L.L. Bean

We visited L.L. Bean on Saturday for a VERY SPECIAL reason (details to come!). L.L. Bean has a large fish tank with a dome viewing area within the tank that Jack and Grace enjoyed -- what a great way to observe the fish up close.

Baby Eve slept through most of our trip to L.L. Bean. She looked so sweet resting soundly in her stroller.

Jack enjoyed watching a fly fishing display in a trout pond located in L.L. Bean's main store.

Grace joined Jack on the rocks to get a closer look at the fish in the trout pond.

Every time we go to L.L. Bean Jack asks to see the "big clock." Jack has always been fascinated with clocks and this pendulum clock is his favorite thing about going to L.L. Bean.

Three Weeks Old

Eve turned three weeks old of Friday. I wish that time would slow down a bit. Eve is the sweetest little thing!! We all love her so very much. She is extremely gentle, patient and easy going.

We spent most of our day on Friday upstairs in our playroom. Eve loved laying on one of Maddy's blankets while playing with toys and watching everything that Jack and Grace did. Eve especially enjoyed looking at her black and white books by Tana Hoban. Eve expresses a great interest in books (hooray!). Eve has a great attention span and she loves listening to books and looking at pictures. One of Eve's favorite things is to sit on my lap while I read with her, Jack and Grace.

Jack and Grace are so attentive to Eve. They absolutely adore their baby sister. Jack and Grace decided to give Eve a three week wellness check with their play medical kit on Friday. In the picture above Jack is taking Eve's temperature. Eve also had her eyes, ears and mouth examined. Grace took Eve's blood pressure and Jack also used a stethoscope to listen to Eve's heart. They were very happy to conclude that Eve is very healthy and growing. I LOVE watching Jack, Grace and Eve together.

Choo Choo!

Here is the finished freight train that Grace and Jack worked on every day this past week! I hung their train on a wall in our playroom yesterday morning. Grace and Jack couldn't have been any more excited to see all of their hard work come together. Their train is based on the book Freight Train by Donald Crews.

Baby Eve enjoyed watching me hang the freight train on the wall and she was excited to see and hear Grace and Jack's reaction when it was finished. Later, Eve took a nap under the train. Grace and Jack kept calling Eve a "sleepy little caboose!"

Making An Ice Bunting

Grace's performance in A Penguin Story yesterday inspired us to add some color to our outside world. Grace and Jack first started off this morning doing one of their favorite things -- water play. They enjoyed some time pouring water into various containers. This was the first step to their color project.

Grace and Jack then used food coloring to color the water that they poured into their containers. Jack enjoyed mixing colors together -- what a great science lesson for him!

Once all of the water was colored we added strings to each compartment and placed them outside on our porch. Once the water freezes we are going to make an ice bunting to hang outside (pictures to come once it is completed).

Grace and Jack went outside several times today to see if the water was a liquid or a solid. It was sunny today so the water did not end up freezing. It is going to be a cold night so Grace and Jack will be very excited tomorrow morning to discover colored ice!

I love the way the colored water looks outside. It is such a nice contrast to all of the white snow we have outside. I can't wait to complete the ice bunting and hang it outside this weekend. It will be the perfect way to brighten up our outside.

Our Little Sleeping Beauty

The Children's Museum

We went to the Children's Museum today to attend Grace's Teensy Weensy Theater play production. Prior the the performance we all enjoyed some play time at the museum. Grace had fun in the ball room, Jack enjoyed learning all about Maine's tallest mountain and building one himself and Baby Eve enjoyed taking in all of the sites of the museum and taking a little nap in her stroller. It was a fun day for all of us!

A Penguin Story by Antoinette Portis

Grace has been involved in the Teensy Weensy Theater Program since September. Every Wednesday Grace goes to her theater class at the Children's Museum. At the end of every month the children put on a play that they had been practicing all month. The plays are based upon stories. The play this month was A Penguin Story by Antionette Portis. For the past two months our Gracie girl has had the lead role. This month Grace played the role of Edna ~ a penguin in search of color who searches and searches and then one day she finds it. Yellow and orange!

