Monday, February 17, 2014

Milestone: First Sleepover


Since Josie & Lucia started school together as three year olds, they've been begging us to let them have a sleepover. The big night finally arrived! While there were a couple "will they make it moments" around bedtime, overall it was great! They did it!

The sleeping part wasn't nearly as much fun as the rest of it, of course. The girls have always played so well together and the sweetest thing about this sleepover was how much they included Beatrice - who happily played everything from "baby" to "patient."


The very first time Lucia came over for a playdate as a three year old, they asked me if they could mop the floor (um, I said yes) and this time they wanted to do math workbooks. Hilarious.

Just before bedtime, we surprised the girls with the Frozen movie. They were too cute all cuddled up on the couch.

The girls were VERY excited to be in bed together!

 ...even if that excitement translated into a bedtime after 10pm!

10pm or not, they were up before sunrise at 6am and doing science experiments before breakfast.

After big piles of pancakes from Louie, Josie & Lucia practiced their ballet recital routine and Beatrice convinced them to do a Frozen performance.

It's been so fun to watch these two girls grow up together. I think this was the first of what will probably be many more sleepovers!



Milestone: Movin' on up

Preface...start here...http://fourschneiders.blogspot.com/2011/02/girls-bedroom.html (coincidentally posted 3 years ago, almost to the date). 

A recent big development at the Schneider house is Bea's transition from a crib to a toddler bed. While the longer-term goal is bunk beds for the Littles, this steal of a deal toddler bed was just what we needed, when we needed it. Nearly-three-Bea was holding on pretty tightly to her "twib," so as soon as she breathed a word about wanting a bed, we Amazon-primed the first thing we could find, before she could change her mind.

Bea's last night in her crib just about broke my heart. If you know our story, you know sweet Bea's safe arrival was anything but guaranteed, so even letting ourselves buy and set up a crib for her felt really risky. The moment we brought her home and placed her in the crib we were afraid she would never see was pretty breath-taking. So, it was pretty emotional to look back on that and tap back into those feelings on fast the night she slept in her crib for the last time.


Her transition has been really smooth for several reasons. I think this is mostly because we waited until she was ready versus forcing it upon her on our own timeline, but I think the fact that the bed is a super-stinking-cute replica of her big sister's bed also factored in to the warm reception.


Bea also loves that she can get into and out of her bed all by herself - mostly because that means she can sneak into our big bed pretty much unnoticed in the middle of the night. Sometimes, she doesn't make it quite that far before falling back asleep. Ha.


Sunday, February 9, 2014

A Sweet & Simple Celebration

We honored my 37th circle around the sun last week. It was a sweet and simple celebration that was filled with family and fun.  This year I was really touched by the gifts I received that were just "so me." It feels good to be "known" in this way.  Here are some highlights from my birthday weekend...

Saturday at the Cincinnati Art Museum...

A lovely surprise...

 Yummy brunch with my folks (and I sleepy Josie)...



A GROUNDHOG CAKE For my Groundhog's Day birthday....AKA the coolest cake ever....

A trip to see the Frozen Sing-along because, birthday or no, I couldn't deny the wee ones this joy. See them down front?

A special gift from special friends...

The girls bought me some a beautiful little primrose and a bracelet that they picked out all by themselves that is pretty darn cool. Lou's gift will come in May when we will kick it "Early Days of Carri & Lou" style by hitting the road to go see a summer concert - in this case GREAT tix for Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros with Jack Johnson. For realz! 

Happy, happy birthday to me. It's going to be a GOOOOOOOD year, just you wait and see...

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Heat Wave


The weather here continues to be (in Lou's words) "cuckoo banana pants."  We're just recovering today from a pretty bad ice storm (and another day off of school.) And we had this uber-weird heat wave over the weekend that yielded nearly 60 degree temps - and the bove pose by Beatrice in the front yard. In the span of seven days, there was an 80 degree temperature swing!!

On the first "warm" day in the 30s, which felt positively balmy after a long string of days in the negative teens, the girls and I bundled up and hit the backyard for some much-needed fresh air! We had so much fun following animal tracks, making snow balls and trekking through the yard.






The most fun thing about our afternoon was our impromptu decision to swing in the snow. Not sure why the swingset seemed totally off limits until this point, but it was totally fun!




In other news, I found a new app (Waterlogue) that turns any photo into a watercolor painting that produced these two gems -

I just LOVE this one of Josie in the backyard. It really evokes "Peter & The Snowy Day" for me (I think it's the red coat).

After an hour or so, I had to drag them in because it was starting to get dark and cold. But not before we made a quick snow mandala to mark the occasion.