The Very Finley Birthday

This past Saturday we had an Eric Carle themed 2nd birthday for our sweet Finley Rose. More specifically, the bugs for Eric Carle stories...The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Very Busy Spider, The Grouchy Ladybug, The Very Lonely Firefly, The Clumsy Click Beetle, and The Very Quiet Cricket.

My parents, grandparents, sister, and brother-in-law came in from Louisiana, we had family from Houston, Kyle's parents from Ft. Worth, and lots of friends from the area. I am so thankful for everyone who came, it really means so much to our family that you took time out of your busy day to help celebrate our Rosebud! The weekend was a little hectic, what with six additional people staying at my house, but honestly I couldn't have done it without everyone there. My dad was awesome in helping us set up the tents that my in-laws so thoughtfully bought for the weekend and he put together Finley's sand and water table. My brother-in-law Ben was the baby whisperer, he was so amazing with Rowynn and taking care of her so I could focus on the party and hosting. Stacy, my sister, helped entertain and dress Finley and she helped with the food. My mom also helped with the girls and helped with the food and beverages. She also bought all of the cookies, cake pops, and cupcakes for the party--a huge help! They were all so cute thanks to the talented Susan Dahlam! I was so thankful that Aunt Tina, Myca & Courtni were there too, can you believe they drove in from Houston to come to the party even though Myca had her wisdom teeth out on Thursday!?!? Seriously, how amazing is that?!?! I was so glad they were there, and glad I got to shop Tina's Scentsy store before the party--my house smelled amazing. \ And then there was my grandma...this woman never sits down! She helped me shop for the party, helped me make most of the food, cleaned the kitchen, took out trash, did laundry and anything and everything else. She made me tired just watching her! Seriously could not have done it without her and everyone else!

Here are some pictures from the party:

 Yummy Critter Cookies, inspired by Eric Carle!

Cake Pops---Oh my these were good!!!

Caterpillar Fruit Kabobs!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar Cupcakes!

Our centerpiece. It's got a picture of all the different food eaten by the caterpillar.

The Loot Bags & Cups

What was found in the bags--watercolor paint, sunglasses, bubbles,sidewalk chalk, a bug kit, bug suckers and of course the kiddos got a colorful cup.

We had the guest at the party sign a birthday message within the pages of  The Very Hungry Caterpillar. I saw this on another blog and love the idea of her having a keepsake book filled with sweet birthday messages! I got the book at Kohls for $5, so not a bad deal!

The Very Grouchy Ladybug Juice & Mint Water. The green thing in the middle is our butterfly house with the butterflies we grew. A few weeks ago we ordered caterpillars and were able to watch them grow, form cocoons, and transform into butterflies! Such a neat experience and they made a nice addition to the party. Thanks Maile for letting me borrow your butterfly house!

The food table!!! Chicken salad sandwiches, blackberry & raspberry (ladybug colors), crackers with cream cheese, cucumbers, and tomatoes, cookies, pretzels, turkey, salami, cheese, olives, cake pops, watermelon, cupcakes, fruit kabobs, pudding/oreo crumb/gummy worm in flower pots, salsa and chips, and we had Popsicles outside.

Outside-bounce house (thanks Maile!), pool, tent, and bean bag toss game.

Eric Carle tent and tunnel!

Ladybug photo-opp! Painted with care by Kyle & I!

Another of one of my projects! Bean bag toss game. My friend Jessica made bean bags out of The Very Hungry Caterpillar fabric!

Pool time!

The kiddos making caterpillars out of pom-poms, Popsicle sticks and googly eyes.

 

Her cute cake!

All week she kept asking for cake, but when it came time to blow out the candle, she decided to go into shy-mode. A mode I was unaware she had! But dad helped blow out the candle!

She kept closing her eyes...unpredictable toddlers!! But she sure loved eating the cake!

My little ladybug! Happy birthday sweet girl!!!

I sure do love you!!! Something fierce!!!

