The Strokes

I had an extra canvas board sitting in the closet and Mags needed something fun to do...

I grabbed some Crayola fingerpaint and let her go to town.  First she "shhmeared" the colors all over the canvas and it started to turn into a maroon-ish brown with hints of rainbow underneath.  I figured she was done so I went to grab some wipes, and then she took her little fingers and started to swirl them around on the canvas.  It looked pretty neat.  Go Magpies!

I was totally just killing time, but my budding Picasso created something worth hanging onto... It now proudly sits above her kitchen in the playroom :)

Another drop in the bucket...

I can't express how excited I am to start!   =)

Holiday Bucket List

8

Introduce Elf on a Shelf

Send out Christmas cards

Go pick a tree

Bring cookies to neighbors

Decorate the tree & hang up the stockings

Watch Christmas Vacation

Illuminate the exterior

Drive around to look at Christmas lights

Hot Cocoa and X-Mas movie marathon

Read the Christmas Story

Watch White Christmas

Advent Calendar

Bake and decorate a Gingerbread House

Take a picture with Santa

Listen to Christmas carols next to the lit up tree

It's TIME!!!!

November 2nd.... the first day Optimum plays Christmas music on one of its music channels... YES... I've been waiting for this for weeks!  And after a week of hurricane damage, powerless nights, and stress, I could use a little holiday cheer.

It feels so good to actually DO something that I've been oogling on Pinterest!  Right before Hurricane Sandy reared its ugly head, I decided to hit up Michael's for some craft supplies to keep me busy if we were powerless, or stuck at home... Thank goodness I did, because Sandy was a bihotch!  I can't believe the craziness that has consumed the past week.  I still can't believe school was cancelled for 5 DAYS!  unbelievable...

Anyway... I picked up a 3ft by 3ft piece of dark green felt and some smaller pieces of other colors for ornaments and gifts.  When the power went out, I lit my candles and lanterns, whipped out my scissors and got busy...

I hung the tree up with those 3m restickable/easily removable tapey thingy-ma-jiggies ( you know what I mean)...

Maggie has LOVED taking off the ornaments and redecorating the tree :)  Yay!...

 And the whole thing probably cost about 6 bucks!  So happy I actually made something I've pinterested!  Hopefully this will serve as motivation to do less oohing and awwing, and more DOing!

Mess-free Fingerpainting

Thank you Pinterest...

Figured with Hurricane Sandy headed our way, I should get creative and think of some things Mags can do while we're stuck inside the next couple of days.

Saw this a bunch of times on Pinterest, and finally made it happen...

I put a nice big glob of red and blue fingerpaints inside a large ziploc, closed it with minimal air inside, and used painter's tape to stick it onto her play-table... she LOVED it!

Kinda think this could be a fun center at school for writing spelling words... especially for younger kiddos.

Hil-ar-i-ous

Ba-hahah-ahaha-ha 

It's a very short clip, but hilarious none the less.

This is some sort of cross between a rave and a rain dance, or maybe a vision of my worst nightmare in about 18 years lol when she's hitting the bar with her buddies Frankie and Taylor!

Oh Mags!

My BIG girl!

Maggie started preschool!  Ahhh!
These are just a few pics from her first day  :)

We are IN LOVE with our new Cinderella backpack.  This girl is 100% princess obsessed!

How is she working her way to 3 years old already?!?!  Where has my little 3 pound baby gone?!?!

We've had a few rough drop offs/pick ups, but I think she's really starting to get used to her new routine :)

Back to school, back to schoooool....

As much as I love the fall, I dread those first few days of going back to school.... Getting to know the kids, getting them to learn how I operate and what will or won't fly with me... Then there's Back to School Night nerves and worst of all, leaving my baby-girl again all day, every day :(

Sometimes I wish I could just skip the first two weeks of September, snap my fingers and already be in my "school groove"... I could do without the stress of transitioning back to work, and instead focus on the fun things that I love about the fall.

