Story Time at The Rienzi

When I was skimming through all the indoor Houston activites for kiddos on NinaLoca, I ran across some information that just really excited me. There is a mansion in the River Oaks area that has been donated to the Museum of Fine Arts, complete with all of the artwork and collectibles that the Masterson family had acquired over the years. It houses other collections from time to time and you can regularly tour it. But, during the summer time, they offer Rienzi Storytime Tours, every Wednesday in June and July at 10am, for kids ages 4-8, as well as other family activities.

I emailed a friend of mine and we decided to take our kiddos today to check it out. We loved it! They gave us a tour of some of the larger rooms in the home and would stop in each one and have all the kiddos sit down on the floor. The docent then gave a brief piece of information about the room or something specific in the room and then read a children’s book that somehow fit. In the Dining Room, she read “Bear Wants More” about a bear that wakes up from hibernation and wants to eat more and more. In the Drawing Room, the docent read a book about 3 mice who painted (Get it? We were in the Drawing Room?! hee hee ). In the Ball Room, she pointed out some of the Masterson’s collection of Chinese porcelain from the 1700’s and then read a book called “The Empty Pot” about a little boy who was trying to become the new emporer of China.

They have several different docents that rotate each week, and they each have different books that they like to bring and read to the kids. My 5yo absolutely loved getting to hear stories in such a new and exciting place. My 3yo actually paid attention and enjoyed kicking off his flip flops to listen. While my 21mo didn’t exactly listen to the stories, she absolutely loved pointing at all the paintings and statues throughout the house. Obviously the age range of 4-8 is best suited to the tour, but they don’t limit it to that age group.

After the tour was over and all the kiddos hugged our docent, “Ms. Mary”, we went out into the back yard to see the beautiful pool and grounds. We wound up playing hide-n-seek in the shrubs of the side yard until we were too hot and sticky to stay any longer.

All in all, a wonderful experience, and one that Kate is anxious to repeat!

Wordless Wednesday: Corny Boy

Potty Trained!!!

We finally did it!  The boy is potty trained!!!!!!

(Yes, I meant to put all those exclamation points after that sentence.  That’s how EXCITED I am that he’s finally wearing ‘big boy underwear’.  If you’ve ever potty trained a boy, you understand my elation. )

After months of fighting, pleading, bribing, arguing, and disappointment, I finally found the right combination of things for Ethan to want to potty train.

We had tried bribing him with candy corn (the treat HE picked out at the store for just this purpose) and that wasn’t really working.  We tried putting him in pull-ups and telling him to let us know when he needed to go - yeah, right.  Then, one day, I got so tired of it, I just put ‘big boy underwear’ on him and set the timer.  Every 15-30 minutes the timer would go off and I would say, “Time to go sit on the potty!”  The first few times he fought me on it and didn’t want to do it.  It took a few times, too, before anything happened when we were ON the potty.  When it did, there was HUGE celebration, much clapping and cheering, and candy-giving.  

The few times that he had an ‘accident’, we went immediately in the bathroom and sat on the potty just to see if there was any pee left.  A friend of mine said that sometimes when they have an accident, they stop themselves before they’re completely empty.  This way you have a chance to praise them for going potty in the toilet, even in the midst of an ‘accident’.  (Thanks for that idea, Shannon!)

We also checked out a book from the library called “Time to Pee”.  It’s a great little book about potty training that starts off “If you ever get that funny feeling… don’t PANIC!”  Cracks me up!  I’m not sure if it was the book, the underwear, some cosmic alignment of the planets, or the combination of things, but suddenly it clicked with him!  And now, I don’t even know most of the time when he’s going pee, because he just gets up from where he’s playing, goes into the bathroom, and goes potty!  Yippee!!!  :)

Now, to work on wiping his own bottom.  That’s the part that no one talks about!  :P

How about you?  What were your tricks that helped get your little on to finally potty train?   

Daddy’s My Hero

Kate turned to me today and said, “My Daddy’s my hero.”  So, I asked her to tell me more…

Why is he your hero?

“Because I love him.”  ”Because he helps me with spelling.”  ”Because he loves me.”

What are some of your favorite things about Daddy?

“He has fun with me and tickles me.”  ”I like to color with him.”

How would you describe Daddy to someone who’s never met him?

“He’s really cool.”  ”He’s tall.”  ”He looks like a daddy.”

“He has short, black hair… blue eyes… he has a beard.”

“He likes to be funny, to tell me jokes, to read, to tickle me.”

 ”He likes to eat Special K cereal.”

 

Happy Father’s Day, Shawn!

Wordless Wednesday: Princess Cheerleader

She did all of this by herself, too.  From the crown, to the purse, to the shoes - all HER idea!  Looks like I have another GIRLY girl on my hands!

Earth Day: Kid-Friendly Ideas, Follow-Up

I was just writing an article on using fresh herbs and realized that I had forgotten to give you all a follow-up on our herb-planting Earth-Day fun.  And we took a LOT of pics, too!!  Shawn was great and kept the camera handy as we planted herbs and then made our Rice Krispy Treat Globes.

