Tea Party

Today was icy, cold and snowy.  All in all not a nice day to get out of the house and we had no where to go so we were in all day.  In someways that is really nice but sometimes it's tough to stay busy at home with fun things not just chores or a movie.  So today I let Jacqueline do both her hair and mine, and we made pretend cookies and real cookies and we had a tea party.  She has loved to play tea in her kitchen so today we pulled out real glass tea cups and had a party, I put watered down pink lemonade in one of my tea pots although we spilled a little on the table the look of delight when she poured the tea and something came out was priceless.  It kept us busy most of the afternoon, and now I am selfishly enjoying a moment alone as Jackie and daddy play pool in the basement.  How blessed I am to have such a fun beautiful little girl and a loving husband.

Play Day/ Pull Toys

Well snow days on Mondays don't typically effect us because I don't work anyway this week it was a special treat because Kirsten came to play.  I think Jacqueline really enjoyed having someone other than just me to play with for the afternoon.  It is so nice to have family so close by to play with.

This fun little pull toy horse came from papa this past sunday.  It was part of a sermon illustration, and so what I have feared for a long time finally happend and Jacqueline made her way up on stage during church.   I attached the sermon below if you were wondering just how the horse relates.  Too bad they stop filming at the end of the sermon and so you miss Jacqueline running up on stage during the benediction to get to the horse. 

Although she has been riding the horse a little I think Jacqueline's favorite thing to do with it is pull others.  Several of her toys have been for rides on the horse and Kirsten was kind enough to play along and go for a ride too.

Painting

 Stickers, Stamps, Paint, Crayons, art is fun.  What can I say she may take after mommy with her love of arts and crafts.  We played with paint and crayons for a long time this morning and totally wore out this little girl who fell asleep as I was reading her devotions after lunch.  Hopefully we are down for a good long nap.

Play time

 So with another kiddo coming in 5 weeks, I had high hopes of making the most of the last few weeks of just Jackie and I.  Lots of playing, lots of fun, lots of focus on her.  However, I am also finding my energy level dropping and so it's been tough to play as much and as hard as I really want to.  But that hasn't stopped us, it's just changed playtime.  We have done a lot more puzzles and coloring and a little less chase and tag.  Right now one of her favorite games is pool.  She loves to line up all the balls on the table, count them and roll them into the pockets.  I love listening to her count on her own. "One, Two, tree, two, two, two, tree..." She knows those first three numbers well but beyond that is still lost.  She also knows she will be two in April, and so right now two is her favorite number to say.

We also have been into a little bit more girly play lately.  She loves to pick out bows and put them into hair, hers, mine, and her stuffed animals.  She likes to comb her stuffed animals hair but still dosen't really love me doing her hair.  She also has been loving stamping, and crafting especially if it can involved glitter or stickers.  And we are just sort of getting into dress up, she still doesn't like changing clothes but we are loving accessories.  Putting on shoes, scarfs or sunglasses can be a fun game for a while. These Minnie Mouse sunglasses in the picture are a big hit as they are hearts, pink and glittery.  What could be more fun. Jacqueline still loves to bake too.  Both pretend in her kitchen and in mine. It will be interesting to see if her little sister likes the same games when she gets here.

Neigh Neigh

Right now Jacqueline is into all things horse related.  She loves the movie Tangled and the big white horse Max, she loves the penny horse at Meijer and the carousal at the mall, and is thrilled any time the neighbors horses are in the pasture we can see from our house.  So when my mom and sister asked that we pick a theme for her second birthday it was clear "Neigh, Neighs" as Jacqueline would say.  So figuring that once a new baby is here I may not have as much time to be crafty and work on birthday stuff we got a jump start.  I am working on invitation ideas and found a pinterest idea of how to make hobby horses.  This first one isn't even really done but Jacqueline has had fun riding him all over the house.

21 Month Photo

 Getting to be so big.  It seems surreal how fast the time has gone. Jacqueline is talking quite a bit at home but still pretty quiet out in public.  She is loving all her Christmas presents and having so much fun playing with all of them at home.  One big milestone, she used the potty for the first time this week.  She knows that is a way to earn a treat and she really wanted a sucker.  I wish I could say we were on our way to being diaper free but I think that for right now I am going to let her attack this at her own pace so it may be awhile.  I keep asking if she wants to use the big girl potty again but right now  the answer is always a resounding "No."

I had to include a few fun photos from the last week, I haven't posted because we have been having fun playing and so I just have not gotten around to it.  This first photo is from Fredrick Meijer Gardens we went to see the railway garden.  Jacqueline loved watching the trains and running in circles around the waterfall and over the bridges.  (Isn't the red outfit cute, she wore it Christmas Day, got to love the ruffles.)

We also went a little crazy at home and decided we would make a Train out of GingerBread.  It mostly turned out.  Jacqueline had fun decorating with the candy and eating bites out of the GingerBread.  In the end most of the train got trashed to keep her from consuming a mountain of sugar.  What do people do with gingerbread houses when the make them?  It's a pretty centerpiece for a little bit but then what, inorder to make it set we had to almost overcook the gingerbread so it would be stiff enough to build with and then the icing is way too sweet to make if firm the candy gets stale and hard fast.  It was fun to make, it just seems silly to me that then what do you do with it.  Oh well, it Jacqueline had fun creating it and that is what really matters.   Other fun things from Christmas break, we went and rode the Carousal at the mall, played in the snow, and worked on Grace's room.