Welcoming our 3rd Blessing!

I am thrilled, honored, and humbled to introduce to you our sweet 3rd blessing from God! Here on this blog he will lovingly be called "TC" or "Baby Brother", as the big brothers call him. We are all doing well. The big brothers are so proud and helpful.

The big brothers holding him for the 1st time!

Ready to head home to our family!

JP has become the budding artist of our family! He drew a picture of our new family of 5 this morning. He got all the details right down to TC's favorite spot being the swing and Daddy's gray hair! Melted my heart!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Family of 5!

After many years of trying to start a family God had a plan for us all along in His timing! We feel extremely blessed to be the parents to these three blessings! We do not take our call to parent them lightly! 

A few things I've learned this week are:

• It is ok to ask for help. As hard as that can be for this mama, it is necessary this week.
•  Our big brothers need us to still be consistent and loving in our parenting and discipline. 
• Nursing is a wonderful, joyous thing, but a little painful and time consuming in the beginning.  
• We are in a sweet period of adjustment as we learn how to operate as a blessed family of 5! Who would have ever thought this would be my life? Not me! I am so blessed to be the mama to these boys! 

New Chore Chart-Tic Tac Toe Style

I have seen so many awesome ideas in the blogging world of how to have your preschoolers help with chores and tasks at home. I have wanted to try a new system for a while now. Then last week I saw an awesome idea at School Time Snippets that I thought was brilliant. This amazing mama made a tic tac toe chore chart for her son to work on in the mornings. I loved this idea so I ran to my computer to do the same! I too thought of things my kids do regularly, but I also added a few new tasks. With sweet baby #3 joining us very soon, this mama needs all the help I can get! And my boys LOVED this new idea and chart! They jumped on their chores immediately and got to work. It was so great!

We are teaching our boys that we are a family and we all work together to keep our home orderly, but it really helped to have a visual and active tool for them to use.

 JP and CA were quite proud of their hard work and new charts!

The jobs on the chart are:

• Put books on bookshelf
• Put clothes away in laundry basket
• Pick up toys
• Set the table
• Sort silverware
• Clean playroom
• Get dressed (this can be a "chore" some days!)
• Make bed

JP quickly made all three beds, including mine!

CA sorted the clean silverware after I ran the dishwasher.

CA pushed clean laundry to my room to be folded!

CA proudly making "x"s on his chart!

I made a 3x3 chart with a "Mommy's choice" in the middle. You are welcome to click here for a free printable of our chart to use for you and your family!

Thank you Kristina at School Time Snippets for an awesome idea working beautifully in our home!

Easter and Spring Activities

The past two weeks we have focused on:

• Easter
• Spring

In the beginning of the week we updated the window clings to Easter. The boys had a great time placing the window clings on the windows, although I know you can't tell by these facial expressions. Buzz and Woody helped too!

Our Easter books from the Library

We used a great activity from Reading Confetti that the boys really enjoyed.

Mommy sporting the silly bunny glasses I picked up at the Dollar Tree.

I also picked up two Spring crafts from the Dollar Tree that the boys loved!

While playing with playdoh, JP said "Mommy, did you know play doh and cheese feel the same?" I then enjoyed having a conversation with him about his thinking. We discussed words such as soft, smooth, rough, and hard.

I had the boys match the colored pom poms to the plastic eggs.

CA and JP also made Easter cards for their cousins with these fun, foam stickers.

We had an awesome time celebrating the resurrection of our Risen Lord together as a family. I hope you and yours also had a Happy Easter!

Linked up to some or most of these parties.

Happy Easter!!!

Happy Easter from our family to yours!

We've had a wonderful weekend celebrating our Risen Lord together! I do hope you and your families have all had time to reflect on the greatness of our Lord!

Easter Sensory Bin

So I've been wanting to make the boys' Easter sensory bin for awhile now and today I finally assembled it! Better late than never, right?

I had a lot of fun making this bin for them! I colored rice for the first time and it was so fun and easy! The boys even helped with the food coloring and shaking of the ziploc bag!

Items in the Sensory Bin:

• Colored Rice for scooping, pouring, dumping
• Easter/Spring Erasers-Target $1 section
• Easter themed measuring spoons- a gift from my sweet mama
• Plastic Easter eggs- recycled from last year

JP's first exploration of the bin. At first he was tentative, but then he enjoyed hiding the erasers.

Little brother joined the fun! Both of them enjoyed scooping the rice.

I think CA likes it!

 I look forward to watching them explore, scoop, dump, pour,make patterns, and just have fun!

Linked up to these awesome parties!

Easter Muffin Tin Meal

 I am LOVING making muffin tin meals for the boys! I just find it a new, fun, creative way to present lunch!

I made them an Easter themed muffin tin meal with green liners, and Easter toppers. I had bought this set of liners after Easter year on sale and now I have a great use for them. I do plan to also make cupcakes or muffins soon with them.

Easter Muffin Tin Meal:

• Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwich in the shape of an Easter egg
• Peaches
• Bananas
• Sliced carrots
• Yogurt with sprinkles
• Mozzarella stick cheese cut up

 

JP wanted to help, so he lined his pan with the liners. Love his helpful heart! 

I encouraged the boys to at least take two bites of each cup. JP ate almost all of his muffin tin. CA wasn't as interested in  his lunch as he was the fruit smoothie I made to go with it. Oh well, I put saran wrap over it and saved it for his afternoon snack!

Linked up here: