Adventures of Evie

    It's New Years Eve! This year we had a pretty chill night for NYE. This morning Evie and I transferred all our wishes from last year out of the jar and onto construction paper. I let her draw her wishes for the new year out as well. They were pretty great wishes! More sleep, more time with mama, more adventures, and more Starbucks! Then we shredded them all up, added glitter, and threw them in a bag to throw at "midnight".  She really enjoyed writing out some resolutions as well. This year she resolved to play more, have more girls days, eat more ice cream, and dance more. I think those are some great resolutions for her! I love that spending more time with me made it to both her wish list and her resolutions. We don't do girls days a ton but it's awesome to know that those little moments mean as much to her as they do to me. So I will definitely make an effort to do more of them this year.  After that we headed to her gym for snacks, crafts, gym time and a ba...

  Movie night is here again! This week Evie really wanted to do Lightyear so I threw together some labes and a menu and we made it work! Space themes are always a favorite of both of us. We had individual meal modules for the entree which made my life super easy since I could throw whatever I wanted in there and call it a day (pizza for Evie and meatloaf for the grown ups). We also had a veggie big dipper, a sun cheese ball with crackers, and some space ranger ice cream courtesy of Nana. It was a really fun one! :) Just a few more days of break and then Evie is back to school. She says she is excited to go back so I hope she still feels that way when the time comes! ;P

  Today was one of those days where things go absolutely sideways and you just have to roll with the punches. Literally. Evie has been BEGGING me to take her to the museum center and for the last two days they were closed due to a water main break. So today we headed down to have some fun. However, as we came across the bridge from the freeway it was evident that the museum was off the table. After sitting in traffic waiting to get into the PARKING lot for almost 40 minutes we finally were able to make a turn and head off to try something else. Evie was SUPER disappointed that the museum wasn't going to happen but it was just way too packed. Instead we decided to try a new play space I've been eyeing. Thankfully Evie is still young and typically loves any kind of play space, no matter how small or crowded but I definitely would not go back to this one. It was MUCH smaller than I anticipated and even though it boasts about its large play area online and ample room for eating and...

  One of the biggest things Evie kept asking me for over her school break is field trips. She said she really misses being able to spend the afternoon at the zoo or the aquarium or museum. While I totally agreed with her I also know that we used to go mid-day on weekdays and now we are attempting to go at peak time on a holiday week so it definitely wouldn't be the same. I gave in anyway though and today we went to the aquarium. We had a lot of fun and it wasn't insanely busy since they are still using reservation times for entry. Evie touched the anemones today and we got our hands cleaned by shrimp which was pretty cool. We also had some lunch and when we left we went out to Evie's favorite girls day place; Liberty Center. After grabbing some macarons and having her first ever trip to Claire's (where she picked out lots of cute jewelry for her jewelry box) we came back home and made some dinner and snuggled up for bed. Only a few more days til Christmas break is over ...

  Today was camp day!! Evie got to go to camp at her gym and she got to meet a real live penguin...FOR REAL LIFE! The Cincinnati Zoo brought Mira, an African Penguin up and they got to watch her go around in a circle and they learned about where she is from and what she eats. Evie had a ton of fun watching her run around and apparently she liked Evie's sparkly pants and kept coming back to them. She also got to have an indoor snowball fight and play in her gymnastics gym. It was a lot of fun for her! After camp we headed up to nana's for family night. It was a great day full of fun and family. :)

  We are still in crafting mode and today Evie found a punch pillow that she just HAD to have. Sometimes she is not the best about following through on things that are time consuming, but I have to give her some credit for this one because she spent an entire half hour putting this together and finished it all by herself. It actually came out pretty cute too!

  Today was a rough day. We started out with some plans for Christmas crafts but around noon we learned the news that Evie's paternal grandfather had passed away suddenly. Although he and Evie weren't super close she was very affected by the news. She has had a TON of loss in her life over the past few years. The first thing she told me when I broke the news was "Now he's in Heaven with Aunt Laura and Miss Betty." But she was quiet and sad most of the rest of the day. So we did a quiet movie night and watched The Grinch. We made some cake batter cookies, ate a roast and just snuggled. Hopefully 2023 will bring us some relief from the constant losses and disappointments we've had recently. 

