Another Tooth!

Evie is so excited that another tooth has come out.  It's actually kind of funny.  Her two permanent teeth came in a while ago right behind the baby ones making her remind me of a shark with its rows of teeth. Anyway, so her first fell out several months ago.  Chris was so happy for her when he saw it wiggling the other day and really encouraged her.  I, myself, giggled.  It finally came out today and he finally realized it wasn't one of the teeth that NEEDED to come out.  It was too far to the left.  Cracked me up.  Evie is still pleased as punch and looking forward to the Tooth Fairy's second advent with much anticipation.  I wonder what she'll bring this time?

Mommy and Me Date

So as the kids get older we (Chris and I) are trying really hard to get one on one time with each child.  For the smaller ones that can be wrestling on the floor or cuddling while we watch a cartoon.  For Joe and Evie it means something with a bit more planning.

Every month I go to Costco for our family.  It usually takes a few hours so I began to invite Evie with me to give Chris a little easier time at home.  Thus began an opportunity to have a "date" with one of the older kids.  Now I really play it up.  We eat Costco hot dogs and sodas (they get their very own - huge deal!), shop for our stuff while we giggle and laugh (they get to ride the giant orange cart - we have a big family and I only go once a month), and after loading all of our stuff into the car, we go get a treat.  They usually get home just after bedtime, a treat in itself, and tell everyone who might be awake what treat they chose.  It's been a good experience.  Now they trade off each month.

Well this month's Costco visit was Joe's so I had to find something else to do with Eve.  Recently for her birthday a fantastic grama gift arrived.  It's a book of tons of ideas for Mommy and Me dates.  It was wonderful.  Last week we spent an hour going through the ideas and picking one.  Then we spent a little time planning the activity that Evie chose.  This time Evie chose to do a Mommy and Me Movie date.  We listed about 25 movies she wanted to watch together and today we picked one.

She chose:

It was so funny!  We already had seen it, but to do it with just us was really fun.  Evie even invited Lizzy to join us.  Joe was at football practice with dad and the little ones were napping this morning.  We had a great time and every time Evie or Lizzy wanted to rewind and watch a part again we did (well to a certain point - I did want to finish the movie).  By the end their bellies were full of BBQ potato chips, chocolate pieces, and Dr. Pepper soda.  I got to spoil - it was fun.  We also had a great moment when Evie was cuddling with me and Lizzy was cuddling with Evie.  It was so cute and brought a teary moment up.  I love my girls!

So glad Chris made the special time a priority.  I would have eventually, but it's best to start young.  Great Daddy thought!

National Night Out

I love our base!  This is a great place to live if you have kids.  I have a dead end street safe for my kids to ride their bikes during the day.  I have seven parks within a five minute drive of my home, four of those are within a two minute walk.  I have a pool that is free to use every Thursday for my kids and a beach on base that I can use everyday.  The library has a reading program during the summer and a regular story time with craft every two weeks.  The arts and craft center offers inexpensive classes for kids and adults and the military even offers sports for kids as young as 3 and karate classes.  It's amazing!

I know that not every place we go is going to work so well for us, but I'm really glad that for now, it is.  So tonight was our base's version of National Night Out.  We had to RSVP before hand and it was wonderful!

We were given tickets for a huge dinner at their buffet and POG of course!  We got tickets for a special ride and a door prize.  But the best tickets were for the ice cream we had at the end.  The kids got free goodie bags with treats to eat and to play, a lot of time in a bouncy house, cool balloon animals, and air brush tattoos.  And you know what?  It was all free!  For a family as big as mine to have so much fun for free is extremely rare.  What a fun evening.

We also got to meet some new friends today.  They moved in across the street.  Caleb, Laura, Caden, and  Lily are great!  We hope to spend a lot of fun time with them.  Wish us luck!

Hope you all had a great Tuesday!