Toddler Tumbling

Ali filled me in on the great classes the rec center offers. {We hope daisy will join us when she's old enough!} On Friday mornings, Nate & Hadley are in a tumbling class. Nate is by far the youngest at 18 months {the age minimum for the class} and Hadley is a close second at 20 months. Even though they can't really do any of it on their own, they still have a great time running around the room and actually doing some tumbling with the help of their mamas. They walk on a beam, hang from the bars and do different tricks, forward rolls/backward rolls, jump on the tramp, go down the slide, attempt a cartwheel, handstands, etc.

One of my favorite parts is at the beginning of class where the kiddos get to pick a circle and actually listen to Miss Tiffany's directions. She always plays a fun song that they sing and dance to and do some fun stretching before we actually start tumbling. I think it's good for Nate to have to focus and listen to directions of someone other than me!





It's been fun for Kiley and I to watch week after week as they remember more and more and get better every time with certain things. They definitely have great little memories and it's fun to watch them in action.

While Nate LOVES the bars and doing forward/backward rolls, his favorite part of tumbling class is in the last five minutes. Miss Tiffany sits down and all of the kids form a half circle around her where she gives out stamps and stickers. On the second week of class, Nate knew exactly what to do and was the first kid by Tiffany to get a stamp. Then he proceeds to show it to everyone throughout the day. He's very proud of his stamps.

We have a few more weeks of tumbling and then they go in to a Rock'n'Roll music class which they'll love!

{Tumbling photos courtesy of Kiley!}

Q: What makes Nate happy?

A: a hat and a coat.



I never thought a 1-year old little boy would be so adamant about two things:
1 - a hat
2 - a coat

You will rarely find Nate without a hat on. He has many hats and he loves them. This Park Ranger hat is probably his favorite. His cowboy hat is a close second. He wears this Park Ranger hat EVERYWHERE.

Lately he's been asking for his coat, too. He points and says coat and won't stop till it's on. So, he wore it all afternoon in 70 degree weather.

Today was a FIRST for little Griff. He actually looked at the camera and said cheese! He typically turns away from the camera or he comes charging at me wanting to play with it. Today he looked at me for about 30 seconds and said "cheese". It was great!

In hopes I'll one day have a girl . . . I'm gonna try to win this.

Blushing Buttercream Pettiskirt GIVEAWAY!!!!

yum.

My friend Katie taught me {and our young women} how to make freezer jam this week. I've loved smearing my toast in this delicious stuff all weekend. It's surprisingly easy so I made a double-batch this afternoon. I can't wait to try all kinds of varieties like mixed berry & raspberry peach this summer!

And then these {Thin Mints & Carmel Delights} showed up on my doorstep Saturday afternoon which made for a scrumptious weekend.

sometimes things don't turn out the way you planned.

We had many different plans for our Presidents Day/Valentines Day/ 3-day weekend:

Plan #1: Go to the cabin with my parents to go snowmobiling and sledding. Then Duck Creek got hit with a major snow storm so we decided to stay.

Plan #2: Clean our garage! It really needs some attention from us.

But then Wes & I were both hit with a cold on Friday that involved a serious sore throat, body aches & no energy. We sat on the couch and slept whenever Nate slept. Nate was such a TROOPER while we were out of it and was such a good little kid. He even took a 3 hour nap on Saturday and a 3 hour nap on Sunday which allowed Wes and I to lay down, too. By Sunday we were feeling a little better {but still had zero energy} but we did go to my parent's house for dinner.

We did manage to get Nate out of the house a little bit so he didn't go stir crazy . . .




Since my parent's were planning on being at the cabin they didn't have any plans this weekend. So Nate had a sleepover at their house on Sunday night. I've decided that this stage is the perfect time for sleep-overs at grandma and grandpa's. He sleeps great in a pack-n-play and rarely wakes up at all during the night so it's pretty easy for my parent's to watch him.

They took him all day Monday which was such a nice treat after having a depressing weekend! I slept until 9:30am on Monday. That has not happened in YEARS and it was fabulous. Absolutely fabulous. We cleaned the rest of the morning & organized our food storage. All of our food storage cans are now under our bed and our under-the-stairs closet is now organized with all of the rest of our extra food. It's amazing how much you can get done with two people and no toddler! We decided to also have some fun so we went to Town Square & had lunch at CPK, did a little shopping, and saw Taken. What an intense movie. After the movie, we headed to my parent's to pick up Nate and it was great to see him.

I absolutely love 3-day weekends ... even when half of it is spent feeling crappy. I love starting the daily grind on a Tuesday . . . instead of a Monday!

happy v-day

While Wes and I don't do anything out-of-the-ordinary on Valentines Day . . . it was kind of a fun week for me and Nate. A few times a year {literally}, I feel like making treats and this was one of those times. I ended up making Valentine treats for my young women and Nate helped me with a few Valentine treats for his Las Vegas cousins. I made a few pans of rice krispie treats, cut them in to hearts, and dipped half of it in chocolate. (thanks megan for the idea). Then we made chocolate covered pretzels and little oreo sandwiches cut in to hearts. It was a yummy week at our house!



Then I made chocolate chip cookie dough brownies (again, thanks Megan for the recipe) for Wes' office as a little treat. This is very rare for me to spend this much time in the kitchen but it was actually kinda fun. Nate sure loved trying all the goodies.


{photo courtesy of bakerella}

I'm trying to teach Nate from a young age to be nice to the ladies. So he sent this Valentine to a few of his girlfriends . . .



Happy Valentines Day.

Pay it Forward

The first 3 people to leave a comment on this post will receive a hand made gift from me during this year. When and what will be a surprise. There's a small catch though...Post this same thing on your own blog and then come back and leave a comment telling me you're in. Fun, huh? Remember, only the first 3 comments receive the gift!