Soooo... I made a fall bucket list!
It's attached to our calendar, so I'll be looking at it often... Let's hope it helps me focus less on the stress of back-to-school-back-to-work, and more on the autumn activities that make me smile  =)

Busy Toddler = Happy Mommy

This is one way I keep Mags busy in the kitchen when I've got my hands full cooking or baking... I saw this on Pinterest (of course) a long time ago and now I whip pipe cleaners and a colander out on random occasions when I need Maggie occupied (and out of trouble!)

You know she's focused when her tongue's out in concentration lol

While she's busy creating her masterpiece, I ask her what colors she's adding and have her count the pipe cleaners... she stays engaged with it for a while

Love simple things that make my girl (and me) happy!  =)

Oh Margaret Ann...

Had to write this down in here so I won't forget...
Right before nap, I went to fluff Mags pillow and felt something hard in her pillowcase... hmm... turned out to be one of her favorite books tucked away inside her pillow lol.  I just giggled to myself, put it away, and got her down for her nap, thinking I had to tell Tim later on how funny she is.
Later on, Tim was getting Mags ready for bed and asked her what book she wanted to read.  She of course exclaimed "Finding Nemo, it's my favorite" and went off to grab it from her book-basket.  Tim said she stopped short and said "oh, it's in my pillow, it's my favorite book"... the little stinker had it stashed away in her pillow case again!  I'm assuming she must whip it out and read it quietly when we think she's already fallen asleep, the little sneak!   She's a little bookworm like her momma lol!

Never underestimate a 2 year old...

Somehow, Mags has turned into quite the girly girl.  Definitely didn't get it from me.
She has been into everything lately, and insists on trying to do everything herself.  She goes into my bathroom drawer now to take out my make up brushes, she pretends to put powder all over, and then exclaims "I bootiful Mommy".  Yes Mags, yes you are lol.  I really don't know where she gets it from.

Well, Mags is obsessed with pedicures.  She honestly requests that I change her toe color about once a week!  Unbelievable.

We've had 2 incidents in 48 hours pertaining to toes... took everything in me to stay calm and remember I have a VERY precocious 2 year old...

Yesterday, we took off our toe polish so could do a new pedi for vacation.  I screwed the nail polish remover up tight and put it beside the lamp on the end table, where I thought it was out of reach.  I left the room for what seriously felt like 65 seconds.  Then I heard a loud "Mahhhh-Meeeee!" and went running back in.

Maggie reached the bottle.  She unscrewed the cap!!!!  She poured the entire bottle all over her skirt and the couch!  She had a look of pure panic and "oh no, I really messed up, huh".    Grrr, OMG, you've got to be kidding me.

I stripped her, grabbed the couch cushion and began furiously scrubbing it in the shower with dish soap.  It then spent the next 2 days outside.  

Lessons learned:  

1.  Maggie can now unscrew things

2.  There's no such thing as "out of reach"

Thank goodness it only went on the couch, I know it could have been much much worse.

Fast forward to the next day... I'm finally ready to paint Mag's naked toes.  She requested her favorite color... PINK  =)

She parked herself in her normal pedicure position on the edge of my bed, and I sit on the floor with her toes in my face lol.  Suddenly, she decides to chuck another polish bottle onto the floor, which hit the open pink bottle in my hand.  YUP, pink nail polish on our bedroom carpet.  and YUP, we are out of nail polish remover because of the couch incident.

Curse words ensued.  There was a lot of running around arms flailing, husband looking at me like I was losing it.  Then panicked strategizing.  I settled on rubbing alcohol, lots of paper towels, and wet washcloths.  It did pretty much come out, which is shocking.  Probably came off because the hysteria all happened within 30 seconds and I got to the polish right away.  Unbelievable.

Never a dull moment around here.  Needless to say, we are going to be A LOT more careful with our remover and polishes.

Beat back the beats....

Was going through old pics to put together a Shutterfly album for 2011 (yea, a little behind here)... and discovered this GEM!  This was taken last August... can't believe how baby-ish Magpies looks!!!  This video totally made my day =)

BEANS!!!!

YAY for fresh green beans in the garden!

Here's today's little harvest... enough for me and Mags to snack on while hanging out on the deck waiting for Daddy to get home...

Here's my girl chomping on some fresh beans!  

Look at the smile full of chewed up green beans lol...

