Fee fi FO(UR) Fum

Look out family, here I come!

Our sweet big girl turned four about a month ago!  

We donned party hats

Set the table for the birthday girl (and her Big Monkey)

Opened some presents

Played some "Feed the Monkey"

Pulled the Strings on a Pull-string Pinata

Pinned the tail on the Monkey

and had some delish Monkey cookies from Sue B Sweets

Here are some things I'll remember about our sweet Monkey in the year leading up to her fourth birthday:

• How she loves to eat grilled cheese and also to get "hangabers with Cheese, with pickles on the side" at Whataburger  (not to be confused with cheeseburgers)
• Her love for school (Mother's Day Out)
• her sweet voice singing along with scripture songs in the car
• Made up songs with nonsense words
• Conversations between her toys and all the times I answer a "Maamaaaa" call only to find that it was one of her toys calling its mama.
• Her mastery of the tricycle (man, she's fast!)
• Proclaiming which character "she is" in a story or tv show/video, then repeating "I'm [insert Character's name here]" over and over throughout
• the many sweet ways she helps us be cautious:  "Careful mama!"  "Abby just got my toy!"  "That could be dangerous!"  "Uh oh Daddy!!"
• Smothering (almost literally) baby Abby with sweet (but invasive) coos and oohs and ahhs, and trying to hug her.
• falling asleep or calming herself to the softness of her well loved, well worn Big Monkey's plush tail, and the times she's offered to share it with us.   "You wanna feel how soft?"
• saying fun words like "wollipop" and "goor"(girl, rhymes with poor), aunt Wicia, Mr. Wee, and Mrs. Awicia. 
• pre-emptive bloody-murder screams to warn that Caleb must be about to do something to her.
• hearing "Mama..."  or "Daddy... I like you!"
• sweet dinnertime prayers that would not possibly be complete if every person at the table was not included by name in her grateful "thank yous" to God.
• her love of the outdoors and willingness to pick up (just about) any bug! spiders not included
• how well she has done coming into the service time with the grownups on Saturday nights at church.

We love you sweet Anna!

Giveaway is closed... and there's a winner!

Hope you've enjoyed your Father's Day!  I closed the giveaway just now a little later than I planned to allow maximum participation considering this is a "holiday" weekend.  I will be using a Random Number Generator to select one of the five commenters...



drumroll please:

Enter a lower limit:	1
Enter an upper limit:	5
Random Number:	4

 So, the winner is.... Annie!  Annie, if you'll email me (aggiemcdonalds at gmail dot com) the email address you'd like your gift card/code to be sent to, I'll pass it along to CSN stores. 

By the way, I tried out the generator yesterday as a test run, and I can assure you that after many successive clicks of Enter, every number from 1 to 5 was accounted for eventually... :)  in the spirit of fairness....

Give it up for Summer!

It's another Giveaway at the McDonaldSpot! The kind folks over at CSNStores.com
have given us the chance to host another giveaway: a $40 gift card toward any purchase in their over 200 online stores, from brand-name cookware to outdoor grills to platform beds. Consider it a Thank You from me to you for being a blog reader!

I don't receive anything in return for this opportunity, and all you have to do to for a chance to win the gift card is comment on this post by answering this question:

What do you most look forward to about summertime?

Next Sunday (June 20) I will randomly choose a number that will determine a winner; the numbering corresponds to the order in which the comments occur.  Don't wait!  You're allowed one comment apiece.


Use this for an upcoming wedding/baby gift, or splurge for someone you love!  Surprise someone with thank you gift!  (I know I'm personally always feeling the tug between at least giving something at showers/birthdays but would still like to find the money to donate toward Gospel missions, adoption efforts, and relief funds! This kind of thing would be so helpful toward that end!)

Well, here's a sampling of a just few of the things that you might find on some of their sites:

Half-liter Stainless Steel thermal beverage bottle

 

Lenox Chirp coffee mug

cute Daisy chip and dip set on cookware.com

Boon Frog Pod bath toy storage

from toysandgamesonline.com

(I've been secretly wanting one of these

since Anna was born, and NO, you
don't have to give me one if you win.  Ha!)

A fun outdoor Washers game set from 
everygameroom.com






You can find all kinds of items:  baby, gift, cooking, outdoors, decor, toys, pet products, etc!

Tickling the Ivories in the Spring

I love Mrs. Karen, Caleb's teacher! I also love that while she encourages her students to participate in semiannual recitals, she holds them in a local nursing home/retirement village so that it's also an encouraging ministry to the residents. Caleb did well again this year, and he's learning to function well under pressure. Though he initially balked, Caleb decided to surprise Aunt Licia and Uncle Travis (who were visiting) by introducing himself and his songs all by himself for the first time!

Mensiversary

Old McAbby had a month, e.i.g.h.t...

Sweet baby girl had Mensiversary Oct(if Latin annum is year...anniversary, then Latin mensis for month would be month anniversary, right?)

