocolate and he loves caramel.  It was a nice treat to end the day with :)


Any fun plans for your weekend?  
Hope you have a great one :)   I'm hoping we can get some pumpkins to paint, enjoy watching some football together, have lunch with a friend from elementary school and finalize our Halloween plans for next week.

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

Halloween Fun

When I was a teacher, I loved planning fun learning activities to go along with each holiday.  October was always filled with Halloween story problems, spooky writing prompts and Fall fun and games for my students.  They loved it and it definitely made our learning experience more fun.  Now that I'm a full time mom, I spend time planning holiday activities for my toddler to do at home.  She gets so excited to do fun things together and loves that I change them up regularly.  I know Olive will be in school full time in just a few years so I am very motivated to make the most of our time at home together.

Here are our current favorite activities:
HALLOWEEN SORT
I found these little pumpkins on super clearance at CVS last year and the whole bag was $0.50.  I saved them for Olive to play with this year and tossed the candy that was inside each pumpkin.  I also picked up these skeletons in a package for $0.99 at Wal-Mart.  I let Olive pick out her pumpkin and she choose this purple one this year.  The whole set of things cost me $3 and I'm looking forward to pulling it out every year for her to play with.

We have had a great time with this assortment of Halloween goodies.
We've played hide and go seek with them.
Practiced opening and putting back together the pumpkins
Hidden things in the pumpkins
Lined them up
Sorted them
Counted them
Made patterns with them
Practiced tossing them into the pumpkin

STICKERS
My parents sent Olive some cute foam stickers and I picked up some at the Dollar Spot at Target.  Olive made her own little pumpkin patch.  We practiced fine motor skills trying to get all the stickers off the paper and onto the card stock.  We also practiced colors.  I had her ask for the crayons by color name and then she added some personality to her little patch.  We displayed it on the fridge and she's happy to see her art work on display.
 We also have a bunch of other stickers that she's stuck in coloring books, decorated independently with and just enjoyed playing with by herself.


PLAY OUTSIDE:
We have been out and about a lot lately.  Olive's had a great time playing in the leaves, collecting rocks and acorns, playing at the park and going on walks.  I'd love to do a little nature scavenger hunt with her to work on her vocabulary and let her gather anything that is interesting to her. 


 WHAT FUN THINGS ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR FAMILY THIS MONTH?


 We are hoping to get to do these fun things before the month is over:
Cookie cutter sort
Make Halloween sugar cookies together for our neighbors & Kevin's co-workers
Go to a Halloween party/hayride
Decorate play dough pumpkin
Watch some fun Halloween cartoons
Eat some s'mores
Paint - pumpkins, hand prints, foot prints and free style
Pick out a pumpkin
Trick-or-Treat

My favorite Halloween pins waiting to be attempted from Pinterest:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/76/e1/d9/76e1d9116f765d751f2b5b2bb02771e8.jpg
 via thisreadingmama

Pumpkin Play Dough Invitation to Play from I Heart Crafty Things -- Make a Jack-o-Lantern with Playdough.:
 via iheartcraftythings

 Halloween party treats :):
 via ourbestbites


Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Tuesday Talk: Pumpkin Pancakes

I don't make a hot breakfast every morning, but when I do pancakes are a quick go to option for me.  My family enjoys them and so do I.  I love to put a holiday twist on our meals when I can so pumpkin pancakes were the obvious choice for this week's pancake breakfast.

It was so easy!!
Just make your favorite pancakes and add a little bit of food coloring. 
I love this Hungry Jack boxed mix because you just have to add water or milk to it.  I added 2 drops of green food coloring to a tiny bit of batter for the stems, 1 drop of red and 4 drops of yellow food coloring to make orange for the pumpkins.  I used chocolate chips, mini m&ms and powdered sugar for the pumpkin faces.


 Olive loved her breakfast and thought it was funny that some of the pumpkins had faces.

 In the mood for waffles?
I blogged about October waffles last week

It's time to link up with my favorite ladies this week!!
Just pick your best post from the week and join us.
We had 145 people link up with us last week.
PS Start making plans to link up with our big Cookie Recipe Exchange November 3rd!!
Cookie Recipe Swap - Delicious Dessert Recipes - Tuesday Talk Features - www.sweetlittleonesblog.com 

Keri - Living In This Season  ~ Christina - Waltzing In Beauty
Lauren - Simply Free ~  Becky - BYBMG
Jess and Katie - Sweet Little Ones ~ Whitney - Polka Dotty Place
Laura - Life Is Beautiful ~ Elizabeth - All Kinds Of Things
Sarah - Abiding In Grace ~ Stephanie - Wife Mommy Me
Polka-Dotty Place

Monday, October 19, 2015

ISU Homecoming

 We had a great weekend.  It was fun to take part in all of the homecoming festivities for ISU.  Kevin won season football tickets for our family and we had been looking forward to going to a game for weeks.  We opted out of the early morning homecoming parade because it was so cold, but the tailgating, tent city and game were a lot of fun.  The high was 55 so we had to bundle up a little bit more than we were used to doing.

We played in the leaves in the morning,

made yummy tailgating food, 

and set up camp outside of the stadium around lunch time.

 We ate, enjoyed the sunny day and then headed up to the stadium to check out all of the festivities.

We visited with Kevin's co-workers
and got lots of goodies from each tent.  


 We've never taken Olive into a football game before so we were a little unsure of how things would go.  Game time was also her nap time so we had an easy exit strategy when she was done.  We packed snacks, tiny toys and pom poms.  She loved watching the band, would say OUCH when the players would tackle each other right in front of us and she enjoyed the music. 


We were on the 50 yard line and enjoyed the view.  The stadium is a bit smaller than what we are used to at Notre Dame.  It was fun to see everything up close though.

 Olive had a great time and everyone around us thought she was cute :)

We had a great time and are already looking forward to going to our next game together.