Big Girl Weekend!!!

A couple weekends ago it was Big Girl Weekend at the Schutte house. Megan had been sitting on the potty for a year and yet she was still in diapers. So I randomly picked a day on the calender and said, "This is big girl day. Do you know what that means?...It means you get to wear big girl panties and no more diapers." So I grabbed a blue sharpie marker and wrote it on the calender. It was also time for Megan to have a hair cut, her first hair cut! (yes I know 2 1/2 and her first hair cut???) So I lucked out and was able to get her hair cut the day before Big Girl Day and so I decided to really play things up and Big Girl Weekend was created!

Our friend Kelly Castleberry was nice enough to cut her hair for me. Megan has met Kelly before and Kelly loves kids so the hair cut went smooth. Megan held my hand for a few minutes and sucked on a sucker and there were no problems. I think what made her nervous was sitting on the little bench over the chair. But nothing that a huge tootsie pop couldn't handle!

I think she likes her hair cut (more like a trim really) But whatever Kelly did, her hair doesn't fall in her face as much so I'm happy. And Mark, who didn't want her hair cut, could barely tell, so he is happy that she still looks cute as ever.

Helping to play up Big Girl Weekend, Grandma Berthold got Megan some new pj's and a new kid size blowup matteress for when her cousins come to stay the night. Or when she has sleepovers with grandparents/cousins. She was so excited, to have a place for her cousins to sleep that she just had to test it out.

Lucky for her, it was nap time! She helped pick the spot for it to go and she thought it was cool to watch it blow up. And I think it took her about 15 seconds to fill it with all of her stuffed animals! She slept on here for a week and then I had to take it away from her to get her back in her bed (the week prior she slept on a different mattress on the floor because her cousin Kelsey slept there on night)

Oh and just in case you are wondering, Big Girl Weekend went great! Megan is only wearing a diaper to sleep at night and a pull-up when we are out running errands. She is about 90% there so I will take to rare accident over diapers any day! Yay, Big Girl Weekend!!!

Finishing the playground.

When it came time to build the playground we "invited" a couple friends over for pizza and beer. The moms played with the kids and the men, Larry Halloran, Grandpa Berthold and Mark, played outside figuring how to build this massive thing.

After a few hours the men got the last major piece in place before calling it a night. But with all the heavy boards/posts in place Mark could finish the rest on his own. (well I guess I did help one night to get the freakishly heavy twirly slide in place...not fun)

Megan testing the swing for the first time and she giggled the whole time!

Ta-da! Here is it the massive playground we promised Megan when we moved. Ok we didn't promise her a massive playground but once we bought this house and talked with our neighbors, we knew it was going to be hard to grow grass in this section of the backyard, so why not just get a bigger playground to cover the mud :)

If you look close, Megan is sitting on the swing to kind of give you a scale as to how big this is. According to the instructions this can hold up to 14 kids at a time. So far we have had 9 on it at one time and they all had fun!

Testing the twirly slide. It took Megan a few days to convince her to go down this slide, but now she loves it. We still have a couple more things to add to the playground, but nothing this summer. We have stuff to add a rock climbing wall and at some point we want to turn the area underneath into a little playhouse/store/fort/hideout/etc. The brand we bought has lots of accessories that are easy to change to keep things exciting. But for Megan it will take her a long time to get bored with this. She has played on this everyday! Even if it for 5 minutes between rain storms, she can't get enough of it. So I'm sure there will be lots of pictures of this over the summer so I apologize now. Oh and if you are in the area, stop by anytime it's fun for kids of all ages (but both slide are super fast!)

Phase 1 of the playground

We promised Megan a playground when we first started looking at new houses. It got to the point that when we walked through houses she would see a playground in the next yard and say "Is that my playground?" So she was very excited to shop online for her playground. Once it was delivered, we needed to do some prep work before it could be built. First we needed to level the ground so keep things safe.

Megan was adorable and "helped" Mark move every load of dirt from the back of the yard to the area we were going to build on.

She is a little worker! Notice the shorts and t-shirts...

...because 2 days later Megan was in her monkey suit and wearing a froggy winter hat. Yep, Michigan weather went from close to 80 degrees down to 45 degrees in a matter of days. But since Megan had already been in shorts she would not put her winter coat on so this lovely fashion statement was our compromise.

Megan watching Daddy drill the holes to secure the landscaping timbers to the ground. Megan wanted a tool, so she went in the garage and found her rake.

Alright, she has her eye protection now we can build! More pictures coming soon...

Busy Busy Busy

Yes I know I haven't posted anything in a long time. But we have had beautiful weather, and our yard needs lots of TLC so we have just been busy. I have pictures but at 11:00 at night I am just to lazy/tired/unmotivated to find the camera, cord and to upload (I think that is the right term) pictures onto the computer. So I thought I would put up a picture of Megan from this time last year. So here is Megan wearing my Derby hat from last year in our old house. Oddly, I think she looks the same I can't really see much change from what she looks likes now. (does that make me a bad mom?)