I started getting everything set up during nap time so that we would be ready to go when the kiddos got up.  Kate helped me choose some cans from our recycling bin, take off the labels, and wash them out. Then I smoothed out the tops to make sure there were no ragged edges to catch little fingers on and poked holes for drainage in the bottoms by tapping a screwdriver into the can using a hammer.  Then I painted a generous coat of gesso on each of the cans to give them a white background to start with that the acrylic paints would stick to.  I even painted a little on the inside of the top of each can since the dirt probably wouldn’t reach all the way to the top rim.  We also made labels on popsicle sticks for each of the herbs.  Kate enjoyed using her new writing skills to make these…

By then, the little ones had woken up and were ready to paint.  I gave each kiddo a ‘palette’ of all the different colors on the inside of a cut up recycled cereal box.  Kate was very particular and deliberate about painting pretty flowers and such.  Ethan immediately started swirling all of the colors on his palette together to make a lovely brown color… eww.  He then commenced to spreading the brown color over as much of the can as possible in very specific horizontal strokes.  Talk about contrasting Kate ‘the artist’ with Ethan ‘the engineer’.  You could almost hear his internal conversation where he was determining the quickest and most efficient way to cover the can with color so he could move on to the next step…  :P  Karis was just happy to dip her fingers paint brush in every color of the rainbow and splash it on the can.

Next, it was time for the herbs.  First we put some rocks at the bottom of each of the cans to help with drainage, and then put in about an inch or two of potting soil.  I had six different plants (2 basil, mint, oregano, rosemary, and parsley), so we each then took a plant to put into a can and then fill in around it with more potting soil.  (Did I mention that this was a very ‘dirt’y craft???  hee hee)  Notice the dirt on Karis’ face which blended in quite nicely with the purple paint she had been trying to taste earlier.  Geesh…  But, didn’t our project turn out pretty??  And the kids had a blast making them, too.  (Oh, and I sprayed the cans and labels with a matte finish acrylic sealer later that night after they went bed to make sure it would all stay perty.)

Then, it was dinner-time, so we made our Rice Krispy Treat Globes.  Yeah.  I’m weird like that.  The hardest part was mixing in the food coloring evenly.  By the time you’re done stirring one in, the other half of the hot mixture is cooling which makes it even more difficult to stir.  But, somehow we wound up with half blue and half green and then had the kiddos smear some butter on their hands, grab a little handful of each color and smush them together into a ball.  Great sticky and sweet fun.

We had a great evening playing together as a family and talking about the Earth.  The kids still love to water their herbs that sit on our windowsill and especially enjoyed the Rice Krispy Treat Globes, too.

Fashion and Class Pics

So, my 5yo fashionista decided last night what she was going to wear for her class pictures today.  And I hated it.  It’s a cute little seersucker yellow sundress with embroidered flowers on the front.  (And now all my friends know why I hated it.)  I tried desperately to get her to wear her adorable lime green polo and matching flowered skirt, or her cute bohemian-ish brown dress, or even the pink plaid sundress she wore last year in California.  All to no avail.  Her heart was set on the yellow sundress.  Stubbornly.  (I don’t know where she gets THAT from…)

This morning I tried again from a different tactic. Maybe the dress was too small.  It was from last summer after all.  Let’s try it on and see…

Although it was just a wee bit tight, she INSISTED that this was still what she wanted to wear.  Only now, she’s concerned that the front is a bit low and she should wear a shirt underneath the sundress so no one could see her chest.  (Her words.  Not mine.)  So, now we have a little bit tight yellow seersucker sundress WITH a white tshirt on underneath it.  Can this get any worse for me - cuz ya know it’s really all about me, right?

So, I sucked in a deep breath and said, “Go show your Daddy.  I think it looks kinda funny, but go ask him.”  He’s usually great about backing me up in these things, so even though it was a bit of a gamble, I figured I’d risk it.

She comes back with a huge grin on her face. (Oh, no.) “Daddy says I look pretty.”  I’m done.  Outnumbered. The deal is sealed.  There’s no convincing her otherwise once her Daddy has told her she looks pretty.  (Which I’m usually VERY grateful for, just not when I’m trying to convince her to wear something different. ) 

Reluctantly, I picked out the yellow bow to match the dress, fixed her hair (thank God there were no fights about hair styles today), fed her breakfast, made her lunch and sent her out the door to preschool in the yellow sundress.  I have the sinking feeling that this won’t be the last picture day that we will argue over her clothing.  And I’m sure it won’t be long till I’m BEGGING her to put ON a shirt underneath that strappy sundress to try to cover more of her ‘chest’.  So, I should just be happy that the ‘argument’ this morning was what it was.  And I’ll get over myself soon.  She should be able to feel pretty on picture day.  Even if her mommy doesn’t like her choice of dress.

Shawn just walked back in from dropping her off at school.  He told me that her teacher said picture day is this coming Thursday.

Relief washes over me and then is suddenly replaced by dread.  What will she pick out on Thursday???  I give up…

______

So, I know I’m not the only one to face this drama.  What’s your fashionista story???  Please share in the comments below so that we can both laugh about this one day.

Unwanted Baggage

Normally I don’t try to wax eloquent on philosophical matters (probably because I’m usually so distracted by the poopy bottoms, crayons on the floor, and the leaking sippy cup being carried across my carpet that I can’t really think all that deeply).  But, this one has me really thinking, so I thought I’d share.  And if you’re too distracted by the wailing kiddos in the background at your house, just skip this one and enjoy the funny one I posted yesterday.  :) Continue reading…

Overheard at Our House…

Ethan (pointing at his poopy bottom while I’m changing his diaper):  It’s right there.

No, duh.   Like I didn’t know where the poopy was and needed his help pointing it out.

Then, Ethan (coming microscopically close to touching the poopy on his bottom):  I don’t touch it.

Thank GOD!  Cuz that’s what I need.  A poopy bottom to be wiped AND a poopy hand to be washed.

When will this boy potty train???????

Wordless Wednesday: Yes, I have a Boy.

 

What is it with boys and destroying things piece by piece?  :(  

He quite literally tore each petal off of my beautiful tulips one at a time.  

He loves me?  He love me NOT!!