Today, my little baby is THREE.

Not one, not two, THREE!

Lennox was born at 4:23pm after only a few hours of induced labor. Overall, it was an easy day and easy birth for both of us. She came into the world pretty happy with only a few tears and screams! The moment we saw her, we completely fell in love with our new daughter. We noticed all the traits that she had like her daddy. Her eyes and her chin! She had a full head of dark hair, which now is so blonde! She was the cutest thing we had ever seen and held; and she still is the cutest, sweetest, funniest girl we know!

She amazes us, makes us laugh, makes us cry, makes us exhausted on a daily basis, but overall, makes us feel so absolutely lucky to have a little girl like her!

Here is a quick look back at her birthdays thus far!

The day she was born:

Lennox with her smash cake at her first birthday party. She sees this picture everyday on our wall and still finds it so funny.

Lennox enjoying her rainbow cupcakes at her Yo Gabba Gabba themed birthday party!And this past weekend at her Lalaloopsy themed birthday party – check back later this week for photos and an update about how all of this turned out! 

The week of celebration continues. Today she will have her Celebration of Life at her Montessori school and a little celebration at home with Mommy & Daddy (plus get her totally awesome Barbie Jeep!) Then saturday we will have our family party! What a lucky lucky girl!

Happy Third Birthday Lennox, we have loved you for a thousand years, and we will love you for a thousand more <3 <3

Father’s Day was yesterday and three father’s day ago, we were bringing Lennox home from the hospital! Tomorrow she will be THREE – wow!

We had a pretty low-key father’s day as Saturday had been a busy birthday party day and Kyle unfrotuantly had homework to do (he has less than a year left until he finishes college – woohoo!) We enjoyed a [late] father’s day breakfast at home (Lennox decided to sleep in until 8:45am – yes!), relaxed at home and then headed out for a early dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, followed by some family playtime outside.

Here is a picture Lennox told me to take at Cheesecake Factory – yet she wouldn’t look at the camera because she was too busy looking at her self in the mirror behind our table!

This is one of the gifts that Lennox and I made for Kyle. Through out the week we took this sign that Lennox colored and took pictures of her holding it, being silly! We then printed it out and it’s all ready to go onto Daddy’s desk at work! Simple but cute!

And to top off a father’s day, in true dad fashion, we had to get to work and put together Lennox’s Third Birthday Gift that she will get tomorrow – a Power Wheels Barbie Jammin’ Jeep! I can’t wait to give it to her – its the real deal. Kyle and I both mentioned how we would of loved one of these as a kid!

Look how much Lennox has grown from the past years of Father’s Day! What a little munchkin!

How was your Father’s Day weekend? Hope all the dad’s had a great day!

]]> http://terrellfamilyfun.com/2013/06/fathers-day-2013-wrap-up/feed/ 3 http://terrellfamilyfun.com/2013/06/routine-schedules-and-montessori/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=routine-schedules-and-montessori http://terrellfamilyfun.com/2013/06/routine-schedules-and-montessori/#comments Thu, 13 Jun 2013 13:12:21 +0000 Heather http://terrellfamilyfun.com/?p=4178 Montessori Moments has been a little slow lately, I apologize! This month’s topic is Routines & Schedules.

Routine & Montessori. Those are two things that many think don’t go together at all. In fact, Maria Montessori herself probably throughout the same thing. The whole idea of Montessori is to let the children be free to explore and learn what they want, when they want. But young children, especially Lennox’s age, need some type of structure, even if it’s a very loose timed routine. Routine really is everything in their little world, whether they are at home, at school or even traveling. If you throw off their little internal schedule, you can usually tell by the way the act and react. While we are traveling, I try to keep the same routine somewhat. Especially having to do with morning wake up, breakfast, nap, bath/bedtime routines. This seems to keep Lennox in a better mood!

So with a routine and/or daily schedule, a child will know what to expect and when, what is expected of THEM and what is even expected of the other children around them. If they keep with this general theme, Montessorians believe that it gives the child the added security to allow them to be comfortable enough to open up and learn on their own.

I remember when looking at daycare for Lennox, the schedules would go something like

9:00-9:10 Snack
9:10-9:30 Free Play Time
9:30-9:40 Potty Break
9:40-10:00 Circle Time
10:00-10:30 Outdoor Play
10:30-10:40 Potty Break
10:40-11:00 Craft Time

and so on.

