Little Suzie Homemaker Jr.

We felt like doing some baking this weekend. I like to bake and cook, but don't do it often. Just too much work with the cleaning up afterward!! And, then I have all that wonderful, yummy junk food in the house to eat. When I mentioned baking, Morgan decided she wanted to do something that included sprinkles. I decided to bake monster cookies, brickle bars and let Morgan do sugar cookies. She had a little help rolling the dough, but otherwise did most of the work herself!

Ava wanted to get in on the action too! Notice all the

flour on her dress!!

Look at all those yummy sprinkles! A little

too much for my taste! I think when you are six

the more sprinkles the better!

Morgan was so proud of her cookies! Now let's see if I can teach her to start making supper! I am sure cleaning afterward will be another issue!!

Sunflower Fields

Sorry to my blogger followers who are use to me having a new post every day or at least every couple of days. For some reason this week was a little more overwhelming than others. Not sure why because we didn't seem to have any more activities than we normally do, but when I got home at night and got the kids to bed I just couldn't bring myself to sit in front of the computer as much as I usually do. The girls are outside building a fire with Dana right now, so I decided to take a few minutes to share some of my favorite photos from the sunflower field that we visited last weekend. I came across this field on my way to a home visit a few weeks ago. I wanted so badly to get pictures of the girls in this field because when Morgan was the age Ava is now, we found a field similar to this one and had her pictures taken too! Dana thought it would be polite for us to ask permission from the owners before tromping through these beautiful flowers so he did some asking around and got a name for me. When I called and explained to the stranger on the other end of the phone why I was calling, she laughed. It was actually her son's field and he was out of town for the weekend and sure we could take pictures! So we loaded up the girls (after finding coordinating outfits) and off we went.

For those of you who would normally get Christmas presents from us (grandparents, aunts, uncles) - if you see a photo you like (with or without editing), let me know and I will make sure you get a copy at Christmas!! Just let me know what size and if you like color or b/w.

Well.....I am off to watch a movie with Morgan before bed. Hopefully, I will have time to post more this week - but if not - just know that I am spending quality time with my girls instead!!

Saturday Sneek Peek

T-Rex

OK - So we did a lot while we were in Kansas City last Saturday, so I had to break all the pictures up throughout the whole week. After we did Build-a-Bear we drove to Legends to do some shopping and eat at the T-Rex Restaurant. If you have ever been to the Rainforest Cafe, it is pretty much the same thing with a Dinosaur theme. The last time we were at Legends as a family T-Rex had just opened and there was probably an hour to 2 hour wait - so we didn't go. We don't get to Kansas City often. So when I knew we were going to be there for the walk I knew this was going to have to be one of our stops!

Our table was next to this nice little fellow. His mom was behind him and moved and roared throughout our entire meal! As our waiter said, she is the most annoying dinosaur in the restaurant and sounds like a dying cow! I would have to agree!

After we ate we paid for the girls to do the dinosaur dig. It looked like a really big sandbox with dinosaur bones buried under the sand. The girls picked out a paintbrush and went to work, brushing the sand away from their finds.

Ava mostly ran around with the brush, throwing sand in her sister's hair.

We also walked through their "mine" and looked at all the mining/paleontology

supplies, rocks and fossils.

Not sure why we don't go to Kansas City more often. Every time I have been there I have had fun. I have a feeling it is because I LOVE to shop and LOVE to do FUN stuff with my kids, but because I LOVE to shop and do FUN stuff with my kids I end up spending WAY TOO MUCH money on stuff I don't need!! We try to keep our fun closer to home and find FREE things to do! Kansas City is always a nice treat though!!

Build A Bear Workshop

When we were in Kansas City on Saturday we stopped by the Build-a-Bear workshop at the mall! I have wanted to do this with Morgan since she was little, but kept putting it off because we wanted her to be old enough to remember the experience. Well, we never did it and never did it and then came along Ava. If we keep putting things off until Ava is old enough to remember, Morgan is going to miss out on tons of stuff!! So....Ava probably won't remember, but she will have pictures to look at! The pictures are not the best quality. I had my little camera with me and of course lighting inside the store was horrible. We had so much fun though! Not sure about Dana, but we girls sure enjoyed it!!

OK, so if you have never been to Build-a-Bear - It is awesome. When you arrive you get to choose the animal you want to bring to life, stuff, dress, name and take home.

Ava is obsessed with bunnies - so of course that is what she chose. Meet Fluffy!

This is Sparkles - Morgan's dog. I think secretly she was hoping

she could get a real puppy!!

Once you pick your animal you wait in a line with others who are making their own animals. The next station in line was "hear me". Morgan chose to put a button in her dog that barks when you push it. We decided not to put one in Ava's for fear that she would accidentally push it while she was sleeping and it would wake her up.