Over the course of the prior month, Abby Grace had fully mastered rolling (quickly) in either direction and became a sturdy sitter on her own instead of needing constant support. 

She said goodbye to this:


We began to hear some intentional babbles, beginning with a sort of /thuh/ and morphing into /duh/.  There were occasional /nnn/ sounds, and a scant few /muh/s (only when she was crying to be picked up, of course). 

Abby would turn immediately to find a family member when named by one of us:  Daddy, Caleb, Anna, Mama.

Baby cereal with fruit was becoming a hit, and stage 1 foods were all the rage... except when she didn't feel like it, and there was no chance that even prying her jaws open gently with a spoon would work. We had no progress with introducing a cup, yet she'd take water from a an elevated straw if I let it drip into her mouth. (me holding it with a finger over the upper end)

Then with two days left to go in the month, as though some inner deadline just had to be met, sweet Abigail Grace clapped, waved, army-creeped, and wore her first real hair bow in the span of those two days.  What an overachiever! :)

Makes me almost want to get one...

Couldn't pass up posting this one...

Hat tip to Tiffany and many FB friends...

Houston Children's Museum

After our visit to the Houston Zoo, we ate dinner at the Galleria and scored a sweet deal on a hotel room ($50 for a $260 suite).  The next morning, we grabbed some breakfast at Einstein Bros. Bagels and headed to the Houston Children's Museum.

This was by far the highlight of the trip!   I hope you don't mind a plethora of pictures, because there's just no better way to share the wonder and excitement that is the Children's Museum...

The first exhibit we visited is a cultural one called Dragons and Fairies.  This highlights the culture and traditions of Viet Nam.  I was pleasantly surprised about the uniqueness and quality of the hands-on displays!  Here's a little of what we discovered:

We got to practice carrying goods on a shoulder pole with baskets on each end, then got to practice transferring traditional Vietnamese cuisine (plastic, for those who are squeamish about shrimp) from bowl to bowl using chopsticks.

We practiced "riding" a motorized scooter and got to try children's theater masks.

Caleb tried one of the common trades of Vietnamese men:  fishing

Anna played some music on drums, gongs, and a bamboo xylophone.

After the Viet Nam exhibit, we proceeded to the building/architecture/design exhibit Building Brainstorm.  We all used blueprints and pvc pipe to build a building.

Then we used computers to design room layouts and created fantastic buildings with stylized architectural structure blocks.


The next sections were Matter Factory and How Does it Work? We explored magnetism, gravity, viscosity, earthquakes, pulleys, elasticity, communication, and more!


Within that section was the Science Station. This day's hands-on activity was fingerprinting. We learned the difference between patent and latent fingerprints. Do you know the difference?

The kids left their prints, dusted for them, and picked them up on scotch tape.

In the Building Zone, we took hands-on-creating to a whole nuvva levvo both literally (a second floor balcony) and symbolically.  There were quite a few activites, including an earthquake and windstorm table for testing buildings:


...and the biggest flat lincoln logs you've probably ever seen.


At this point, we broke for lunch in the cafe, where Abby downed a bowl of her own rice cereal, and we chowed down on sandwiches and hot dogs.  Yum!  Then we checked out the puppet stage.  Alas, poor Yorick...

just kidding


We headed to the basement for the Invention Convention (at which we could have spent a day here on its own)  We created Lego cars to try on the test track, flying vehicles for the air tunnels, Paper planes and rockets for the launchers, and so much more!

The teacher in me got even more excited as we traveled to Kidtropolis!  This is like a million social studies lessons rolled into one kid-sized yet ginormous experience.


We started with personal "ATM" cards in hand, and went to the City Hall, where we got to answer questions using a massive "coin-sorter" thing that helped us figure out each person's career strengths and interests.  (Kinda like a visual/physical ASVAB test)  Then, we tried out several types of jobs:  Paramedic, Police officer, Grocery Checker, Restaurant manager/worker/chef, Pet store owner, Banker, Bike Repairman, and others.  At each of the stores/buildings, there was the option to work there and receive a paycheck (to be deposited and loaded onto your ATM card) or to be a customer/consumer (and spend hard-earned money from your ATM card).  It was awesome teaching the kids concretely about how we get money and whether or not to spend it.

Shopping at a pint-sized HEB grocery


Cooking some pretend meals in the Kidtropolis cafe.


We left Kidtropolis to check out FlowWorks... an outdoor adventure in how water can be used and studied.
Caleb at the wave tank


We moseyed back into the A/C and stopped at the Think Tank, where we tackled brain benders, optical illusions, and all sorts of other thought provoking puzzles.


We finished out our experience relaxing in the library/resource room, which doubles as a branch of the Houston Public Library.

This was such a great trip! Abby spent a little time upstairs at the TotSpot, which is perfect for little guys and gals. She'll enjoy it even more if we go again as she gets mobile.

The McDonaldSpot highly recommends taking your little Treasures to the Houston Children's Museum!