Friday, food day?

     I love my job for a variety of reasons but I must say that Friday it was because of our parents. I spend A LOT of my time with a room full of kids but spend only a couple minutes with their parents if I have time to say more than "have a good day" to them as they finish dropping off their child.
     I must say though that, despite the brief encounters we have, these parents are awesome! Every so often they'll send in little thank you's to the staff and friday was a day full of love from our parents.

Caffeine covered by one family

Yummy lunch brought in by another family

     Sadly, Friday went down hill pretty quickly after I left work. Big Brother proclaimed he didn't want to nap and we figured Hubby would be working late so we headed out to a store to look for some kids crocs before heading over to visit with hubby. Because I'd of rather taken some time to see Hubby so that Big Brother forgot he said he wasn't going to nap so that he would fall asleep. Big Brother wasn't happy to start off because he wanted to go to the toy store and I promised him that there were toys he could look at once we were done looking for what I had wanted to look at. He was pretty patient looking at the crocs and was understanding that even though they had Lightening McQueen ones they weren't the right size so we couldn't get them. However, the toy section went quite differently… I reminded him that we were just looking and that we weren't getting anything and he continued to pick things up and say that he wanted them. I finally told him that since he kept touching things we would have to go, which sparked a melt down. He screamed and cried at the top of his lungs and the only decipherable words were "I don't want to" and then his comment trailed off. He was never able to tell me what he didn't want to do but I figured it was something along the lines of "do anything" by his behavior. He tried to run away from me and so I had to pick him up kicking and screaming and carry him to the door and unfortunately I had to put him down to get Froggie out of the cart and he ran away again, this time losing a shoe! I had to sit him down and put his shoe on and carry them both out. His tantrum lasted the better half of the way home and he still woke up sniffling from the crying.

    The evening went A LOT better and we met up with Hubby for dinner and he was apologetic for his earlier behavior and assured me he wasn't going to run away from me. 

No More Cabin Fever!

     With the SUPER COLD weather and snow that we've had (not anything we aren't used to, but an annoyance none the less) we haven't left the house much. Froggie doesn't have snow pants (and we can't find Big Brother's old ones) so we don't go out to play in the snow much which means that we spend A LOT of time in the house.
     I think at this point we have all started to experience a little cabin fever. We leave for school every day but then once we come home re rarely leave the house. Big Brother gets pretty rambunctious since there isn't a lot of "run around space" where he isn't running over Froggie, a dog, or me.
     Today we went to tumbling like normal but decided to get out of the house in the afternoon as well. However, Big Brother decided he didn't want to go with us. He normally doesn't get a choice but my mom said he could stay with her. So Hubby, Froggie and I headed to the mall, a place we typically don't go to unless we need something so it was kind of a strange trip all around.

Testing out the set up for tumbling

Playing with Froggie before tumbling started

Hula Hoop

Hula Hoop!

     Our first stop was the craft store where we picked up some yarn for some new projects, some St. Patrick's Day craft materials and Hubby even picked out a pretzel baking kit. Then we walked around to a few other stores and picked up some small stuff (including some much needed coffee) before heading into the book store. They didn't have the book that Hubby was looking for but we got Big Brother an AWESOME dry erase work book, and we started heading back for our car.

Mmmm Oatmeal cookie from Starbucks!

     Froggie got antsy in the stroller asked to get down so we let her out and she walked a pretty long stretch of the mall holding hands with either Hubby or I. 

Walking at the mall

     When we got home we had pizza and gave Big Brother his new book, which he started using right away and did REALLY well with. He's a lefty so Hubby and I have some issues teaching him since we're both right handed. While he worked in his book Hubby and I made some pretty delicious pretzels! They turned out a lot better than I thought they would. Overall it was a nice change to sitting inside, but now I have some yarn to use up!

Big Brother testing out his new book.

pretzels before

pretzels after

Shopping Fun

     After nap I decided to pack the kids up and head out to the store since I wanted to get out of the house and was looking for yarn for a project I'm thinking about. Big Brother had still been awake when I drove through Starbucks to pick up some coffee and a sandwich and asked for "ice cream in a cup with a straw" (a frappucino). I had told him maybe later and only if he took his nap since he's to the point of occasionally refusing them. 

     Well he slept well and since I'd been thinking about going to the craft store I figured we would make a pit stop at Target and pick up his vanilla bean frappucino. Froggie had fallen asleep on the way there so this is how we shopped! I had forgotten my Ergo otherwise there wouldn't have been any dilemma as to where Froggie would go. The set up worked surprisingly well, the kids each got a little toy, valentines, and the clearance deals on lunch boxes and accessories were so good I got myself a new lunchbox.

Breakfast Date

     Before my friend headed back to North Carolina after the holidays we had a breakfast date at Starbucks. The kids had a blast and it was nice to be out and about with everyone.

Yummy breakfast!

