Countdown to Easter {Day 6 & 5}

For Day 6, Austin opened up a Chinese jump rope.  When I got this, I was thinking it was the thing that you do with your hands but apparently, you do it with your feet instead.  It's a little difficult but I also knew that he would come up with something creative to do with it.



For Day 5, he got the coloring kit for his Easter eggs.  I only paid .99 cents and I got .99 cents worth of stuff in the box.  We will have to get creative with this too.  :)

Countdown to Easter {Day 8 & 7}

The Countdown to Easter continues with Day 8 and 7. 

For Day 8 he had to sound out the word HOP and take a few guess as to what it would be.

I found this bouncing ball at Kroger for a few bucks.

Day 7 brought good ole' fashion Cadbury Eggs.  YUM-O.  Some for Austin and some for me. ;)

Austin has been sitting on his new ball for about an hour now while watching TV. So fun!

 

Meanwhile...here is my little monster with a random toy in one hand and a half-eaten snack in the other.

I love that you can see his two little teeth. 

Countdown to Easter {Day 10 & 9}

Day 10 of the Countdown to Easter put some change in Austin's piggy bank.

There was a race car sticker in the egg for Day 9. 

It was a part of this sticker book.  He was super excited about this egg!!

Countdown to Easter {Day 11}

On Day 11 of the Easter Countdown, my Austin has pink eye.  He got it from me and the doc said that I got it from Jack's virus.  It's been a rough couple of weeks at the Heflin House. Pink eye did not stop Austin from asking to open an egg as soon as he got up this morning however.  He could not go to school so he got to open it early today.

This egg contained a piece of paper with the word "Book" written on it.  I made him spell and sound it out - he was thrilled about that. ;)

Another $1 Target find: Peter Rabbit. 

Countdown to Easter {Day 12}

I saw the Countdown to Easter on one of the many blogs I follow, eighteen25.  I loved the idea to keep Austin excited about Easter.  This Easter we are traveling by plane to visit my mom and grandmother in Odessa, TX so he is already thrilled.  Austin gets to open one fun-filled egg everyday until Easter.  My plan is two-fold: It is something great for Austin to look forward to everyday and it is also a way to get him to listen.  He can't open the egg unless he's had a great day at school, which includes not crying when I drop him off (yes, I am still having a problem with that since he started day care about a month ago) and being a good listener in the mornings.

Day 12 treat: A pair of Spiderman socks.  I found these in the $1 bin at Target along with several other treats for the eggs.  He was so excited and can't wait to see what is in store for Day 11.  This is a very inexpensive two-week reward system by the way.

In other Easter related news.....I was blogging one night and looked down at my feet to find this.... 

...this little monster got into Austin's Peeps which were on the coffee table.  Instead of worrying about the 80 lbs of sugar he was fixing to consume, I got out the camera.

Poor Peeps...he destroyed these in a matter of seconds!

As I was taking these pictures, I noticed that there was a bottle of milk under the couch (for an undisclosed amount of days - I'd actually been looking for that!) 



So I moved the bottle to take more pictures, and I see a piece of paper and a water bottle lid.  This just demonstrates the utter craziness that is my house.

And yes, that is Jackson sitting on a computer cord.  I promise that my kids are safe and that Jack hasn't ingested anything off of my floor isn't edible... to my knowledge.  ;)



It's hard to deny these blue eyes, even a Peep.

These were the only survivors.

To my Big Boy

Austin,

Five years ago, (three weeks early) at 7:30 am on a Monday, you decided that you were ready grace this world. Well...twelve hours later you were actually ready. You have been making us laugh, smile and proud ever since.

You woke up early on your fifth birthday so very excited. You could not wait to celebrate with your friends. As we were getting ready for the day, you told me that since you are five, you can now do what ever you want. I was quick to say, "We’ll see." When you went to brush your teeth, you said that you could reach things easier like the faucet and the light switch since you were bigger. You LOVE being five!

I was worried about your five year old check up because it would mean that you would need "pokies". (You call shots, "pokies" and I hope you never stop). The doctor told me however that you don't need anymore until you turn eleven. This was the best news that we've heard in a while and was a great birthday present!

Your favorite things right now are any kind of fruit and any kind of meat. If I asked you though, you'd say your favorite thing to eat is something silly like a poo-poo sandwich and laugh hysterically (I hope you never stop that either - the laughing part). So far, at five years old, I have heard you say that you want to be a Marine, a teacher or a train conductor when you grow up. You are set on going to college and constantly ask when you can come home from college and visit. My answer is always, "Whenever and as often as you want." Let's just get through kindergarten first.

Speaking of kindergarten, this is the big year. In a few short months, you will be in elementary school. It makes my stomach hurt thinking about it. I know you will love school. You desperately want to learn new things and to be big. I wish you would slow down stay five.

Your Dad always says that if he wrote a book, it would be titled "The Four-Year-Old Salesman." You can literally talk your way out of any situation or at least try.  This was our conversation on the way home from school today...

A: "Mom, what are we going to do when I get too many toys?"

E: "We will give them to kids that don't have any toys."

A: "Yeah, we can give them the broken ones."

E: "That's not nice.  Would you want someone to give you broken toys?"

A: "Well...sure, if I got a broken toy, I would use my imagine to make it in to something else.  Like, if you gave me a sock, I would turn it into a sock puppet and have a puppet show.  Those kids just have to use their imagine too."

This is the kind of stuff your Dad is talking about.  You always make a good point and stump us pretty often.

You are the BEST big brother. Jackson adores you. Only you can make him smile or laugh just by walking in the room. You are already so protective of him and help out so much. Everyone keeps telling me to wait and you guys will want to hurt each other some day but something tells me that you will always be a great big brother.

I love you buddy and I am so proud and honored to be your Mommy. Thank you for being completly awesome.  I hope your fifth year is amazing.

Really? Five?

Austin turned five today and I still can't believe it!  Our monkey had a great time at his birthday party.  Pictures from the clebration to come...

And of course, Jack had a great time too!