All about Christmas

With only 6 weeks left, it's time to start thinking about gifts.  This is always hard because I want to buy stuff the kids (and others) will actually use and we're not wasting our money.  We have already purchased each kid a gift, they both got a Kawasaki KFX with monster traction power wheel.  I'm just not sure those are great Christmas gifts.  They won't be able to use them until Spring and all the snow has melted.

I really have no idea what practical gifts to buy this year.  I can only think of a train table for Xander and some baby doll accessories for Sterling.  Xander loves playing with his train set from Papa and Sterling is in love with playing and dancing with babydolls.  Other than those 2 gifts, I really don't know.  I just want the day to be memorable.  

What do you buy for Christmas?  I asked Xander what he wanted for Christmas and he just said "toys mommy."  I'm just not seeing many toys on the market that I feel we need to have.  I was thinking of some board games maybe?  He's getting to that age where he catches on to the tasks of games and can play correctly when an adult is playing with him.  

I think it was last year that on the blog What What You Have she mentioned 4 categories.  I only remember 3 and can't find the post now.  Something they want, something they need, something to wear...?  I loved her list and thought it would be perfect and practical to use.  Do you use a criteria method when buying gifts?

With Christmas it also means its time to clear out all the "old" toys to make room for the new toys.  I was thinking this year maybe I could find a woman's and child's center to donate them to.  It's so easy to take them to a consignment store, but I think they'd be more appreciated at a center where kids don't have much.

I have 2 weeks to think of 25 Elf on the Shelf ideas to use this year.  I'll be hitting up Pinterest for most of those ideas.  I want to have it all planned out this year so there's no forgetting.  Yes, me, making a plan, ha! No flying on a whime this year...i hope!  It's going to be a fun year with the kids older and noticing more.

We still don't have any traditions set so maybe this year will be the year to start one or two?

Have a great day!

Our visit continues

We're still here at Nana and Papa's and enjoying every minute!  It's so nice not to worry about the hustle and bustle back home.  We just need to make sure we have a daily outing to play in the leaves or an adventure to the park to keep everyone's levels of restlessness down.  

Xander has become a pro at playing a few games on the iPad.  He loves to play BeBop Blox, LookFindElmo, and Endless ABC.  He's really a pro!  He's concurred them all and I find him playing on the iPad by himself.  I really don't mind because they are all learning games, so they're good for his mind.

Sterling likes to build with Lego's and I'll sit down with her to show her how to play Xander's games.  She loves it, but her attention span is rather short still, so it's brief.  She'll get it when I'm least expecting it.

We set up some of my parents Christmas decorations.  The kids love the trees and are not keeping their hands off the animated decorations.  I don't have anything animated at home, so I guess we won't have this headache at home.  That's a good thing!

Sterling was sick with who knows what.  She had a fever of 102 for 5 days, a nasty cough for 10 days and is now finally on the mend.  I woke up yesterday thinking I was coming down with the flu, but mine was just a 24 hour bug or something.  Not fun though!  

We're planning to go up to Hershey Park this weekend and I'm beyond excited to share the experience with the kids.  They get so excited over stuff right now and I think they'd just love the fun day.

Have a great day!

Fun with leaves and surviving the sniffles

The kids have loved playing outside at Nana's house.  This time of year is beautiful with the changing colors of leaves.  I only wish I could find a kid rake...or two...so they could have even more fun.  We've been making good use of of feet to swipe the leaves together.

I worked on laundry today and I was upstairs putting our clean clothes away.  When I came downstairs, Sterling was walking around in the lego buckets.  Ha!  This girl can be sick and still enjoy herself...well sometimes.  She cracks me up!

 For the past 4 days Sterling has had a really bad congested cough, runny nose and high fever.  I decided to take her in since Tylenol and Advil were not working and the fever kept coming back.  We went to Patient First, never have before, but they were nice.  They did a chest x-ray because when they did the stethoscope, the nurse thought she heard something and they wanted to rule out pneumonia.  Good thing, no pneumonia. Just an upper respiratory problem.  Nothing serious and should go away with time.   She's just so miserable and wants to lay on me.  That makes for one angry Alexander!  He just don't understand yet.  

We ran to Walmart after her check with the doctor to pick up some ibuprofen.  I hope this stuff works because I feel we are starting a medicine cabinet with this girl.  She's always sick!  And it lasts forever!

Have a great night!