  Today it finally started snowing. Evie was SO excited to get out and see it. Unfortunately it was A LOT of snow and it was VERY cold and it was also super windy. So not the best snow day type situation but still pretty! Today we stayed inside most of the day. We played some Toca Life together, cleaned up the house some, and just enjoyed being snuggled up warm inside our house! We also made a Yule jar with some things we want to manifest in the next year. It was a fun and relaxing day.

 Today is the Winter Solstice! It's the shortest day of the year, the official start of winter, and it's also Yule! So we spent the day today making and decorating a yule log to celebrate. We also did a simmer pot today to make the house smell yummy while we worked.  We don't have an actual jelly roll pan so we borrowed a deep pan from a friend, and it worked out pretty well although the yule log was pretty short in the end. But it rolled up nicely and only cracked a little. After it cooled and we gave it a thin coating of chocolate frosting I told Evie she could decorate it. She started off with some powdered sugar snow but then she got big ideas so we cut a peice she could go to town on! It was very festive in the end! Of course her favorite part was eating it! ;)

  Today we are making some fun Christmas projects. I gave Evie some toothpicks, styrofoam balls, and a bunch of decorating items and let her build her own snowman. She had a lot of fun putting him together and making his face. She also made a HUGE mess of the glitter which was to be expected! Luckily we have a dollar store tablecloth on the table right now so we can just toss it when everything is said and done! ;P

  Christmas break has arrived! I had a lot of plans for us to go out and do some fun things this week but it's been difficult to actually get out. In the last few days we have witnessed several accidents and been close to being hit many times ourselves and it's given both of us some anxiety about running around. On top of that there are a ton of sicknesses going around and despite wearing masks and washing our hands I ended up with a cold. It definitely could be worse so I'm grateful for that but we decided to take this week and rest instead. Today we made these little snowman ornaments. Evie had a lot of fun decorating him and adding the beads. But unfortunately, before he made it to the tree he got stepped on! So Evie used the foam beads for slime add-in's and we played with slime instead! ;P

 Today was one of those days where things just go totally pear shaped and there is nothing you can do but roll with it. School theme today was pajamas which SHOULD be super easy. But we realized quickly that all of Evie's pant pajama sets are too small. We just bought them at the end of October so she must have had a growth spurt! Luckily she has plenty of night gowns she can wear but it was SO cold outside that standing at the bus stop was brutal in a gown. In the hustle to get off to school and get her into warmish clothes that fit, I forgot to pack her a movie snack. So she was SUPER disappointed at school to be the only one in her class with no snack. In either case though, at least she is done for two weeks!  When she got home we started setting up for movie night. Evie got to make the punch and also set up the spaghetti ice cream toppings bar. But in true pear shaped day style we realized at the last minute that I forgot to thaw out the meat for the cheeseburgers. So we ...

  Today was holiday attire day! It seems like it would have been an easy one but Evie's only Christmas outfit this year was gold and it also wasn't very thick so we borrowed a sweater from her cousin and made it into a sweater dress Evie could wear for the day. It was also her holiday party day so we had to bring in her gifts for the class (which were yo-yo's), and her teacher and bus driver gifts! So we had a lot to remember today. She came home with a TON of gifts including ornaments, candy canes, slime, and a book (which we already had unfortunately).  We also had gymnastics tonight. We have one more day left til Christmas break and it's pajama movie day so it should be a fun one!

  It's reindeer day! Today was a hustle! Last week I ordered some ears online and in typical Amazon style my package was delayed five days. -_- So I went out yesterday to try to find some in store...unsuccessfully. Cut to today...Evie had this headband that had a tiny bow on it so I cut off the bow and got to work cutting felt and cardboard to make one.  After I got it all glued together I added some glitter, because who doesn't love glitter? Finally we added the bow back on. It turned out really nice and Evie loved wearing it! She has two more days of Christmas spirit week before break but luckily they're easy ones! After school today we also had a mini girls day and grabbed some books, cookies, and makeup just to get out of the house and have some one on one time together. It was Evie's first time in forever inside a bookstore and she wanted ALL the books. We settled on two that were in a reasonable price range and she was ecstatic to bring them home. <3