I promise to post new pictures soon. I think the next post will be about our new playground, from start to finish. Until then, hope all is going well and sorry for my lack of posts. My May resolution will be to post more often, because I'm sure this summer is going to be tons of fun in our new house!

Play Date!

After buying this house I knew I wanted to have lots of play dates, this house is perfect for kids to run around and have fun while parents get to talk. The other day my friend Angie was in town with her kids Riley and Brenden. Another friend of mine needed me to watch her little one Chase. So with two adults and 4 kids, this house was filled with imagination and laughter.

The toy room had lots of things going on. Some cooking in the kitchen, grocery shopping, balloon volleyball and drumming with a baton.

It took Megan a while to warm up to everybody in her house. She was excited for everyone to come over, but they all arrived at once and Megan was a little overwhelmed.

But as you can see it didn't take long before Megan was playing with friends and the toy room was a mess!

Then Riley, Brenden and Megan played a game of floor hockey. Megan had to use a putter because we were didn't have enough hockey sticks. It was very cute seeing all of them play together. It was a fun day had by all. Just wish we could have more days like this with the Ringman Family.

We love our Zoo (2 trips in 5 days!)

The first Zoo trip of the year was on Good Friday...not such a good day for a "relaxing" Zoo trip. Since it was mid 70's and early April, everyone was at the Zoo...EVERYONE! We waited 40 minutes just to get into the parking lot. But since Megan and I were with a group of people (my bowling buddies and their kids) we had no option, we had to brave the crowds. First stop, the carousel and yet another line for the kids to wait in.

Megan picked the zebra to ride and she loved him and the ride.

Next stop, a train ride to see some of the African animals, most were not on exhibit, but we did see some fun animals and the Zoo's new baby giraffe following his mom wherever she went.

Somewhere in there is a goat that all of the kids wanted to pet/brush. This was our last stop, it got hot quick and all of the kids were sick of lines and just wanted to go home. So grand total of animals we saw during this trip (including the goats) 6! And 4 were the African animals we saw on the train!
But lucky for us, we already knew we were coming back a few days later with Tiffany and Rosemary Olsaver. But like the last trip our first stop was the carousel. And Megan picked the zebra again. But look at that grin, she loves him.
Hello again Mr. Goat.

This time we actually made it into Nature's Neighborhood, the Zoo's new children's area. It opened last summer but this was our first visit, I couldn't bring myself to face the mobs of kids their last summer. But oddly enough, the only busy spot was the face painting section. Not really busy in the actual learning areas. But here are Megan and Rosemary acting like bees in the honey combs.

I can't wait to go back when it isn't spring break to spend some more time here. Everything was fascinating to me and Megan loved taking it all in. I could have spent all day watching the ants in the clear tubes carrying leaves and food from point A to point B. Note to self: go to Nature's Neighborhood first on the next Zoo trip.

Just staying hydrated with some yummy water in a fancy Zoo cup.

And after buying a t-shirt (I promised her she could get one) a place mat (to protect our new dining table) a froggy ring toss game (we need outside toys) and a stuffed zebra (did you see her face on the carousel?) We ended our trip with a horse/giraffe shaped cookie for the ride home. We love our Zoo!

Dyeing Easter Eggs

The other day Megan and I spent some time dyeing Easter Eggs. Megan has just discovered hard boiled eggs and I knew she would love dyeing them. So with Easter just around the corner we set thing up to turn white eggs in to rainbows. After all surfaces that could be harmed were covered, Megan couldn't wait to get things started.

Just getting a closer look at the fizzy egg dyes dissolving. (yes I was a little nervous she was going to accidentally bump a full glass of dye all over the new counter tops)

Attempting to make pretty designs on the eggs with a crayon before dyeing them. They didn't turn out but it wasn't that big of a deal because Megan was just impressed that the eggs changed colors.

She was very careful to make sure she didn't drop them in the dye. She placed all of the eggs in the dye without splashing (I was impressed)

Look at all of the pretty eggs!

After a nap, Megan couldn't resist putting stickers on the eggs. Notice the ton and a half of stickers that came with the kit...Megan put 1 on each egg and refused to add more. Weird! I figured the eggs would be covered with stickers they way she got so excited to put the stickers on.

Putting an Easter basket together for Grandma and Grandpa before they left for their cruise. Hard boiled eggs for Grandpa and pink Peeps for Grandma! She had fun and helped with everything from start to finish. Megan is becoming such a great helper with projects like these. She is just so much fun to watch. I love my little learning sponge (I say that because she remembers everything and will ask questions to figure out why. Then does a little recap to make sure she has the information/direction correct.)

So it goes without saying that Megan had a great Easter looking for her own Easter basket. The Easter bunny was very good to her, she got lots of puzzles and games for outside but just a few pieces of candy (I sent Mr. Bunny a thank you for not loading her up with sugar)