Sleepy P

So we are beginning to experiment with the dropping the nap. I'm surprised we have made it this far! Pallie and Duncan have been having shortened naps for a month or so now. While this seems to be working for Duncan, Pallie is proving a bit trickier to find the right balance. Part of this may be that she always has difficulty when her schedule is altered like for our trip to Nashville last week. So starting Monday we have been letting her quietly read in her bed then take a shorter nap. Monday this worked great and she loves "reading" so that was exciting. Yesterday, she went in her room where she naps before nap time and began reading and at some pint fell asleep. Well she must have slept longer than I realized because last night at 9 pm she was wide awake partying. Consequently, she slept in this morning. Normally I get them up at 7 but by 7:30 they were all still quiet. Finally I went up and everyone but Pallie was awake. I got them out and dressed and while I was dressing everyone else, Pallie fell back to sleep on the playroom floor!! I got everyone in the table for breakfast, Pal ate a few bites then fell back to sleep again! She finally perked up and played the rest of the morning. Just now I got her up after her reading and an hour nap, not twenty minutes later I find her asleep , in MY bed!!! Haha poor thing she will figure this schedule out soon...

Nashville

Well the great move has begun. Jenny Kate and Paul accepted an offer on our house in New Orleans and we are spending Mardi Gras break up in Tennessee looking for a new home. (for those of you who are not aware, children get a week off school for Mardi Gras in New Orleans...) while we were up here Lucy had an unfortunate accident. Her pinky finger got caught in a door (near the hinge) and it basically got severed near the nail bed. Thankfully #1 Paul was there and #2 we are in a city with gifted physicians. They did surgery and put everything back together and we are hopeful for a good recovery. Of course Lucy took everything in stride and is being super brave. She does not like the cast very much and calls it "yucky". Poor sweet Lu.

Dressing up

The babes have a rule. If you dance you have to wear a dress. They also insist that if you wear a necklace you have to wear a dress. Basically just always wear a dress. Anyway, the other day they wanted to have a dance party. Well Lucy and Pallie ran and got their princess dresses on while I started the music. They have some fantastic moves! Well of course dancing is so contagious and I joined in. Immediately there was protesting since I was not wearing a dress. I ran to my room, grabbed a full length dress I used for a Halloween costume a few years ago, and put it on over my clothes like they do. They were so tickled! It was a lot of fun and thankfully I didn't miss out on the dance party :)

Dresses ourselves

This morning I got the babes up and started getting them changed and dressed. I was changing Pallie and I looked up and Charlotte had already taken off her pajamas and diaper. I gave her a wipe to clean herself up then she put on her panties, skirt and shirt by herself! So exciting.... Can't wait until they can all preform this magic :)

Makes chocolate play dough!!

One of the best activities to do with children is playing with play dough, and even better is making it, but even better than that is making chocolate play dough! It's so simple and smells so yummy (please don't eat it, Charlotte will tell you it doesn't taste as good as it smells!) we made some yesterday and played with it some. This morning I bright it back out while they were still at the breakfast table and I kid you not they played with it for almost two hours! Not only that but they were happy and shared their toys! One would ask another kindly for the toy they wanted and they would pass it around. Amazing really!! It was beautiful.
http://prekinders.com/play-dough-recipes/

Has hot chocolate

This morning three out of four babes slept in and woke up still feeling poorly. They were down most of the weekend too. To avoid waking up Pallie who was still sleeping I took them for our morning walk. However it was quite chilly this morning. So it took a bit of convincing and finally bribery to get them around the block. I told them they could have hot chocolate when we got home if they didn't whine. Of course they still whined because they just didn't feel well and were cold too. They enjoyed their chocolate and especially the marshmallows. (they probably would have been just as thrilled with the marshmallows.)

Makes butter

In preparation for Thanksgiving I thought we ought to do a cooking activity. So, we made some butter! Well really mollie and I did :) I remember using baby food jars to make it when I was young. Hopefully it will taste as good as it looks!