  It's day two of Christmas spirit week and today was dress like a snowman day! Today's outfit technically cost me nothing but about five minutes of my time sewing foam dots on Evie's shirt. But she found a fun headband at the dollar store she wanted to wear so we spent $1 on that. This was the easiest look of our whole week even including pajama day which turned out to go pretty sideways for being such an easy theme! Yesterday only one other person in her class dressed up but today she said there were a few more. So hopefully tomorrow everyone will be in the Christmas spirit with their reindeer gear! Now if only it would snow so we could make a REAL snowman! ;P After school we headed to Nana's for family night. Tonight we all got to decorate cookies! Evie has been looking forward to this for over a week now. She did a great job too, although she ate a lot of them before they even hit her plate! 😂

 It's Spirit Week! It's the last week of school before break and they are having a Christmas spirit week which is super fun. However, the themes were a little tricky!! When we got the list last week I was wracking my brain for how we were going to make them work without spending a ton of money. Ultimately I was able to make the whole week work and only ended up spending about $5. Three of which was on the ricrac ribbon I used to create this gingerbread dress for today. But it came out SO cute. Evie loved it so much she didn't want me to remove the pieces I sewed on. They're just quick sewed on there though so they will come off eventually whether she wants them to or not! ;P

    Tonight we had swim! It's going to be a super busy weekend so I didn't want to plan too much during the day since Evie tends to get overwhelmed when she has too much to do. So we took it easy this morning coloring and then after school we headed to the store for a quick snack and some groceries before we went to the gym. When we got there the swim coaches gave Evie some glow bracelets and she swam out to hang them on the underwater Christmas tree! It was a really fun evening. After swim we grabbed some dinner and headed home. This weekend we have gymnastics, Winterfest, and a dinner theatre event. It's going to be hectic but so much fun! :)

  This week Evie has had a TON of questions about the Ice Age. I'm not sure what sparked her curiosity but when she gets very interested in something we tend to run with it and try to learn as much as we can. So today to follow with that theme I set up a little ice and snow box for her with some Sago creatures.  We had snow and acrylic ice on one side and on the other I gave her bars of ice with this pretty mica in them. She had lots of fun playing snowball fights, sledding, and other games with the animals. And eventually the ice melted down into swirly, icy waves. It was lots of fun to stir them up and watch them swirl around too! Sensory bins are still one of her favorite things to play with and learn with and today was no exception. We did use up the last of our fake snow though, but since it lasted us over a year (maybe even 2) I feel like it was definitely worth it! We'll have to buy another bag soon. :)

 Today was a busy day for us. We had a lot of cleaning to get done and we're working on making some things for Evies classmates and also for her teacher and bus drivers for Christmas. Both of us were pretty tired from last night and Evie got up late and ended up taking a morning shower. We played a few board games and then it was time for lunch and school! Tonight Evie wanted to help out and said she'd make me dinner. So I gave her the instructions (and supervised of course) and she made me a whole dinner! She was SO proud of herself for making the whole meal. It was actually really tasty when we finished up too! I'm glad she's back to cooking with me and I hope she continues. She got out of the habit when school started up and we were trying to maximize play time together. It's always really fun to see what she's capable of. :)

  Tonight was family night and we decided to use it to go see the lights at the zoo. There are always SO many and they are beautiful. In typical fashion it rained while we were there but that didn't stop us from having a great time! We got to see Santa and Mrs. Claus, made our very own s'mores, drank hot chocolates, ran from The Grinch, and even... petted some snakes!! It's always an adventure at the zoo and it's way more fun with family! :)

  We decided to mix things up today. Evie has been really interested in the polar ice caps and the Ice Age recently so as we've been talking about climate change, the ice caps, and how the earth went from an Ice Age to what it is today I'm weaving in some cold themed crafts and fun things. Today just for fun I left Evie all the supplies to make an art project but I left her zero instructions. She asked me if it was a cat and I told her just to put it together how she thought it should go. In the end she DID sort out that it was a polar bear but she didn't exactly put it together how I thought she would! She used the inside ear parts as eyes and left the googly eyes off completely. But this was really fun for both of us! I love that she worked out what it was and where the parts went. Even though she took some creative liberties with the eyes it came our really well and it was cool to watch her create! She was proud of the way he looks in the end and she did a great job. :) ...

  We're welcoming in December with holiday movie nights! This week we did The Polar Express. Evie got to help more with this one. She got to help set up the hot chocolate board and then she got to put together her very own hot chocolate. She piled tons of marshmallows in hers and of course some peppermint and chocolate chips too! It was a really fun way to end my vacation week and to celebrate the start of December. We have a lot of fun things planned this month and we always stay super busy! I can't wait! :)