Daycare PTA/PTO?

I only have a 10 month old and I'm already feeling like I'm on the Daycare PTA/PTO!!!! Teacher Appreciation Week is May 4-8 and I'm on the committee to plan all the events for the week. It is a huge project filled with lots of planning and creativity. I love it! The week is planned out similar to 'Homecoming Week' or 'Spirit Week' in High School. Here are some pictures of my first project.

I recycled some wipes containers (since we get a new one with every box of diapers we buy) and reused them for donation boxes. We are collecting all the funds for Teacher Appreciation Week and needed a place for parents to put their money. I thought these would work perfect. I just added extra cardstock and ribbons I had up in my scrapping nook and printed some labels to make things easy for everyone.

Many uses for wipes containers :)

Paeton & Mommy are matching

I told Jodi on Sunday I was going to run upstairs to change out of my church clothes and put sweatpants on. I came thundering down the stairs only to realize Paeton and I looked exactly alike! We both had teal sweats on and white L/S tees. Anyone that knows me - knows I loved this and thought it was so cute!

Mommy and Paeton are matching....

and loving it :)

Paeton's New Slide

A co-worker of mine, Heidi, gave Paeton a few toys that her children had outgrown...one of which was this Little Tikes slide. Paeton absolutely loved it. I can't tell you how many times we went up and down, up and down, up and down....

Come to mama!

Here I come!

Trying to catch Paeton as she sails down the slide.

Arms up :) Too cute!

Baby proofing the kitchen

Here's Jodi attaching those little plastic tabs to our cabinets to keep Paeton out. He said he felt like a plumber :)

Coloring Easter Eggs

Paeton, Jodi and I colored easter eggs on Sunday and had a great (but messy) time. My hands are still multi-colored but it was worth it.

Mom - I want to color the eggs now!

Her response when I said we have to wait till we get back from church :(

Waiting for the eggs to cool down.

Here are the eggs drying from being dyed.

Here are the eggs after we made them 'speckled' all over. Pretty cool.

Paeton & William

Paeton has recently become very intrigued by William, our cat. She likes to chase him around the house and doesn't realize why he can move so much faster than her.

Here kitty, kitty, kitty.....

I got you now!!!!

Eating messy table food

We have started to let Paeton feed herself some table foods as opposed to us feeding them to her. I can't describe to you how messy this was. She had a really good time and definitely felt like a big girl!

Enjoying pizza for dinner on Saturday night.

Messy girl - notice none of the pizza is on the blue plate :)

Feeding herself meatballs on Sunday night.

Asking for more, more!

Showing me her messy face.

All done - time to clean up.

Hanging out on Saturday

Here's a few pictures of Paeton just hanging out on Saturday as we're getting ready to eat dinner. She had a really fun time playing in the living room and overall, making a mess!

Smiling for the camera.

Doing some grocery shopping.

Banging her puzzle pieces together.

Paeton and Jodi on their laptops checking e-mail together.

Paeton's 1st Birthday Gift

Paeton's 1st Birthday is coming up on May 20 and we're already starting to get prepared. I found a great deal on an item that we've been wanting for her so we drove to Burlington, WI to go pick it up on Saturday. Stay tuned!

There she is - that's the big one!

Jodi and a few members of the Menards staff helped to load up our vehicle before the big snow storm on Saturday. Jodi was thrilled :)

Paeton is waving all the time

So...all my blog followers know that Paeton has gone through many phases so far. When she learned to roll over - she did it constantly. When she learned to clap - she clapped all day and all night. Well...now she's waving - ALL THE TIME! It's absolutely adorable and we just can't get enough of it. Here's some pictures from this weekend.

Of course - getting into my cabinets again.

I told her it was time to leave for Gymboree class - she started waving bye-bye to me!

Still frantically waving.