Every minute of the day was scheduled. In the Montessori school, a full day goes more like

Drop-off – 9:00 – Works Time
9:00-10:00 Outdoors Play / Explore Time
10:00-10:30 – Snack / Clean Up
10:30-11:30 – Works Time
11:30-12:00 – Reading Time
12:00-12:30 – Set up for Lunch, Eat, Clean Up
12:30-2:45 – Nap / Rest / Quiet Time
2:45 – Pick up – Free Works Time & Outside Play

Although, they are probably doing many of the same daily activities that the first schedule entailed, they are free to move about for longer periods of time. While they are outside, they have the opportunity to do what they want. Whether its care for the gardens, ride bikes, play ball, climb the hills, climb through the rock river, play bubbles, lay in the grass, etc. They are supervised and contained in a big back yard, but they can each go off and do their own little thing. I’ve noticed with this, everyone is much happier, for a much longer period of time. The fact that 12-15 kids can be outside together at one time for over an hour and all be happy 95% of the time, is pretty good in my opinion.

The chunk of the day when they are in their classroom, they are doing their works. I have talked about these before, the task based activities they work on independently, which reflect some type of life skill and have structure and routine within them – such as tieing shoes, poring water from one pitcher to another, work with numbers, letters, cause & effect, etc.

So I think even though they are on a more free-flowing routine/schedule, there is still plenty of structure within their daily work, that they feel secure, comfortable and happy.

Has anyone had any experience with routines in the Montessori environment, thoughts?

When she turned one, we got her a KidKraft Play Kitchen (which is the best quality kitchen I have ever seen – love it!)

When she turned two, we got her a playground for the backyard. It was the biggest pain in the butt to put together, but she loves its, as does our dog, who now sleeps under it during the day.

So this year? We decided to go in together with Grandma & Papa and get her a gift that should make her loose her little mind A Hot Pink Barbie Power Wheels Jeep!

I can’t wait to see her cruising around the neighborhood in her car – I think she is going to have a blast, and since it holds up to 130 lbs, her neighbor friends can join in on the fun with her!

Videos to follow, I’m sure!

We went to the show at the brand new Winspear Opera House in Dallas. It was an amazing theatre. Beautiful decor and features, a great layout, and honestly, not a bad seat in the house!

As for Mr. Jerry Seinfeld, he was amazingly funny! I had never seen his stand up before, but I of course have seen endless numbers of Seinfeld sitcom re-runs. The Jerry I knew on that show, is exactly what we got on stage, live from Dallas.

He covered a wide range of subjects, all part of what is apparently called observational comedy – just about everyday life. And now that we are married grownups with a child and home – they are pretty funny!

In a way it was refreshing to hear this type of comedy. Don’t get me wrong, some of the hilarious comedians that are popular now, are just that, hilarious but they are so far from family friendly and extremely vulgar. It is what I call, laugh until your cry comedy – funny and all but its just a different type of funny. In my opinion, someone like Jerry Seinfeld is more talented, since he is able to make every day topics, funny and real.

One of my favorite bits was about how children are really here to replace us – he points out that their first three words are usually … “Mommy” “Daddy” and “Bye-Bye” … so true!

If you get the opportunity to see Jerry Seinfeld live, do it – you won’t be disappointed.

Check Jerry Seinfeld’s 2013 Tour Dates to see if he is coming to a city near you.

Disclaimer: I received free tickets to the show in return for my honest review. All opinions are 100% my own.

All images found via Pinterest

Here are some of my favorites that I have pinned for future father’s day celebrations!!

• Dad Rocks
• Shirt & Tie Pencil/Pen Holder
• Best Dad, Hands Down
• Paper Tie w/ Googly Eyes
• Paper Hands w/ Frame
• DIY Ties (Lennox made one of these last year and its super cute – it hangs in our bedroom still!)
• My Dad Printable Questionaire
• Painted Hammer
• Popsicle Stick Art

Do you have your little ones making daddy anything this year? I think we’ll give the printable questionnaire a try this year – It could turn out pretty funny with Lennox’s imagination!