 

 



Sweet & Sassy

**I've had this blog partly finished for a while now. It's an update of sorts on the girls and has some older pics. I won't to remember everything about these two sweet girls, so even though it's a little old, I wanted to post the update with some pictures of my sassy sweethearts!
Finley is still the best big sister ever! She tries to change Rowynn's diaper, loves singing to little sister, and tries to make her happy when RoRo is sad. She is such a sweetheart and so thoughtful! She is also potty trained and paci-free!  She is learning so much! She learns new words everyday and loves to sing "EIEIO" "The Wheels on the Bus" "This Little Light of Mine" and "If You're Happy and You Know It." She is a big help and such a little momma. She loves playing dress up and always insists on wearing her pink dress. She is obsessed with her car and "quack-quacks." She loves telling me the names of farm animals and the sounds they make. She can count to 10. She knows some of her letters and loves to Skype with Mimi & Papaw. She really loves "fow-ers" and smells them every time she sees one. She knows all of her colors and loves to "dan" (dance) to "mus" (music). Every time she hurts herself she wants me to kiss her boo-boo. Which I think is just precious!!! She wakes up every monring asking for milk. She loves going to "momma bed" everynight before bed time to snuggle and watch Olivia. And would spend every second of everyday "Hide" (outside) if I let her!!! The girl loves her pool, bubbles, painting, cooking, shopping, and reading. She also lovessssssssssss going over to Mrs. Maile's house to play with NaNa, James & Remi! So glad she has such good little friends!


Rowynn is changing everyday. She has been doing the "combat crawl" for a while now, but has recently started to really crawl. Although she could get from room to room with her effective combat crawl. She has been sitting up for a while now and loves to feed herself. She has two teeth on bottom and loves to cuddle! She loves to snuggle with her cream blanket and any stuffed animal she can get her hands on. She is fascinated my bubbles and thinks her sissy hung the moon. She gets sad when Dada leaves in the morning and is talking more and more. I can't believe how big she is getting!!

Better Late Than Never!

I have been such a bad blogger...I'm trying to get caught up. I've got so many ideas, and I want to get back into blogging. The girls are changing so much everyday and are always doing something funny and  cute that I want to remember! Here are some pics from April.

So we are nearly finished with our "Bug" theme, but I'd thought I'd post some pics from our Farm unit. I also have a hodge-podge of pics that needed to go somewhere, so why not here?

Here's Finley planting her flowers in a little garden I made for her. Planting and gardening tied in nicely with our farm theme.

This was at James & Nana's birthday party. It was a farm-theme party and super cute! Here Finley was rolling the pig in the mud (it's a pink foam pig and the mud is a brown marker). The next step was to wash the mud off in soapy water. All of the kids really loved it!

Howdy Partner :)

How cute is this little cowgirl's boots???

Our finished barn. And the black and white animal is a cow, not a sheep. Finley & I argued about that...lol! I kept telling her it was a cow, and she kept saying, "momma, sheep." Kyle came home and said, "Um that doesn't look like a sheep." I told him it was suppose to be a cow and he said, "Well it DEFINETLY doesn't look like a cow!"

Putting a dot on all the "A's." I had her first put a dot on the lowercase "a's" and then on the capitol letters. She did really well with this. I found this, along with so many other printables from here.

Here is Finley at Maile's house. For a while they had pet ducks and Finley loved chasing the "quack-quacks!"



Mother's Day Weekend/Rowynn's Dedication

This past weekend was a busy but fun one. My parents spent the weekend with us and we loved having them here-especially Finley, she L-OV-E-S her Mimi & Papaw. Actually she loves both of her grandparents. And I'm pretty sure they're smitten with their grand girls!!!

On Saturday we met the Srader family at a local little amusement park called Sandy Lake. We took Finley there last May and we were looking forward to going again. It's really cheap and small enough for little ones to enjoy without getting overwhelmed.

James & Finley in the boat. They loved it...until it started.

Driving a pink car! Again, she was fine until it started, and then it was tears galore.

See what I mean?

Nana & Maile

Finley & her Papaw

Jeremy & James

Kyle & Jeremy...on the swing thing. They're such bid kids!

Riding the train with Mimi & Papaw!

One of these days we'll get a good family pic with everyone smiling!

Sunday we dedicated Rowynn at our church. It was such a wonderful blessed day! The dedication is a way to make a commitment in front of our church, a commitment that says we will strive to raise her to love God and to teach her about His word, His grace, and His love. It was so neat to make that special promise on Mother's Day. I use to dread baby dedication days at church. It was yet another reminder that I wasn't a momma. So to dedicate my second sweet girl on Mother's Day was so humbling and so special. I feel so incredibly blessed that God has allowed me to be a mom to such sweet girls. My heart goes out to those that are yearning for a child, those who have lost their mom, or those who have lost a child. I pray that God's peace will wrap you up and that you will feel such overwhelming love.

Our family on Mother's Day. As you can tell neither girl was too happy about having their picture taken.

Grandma Davis and Rowynn Faith!

Baby dedication at The Ridge Church

Rowynn Faith...she sure is a sweetie!!!



