Story Time with Seth...Birthday at the Park for the Twins

This gripping look of concern on Jasper's face is due to the fact that he can't have 3 cupcakes...yes, he already had 2.  More to come on that in a minute.

First stop this morning after picking up Evan and Abigail was the Gibson Library for our 2nd story time session with Seth .  It went splendidly.  

Jasper's love language is glue sticks and markers.  He walked in and grabbed a craft tray and sat down.  Of course the craft comes at the end, so I had to convince him to put it back for 15 minutes.

Our theme today was pigs.  Jasper has been saying, "oink oink" all afternoon.  We read If You Give a Pig a Pancake and Olivia. The kids loved the pop up book The Long Nosed Pig --  Lots of ooohhhs and aaaahhhhhs when the long noses popped out.  

The craft today was a cute little pig on a stick.  Jasper loved every minute of glue and marker time.

My favorite line from the Olivia book is when her mother tucks her in at night and says, "You know, you really wear me out. But I love you anyway," Olivia precociously pronounces, "I love you anyway too."

Everyone loved O'Callaghan park today. The weather is 65 and to die for.  Today was the 2nd birthday for Paige and Elyse so Kandice brought cupcakes and the kids were all in heaven.  

We sung Happy Birthday to the girls and they smiled and said "hooray".  

They were eating their cupcakes as if they were participants in the county fair pie eating contest.  They did not want to get their hands messy -- which of course just increased the amount of frosting on their faces.  Cute, cute little girls.

Our group at the park today included the Abbott's, Schroeder's, Wakumoto's, Sowell's and Christiansen's.  It was so fun to spend time with our friends.  For me and Jasper.

See you next week!

Sr. Nursey....Here We Come!

Mike has been serving as the Jr. Nursery leader at church since October 2008.  Jasper's been blessed to have Mike with him since March 1st of last year.

Jasper was supposed to move up to the Sr. Nursery in January of this year, but he stayed behind so he could be with Mike.

Two weeks ago Mike and Jasper got moved up the Sr. Nursery.  I am excited because I was hoping Jasper could learn more with the older kids and stay with his friends.  

Of course I am most excited because Mike and Jasper were able to stay together.  Mike loves spending the extra two hours each week with Jasper and his buddies.
 

I helped out in Sr. Nursery during play time for a few minutes and snapped these photos of Jasper playing on my phone.   He was in love with the Dinoco helicopter.  Thank you to whoever donated that to the nursery.  It seems like everyone's favorite.

It's hard to believe that next January he'll be a Sunbeam!

President's Day 2010 -- Redstone

Our good friends the Schroeder's planned a super fun outing to one of our favorite local spots, Redstone, in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.  

Mike said they all had a great time and that Jasper was hiking and scrambling up large rocks like a pro.  That night Jasper kept saying that he went up "high".  That's one of his favorite words these days.

I was so sad to miss the fun, but I had a sewing class that I had signed up for a long time ago and I felt like I needed to go since it was on garment sewing and I need to improve my skills.

After Jasper's nap we picked up his best friend Peyton Cropper and headed to Mission Hills Park.  Jasper's favorite slide has been broken for months and I keep hoping it will get fixed soon.  I have no idea how it was broken.  Mike thinks it looks like someone took an axe to the slide.  Scary!

Mike joined the boys for a couple of runs down the tube slides.  I asked him if he thought he might get stuck and he said, "yes".  Luckily we didn't have to pull him out like Winnie the Pooh when he got stuck in the 

Just to top off Jasper's best day ever we hit McDonald's for more playing and sliding.  The McDonald's on Horizon and Greenway has the same PlayLand as the one we went to in Lehi, the one that has steps that are too far apart.  Jasper found a nice little 8 year old girl that would pull him up the steps.  But when she left Jasper was stranded.

Mike came to the rescue and gave Jasper a boost or two.  He's such a great daddy!

With Love -- From Me -- To You

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a great Valentine's weekend here at the Davidson home.

Yesterday Mike & I went on a date to the Las Vegas Temple. 

I ended up having a breakdown at the Temple over my miscarriage and couldn't stop crying, so I don't know how romantic that was. :> 


We grabbed Pei Wei to go on the way home and had a nice little feast with Jasper.  He was munchin' down on the spring rolls and fortune cookies.  Of course the funniest thing was watching Jasper use chopsticks.

Today Mike made Jasper and I some super yummy waffles before church.  Jasper was so excited when Mike announced that he was making us waffles that Jasper ran downstairs and attempted to get the waffle iron out.  He went into the pantry, handed me Mrs. Butterworth and said, "pour".  He was ready for his waffles.

We loved all of the Valentine's and fun treats that we've received.  Reagan Schroeder came a knockin' tonight with a plate of cookies that were almost as cute as she is.  Little J greeted her in his glow-in-the dark superman shirt,  ready for some more cookies.  He already had a cheek full of cookie when he ran to the door.  He is a little cookie monster!

Jasper and I picked out a cute card for him to give to Mike with a happy octopus on the front.  Mike continued our tradition of making each other cards for Valentine's Day, birthdays and our anniversary.  He's even been known to whip out a glue stick and scissors in years past. I flaked out and went with Hallmark.  Thanks sweetie -- I know crafting is not your forte'!

Love Bugs

This morning I got my "Jon and Kate Plus 8" groove on and took Jasper and 4 of his friends to Story Time at Gibson Library.

 

We made "Love Bugs" for our craft.  Jasper was pleased as punch to wield his own glue stick and marker, as evidenced by his "Love Bug".

We met up with some other moms and kids at O'Callaghan Park  to soak up some sun and play.  It felt so good to be outside in the sunshine.