Link up your Father’s Day ideas and posts here for this weeks 10s of Spring with Melissa from Never a Dull Moment!

Last year? I took the easy way out and just created an evite (lame, huh?).

So this year I got back on track and got my act together early enough to create an invitation (+ matching thank you cards)! I’m so happy with how it came out. Here is the front:

This years theme is Lalalooopsy. I have a number of things picked out and semi-ready for the party but still plenty to do! I can’t wait to see how it all pulls together.

This will be Lennox’s first birthday party that she has invited friends from school and she is SUPER excited. She keeps talking about her “celebration”! Only one week left!

What is/was your child’s birthday party theme this year?

lalaloopsy birthday invitation

Father’s day is just around the corner. Lucky for Lennox & Kyle, Lennox’s Birthday & Father’s day are only 1 day apart. Three years ago, Kyle got the best father’s day gift ever – a little tiny baby daughter

So what could we do to celebrate Father’s Day this year? We could…

• Have a family day at the local zoo.
• Spend the day at the community water park / spray park
• Go out for a family lunch or dinner.
• Dad’s Choice!
• Or even just give daddy some real daddy time on his own!

I bet that last option sounds pretty good to some tired dad’s out there! So what will you do with that time? How about go see the new superman movie; Man of Steel?!

It’s not always easy for us to get to the movies, so some movies, similar to this one, are great for Kyle to sneak away and see on his own. When I heard about Walmart offering exclusive screening tickets prior to the movie being fully released, I knew it would be something he would enjoy, especially as a way to kick off Father’s Day weekend!

Walmart has a promotion happening right now, called Walmart Premier Night, which the first of it’s kind. Walmart is selling exclusive tickets to both 2D & 3D screenings for Man of Steel on Thursday June 13th.

Have you seen the trailer for the Man of Steel movie? It looks like it’s going to be a great flick!

Purchase tickets to the exclusive pre-screening of Man of Steel [PG-13] on June 13th, 2013 at 7 PM at your local Walmart! Tickets can be purchased in the Electronics Department and include an exclusive digital comic book written by David S. Goyer, author of “Man of Steel”, as well as an exclusive opportunity to pre-order an HD digital download or Blu-Ray copy of the film.

• Go to your local Walmart
• Visit the electronics department
• Purchase your EXCLUSIVE Man of Steel prescreening tickets (available in 2D or 3D)
• Take your family to the theater location noted on your ticket and watch the EXCLUSIVE 7 p.m. premiere of Man of Steel on June 13th!

Learn more here!

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Warner Bros.

This month my theme is our vacation to Cape Cod last week. I have much more to post about our trip, but this will be a sneak peek into some of my favorites!

These viewfinders at the Chatham Fish Pier have always been a favorite of mine – they barely work but Lennox likes to look through them and play with them!

My parents garden is full of spring blooms, including one of my all-time favorites – Bleeding Hearts! I have never seen these down in here in Texas.

What would a trip to Cape Cod be without going to the beach? I can.not.wait for this summer when the weather is perfect and we can head to the beach every morning of summer vacation with Lennox!

I love this picture of Lennox. To me its so fresh, bright, beach hair and all. Plus, a real smile

Until next month… don’t forget to grab your camera and catch the little moments of life!

See past month Catch the Moment post:

May
April
February

You can see the full post and more details on each plugin, over at Plucky’s Second Thought, but here is a quick rundown!

1. Akismet - Spam comment filter

2. All in One SEO Pack - Great SEO tool for your wordpress blog.

3. Inbound Writer - This one is great for sponsored content! Thanks to Steph over at A Grande Life for clueing me into this one.

4. NoFollow Link - Add the nofollow tag to sponsored links easily.

5. Pinterest Pin It Button for Images - Easy pinterest plugin for all your images.

6. WPTouch - Quick and easy mobile theme for your wordpress blog.

7. JetPack - A great add-on to the wordpress platform

8. Google Analytics - Everyone needs to have google analytics!

9. CommentLuv - Great comment add-on tool to allow users to have trackback links.

10. Facebook - The official Facebook plugin. I’m still learning about this one!

Again, head over to Plucky’s Second Thought for more details and to check out the whole blogging tips and tricks series going on this week!