Finley & Rowynn I love you girls so much and feel so blessed to be your momma. You are both such sweet girls. Finley, you are such a big helper and so full of love and compassion. You are so smart and learn so much each day. I love hearing you read and sing. You are so funny and so giggly! You have such a sweet voice and give great snuggles. I love you kiddo! Rowynn, my sweet girl, you are so stinkin cute. You scoot everywhere, it isn't exactly crawling, but effective. You are sitting up and have two bottom teeth. You love exploring and try so hard to keep up with big sister. You love kicking your feet to music and have the biggest smile. I love watching your face up light up when you see me. I love you baby girl!

You kiddos rock :)

Happy Easter!

Today we celebrated the fact that the grave had no power over Jesus!!! What a glorious day!!! I'm so thankful that my Savior took on the sin of the world--what amazing hope we have in Him!

My parents spent the weekend with us and on Saturday we headed to a local apartment complex for our 4th annual Easter Egg hunt. Our church puts on the Easter Egg Hunt as a community outreach and we always have such a fun time. Easter 2009 I was about 7 months pregnant with Finley, Easter 2010 Finley was 10 months old and I was 4 months pregnant with Rowynn so this was the first Easter that Finley was running around! She loved finding the eggs. She opened everyone and got the candy out. If the egg was empty she would throw it down. We had such a fun time laughing at her!

Here's me and my youngest babe :)

Finley & her best buddy James! They play so well together and we just love the Srader Family!

Finley checking out what's inside her eggs!

My mom with Rowynn--love how she's checking out the bunny! And me with my oldest girl!

Playing bean-bag toss with James :)

Rowynn checking out what's in big sister's basket! And don't you just love those matching colorful dresses? They were a gift from my sister "Aunt Sissy." She sent several cute outfits for the girls for Easter. And of course both sets of grandparents sent lots of Easter goodies :)

Sunday morning we worshiped at our wonderful church, The Ridge Church. It was such an amazing service. Our worship pastor, Jordan, does such a wonderful job. We have so many talented musicians that lead us every Sunday. They are all so humble, and you can really tell that their number one goal is to praise Jesus with everything they have. Our pastor, Jerry, did such an awesome job sharing the hope with have in Jesus.

It was so neat to get to worship with my parents as well as Kyle's parents. We all had a fantastic time and enjoyed some yummy food after. Love our parents and the godly influence and support they've always provided.

Happy Easter 2011 from the Davis Family!

Kyle, Wendy, Finley & Rowynn

EE-I-EE-I-O

For the last week or so we've been busy doing farm-themed activities. My friend Maile, has some great ideas on her blog and I've stolen quite a few. I've enjoyed doing the same theme with a fellow mom, we're able to bounce ideas of each other! Finley has loved all the fun activites. She can now identify all of the basic farm animals by name and tell me what sound they make. We've also been doing some planting and learning about seeds. She loves singing "EE-I-EE-I" (Old MacDonald Had A Farm).

Here is Finley doing her farm puzzle.



 I made this file folder game to help her with her numbers. Super easy!

 We're growing pinto and garbanzobeans.

I got this great idea from Maile. I wrote out Fin's name and gave her foam letters for her to match up. She did really well on this activity--great way to make letter-learning meaningful! 

 I found this book of reusable stickers really cheap at a going out of business Borders store. It has everything in it!

We used the stickers to "plant" a vegetable garden.

 Here is our barn! Again thanks Maile! You can check out her blog to learn how to make the adorable pig and the corn. I found the duck craft here. I love that the feathers of the duck are made from tracing Finley's hands!! We plan to make more animals soon!

 Here are some great non-fiction books we checked out at the library.

 And here are some farm-themed books that we've collected. I got a few of these for about $2 at The Christmas Tree Shops---a  fabulous store!

And here is the adorable soft veggie set I got for about $6 at IKEA--I love that store. Notice the $15 easel...it's also from IKEA! And the pig and duck, or "pig and quack-quack" as Finley calls them. They came from Hallmark. She LOVES these things. She carries them around and hugs them. It's so stinkin' cute. The little horse is a wind-up toy that gallops-very fun!!

We've also got some small plastic farm animals that I picked up in the dollar section at Target. I am having so much fun with this theme. Before this one we did a transportation theme. I didn't take many pics of the

activities-but we enjoyed it a lot. The farm theme however has more activities for Finley. We're using Bible verses about creation, growing plants, learning about veggies and animals and different farm equipment. It's a lot of fun. I'll post more pics as we continue!!!