We loved seeing the Abbott's, Schroeder's, Quandel's, Wakumoto's and Sowell's.  Thank you for coming to play with us.  Every mom packed snacks to share and the kids had a fruit snack / fruit roll-up / Cheez-It festival.

 

We'll be going to Story Time from 10:00 - 10:30 AM for the next 6 weeks and then to a park from 10:.45 - 12 Noon.  

We might try different parks each week, so let me know if you want to come and I'll email you which park we're going to.  

Hope to see you next Thursday! 

P.S.    I have never watched "Jon and Kate Plus 8".  I was only "Angela Plus 5" but my adventures would have made for very entertaining TV this morning.  

Like when Jasper lost his shoe and I didn't even know it was missing because I was so worried one of us would be hit by a car in the crazy parking lot at the Gibson Library.  Jasper announced (quite loudly) that his shoe was missing once we finally sat down in Story Time (which we interrupted by coming in late).  It was later retrieved outside on the stairs.

Let's see...I could not get all of the car seat belts fastened properly, and after a frustrating 10 minutes I told the kids that I was going to have to say a prayer and ask for help or we would never be able to leave my driveway.  I was 100% serious.

 
We (all 6 of us) looked like a side-winding caterpillar holding hands everywhere we went.  I had to use my  "nice mom" public reprimand voice when Jasper took off, i.e. broke the 6-man human chain, and I tried to coax him to rejoin the chain.

Let's just say that we were quite a sight!  Can't wait to do it again next week!

Breakfast of Champions

Yesterday Jasper and I made strawberry cupcakes for his preschool Valentine's party for the kids to frost and decorate.

He had so much fun adding the ingredients, running the mixer, and setting out the cupcake liners.  And of course helping to rinse out the dishes in the sink

Because anything that involves running the kitchen sink sprayer is a delight. It's gotten so bad that after I rinse a dish or pot or pan Jasper pipes up with, "My turn".  Meaning -- now I get a turn to "play" in the sink.

I know, I know -- be grateful your kid wants to do dishes.  But he's a splish-splasher and it seems to always involve an outfit change. 

This morning I told him that today was his big Valentine party and he would get to share the cupcakes we made with his friends at preschool. 

Not my best idea, because then Jasper would not stop saying
PINK CUPCAKE -- MINE. 

So for breakfast he ate a pink cupcake.  And he loved every last crumbly crumb.  The new breakfast of champions -- strawberry cupcakes.

"Help Me!"

Now that Jasper is talking more, he loves to say, "Help me".  Most of the time he asks for help putting his shoes on, opening or a door, or reaching for a toy.

Yesterday he tried to retrieve a small ball that rolled across the floor.  He chased it under the mini trampoline and managed to get completely stuck.  I soon heard a desperate "Help me!".

Most days the caboose comes off his favorite train and "Help me" is a plea to get the train cars hooked back together.

Sometimes Jasper is climbing the shelves of the pantry in hopes of reaching the M&M's and "Help me" really means --- I want some chocolate.

Last week he walked up to me wearing a yellow construction hat and had a large candy bar in each hand. (Our friends recently went to Canada and Mike asked then to bring him back some good Cadbury chocolate). 

Jasper looked up at me, waving the chocolate bars and pleaded, "Help me."  I could have finished the sentence by adding (Help me) open these nice big bars of chocolate!  I told him that they are daddy's and he'd have to discuss the matter with him.

Last night I left the pita chips out and when Jasper spotted them this morning there was nothing that could persuade him away from a breakfast of hummus and pita chips.  Things were going well until Sully mysteriously took a swim in the Avacado Cilantro Hummus.  I soon heard "Help me", even though Sully was the one who needed rescuing.

Sewing Classes

I am taking some free classes at Quiltique (on Stephanie and American Pacficic) over the next few months.

I am posting the classes I am taking in case you want to join me.  Reina Gammet is signed up for a few classes too -- come sew with both of us!  I put the link for Peicemaking Basics class and you can see all of the information in the Quiltique newsletter.

This photo is of the Vintage Baby Quilt.  They said we complete the entire quilt in 4 hours -- including the machine quilting.  Sounds good to me, and it looks really cute.

As an FYI, you have to have a Bernina machine, but they let you use one of theirs for free -- just ask when you sign up.


Piecemaking Basics
Thursday's from 6 - 9 PM
Jan. 28, Feb. 4, 11 and 18
 
Garment Sewing 101
Monday, Feb. 15 and 22nd, 10AM - 1 PM 

Machine Quilting
Friday, February 26, 5 - 9 PM


Color with Kara 
Monday, March 1,  5 -9 PM

Vintage Baby Quilt 
Sat., March 13, 10AM - 1PM

Just the Basics Pillowcase Class
Tuesday, March 2, 6-9 PM

Bindings
Tuesday, March 16th,  6 - 9 PM

Bounce With Us!

Today Jasper and I joined our friend Trisha and her kids for a bounce house festival at the Black Mountain Recreation Center (BMRC). 

Of course the kids had a blast.  To our surprise, hardly anyone else was there.  We brought our friend Savanah and she helped Jasper up and over what I call the "American Gladiator" wall.  What a great friend for Jasper.


They set the things up in the rec. center gym so there's tons of room for the kids to run around too.  They had five huge bounce houses -- the jumbo slide, two of the ones where you just jump and two other obstacle course ones with medium slides.

We stayed until 12:20 and no one kicked us out; the kids were just wiped out and ready to go.  It's for ages 2-5 and is only $3 per kid.  All of the bounce houses were cleaner and newer than any I've ever seen.

If you want to come with us next time, below are the upcoming dates for the BMRC.  They are all on a Friday from 11-12 PM.  You can just show up and register that day. Hope to see you there!
-- Feb.  19th
-- Mar. 12th
-- Apr. 9th
--May 14th