We are so proud of Grace and all of her hard work that she has done in her theater class. Here are some pictures from her performance today:

Freight Train

One of Jack's favorite books is Freight Train by Donald Crews. Jack has the book memorized and he is fascinated by all of the different train cars. I thought it would be fun if we were to make our very own freight train based upon this book. Jack decided to make a blue gondola train car first. Jack chose a variety of blue art materials to decorate his train car. Once it was complete Jack glued on the train wheels. The freight train will be a week long project and Jack has been taking it very seriously! He is such a hard worker.

Grace has also been taking the freight train project very seriously (trains are very popular in our house right now!). Grace chose to make a purple box car first. I love how she wrote the words "purple box car" on her train car. Once the train cars are finished we will be putting them together and we will hang the train on a wall of our playroom. I'll be sure to post a picture of our freight train later this week.

Grace was very sweet and she kept asking baby Eve if she wanted to make a train car but Eve decided to dream about trains instead!!!

Two Weeks Old

Eve was two weeks old on Friday! Eve had a wellness visit with her pediatrician and she now weighs 8 pounds, 2 ounces (44th percentile), is 20 inches long (39th percentile) and has a head circumference of 14.25 inches (57th percentile).

Burpies!

Maddy made Eve all of these beautiful burp cloths. They look so cute all stacked up on a shelf in Eve's room! Thank you so much, Maddy. I know that these were made with such love and care. I'll also post pictures of blankets that Maddy made as well as pictures of Eve's room some time soon. :)

Memere & Pepere Meet Eve!

Memere & Pepere came to visit us last Thursday. This was the first time that they met our beautiful baby Eve. Eve is Memere & Pepere's fifth grandchild!

Grace & Jack had a great time showing Memere & Pepere how much fun it is to play with playdough in our art room. Baby Eve enjoyed relaxing and napping in her bouncy seat.

Memere & Pepere were so thoughtful to bring Grace & Jack their very own Bity Baby twin dolls from the American Girl Doll collection. Grace loved dressing her new doll and combing her hair. Grace decided to name her doll Crawlyn! :)

Jack loves his new Bity baby too. Jack named his doll Curel (after the lotion he uses after bath time). :)

Special Moments From Our Week...

Grace and Eve are the two most precious girls I know! These two are unbelievably sweet together. Grace has been teaching Eve everything she knows and Eve can't stop staring at her big sister whenever she is near. I just love watching these two sisters together and I can't wait to watch their sisterly bond grow as they do.

My heart bursts with pride over this sweet little boy of mine. Jack has adjusted to his new role of being a big brother with such grace and ease. Jack absolutely adores Eve and one of my favorite things is watching him interact with his baby sister. Jack loves to give Eve toys, "teeny tiny hugs," kisses in the morning when he wakes up and kisses before bed (and every minute in-between!), and he always tells her "it's okay baby Eve" whenever she cries.

Life has never been better since Eve joined our family. She is such a gentle, sweet tempered little one that we all adore and can't seem to get enough of!!! We love Eve so much and she is the perfect addition to our family.

Grace loves to dress up Eve and pick out all of her clothes and hair accessories. I have a great feeling that these two are going to be the best of girl friends as the grow up. Whenever I look at Eve I see so much of Grace in her. Eve looks just like Grace did when she was a baby.

Jack has really taken to baby dolls this past week. Jack has a new doll that he has named Will, which he feeds, bathes, comforts, sleeps with and takes the best care of. Jack is going to make such a wonderful father (and husband!) some day.

Jack loves to carry Will around in a sling - just like Mommy does with baby Eve!

Celebrating the Life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It is vital that we teach our children the importance of being kind, caring, and accepting of one another for who we are. We celebrated the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. yesterday by talking about who he was and how important he is to our history. Yesterday, Grace, Jack and Eve traced their hands and used Crayola's Multicultural crayons to color their hand prints different skin tone colors. We also talked about how we can find beauty in everything we see, especially the beautiful colors that make up all of the amazing children of this world.

Grace was especially interested in this activity. Grace traced her hand to make hand prints all throughout the day yesterday.

Jack traced his hands several times and he was such a big helper when we traced Baby Eve's hands.

Even Baby Eve had her teeny tiny fingers traced!


When the hands were completed we punched a hole in them and threaded them through a long piece of yarn. I hung the hand prints on our banister to serve as a reminder of the importance of Martin Luther King Jr. day and to celebrate diversity.