My Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day

I hope it was a great one for everyone.  I know it was for me, because I got to spend it with two amazing children who brighten my day, each every day.  Even when times are rough!  This year for Valentine's Day, I decided to do something a little different.  We usually go out to eat at somewhere nice as a family, but this year, I decided we'd stay home and make heart shaped pizzas.  I collected a few ideas off of Pinterest, but actually got the idea from a Wilmington Mommy.  I had thought about making our own pizza crust, but opted out of it because I just didn't have the patience or time to do so.  Once I saw how much dough I had left over, I decided to add a flower, sun, and just a few random pizzas.  For this to be my first time doing this task, I felt like it turned out pretty GREAT!  So here's our Valentine's Day dinner :)

On to Valentine's Day for the kiddos and school.  I wanted to do something special for the children's teacher's for Valentine's Day.  I had thought about baking them so sweet treats, but after browsing Pinterest one too many times, I found quite a few crafty ideas.  Last week, I took each child outside and had them hold their closed fist up in the air.  I really thought it was going to be a challenge with Mimi, but boy did she surprise me (to be honest, these past few weeks she’s been surprising me quite a bit).  She threw her arm up in the air, smiled, and of course, started jumping around.  I took quite a few shots and decided on the best one out of the lot.  I think she just enjoyed the fact that she was outside, enjoying the breeze, while in her eyes, looking silly.  When I got Kai outside, he did just as I needed him to.  I think I took three shots of him with his fist in the air and that was it.  He’s such a pro!  So the pictures were taken and sent off to Walgreens.  In the mean time, we worked on the actual Valentine’s Day card for their teachers (another Pinterest idea).  Using pink/red paint, they applied their hands to the card, attempting to create a heart shape image, with the palms of their hands.  Let me tell you, this task is NOT as easy as it looks.  I tried to show them an “example” and well, it was no where near the shape of a heart.  Unfortunately, Mimi’s looks like a big old blob, but it’s still special in it’s on way.  Kai did pretty good, he just didn’t center his hearts in the middle of the card.  But that’s ok.  The cards dried up and on Saturday, I asked Kai what he wanted to write in his card and that’s what we wrote around his “heart” to hopefully make the image look more like a heart.  The same was done for Mimi’s.  Malakai was a big boy and wrote Prince Malakai Porter for his signature.  The pictures were developed and picked up, and once the inside of the card was completed, I took a razor and created a slit where the children’s fist were and inserted a Tootsie Roll Pop, as if they were holding the candy (like a flower) giving it to the recipient.  Then I taped the candy/picture to the front of the card.  I really think they came out GREAT!!!  I recently bought a new crochet pattern for a headwrap that has a flower attached to it.  So, since I needed practice working on the new pattern, I decided to crochet each of the children’s teachers one for Valentine’s Day.  Here's the gifts the kiddos made their teachers:

Overall, it was an Awesome Valentine's Day with the kiddos.  I really enjoyed it.  Kai made me two gifts in class and gave them to me when I picked him up from school.  Once I looked at it, he gave me a HUGE hug and wished me a Happy Valentine's Day!  Boy do I love that kid :)  I love both of my children dearly and I'm so glad I got to spend yet another Valentine's Day with them  <3

Family of 3

I've decided to change the name of this blog from "Signing with Mimi" to Family of 3, mainly because I couldn't get myself motivated to blog about each new sign that Mimi was learning and felt, Family of 3, suited us best.  We shall see!!!  No matter how much I would love to blow on a regular basis, it seems life gets the best of me and I don't ever get the chance to; this is something I am going to attempt to work on :)  So first, I just want to give everyone an update on what's going on in my little household.

Mommy
I am happy to say, I have completed all my credits for the graduate program at UNCW.  I am now just focusing on my research (which is going very slow at the moment, but that's another story).  My goal is to be done with everything by May 2013, so I can finally get a BIG girl job again.  I haven't decided exactly where I want to go or what I actually want to do once I graduate, but figured I'd get through the summer, see where my research is, and start making some hardcore decisions.  School and caring for two children has been challenging these past few months and haven't been crocheting as much as I was, but I am perfectly fine with that.  Sometimes you just need a break to get yourself together, before you move forward.  Tiny Tot Toppers is something I enjoy being part of, it gives me the chance to share my creativity.  My goal is to get it back up and running here in the next few months.  I have tons of goals/planning ahead of me.  My main one at the moment is getting the apartment completely organized, if it means buying tons of organizing shelves and putting baskets inside of them :)  My apartment just needs to be changed up a bit and it's all in the works.  Yay!  I am also currently preparing myself for Mimi's 4th birthday, which will be arriving in three more months on May 18.  It's crazy how times flies, but it's approaching and I will be prepared for that weekend.  I have made the decision to do most of the birthday preparation and will be glad to share with everyone else once I do so.  I'm  currently working on the birthday invitations, which in my opinion, don't look to bad.  I'm hoping to be able to complete a few DIY tasks this coming year with the help of Pinterest and my creative mind.  Well, that's about it for me, now onto Mr. Malakai.

Malakai
Oh Kai, he seems to be growing an inch by the day.  Before I know it, he's going to be my height and then taller than me.  He is growing up so fast, but obviously, this is something that must happen.  He's been in Pre-K for about a 6 months and is asking everyday when he will start Kindergarten.  I think he keeps bringing it up because it's something different/new for him.  He seems to learn something new everyday and I couldn't be more proud.  Of course, he still has some behavior issues, but he's working on them.  I feel like it's for attention, but who knows.  The one thing I can say about Kai is he loves spending time with his sister and helping her the best he can.  Temperance couldn't ask for a better BIG brother :)

Temperance
Miss Mimi is coming along just fine.  She's doing fantastic in school and is able to match two pictures together in class.  We are still working on her being potty trained, but it's just not happening.  It comes and goes, but her time will come.  For the longest, she continued to eat her meals with her fingers, pushing her fork or spoon to the side, but here lately, she's been holding onto her fork and actually using it.  Yay for progress!!  She's still not saying many words, but still continues to use some signs.  In my opinion, something is better than nothing.  All and all, she is making progress and that's what we want to see :)

So as you can see, my little family of three is doing just great!!  We tend to live each day to the best of our ability and enjoy the most of it.  In the next few weeks, me and the kiddos will begin to work on more crafts, while I "attempt" some DIY tasks.  I'm super stoked to try something NEW and see becomes of it, so be sure to check us out <3