Ocean work

The shelves at home have been a bit neglected by me since William was born I think I've switched them over twice :(  But we had some ocean work out for a while. I collected a bunch of coloring sheets from the Twisty Noodle with ocean animals, and found other inspiration that I collected on my Ocean board on Pinterest. This is what the shelves looked like.

Make a jellyfish, fish pattern work, shell stamp, play doh with lobster cutter, ocean stickers with # cards, ocean puzzles

And some ocean-y books.

Another tray that was out but rotated in was a water dropper work that Emma loved!  Basically it's some blue water, an old medicine dropper, two suction cup bath things, and a cloth to wipe up the spills.  A HUGE hit!

Waiting her turn :)

The fish pattern work was a mild hit with Emma, not so much with Ada.  That's okay though.

Ada mostly did the puzzles which I have no pictures of.  But here's one with William and a half completed puzzle in the background.

We made some little sailboats out of some corks, toothpicks, and foam sheets.  We floated them around and decided they were the perfect size for our fairy figures.  Win, win!

Counting 3 corks

It floats!

Adding fairies

 And all the while, there was William being awesome.

Fairy Play

It's been a struggle to keep up with this blog I must admit.  I wanted to share a few pics from the fairy garden from the summer.  Most of these photos are from August.  The girls have turned a little corner of the lawn into a fairy garden with glass gems and silk flowers from the dollar store and a little zen garden set I found at Savers- win!

The girls loved it but I could never have expected how much.  Almost every day Ada is out there raking, shoveling, arranging stones and creating little stories for the fairies.  One day she decided there needed to be a sign, so she whipped this little beauty up with some Sharpies.

I'm sure I saw the idea to make a little house someplace, but neglected to pin, sorry.  We used a container from the recycling, shells from Florida, and mulch, bark, and rocks from the yard.  Ada calls it the tornado room for the fairies.

The garden changes daily and is currently decorated with chalk covered rocks :)

Ada found a newly emerged cicada which was very exciting.

One Pinterest activity we did was a cool texture painting activity from "Growing a Jeweled Rose"

Amazing grandmothers & William's first weeks

When we moved to Minnesota we moved away from our families/ support system.  Since being here I have become much better at asking for help and seeking out support in other forms.  I have grown to love it here and am proud to be living in this state for many reasons.  The hard part is when there is a crisis or a major life event when you really just want your family nearby.  We had been talking to our moms throughout the pregnancy (even before actually) about them coming out to stay and help us with the transition.  Luckily they were both able to come out and help- it would have been impossible to imagine without them.

Tony's mom, Deb was planning to arrive the day before my scheduled Cesarian to stay with the girls for a week while we were in the hospital then my mom would arrive a week later and stay for 2 more weeks.  Luckily Deb was able to change her flight and come in sooner when William decided to show up.  That first week was rough and my hospital stay shorter than with the girls.  Tony was home for a few days after we got home but it was amazingly helpful to have Deb at the house too.  My mom came in time for Tony to go back to work and I would have been a disaster without her.  It's humbling to be in your thirties and a "grown up" in many ways but still need your mom- and be dependent and needy.  I'm so lucky to have a mom who comes to my aid and loves me even when I get super grouchy.

William with Gramma Deb

I somehow didn't get any shots of him actually in the shirt and now he's outgrown it, but the girls decorated a shirt for the baby (didn't know if it would be a boy or girl) to wear home from the hospital.  Here's Emma showing it off before we packed it in my hospital bag.

The bonus of having a baby in the summer that I hadn't realized before was being able to just go outside without 10 minutes of bundling.  What a treat! 

First family of five walk around the block.

Hanging out in the backyard.

Since Tony took time off he got to spend time with all of us including some quality time with the girls- here's a little snippet of Tball time in the backyard.

Since there were other adults around, I was able to just hang with my little guy and rest.  He is a very calm baby so far and loves to just snuggle any chance he gets.

Time with his sisters.

Making pizza with Gramma Deb

Sidenote: This awesome blanket was made by Gramma Bon for Tony when he was a baby :)

Meeting Poppa for lunch

Time with Nana and Grampa

Fair with Nana and Grampa

Baaaaaaa 

Who loves ice cream?

All in all a great start.  That said, it's been a lot.  I've been pushing to try to make things as "normal" as possible for the girls to help them transition, but it's hard to find the right balance.  We are getting there but it takes time.  School starts for the girls and I next week and we will see what that brings.