Deelish!  I'm loving her excitement when we pick things right out of the garden in the yard.  I seriously doubt she'd eat raw beans if we had got them from the store.  Somehow, they are much more "fun" when we pick them ourselves ;)

Happy 4th!

We went up to the lake for our annual family reunion.  Maggie had been amped up about fireworks and talking about them incessantly, so we figured we'd keep her up and give them a go for the first time.  She was sooo excited...

So we joined the extended fam on some cozy blankets in the yard and settled down for the annual show.  The first went off and Maggie's eyes lit up as she yelled "fireworks!"... then another went off and she said "I no like boom mommy"... as the third went off she was clinging to me like a wet pair of BVD's.  

She screamed "I go house, I no like boom!" so we sashayed our way indoors and parked our heiney's on the couch.  Luckily for me, I could still see the show through the sliders, but Maggie literally covered her entire head with her pink blankie and kept repeating "I hide, I no like boom, I hide, I no like boom".  Everytime there was a pause between fireworks, she would clap and say "All done mommy, all done", only to be sorely disappointed when she heard the next one rattle off.  In between all this hysteria, there was a little tinkling in the undies to top it all off...

So... it wasn't a success, but we survived, and I have high hopes that next year will be better (mostly because I can't imagine it being worse!).

Our Furry (uninvited) Friend...

Let me introduce you to our furry friend, dubbed "Easter Funny" by Magpies.  (Yes, we are still working on our B's lol so bunnies=funnies)... We've suddenly sprouted a handful of bunnies in our yard.  We see them every day, and I must say they are pretty darn cute.

Though cute to look at, if these Easter Funnies decide to make a snack out of my precious garden, I may have to kick some bunny butt lol...  Hopefully our chicken-wire garden fence will do its job!

Big Girl Bed!

 That's my happy BIG girl seeing her BIG girl bed for the first time!  Super duper excited doesn't even describe how thrilled she was.  I hadn't expected her to be so into it!

It's been three nights so far, and she's slept great.  The first night, she snuck out of bed at some point and grabbed a book from her book basket near the rocker.  I found it next to the bed when I checked on her a couple hours after I put her down.  It was too cute... I could totally see her "reading" a book in bed in the dark lol.
And can I just say I CAN'T BELIEVE my baby's not in a crib anymore!  How has time flown by so stinkin fast???

Memorial Day Weekend :)

Had an awesome, albeit short, trip up to the lake this weekend.

Maggie is a pig in poop up there.  

 It may be kiddie heaven.  Huge yard, swingset, sand, water.  I mean really, what's not to like??? 

She could spend the whole day just wading in and out, and throwing stones into the lake.

I looove it when she yells "I troe tones"  It's the cutest thing ever!

I didn't manage a family shot, but snagged an amazing pic of my two favorite people.

<3

The next morning we went for a quick boat ride.

Here's Mags rocking Babci's sunglasses lol

And attempting the drive the boat with Dziadziu (she was mildly obsessed with honking the horn)

Last, I can't forget Maggie and her Uncle Steve striking a pose for the camera.  So stinking cute!

Family Fun Day

Road Trip.....

to Warwick Farmer's Market!

Love this place!  We've been waiting for the farmer's market to start for the season, and were so excited when we had a beautiful day for our first trip up.  There are vendors selling produce, pastries, jewelry, artwork, and KIELBASA.  Yup, some of my favorite things lol.

We took a quick lap around to scope things out, then headed around back onto the main street to do some window shopping.

That's my girl pointing out the jewelry she wants ;) 

A really cute bridge connects the main street with the farmer's market.  Mags loved looking over at the river, and running back and forth from one side to the other.

After all that running, we were ready for some snacks... 

Yes, those are pickles on a stick!  And Maggie LOVED it!

After salty, come sweet.  Organic fruit pops!  Mags got her strawberry banana fix

Delish!

We ended up buying a loaf of parmesan-pepper bread, a link of kielbasa, and a pretty pair of earrings.  I could have left with a lot more, but someone was getting a little utchey-skutchy...

So we hopped back in the car and stopped at Pennings Orchard, which happens to have a tiny area with chickens, goats and some play equipment.

We had a great time :)

Mags was so tuckered out, she passed out on the way home.

Can't wait to go up there again!!