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valentine’s day ideas for kids

February 5, 2019

Valentine’s Day is just around the corner and we’ve been having so much fun getting ready with the boys. Having little ones around makes any holiday more fun and we have seriously never had more fun around Valentine’s Day! We wanted to share with you some of our favorite Valentine’s Day ideas for kids.

heart plates // pajamas // counter stools

Valentine’s Day Cards and Treats

If you have a pre-schooler, get them involved in picking out Valentines for their classroom! William was very excited to go to Target to get Valentines for his class. He decided on heart shaped Annie’s gummies (his favorite) and cute little cards.

Heart Shaped Pancakes

One of my favorite traditions on Valentine’s Day is making heart shaped pancakes in the morning. We started this tradition when William was one. We use heart shaped molds for the pancakes and how cute are these heart plates? If you have a little baker in your family, this heart apron is too cute.

Valentine’s Day Presents

My love language is gifts, so I love to have little gifts and surprises for the boys, but especially on holidays. My mom used to do the same for my brother and me and I am happy to carry on the tradition! On Valentine’s Day morning, I usually pick up a balloon for each boys’ chair and have a little present for them. I haven’t 100% decided on what to get them this year, but I’m thinking a new pair of their summer shoes, some pajamas and a little toy. Since the weather’s been nice the past few days, we’ve spent a lot of time outside playing with chalk so I may just do that!

Do Something Nice for Someone They Love

I always want the boys to think of others, so last year they (more like William, since Henry was 5 months old) picked someone they wanted to do something nice for. William picked Gigi and he wanted to bring her pink flowers because that’s her favorite color. This is when they dropped off Gigi’s flowers last year. I can’t wait to see what they come up with this year!

Valentine’s Day Outfit / Pajamas

My kids get so excited for Christmas pajamas, and I think Valentine’s Day pajamas are just as fun. They don’t have to have hearts all over them either! These tulip pajamas are adorable for girls and how cute are these striped ones for boys? For a Valentine’s Day outfit to wear to school – this train set for him and this sweet dress for her!

Home Decor

William is at the age that he understands special occasions, while Henry is just beginning to get it. To give them a chance to participate, we love to add some home decor that expands on the celebration. This year we picked up some tassel garlands and heart garlands, pink velvet throw pillows and oversized sherpa heart pillows. The boys love it all. William especially loves the heart pillows and thinks that they’re especially for him.

Bake/make a special treat to have after dinner

William and Henry love to help in the kitchen, so one of our Valentine’s Day ideas is to make or bake a treat together. The boys are too young for anything very complicated or time consuming, so making up a special batch of Rice Krispie treats is the perfect project. We are planning to use the pink Valentine’s Day marshmallows that are in the store now and adding Valentine’s Day sprinkles, cutting them in heart shapes when we’re done. We can break this up into a few different steps so they won’t get bored and it will be more fun!

Shop Valentine’s Day Ideas for Kids:

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

three years with william

January 14, 2019

// at his birthday this weekend //

Happy Third Birthday to our sweet William! We spent the whole weekend celebrating our big three year old! For William’s birthday this year, we had a family birthday party at our new house. William’s only requests were lots of yellow and that his great-grandmother come from London (she arrived Thursday :)). It was a great weekend and he’s been playing with his new toy kitchen ever since!

Wow – the jump from being a two year-old to a three year-old is a huge one! On Christmas, Caleb and I were watching some videos on my phone from Christmas the year before and William was barely talking. He had his few words, but nothing like the vocabulary and sentences he speaks just a year later. It has been so much fun watching him develop and become more independent this year!

Happy Birthday to our sweet William!

// spent the weekend in Chicago in August //

three years with william first day of preschol

// first day of pre-school this September! //

HEIGHT/WEIGHT

We head to the pediatrician tomorrow for his well visit, so I will update once we know. He usually follows 80% for height and 50% for weight.

SLEEPING

We moved from my parents’ house into our new house just around Thanksgiving. Both boys did pretty well transitioning, but William started waking up around 5 and running into our room – not ever going back to sleep! It felt like forever, but he’s back to sleeping until about 7:30, thank goodness!

William once slept with so many different animals, blankets, etc and now he’s down to just one. His big white fluffy blanket (which he named Fluff) and it goes with us everywhere!

three years with william birthday cupcake

// celebrating Henry’s first birthday in September //

three years with william out in the yard

// obsessed with all things outdoor and garbage trucks //

PERSONALITY

I don’t even know where to start with this boy! He has the biggest, sweetest heart and he has just grown up so much in the past six months/year. He cares so much about others and I love seeing how much he loves to help and teach Henry to do things, too. I love when they are playing and I hear him saying “Henry, put the puzzle piece here” or “No, Henry this is how we do that.” It’s so sweet.

