Kemah Boardwalk for the Holidays

I have taken the whole week off before Christmas to spend at home with Lizzy and Mike. I am happy to be home more but each day we have a nice breakfast together, get dressed, watch some pbs kids, and after that Lizzy is restless and so am I. By this time we scramble to find something fun to do together. Today we went to Kemah's boardwalk....there was practically no one there so that was nice. We rode the train together and Lizzy rode the carousel once with me and another time with Mike. Afterwards we walked to the center of the Kemah Boardwalk area and had some warm beignets and some hot cafe au lait. This was nice since the sun went down earlier and it got more chilly out. Lizzy sure is ready for Christmas to get here!

Salt Dough Ornaments

This is the first year Lizzy and I have made salt dough ornaments. Hopefully we will have these for years to come because they were certainly a lot of work. If you aren't working with a toddler then they are an easy, inexpensive activity to do with your children. The problem we ran into is paint everywhere....that means on the carpet and lots of clean up and an extra bath for the day. In any case the final product was successful. We used ornament shaped cookie cutters given to us by Lizzy's grandparents which were perfect for this and acrylic paint. The snowmen are actually Lizzy's fingers made into snowmen. I love pinterest...I am getting so many ideas from that site. I hope to gift some of these to the grandparents. I know I will treasure this ornament years to come.




1 C Flour
1/2 C Salt
1/2 C Warm Water

Bake at 250 for 2 hours. Cool completely then paint.

Gingerbread House

Took Lizzy to the library for story time and to build a gingerbread house. Lizzy had lots of fun with story time, songs, dance, and finally building her gingerbread house. Lizzy ate most of the candies for her gingerbread home but she had fun. We still have a gingerbread house kit at home and lots of icing and candies to use up before Christmas is over....we'll have to do this while Lizzy's grandparents are in town.

Day at the Children's Museum

Lizzy had a great time. We went through the whole Children's Museum and Lizzy had fun throughout.

Lizzy and Daddy

It's a challenging job to be home with a toddler all day but Mike has done a great job and I can see Lizzy is much closer to him now. Lizzy has always been very close to me and I was practically a stay at home mom until she was 18 months so this has been a shift for her and I but now it's daddy's time to be home with Lizzy. Despite the circumstances I see this as a blessing. This is my opinion but I believe at such a young age a child should be home with a parent the majority of the day learning from and getting close to their parent. I wouldn't be completely at ease knowing Lizzy was being cared for by practically strangers at a daycare the majority of her day at this age. It's a struggle to be a working parent and only seeing your young child a couple hours each day....in my opinion this doesn't feel natural. I hope whether it's Mike or I one of us is always available for Lizzy.

Gifts in a Jar

Gifts in a jar are an economical way to make a gift for someone. All you need is to layer dry ingredients of your favorite recipes in a jar, add some ribbon, add a recipe tag and it's done. Some of the ones I made this year include...smores in a jar, Mexican hot chocolate, cinnamon waffle mix, and reindeer trail mix. You could make soup mixes, bread mixes, dessert mixes, bath salts, cookies, the possibilities are truly endless...next year I will definitely be doing this again with maybe bread mixes and Indian curry mixes.

Baking Cookies

Lizzy got a really cute apron and some cookie making tools from her grandparents in Indiana. Today she got to use them when we made sugar cookies together. Lizzy had lots of fun and got really messy. Later she got to eat two cookies! She went to bed late of course. Sugar gives Lizzy instant and endless energy. We hope to make gingerbread men sometime soon. Although next time we will make them and eat them earlier in the day.

Bike Riding with Daddy

Mike has been taking Lizzy out for Bike rides when the weather is right and Lizzy loves it. I have a bike too but the two times I've ridden it I have fallen so I need a little practice. The good thing is Lizzy's bike seat is on Mike's bike right now. She sure loves riding the bike with her daddy.

Saint Lucia Day

Today is St. Lucia day. I made Lizzy a St. Lucia crown out of felt. Lizzy thought it was a birthday crown she even tried to blow the candles out.

Sensory Snow Tub

We hadn't done a sensory tub in a while. I had some decorative snow the kind you add water to and it expands so I let Lizzy play with it in a plastic tub. Needless to say it did not stay in the tub but Lizzy had fun playing with it.

Christmas Parade

This weekend was Friendswood's Santa in the Park and Christmas Parade. We took Lizzy to the park and she wanted to visit with Santa but the line was very long and she had already seen him this year so we distracted her with other activities at the park. We all rode the hayride together, Lizzy and I rode a train together, afterwards Lizzy ate kettle corn and watched kids go down a man made snow hill.










Next was the Christmas Parade. The parade comes down our street so we just got some chairs together and Lizzy had some apple cider while Mike and I had hot chocolate. Lizzy really enjoyed the Christmas Parade.

St. Nick's Day 2011

Lizzy put carrots in each wooden shoe for St. Nick's horses. She also tried to feed her rocking horse a carrot! That night she went to sleep and St. Nick came by a left her some surprises! Lots of sweet treats, a Christmas movie for each of us and a barney toy for Lizzy. Later, we ate peppermint pancakes for breakfast. Then, Lizzy played with her play doh and cookie cutters. Lizzy really enjoyed making her own "cookies".













Happy St. Nick's Day!

Advent Week Two

"The second light of advent is the light of plants,
plants that reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance..." Steiner



We celebrated plants this Sunday by adding a poinsettia plant to our Christmas decor. Lizzy watered the poinsettia and we set it out by our front door. We also did a Christmas tree art project...more on this later.

Our second candle is lit this Sunday.

Lizzy's First Time Camping

We went to the Serengeti resort which is like an African safari in the Texas Hill Country. We stayed in an outfitter tent out near some friendly ostrich, giraffe, zebra, camel, and gazelle. It was an interesting place. They also had lemurs, parrots, and a huge great Dane. Unfortunately, it rained the whole time we were there. That meant we didn't do the golf cart safari tour, no campfire or grilling .... Lizzy was outdoors but it was muddy. Not what we had planned but it was an adventure!

We had smores (by the heater)

Saying Hi to the friendly ostrich that followed us to our tent.

Lizzy with binoculars trying to see the giraffe

There's the giraffe!

The tent we stayed in

Time for bed! Boy was that a struggle with Lizzy. At least we didn't rough it...we had actual beds, lights, and heat. It was an experience just wish it hadn't rained so much. Maybe we will be back someday.

Happy to be home now!

Saturdays...

Spent last Saturday with Lizzy at Lone Star Bounce Town.....she had fun. It wasn't too bad. Lizzy got to wear some energy off jumping around on the inflatables and playing in the toddler town while Mike and I caught some of the UH football game. I taught Lizzy to say "Go Coogs"! UH get's it's day in the Sun.




Afterwards we had dinner at Chick fil A and Lizzy played in their toddler area for a while.....we had to bribe her out with a ice cream cone : / She fell asleep for the day on the couch at 6:30 PM so she had a good day. This is life with a toddler.