We just got back from Gymboree and she's still waving to mama :)

Paeton's Bistro

So...I made my first Craig's List purchase and it was a success. I've been looking for outdoor larger toys for Paeton (i.e. picnic table, jungle gym, water table, slide, etc) with spring in full swing and summer right around the corner. Since we're starting from scratch, I decided to see what I could find second hand from consignment stores, friends with older kids, rummage sales and Craig's List since this kind of stuff can be really pricey.

My first amazing buy has been this adorable Step 2 Bistro Set. The family I bought it from only used it indoors and they had 2 boys who they said hardly used it. I specifically wanted items for outside that had an umbrella to protect P from the sun so this fell right in line. The mother included all the food and dishes for 'grilling out' since this is supposed to be an outdoor cook set with seats at the bar for eating. She also included a shopping cart full of food and a really interactive cash register.

We drove 25 minutes to Jackson, WI after work yesterday to pick this up - Paeton was squealing with delight when I got it set up in the living room for her so she could test it out and make mama a burger :) Daddy was quite surprised when he got home from work - he wants to know when he's going to get something as cool as this for him to grill on outside!

Here's Paeton testing out her new bistro set for the first time.

Just an FYI - this is not staying in our living room - it will relocate out to the deck once the weather brightens up a bit!

Going to see the Easter Bunny

We decided to take Paeton to Sprecher Brewery on Sunday after church to see the Easter Bunny and take a tour. Here's the recap with pix.

Here's Paeton before church on Sunday.

Here's my curious little child always in my cabinets. Sorry for the sun glare but in my eyes, at least it was shining!!!!

Yes honey, I put a bow in your hair and no honey, it doesn't hurt.

Ready to get her coat on and get in the car. Jodi and I were packing for the day.

Here we are on the tour at the Sprecher brewery. They make beer and soda. The tour was only about 25 minutes which was enough for a 10 month old!

Here's where it all happens.

Now here's Paeton meeting the Easter Bunny for the first time. It didn't go so well as you can see. What they do is take a picture of your child with the bunny and then print soda labels that say "Happy Easter 2009" and you can buy a case to take home. We were really stressed at this point since she clearly hated the bunny.

The photographer had a great idea to have Paeton sit on Jodi's lap while I entertained her to get her to smile. She then had Jodi lean as far as possible out of the picture so they could crop it with just her and the bunny in the picture. It worked perfectly!

Shortly thereafter, she crashed in her stroller for a nap and Jodi and I enjoyed our free beer/soda tickets in the beer tent at the brewery :)

And here's a sample of the finished product. We took home 36 bottles of cherry cola and root beer adorned with our little monkey's picture with the easter bunny.

Even though it's fuzzy, here's a close up of the labels they made for us. Happy Easter 2009!

Happy Spring!

Happy Spring to everyone! It's finally here! Here's my little flower posing for the camera.

Paeton is 10 Months!

Where has the time gone? My baby is 10 months already and acting like a little toddler - not a baby anymore! I just can't believe it. This morning when I was dropping her off at daycare, she was busy playing with a toy with her back turned to me. I said, "Paeton, mama is leaving. I love you." Her head whipped around, she immediately dropped down to the floor and crawled as fast as she could over to me. She pulled up on my legs and gave me the biggest hug ever. Let's just say, it wasn't easy to leave for work.

Here's my little squiggly girl showing everyone how she's "SO BIG" and how she likes to give us 'Ten'. It's so cute!

She just won't sit still for photos - hence the 'out of focus' pix.

Almost springtime in Menomonee Falls!

The start of this week was absolutely gorgeous here in the Milwaukee area. We hit 75 degrees on Tuesday in fact! We did several jogs with the stroller and the puppies as well as playing in the driveway and swinging on Paeton's porch swing. We had such a great time and it really tired her out. She slept 11 hours last night!

Here's all 4 of us taking a break to pose for a picture.

Here's my little P 'winded' after our big jog Tuesday evening. We even had to break out the sun hat!