This was the best part. At the Stuff Me station the girls got to pick out a heart to put inside their bear. They had to rub the heart and give it a kiss and then put it in the bear before filling it with stuffing.

Then you get to push the pedal to start the stuffing machine and watch your bear come to life!

At the Fluff Me station you can brush and "wash" your new pet. There is also a dressing room so you can buy clothes for your pet and try them on before you buy them to make sure they are just right. We decided not to buy clothes for our pets today, thinking that would be a great Christmas present!

We then moved on to the Name Me station where we sat at a computer and entered information about our pet. The computer then printed out a birth certificate so we could take home. Our last station was the cash register where we get to pay for our new friend. They then place them into a "house" to take them home in and place several new hair bows in the box for your pet (or you) to wear! How fun is that! And they give you information on how to bring your pet to life online at Build-a-Bearville
If you have young children and have not been to a Build-a-Bear, I highly recommend it. The girls (and Mommy) enjoyed it very much. Mommy is a little jealous she didn't get one :-) Maybe next time!!

Wordless Wednesday

Tuberous Sclerosis Walk - Fundraiser

We attended the Tuberous Sclerosis Walk-Fundraiser on Saturday. I was so happy to be a part of this important event. It was a little soggy, as it had been raining A LOT, but sprinkled through the walk, so we didn't get too wet! All teams together raised $40,000 to go to research for finding a cure for this horrible disease. Just the Emporia team alone raised $15,000!!!! That is amazing! Thank you to all who donated! I raised over $200. The Emporia cheerleaders came in first place raising over $4000!! AMAZING!!

This is Avery! You have seen pictures on my blog before.

She has TS & is a FIGHTER! She is one of the most

amazing little girls I have ever met! (Her parents aren't

all bad either!) :-)

Ava is enjoying the festivities! They had a clown, face painting, raffles, lunch and of course the walk (over 2 miles!), which Morgan wasn't too happy about 1/2 way through!

All of the kids with TS were honored in front of their family and friends. Here is Avery and her mom accepting her medal! It was hard for me to fight back the tears during this. Several families have been affected by this disease. Some kids are more severe than others. One family was honored, however didn't attend this year because they lost their little boy last year to a massive seizure.

Like I said before, I felt blessed to be a part of this event and wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else on this rainy Saturday! I have come to love this amazing little girl and her family and pray for only the best for her!! She is an amazing little girl and has shown she can do so much when given the opportunity! Hopefully, with research they can someday find a cure or at least a treatment to lessen the effects that go along with having TS.

Parenting

Parenting is exhausting! Most of the time I write about the "warm fuzzies" of parenting, but it has been one of those weeks, and honestly I don't have many "warm fuzzies" to talk about today. It's amazing to me how I can give advice to hundreds of families about how to raise their children, but for some reason none of the advice I give my families has worked for me this week. I have a 6 year old that is all attitude and doesn't do anything I ask her to do and when she has a consequence she screams and tantrums like a 2 year old. And then I have an almost 2 year old (enough said)!! I have never been a spanker. Time out has always worked on my kids (especially Morgan). This week, I have resorted to a couple swats on Ava's behind, and you know what friends......that didn't even work!!!! So for those of you who said you were spanked as a child and you minded your parents......well......it doesn't work :-) at least for my children. So...what now? Has it just been a bad week?? Is it going to get better? We have spent a lot of time yelling at each other and it is a waste of my time and their time. We are losing precious play time together over battles of not wanting to do eye exercises, leg exercises, cleaning up toys, changing diapers, etc and spending more time arguing about doing those things. It seems kind of silly to me. Are my expectations too high? Sometimes I wonder. I really think they are both testing that independence and wanting to do more for themselves and make their own decisions, but there needs to be some limits. I guess it goes to show you even the "experts" have struggles with parenting too......

Green Is My Favorite Color

This is what happens when you leave a toddler alone with markers.....lucky for her they were washable!

New Glasses

The first week of school Morgan was moved to the front of the class because she was complaining that she couldn't see the board. We finally had a visit to our friendly eye doctor and he said that she is having trouble focusing when switching between the board and looking back down at her desk (for copying). She is also having difficulties with tracking. So....we now have eye exercises to do every night with a check up in 2 months AND he put Morgan in glasses with a very small prescription for farsightedness so her eyes don't have work so hard when reading. She was so excited to get glasses! AND they are very cute. I really didn't think they would make that much of a difference, but when we came home and had her read to us she was able to read so much better and faster. Hopefully, with the exercises her vision improves and she won't need to wear them anymore (although she won't want to give them up!)