The Peine Family

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Rosemary's Third Birthday

A couple weeks ago we celebrated Rosemary's third birthday. This was the first one where she was really excited beforehand so it was so much fun getting everything together.

Lots of friends and family came to the house to celebrate with us. Thank you all for coming!

Rosemary wasn't particularly picky about most things, but there were two things she insisted upon: the theme had to be Curious George and the cake had to have Curious George on it. Unfortunately, I really don't like making cakes and last year got so frustrated I almost threw her cake in the trash. Fortunately, our friend Brandi does like to make cakes and they're delicious and beautiful all at once. :-) She made the awesome George cake which was perfect. (And it was funfetti...the best cake flavor of all time). Check out Brandi's other cakes at brandisdandis.blogspot.com.

The banner was from an idea on MarthaStewart.com. When Rosemary got up the morning of her party she saw it was very excited to see an "R" on the banner. "Just like in 'Rosemary,'" she said. I saved it to use for Ben's party. It's gender neutral, right? And yes, I will change the name to say Benjamin.

Once again, we were out in the garage for opening presents. Maybe one year it will actually be above 60 degrees on the day of her party. Thankfully our garage isn't too 'garage-y' it's more like a late 1970's rec room. Strange to be thankful for that.

The kids made ice cream in a bag. I was trying to do things like the kids do on the Curious George episodes that would easy enough for preschoolers. I was pleasantly surprised that the ice cream actually tasted good too. It melted pretty fast, but was good to eat.

Rosemary was eating a chocolate dipped banana. If you've ever seen the boxes of the mix in Publix and wondered if it was any good, the answer is YES! Oh my goodness, those were delicious.

Rosemary really looked forward to blowing out her candles and everyone singing.

Our girl is three!

Sunday, January 04, 2009

Benjamin at 6 Months

Hard to believe our little guy is six months old. He's still sleeping great and eating well and overall is such a happy boy.

We started Ben on rice cereal a few weeks ago and added some oatmeal over break. He started vegetables (right now just yellow squash) on January 2 and seems to enjoy something with a little more taste. When Ben eats, he opens his mouth for the spoon, then tucks his favorite two fingers in his little mouth and sucks it all down. This makes for a relatively clean meal.

He's pretty close to sitting, although not there yet. If balanced just right, he'll stay up a second or two. I don't think it will be long.

Six months with the alligator

Ben's latest toy, the exersaucer...it was perfect, the Christmas tree came down and the saucer went up.

His first attempt with a sippy-cup, which was exceptionally unsuccessful, due largely in part to the fact that his mom did not realize that the lid was still on the cup. :-) Poor guy.

SeaWorld

While in Longwood, we took a trip to SeaWorld. The weather could not have been nicer and it was such a fun day.

Shamu!

Rosemary did not enjoy this ride. It spun pretty fast.

This girl can climb.

Blue Horizons, the dolphin show, was by far the most amazing show there. It's so cool. I can totally see Rosemary doing things like this one day.

Christmas with the Workmaster's

Jason and his family were at my parent's for Christmas this year. It was a lot of fun having everyone together.

Charles and Schuyler

Schuyler and Emma helping Grandma open gifts.

Rosemary hiding

Rosemary got a pair of skates (and pads) from my parents. She LOVES them. Too bad it takes longer to get everything on than it takes for her to skate.

Ben got to take his first dip in the hot tub, or "spot" as Rosemary calls it.

Schuyler and Ben

Charles, Schuyler, Emma, and Ben

Celebrating on New Year's Eve

Christmas with the Peine's

We celebrated Christmas with the Peine's at Tim and Michelle's this year.

Olivia was great with Ben.

Passed out on Grandma's shoulder.

The very long game of Rummikube

The Christmas Season

It's hard to believe Christmas is over and we're a few days into 2009. Below are a few photos from Christmas at home.

The kids' Christmas photo

Rosemary riding her Dora bigwheel, which Rosemary calls her "motorcycle." She has to have her pink satin gloves before riding...I guess because Jonathan wears gloves when he's on his scooter??

Matt and Stacey came through Gainesville on their way to Georgia. It was good to catch up.

After the Christmas Eve Service, Rosemary regaled us with a few tunes.

We spent Christmas morning at home before heading off to the Peine's. It was a great morning. We got up, got dressed, read Luke 2 and ate some cinnamon rolls. Rosemary was so good with helping Ben open his presents and would go back and forth between hers and his. She was very conscientious to take the bows off of the boxes so Benjamin wouldn't eat them.

Crafts for Christmas

I like crafty-type stuff. Below are a few Christmas crafts and gifts that I had time to make.

Brownie mix.

This was made at the last MOPS group of the semester. I'd never made homemade brownies before and Rosemary was very excited to help. The only thing, when we went to make them, the middle layer of brown sugar had hardened together so I had to stab it repeatedly with a knife just to get the mix out of the jar. The brownies were good, but I'm still a big fan of the triple chocolate chunk where I just have to add some water, oil, and few eggs.

Niece totes and t's

I potato stamped shirts and totes for our nieces on the Peine side. They turned out so girly. We did tractors for the Harris nephews.

Finally, I've been looking at ways to be "greener" around our house and one of the things that I'd read about was using homemade cleaners. First I tried homemade soft scrub. I really like it. It cleans my stainless steel sink better than anything else I've used. Then for fun, I made some laundry soap. It makes a ton (to be exact) so I took some down with me to give to Janice, Michelle, and Elizabeth. It was pretty fun to make.

Rosemary's Preschool Program

Rosemary had her first preschool program last month. Her class had a little party, but before we ate the kids sang a few songs. Rosemary didn't sing until the last song, but she had those hand motions down.

Singing "Twinkle, twinkle"

Jingle bells

"We Wish You a Merry Christmas"

This is Rosemary and her best buddy, Ian. Ian and his family moved to Texas over Christmas so he won't be there when Rosemary starts back to school. Those two were partners in crime.