Like I said earlier, the biggest change of the year is his vocabulary. He speaks long sentences, sings songs and is just a blast to have a conversation with. He says so many funny things that I’ve started to keep track of them in my phone. One from last week – He was driving in his ride-on car and it ran out of battery. My dad told him it ran out of “juice,” and he said maybe it needs some apple juice. 🙂 Little things like that come out of his mouth all day long and he has us laughing like crazy!

He doesn’t stop all day long, even if he’s tired! He and Henry are constantly coming up with a new game or fighting like brothers. He definitely has the older sibling mentality, looking out for his little brother and always making sure he is okay.

But, along with all the fun comes the “threes.” Terrible twos didn’t hit us too hard, but I’m already starting to see more tantrums as we got closer to three. They are always over silly things and as quick as they start they are over – but I guess we will be navigating that now!

EATING

Not much has changed since William’s 2.5 year update. He still eats the same things for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We still have trouble with vegetables, but I always offer them and then resort to a veggie pouch if needed. He has gotten a little pickier where he won’t try foods he hasn’t had before – hoping this is just a phase!

three years with william relaxing by the pool

// he plays hard and relaxes hard, too //

// he is all about the games and puzzles (this was during our Vegas trip) //

SCHEDULE

Another thing that hasn’t changed much since this summer – his schedule is basically the same! Up at 7:30, nap around 2 and bed around 8!

ACTIVITIES

William is in Mother’s Day Out again this year and loving it. He now goes twice a week, which was a big adjustment from last year! It’s nice for me to have some one on one time with Henry and William loves going to school to play with his friends. That’s the only “organized” activity we do at the moment. He continues to love doing jigsaw puzzles and he blows all of us away with the level he is able to do – he does them with the pieces turned upside down, too. He loves cars, trucks and parking garages. He still loves to paint at his easel, taking his bike out for a spin and loves his marble maze that Santa brought. We try to get to the park when it’s nice enough and not too cold and he has loved being in the kitchen helping me cook, clean and put away dishes, etc. It’s so sweet to see how he just wants to do what I do all day!

// still a good traveler! //

// we always have a visit to the pumpkin patch //

POTTY TRAINING

We attempted to potty train a few weeks ago and he just wasn’t ready yet. I may try again over Spring Break or wait until school is out for summer. Just waiting for him to give me the “okay” and I know it will go a lot smoother!

MUST-HAVE ITEMS FOR THREE YEAR-OLDS

Lunch Box: We use this lunch box and bento box for school.
Backpack: William has an epi-pen that goes with us everywhere. I typically keep it in his backpack, which we have had for awhile. I’ll use it as a diaper bag and keep it stocked with toys and snacks, too.
Underwear: These are the underwear we bought around Christmas when we were going to give potty training a try. We decided to re-try after a few hours, so will pull these back out when William’s ready!
Step Stool: My boys drag their step stools all through the house. It’s great in the kitchen, in their bathroom and at their little table. Highly recommend!
Jigsaw Puzzles: William started off doing these large format Melissa & Doug floor puzzles, but now he’s into smaller sized puzzles. I order most on Amazon. He loves doing “adult” puzzles too, especially when the whole family is working on one during the Holidays.

// he went through a major fireman phase this year! //

three years with william brothers on front porch

// brotherly love – and finally in our house in November //

six favorite christmas traditions baby boy christmas pajamas

// christmas 2018 //

three years with william yellow balloons

// he wanted all yellow for his birthday party //

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

15 months with henry

December 13, 2018

Our little Henry is 15-months old! I could hardly believe that it was time to schedule his 15 month well visit! It seemed like we were just there for his one year appointment, but here we are and he has changed so much in the last three months. I know he’s still a baby, but all he wants to do is everything William is doing, which makes it seem like he’s much older than he is!

The biggest change from his one year update is that Henry is now full-on walking! Around his first birthday he was taking a few steps, but at 13 months he just started to take off and he hasn’t stopped since! We’re pretty sure it’s because he’s trying to keep up with big brother 😉

We love and adore you Henry!

Outfit Details

bubble // plaid top // jeans // giraffe // prints // crib

Weight/Height

Henry is 90% for height and 50% for weight.

Sleeping

Henry is still sleeping through the night, thankfully! We did have a few nights when he would wake up around 5 a.m. crying, but he was cutting his molars. He is back to sleeping around 11-12 hours a night. He takes one nap in his crib in the afternoon and we try to sneak in one cat nap in the car in the morning while we’re out and about!