Check out all those crumbs!

Happy Froggie

My new coffee mug, just because.

Mini Vacation: Day #3 Graduation

     This morning was a bit of an early start since we had to be out of our rooms and at the school house early for Hubby's graduation. In true Navy fashion we had to hurry up and wait this morning; once we got to the school house we were supposed to sit in the petty officer association's room where they were preparing for a Christmas party and had a TON of wrapped gifts all over the room. Let me tell you, there is a sense of panic when asked to sit in a room full of gifts with your toddler when none of them are for him! While we waited Big Brother asked to have some pictures taken and the kids played with some toys and had some snacks.
     I didn't take any pictures during graduation because I was holding Froggie who was being pretty squirmy. Not to mention I couldn't fish out my phone during graduation and knew that Froggie would grab at my actual camera and none of the pictures would turn out anyway. Following graduation Hubby and I purchased some sweatshirts from the "gear locker" and headed back towards our hotel. Before we got settled and changed we took a bunch of pictures. Lately Big Brother has been pretty uncooperative when it comes to taking pictures but we ended up with something to document the event.

Big Brother wanted a picture with Froggie

So proud of Hubby!

Our little family

Hubby and I

     After everyone got changed and a little packing was done we headed out to pick up the new uniform that Hubby had ordered along with some other goodies. This included a very large new duffle bag to get home everything that Hubby had acquired over the course of his time in Florida. After some lunch (and Starbucks) we headed back to our rooms for nap time so that we could go back out for some fun.

Mmmm Starbucks

     Nap time ended up being pretty short lived since we wanted to get across base to see Santa come in on a fire truck. The fire truck pulled in as we were coming across the parking lot. While Hubby and the kids made their way towards Santa and the festivities my mom and I both ended up with burrs in our feet. I had to use my camera strap to get the burrs off my feet and then had to figure out how to get them out of my strap. Man do those little things hurt!
     There were cookies, hot chocolate, coloring, seeing Santa, bounce houses and free trees for military personnel. Big Brother waited rather impatiently to see Santa. He had been pretty shy about Santa and still always has a funky face in pictures (lately with or without Santa) until today! The kids had put out their shoes for Saint Nick and due to his recent visit Big Brother seemed more accepting of the big guy in red. When it was time to get out of the sleigh he didn't want to go until he told Santa thank you for the gift he had left the night before. It was really cute and one of those proud mommy moments. Froggie seems to be hit or miss with Santa and she wasn't thrilled about Santa today.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

Christmas festivities on base.

FIRE ANTS EVERYWHERE!

     After our fun on base we headed out toward to beach to a local restuarant that was having some pre-parade festivities including crafts, a bonfire and Santa. Big Brother loved it and especially had fun with the hammock and the S'mores. Froggie had her first taste of a S'more and got upset that she couldn't be down on her own but otherwise seemed to enjoy it. After awhile to boats that had strung themselves up with lights made their way out from the dock and we drove back towards our rooms and ordered Pizza.

Making a stocking. 

Big Brother and the palm trees

Palm trees and Christmas lights

I could get used to this kind of Christmas

The hammock

Big Brother and Santa

Froggie and Santa

making S'mores

I'll have some of that grandma!

Mmmmm

Watching the boats

Watching the boats

Thursday Night Fun

     After work and a dress fitting appointment Big Brother and I made our way through the Starbucks drive-thru before making a pit stop at a couple stores. Today was just one of those days that define the "Terrible Two's". Big Brother was REALLY grumpy this morning about getting his sweatshirt on and carrying his cup and he and I just seemed to butt heads all day. When I was getting ready to leave work to head to my fitting he had woken up and he's always pretty grumpy right after nap or he's really clingy depending on the day. Today he just so happened to be grumpy...
     He was fairly well behaved and the seamstress was able to get through pinning up my dress after what they had done to it already didn't rectify its fit issues. He was excited to get some pumpkin bread and was really disappointed that we could only find girly Toms in his size. We headed into a local discount store and found a bunch of books and a couple toys (including a froggy pillow for Froggie!). Some things we'll put away for upcoming holidays and Hubby's schooling.
     After that we decided to grab dinner out before heading home. Froggie slept through 99% of dinner and seemed pretty comfy on the booth next to me!

Snuggly baby

     Before Froggie was born I made her a blanket on a knitting loom before I taught myself to crochet. I then made a blanket for Big Brother as I learned to crochet. I put a lot of time and effort into Froggie's blanket but I like the crochet blankets much better so I'm making Froggie a new blanket. I started tonight so we'll see how long it takes to finish!

blanket beginnings

Mini Me

     I don't have much to share tonight. Summer is visiting for one last day with temps in the 90's and 20,000 people in our area are without power because of some issue between here and Cleveland. We're trying to stay cool here but I thought I'd share a picture of my mini me (Big Brother) helping me carry my things out of school/work this afternoon.