Personality

This little boy has got some major personality! He is sweet as can be and just as sassy, too. He loves to give kisses, hugs and his favorite person to be around is his brother. He is still attached to my hip most days and I love it!

He isn’t afraid of anything and climbs on everything. I can’t take my eyes off of him for one second or he’ll have himself in some peculiar situation! He plays hard and ends up with a new bruise most days! He loves his vacuum and he pushes it around for hours a day (if only it worked as well as our big one!).

He tries to do everything William does and I love watching them interact. We are at that stage where they are truly starting to play with each other and it’s so sweet! They make up games and I love to see their relationship start to take off. They play hard and they also fight like brothers ;). Henry loves to run and knock on William’s door while he’s napping. It’s hard trying to keep him out of William’s room if he’s awake while William is sleeping! They already have plans to share a room when Henry moves out of his crib.

Schedule

We went through a stretch when Henry was waking up earlier than usual, but I’m happy to say that he’s back to waking around 7:30 most days. He nurses once in the morning and I usually grab him from his crib and bring him into our room for morning snuggles. William wakes up around 7:45 most days, so we start breakfast then! The boys will play while I pick up from breakfast and try to get ready for the day. We tend to do our activity or errands in the morning and we are usually out the door by ten, unless William has school that day! Henry almost always falls asleep in the car on the way to wherever we are going and then I wake him up when we get there – he doesn’t transfer from car seat to stroller very well! We do lunch around 12:30/1 and then they boys typically nap from 2-4ish. Henry has a snack when he wakes up and then we play at the house, go for a walk or the park if it’s nice and then try to be home around 5:30 to get ready for dinner. Dinner is usually by 6:30 and then bath and bed by 7:30/8!

Nursing/Eating

This was probably the question I got asked the most on Instagram. I have been slowly weaning Henry since he turned one in September. He was nursing about 5 times around his first birthday and I just started to skip the feeding after naps and offer a snack instead. I did this for about a month, then decided to drop his feeding before his afternoon nap. That left us with him eating once in the morning and once before bed! At the end of November, Caleb and I had a date night and I decided to not nurse him before we left. Since he didn’t seem to mind, I decided to try it again and just like that he dropped his night feeding. I will probably wean him completely in the next few weeks, although it makes me sad!

Henry loves solids – he will eat pretty much anything and has no problem letting you know if 1) he’s still hungry or 2) he doesn’t like what he’s eating! His favorite foods are yogurt, blueberries, cheese, beans, and eggs. He also loves blueberry muffins!

Travel

We took a trip to Vegas to celebrate my great-Aunt’s 80th birthday. We had the best time and the boys loved relaxing by the pool all day long! Henry continues to be a great traveler and he just goes with the flow. When he gets too tired, we’ll take him for a quick stroll and then he’s asleep for a few hours!

Milestones

A lot of you had questions on when Henry first started walking. He took steps around a year, but didn’t “walk” until closer to 13 months!
Henry went from 8 teeth to 12 teeth – He cut his 1 year molars!
First loss of his “baba”: Baba goes with us everywhere, so you can imagine it was pretty traumatic when we lost baba for two days. Henry had dropped it during William’s pre-school drop off and we found it in the lost and found a few days later! Now we have a bak-up incase we lose it again.
He is talking so well and saying new words everyday: momma, dada, baba, gigi, brother, nonie, kat, bye bye, night night, uh oh, thank you, please, that, Santa, cracker, yogurt, ned (the name of our stuffed giraffe), neigh, meow, moo, block, book and yes.
Caleb and I had our first night away from Henry at the end of November. The boys stayed with my parents while we attended Caleb’s work party. Henry did much better than we anticipated, since he is a full fledge momma’s boy!
We also spent a weekend in Charleston to celebrate Katherine’s birthday! My MIL and SIL watched the boys all weekend and they said Henry did great. It’s always nice to have that first time away under your belt!

Must-Have Baby Items:

Our favorite shoes for walking – Henry has them in red and navy
Booster seat for dining: Henry was over his highchair a while back. He wasn’t the same height as William and couldn’t sit right next to him at meal times, so this was the perfect answer. We can put it at the table or on a bar stool depending on where we’re eating.
I know it may be silly to spend this much on a baby coat, but we got this for William for his first winter and now Henry’s worn it two years in a row! The key is to size up and roll the sleeves to last longer than one year. It cleans up great and the hood comes off.
Again, I have no idea what we would do if we didn’t have Henry’s “baba“
We’ve hit the mega blocks stage and Henry is always building!
favorite books: Henry is loving this London book and any of the Jellycat books!
Henry got this small bunny for his birthday and he loves talking to it when he goes to bed and in the morning!

Cheers,

Stia, Jean and Katherine

Photographs by Audrie Dollins